James Duthie

To your point, I think one of the reasons I set out to do these books was to kind of prove in a way that hockey players are not boring.

And you're right.

They 100% are boring.

in the interviews that we do with them, especially in between periods when I think they're almost taught to say nothing.

There's something about the,

you know, the character of hockey players that, you know, you never want to, it's so different.

I've, you know, I've worked on NFL panels and CFL panels and NBA panels and you're, it's so much easier to get guys with personality.

I think it is to an extent that it's always about the team.

It's not about you.

So never talk about yourself and never say anything.

And I think we, we beat personality out of these guys and,

And, you know, some of it's the media's fault because the odd time somebody will say something interesting and they'll get criticized for it.

And so they'll say, oh, I'm never going to say, never going to be outspoken again.

But my theory has always been that if you get them away from these media scrums and these intermission interviews that there are stories to tell, they have to trust you to tell them.

And I guess...

That's more relationships I've had with guys over the years that I've been doing this for a long time, that I've gotten to know people enough that they will trust me, that I'm not going to

You know, they're not going to tell me some story that I'm going to make them look awful in a book if they're sharing their time with me.

And that was not the point of this book anyway.

It's just it's more to entertain and take people behind the curtain, I think, of the sport more than anything else.

So I believe that the most boring guy in every dressing room has some great stories if you can put them in the environment to tell them.