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Luc Robitaille: Playing With Wayne Gretzky And Lifting The Stanley Cup | E90 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Luc Robitaille: Don't ever forget the person that serves you water. Those are the people that are really part of real life. And that stuck with me. I never forgot that every one of us is lucky to have something. I was fortunate to have a a talent a sense for a game that I love.
• 0:14
  Luc Robitaille: But every one of us has some type of sense and you have us get the love or passion or dream. And I think I never forgot where I came from. I never forgot that part. I never forgot the kid I waited for this player to get an autograph.
• 0:35
  Randall Kaplan: You're listening to part two of my awesome conversation with Luke Grover tie one of the greatest hockey players in the history of the National Hockey League and the president of the Los Angeles Kings. If you haven't yet, listen to part one. Be sure to check that one out first. Now without further ado, here's part two with the amazing Luke Roman tie your third year in the league wrestling and all who only kidding is a good friend of both bars. Incredible guy who's done some bad things. But, you know, some people have have a lot of people, you know, have done some bad things for those people who don't know, he had a movie studio went bad. He owned a stamp stamp and Coin Company.
• 1:08
  Randall Kaplan: There was a chance he was gonna go bankrupt. The greater fake invoices. Yeah, with the Samsung McWane borrowed against that had negotiated a deal with Sony to buy the team. It was two days away from closing. And an accountant found the mistake and Bruce ended up going to jail.
• 1:30
  Randall Kaplan: But everyone loved him. And he brought hockey to La like it has never been before and 1993 I was your third year he brought Wayne Gretzky to the kings. Jimmy was the star player in that trade.
• 1:44
  Randall Kaplan: Interesting enough. Jimmy had a better year in Edmonton than Wayne had here at 55. Yeah, goals that season. Wayne was a hockey God in Canada, the best player to live and even at the time, Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada had tried to stop the trade. So tell me what it was like playing with Wayne Gretzky. How that influenced your life and career. And what do you tell you that one time when you wait a little too long to pass the bar? Yeah.
• 2:13
  Luc Robitaille: I think for me, like Wayne Gretzky growing up even though I scored a lot of goals and I learned to score goals, my career went I really pride myself on being a playmaker. And, and it was, it had everything to do from the first time I saw when I think I was 1312 or 13 years old, I saw Wayne. He was about six years older than me. I think you saw him live or someone I saw him on TV, and I was floored. Like, I never seen a player play like that. I couldn't believe it. And then from then on, it was like, anything I could see or learn about Gretzky. I tried to learn.
• 2:46
  Luc Robitaille: And I remember as a kid, like I had posters of Gretzky and on my wall, you know, and, you know, like, if I'm into would play, it was a 9pm game was really late and, and I'd sneak somewhere in my debut watching. He didn't see me on the corner in the hallway trying to watch his game. But it was everything around my life was trying to be like Gretzky's that was truly my hero. And so when he got traded to the kings, and now was to 1988. I was so excited. I had met him a couple of times, because he owned our junior team. But I was like, when you meet you here, like, Hey, sir, how are you now was it you know? And but I I watched everything I can I remember my first couple years in the NHL, whenever I would play against Edmonton. This was my Super Bowl. You know, it was like, because I wanted to impress Wayne Gretzky more. I'm not even sure I was thinking about winning. I just want to impress Wayne Gretzky. But I do recall my first year he missed a play.
• 3:52
  Luc Robitaille: And He skated by our bench and any wood in his bread. He goes buck, and I'm like, I couldn't believe he was swearing. Like, this is how much you know, when you see you. I know you did.
• 4:03
  Luc Robitaille: Everything you do is perfect.
• 4:03
  Luc Robitaille: And so I really, I remember being floored. So when he came to the kings, it was it was difficult for me because he was my idol. So like, I would look up to him and okay, like, it didn't seem real. So like, if from that, I think the first year it took me maybe two years to start saying okay, wait a minute, he's just a human being like me. He's just normal, even though he's the greatest player to ever play the game. But what happened is I started playing with him and because I had kind of tried to do my game after him. I was trying to do the same play as him the same passes as him like even when Jimmy was scoring goals. I always prided myself on being a playmaker and so one game i I'm on the we get a two on one and the real plays you play when we're in Gretzky, the greatest playmaker in the history of the game, you give him the puck, but instead I held on and I was gonna do a Wayne Gretzky play. So I waited, waited and I made the pass and he got caught in the air by the defenseman. So when we go back to the bench Wayne is just you know, like when you talk with players all the time, he goes, Hey, Lucky yours. Give it to me right away. And he goes, I'll give it back to you Don't worry.
• 5:18
  Luc Robitaille: I'm like, Okay. Like, it wasn't like, it wasn't a teammate to me, it was my hero. So then for the next I think, 10 game, I was so nervous. Every time I got the puck, all I would do is throw it at him. Like it was like, here it is, here it is. And I clearly remember our coach after a bunch of game he says, I'm gonna take you off of Wayne's line, because he says, you know, you're too.
• 5:42
  Luc Robitaille: You get you're not playing your game anymore. It's hurting us hurting a team is hurting you.
• 5:46
  Luc Robitaille: And in a way, I was so nervous to please him that it kind of felt a little bit of a relief at the time. A couple years later, I was like, Okay, now I know how to play with him and everything.
• 5:55
  Luc Robitaille: But it did take me a couple years. Did
• 5:59
  Randall Kaplan: he make you a better player? And also a better person? And how, yeah, well,
• 6:03
  Luc Robitaille: he made he made me a better player, because I want that. I always knew I wasn't the best skater I wasn't the strongest. So I had to be a student of the game. And I watch every player that would play well, during the season, or every player that I thought was really good. I watched them. And then I would say, okay, these 10 things he's doing, I can't do, but that one thing, I can replicate that. So that would practice that. Like I would watch Mike bossy. And I read his book, and he said, Whenever he struggle, he shot FiBL. Because if you shoot fire on hockey, you can't miss the net, to pick the corner. What does that mean to people who say you should between the legs, so the goalie standing there and you shoot between the legs. That means that you're going to get a shot on net, right,
• 6:46
  Randall Kaplan: but I mean, we're talking about guys room where the puck rolling. But if
• 6:51
  Luc Robitaille: you aim there and you hit it, you're gonna score but if you don't, it's gonna be a rebound, it's gonna hit someone, and you keep getting shots on that. And then the theory is if you miss an app, Gretzky said, 100% a shot, you don't miss it. Now you don't take you're never going to score. But if you hit the net, it gives you a chance to win your point getter in school and sports. If you get a cheap point where it might be a rebound, it goes in, it kind of boosts you up and makes it so that was an example I got from Michael, bossy, but watching me Wayne every day, I would watch all the little detail the game he was doing. And there was a lot of stuff that couldn't do, but there's a lot of stuff that I'm like, Ah, he's doing this, I can do that. So I would practice that over and over again, his way to shoot the way he would read the eyes the way he would go on a on a spot where no one goes. And I started like, doing some of the stuff he was doing but and as a person, he was the ultimate teammate, no matter why the key, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, you know, LeBron James, Kobe magic. Their world is so big, it is very hard for people to understand how these people that they have no life, like, everybody looks up to them. It's really hard. The greatest businessman in the world will meet Michael Jordan. It's Michael Jordan. It's a whole different world. And Wayne was like that, and but what I appreciate about Wayne, is he's just want to be a teammate that he didn't care like about, like II understood, he had to help promote the game and he was always on like, you know, like always, he never said a dumb quote, he never spoke out of line. But when no one was around each one to go to dinner with the boys, you want to be a teammate. And, and that's how we grew up, though. I played with Edmonton. They had they were a bunch of young guys and he knew that's what it took to win. So that was that was fun for me to see and to enjoy that part.
• 9:41
  Randall Kaplan: I didn't know when and when he was playing obviously, you know, I'm a huge fan Redwing fan. He used to kill me when he would be used to kill
• 9:47
  Luc Robitaille: the Red Wings.
• 9:47
  Luc Robitaille: And that was a big time Gordie Howe was just flare so the Red Wings he always was up by them.
• 9:53
  Luc Robitaille: Yeah,
• 9:53
  Randall Kaplan: I know. Now he's my next door neighbor and quarter lane. And it's interesting because I don't he's just a regular guy. And he just walking around and there's a lot of interesting people there are some well known people and then people like me and you know, most people just have no fame at all. Yeah, regular regular people. And he's just one of the guys and that's how I know I'm just not even one of the guys he's just a human being walks around in shorts and flip flops and that by not fawning all over him. And it's it's, you know, as a person you don't think about if you're not famous, or a superstar, the most famous person in the world, but like you can't go out to dinner. Now.
• 10:29
  Randall Kaplan: Maybe now. He can go to dinner.
• 10:33
  Randall Kaplan: But Tom Brady can't go to dinner. None of these superstars can go because it's it's it's too much. Like you said they don't have a life force
• 10:41
  Luc Robitaille: people. People talk to you differently. You know, like, I think like Wayne is, you know, he he just wants to be a normal person. He just happened to be that great. As player to ever play the game, you know, and but at the end of the day when you're an athlete, you still like even watching Tom Brady from afar, not knowing him. You know, he loves to be with his teammate part of the inside that locker room that's a special world for any of us.
• 11:05
  Luc Robitaille: And, and these guys don't get that when they go outside. It's very hard for them to see. So I know Wayne is an example when he gets around a few of players and they're having beers telling stories. He just lights up. He just, he's got the best stories.
• 11:22
  Luc Robitaille: And he just loved that part now,
• 11:26
  Randall Kaplan: yeah, it's fun.
• 11:26
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I've had a few drinks with tea and Janet before and it's yeah, it's fun for me.
• 11:31
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, yeah,
• 11:32
  Luc Robitaille: it is awesome.
• 11:32
  Luc Robitaille: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Randall Kaplan: So let's talk about the Stanley Cup. If you're listening or watching and don't know much about hockey, winning the Stanley Cup means you've won the championship is their version of winning the Super Bowl of the 10,000 Plus NHL players have competed over the last 50 plus years about 75 to 80% have never won a Stanley Cup. Do you want to wants to as a player in 2002 with the awesome Detroit Red Wings? Yep.
• 11:58
  Randall Kaplan: And then, which had 10 Hall of Famers on the team. Yeah. And you want to twice as man is a president of the Los Angeles Kings in 2000. Let's redo that.
• 12:07
  Randall Kaplan: Let me redo it when we're done.
• 12:14
  Randall Kaplan: We're going to redo it now.
• 12:14
  Randall Kaplan: Okay, perfect. The 10,000 Plus national hockey players have competed over the last 50 plus years, about 75 to 80% have never won a Stanley Cup. You've won at once as a player in 2002, with the awesome Detroit Red Wings, my favorite team, as you know, which had had 10 Hall of Famers on the team, and is one of the best teams, probably ever in the history of the league.
• 12:38
  Randall Kaplan: And twice as an executive with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012.
• 12:42
  Randall Kaplan: And 2014. He tell us about the saying if you can't beat them, join them and how you had a different take on that when you were 35 years old, 16 years after you had been in the league. And what was your exact feeling at that exact moment when that final forehand sounded, you became a Stanley Cup champion and lift that trophy on the top of your head.
• 13:06
  Luc Robitaille: First of all, like it was the greatest feeling ever because you we went and when I was with the king, we went to the final 1993. And I clearly remember looking at Rob, like there was a young player on my team. So we'll be back next here. In a Kingston make petite the playoffs five years a year later, I got traded, life is changing. And it's it's a hard, hard, hard trophy to win and takes everything going the right way and so forth. So when I went to Detroit, I clearly remember the summer before we had beaten Detroit in the playoff before.
• 13:41
  Luc Robitaille: And I was a free agent. And sadly you'd beaten them. Yeah.
• 13:45
  Luc Robitaille: Well, we were down to nothing.
• 13:45
  Luc Robitaille: We ended up winning a series but I became a free agent. I didn't know when I was going to become a free agent. I thought it was assigned in LA and I didn't know at the time, you know, you don't know behind the scene. I thought either there were screwing me.
• 13:59
  Luc Robitaille: But that was not it. They had budget and they had to go by it.
• 14:01
  Luc Robitaille: And and so looking at teams, I remember my kids were already registered in a school. So I thought I gotta stay on the West Coast and my wife looks at me, she goes, Well, who do you think has the best chance to win the cup next year? And I go Detroit, to Louisville, you guys just beat them. I go Yeah, but they had just signed or made a trade for Dominique Hasek and I knew how good they were. So she goes, Why don't you try to go there I go, Really, I go, but it's far because I knew my wife is going to stay in LA. She goes, it doesn't matter whether you're in San Jose or Dallas or, or Detroit is you're still gonna be playing hockey all the time. And so I said, okay, my agent called Ken Hall, and I was the GM in in, in Detroit. And he told them I was interested in going and I think they thought I was already signing now at a time and took maybe an hour or so. And we ended up making a deal. And I ended up going there. And going there. I knew I was really excited because it was going to be one of the greatest theme.
• 15:08
  Luc Robitaille: And then about three weeks later, we signed Brad Hall, right? It wasn't signed a time.
• 15:11
  Luc Robitaille: So coming on that team there's a lot I learned because I was always you know, one of the guy counted on the score gold now you're going to team there's like 10 Guys counted on so you understand to be successful, like any business. You're going to have a leader but it takes everyone to be on board to to sacrifice a little bit to win and that to me, we had 10 Like you said 10 Hall of Fame plus, Scotty Bowman, our coach was a Hall of Famer too. So I think the biggest thing that I learned is because funnily enough, I ended up playing a role in that team. That was a lower role than anything I had, but I won some like and I learned lot that everybody's counting upon, you know, a different time. And that made me a better person, a better leader. And then, you know, winning a cup, though for me, like you didn't know we were gonna win, but it's true. The expectations were very high. But I clearly remember when I won, I was like, 16 years, 16 years. I was so happy that I knew my name was going to be in a cup. My family name was going to be on a Stanley Cup and that's just meant everything. You're
• 16:23
  Randall Kaplan: just wanting a clock winding down three minutes 252 58 And then but But what once you feel when you stepped out of that is everyone raise a hand I've seen do they always do it? They throw their gloves they throw their helmets do you guys are all running in there and you're, you know, you touch the cup. It's above your head. Why were you feeling right
• 16:43
  Luc Robitaille: before that you said I was looking at the clock when when I was about three minutes left in the game. And what happened is I improved my defensive game like we had other guys that would score goals and I became a more responsible player to win to it about two and a half, three minutes left in the game, Scotty Bowman named my line to go and I was we were up to one we're going to wake up. But I remember I went out there. I was so pumped, you know and that but I was not going to screw it up. There's not a chance there's not going to take one chance you know? And I remember I forecheck and I got the puck I dumped it in I went in for checked again. And Brendan chan laughed so hard because I got something happened when I got caught on the ice there was a bad change. And I ended up staying too long but I couldn't come to the bench because if you come the bench it leaves a hole. So and Brandon was taking me was playing left wing and and finally I was able we were able to get the puck and dump it in and I turned around and I was going to sprint at a bench because I want him to jump. You want to win and Shani is still telling the story of how I TOPIK like twice and I went ahead First he said he's looking at it. He's literally laughing at me because he knows how much I want to change and he still laughs about bad like he couldn't believe how much like how much I want to get back to a bender you stepped on the ice and he scored to make it through one with DMT that we ended up winning but that was kind of a funny moment of looking at the clock countdown but when when we won and Stevie Iseman had the cup and I think I was the second one they gave it to to give it to Dominic Haslingden me Yeah.
• 18:23
  Luc Robitaille: And it was to lift it up in the air I think it's 33 pounds and it feels like it's nothing and it was it's hard to describe that feeling because it's like but that moment you've achieved everything like you're a kid you're not even thinking to play in the NHL. You see Montreal Canadiens you see that trophy and you know and then finally you do it. It was such a natural It's a relief or just that total like, like happiness of everything that you work for us it finally paid off.
• 19:00
  Randall Kaplan: Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend colleague or loved one plus speeches makes the perfect gift this best selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world is the perfect housewarming gift a great addition to any home or office and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner bliss speeches is available for purchase on Amazon where it has glowing reviews and a five star rating get your next amazing gift and order a copy of bliss beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. So each player on the team the coaches people on the staff get the cut for a few days a year the comm travels with the guy family who wears a jacket and tie Yeah, he's with a cup at all time.
• 19:42
  Randall Kaplan: He's not going to leave it with you, you know to do whatever.
• 19:46
  Randall Kaplan: You had a party or house Yep.
• 19:46
  Randall Kaplan: And it was really fun to be there. You had a truck with food in and out try it
• 19:57
  Luc Robitaille: out I got California Pizza Kitchen too and Cpk there and I can't remember the donut company that I knew I had to hold California theme
• 20:06
  Randall Kaplan: it was it was a great party. And it was fun to celebrate you I'm first of all I'm just happy you want it with the wings, right? I mean obviously I'm from Detroit but what was interesting is you gave away a lot of your best memorabilia that night and it was a raffle and I was just like God 5555 call my number call my number and I didn't get me you gave away your role culture or your your all your winning jerseys. Why? Why did you do that? Why don't you do all that stuff?
• 20:37
  Luc Robitaille: I you know what it was like that year I had never done that in my career.
• 20:39
  Luc Robitaille: That year when we started playoffs. I started acquiring stuff in Detroit like, like I would grab pucks after games and you know I would grab pucks on the ice. I kept saying xx and I would write down which game I, I just, I everything that I could think everyone would win like I had when I kept stuff coming back. I just, I just had it. And at some point, I remember thinking, well, if I win, we'll do a party and we'll be part of it. So, you know, the party started. I remember thinking, well invite all my friends from LA have never seen a cup, like all the real hockey fans. So we started with how we get 200 People in our backyard, and I think we ended up at four or 500 people. I was like, Yeah, we're digging, we had to cover the pool. We Yeah, we, we did the, you know, we had a little roller rink. So. So we want my wife's really good at throwing parties.
• 21:33
  Luc Robitaille: She said, We got to have a theme. So we did like a poker night. Cuz I know what we're gonna do, like whomever we won't tell anybody. But if they win, they're gonna get tickets and whomever wins, most people are more tickets. And we'll draw like stuff that I accumulated during the playoffs and throughout my career. And I just because I knew all the people that were there were people that they shared the love of the game. Yeah. And that's really that was the idea. So we kind of made it fun. And when some of the stuff was really cool. I had a jersey signed by the whole team, you know, the Stanley Cup winning team. Yeah. I had a lot of stuff like that.
• 22:10
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, that went away, or
• 22:12
  Luc Robitaille: you didn't get it. But yeah, we saw that. That was the idea behind that. Yeah.
• 22:21
  Randall Kaplan: So a highlight for me that night was taking a picture with a cop, right? I mean, I don't have the picture, looking at the picture. And it's super fun. John Cooper is also a neighbor and Cordyline. Yeah, great, great guy. And I go back and forth. During the summer, I have to work I have my internship program. But Masson is up there for the summer, during the middle of COVID. He's one now as a coach two times in a row back to back was very hard to do. And all I know is I get the call on a Wednesday night when I'm not there. Coupe has the cop, we're all going to the clubhouse and we're all going to party and drink for the cop. And literally, they filled it with alcohol and pot and these big straws, and I'm jealous, I'm taking it out on my wife, like, I want to be there or whatever.
• 23:10
  Randall Kaplan: And then I was now I'm like, You're drinking out of a straw with 100 other people they're doing the milk. But, and then I'm hoping, okay, third year, you know, I made it to the finals one more time. And, you know, didn't didn't didn't get it. So I've yet to drink from the cup. And hopefully, one of these days I'll know someone I'll be. But let's talk about going back to the draft. And I want to give you a statistic that you probably don't know.
• 23:39
  Randall Kaplan: And we already talked about this before a little bit, you're drafted and I found the odds are against you. Only 2.3% of nine round draft picks go into play in the league, the 2.3% of nine Rounders who make it the average career last 3.6 years. For all your hard work and immense talent. Buck the scouts, you played 19 season and retired as one of the greatest players ever to lace up the skates. Two years after retired you were inducted into NHL Hall of Fame. 43 years old, the second youngest player ever to make it. Watch this speech two nights ago was awesome. It's been a few years since you probably gave it but do you remember how you ended it? And what did it feel like to watch your parents crying in the audience?
• 24:29
  Luc Robitaille: Well, it was it was emotional. I do. I can't remember the exact word but I do remember because someone actually gave me a post for me and they wrote it but it was like a message to all the kids that people don't believe in you. You know all the ninth rounder out there, you know, believe in yourself and I can't remember Do you want me to read it? Yeah, go ahead read it. And I'll come okay it's at my house and I should know but I don't stop and look at my picture.
• 25:01
  Luc Robitaille: Keep
• 25:02
  Randall Kaplan: going up right there. Okay. Keep going up. So when before so it said here's the light that shines on and off Brian. Here's a light that shines on a non here's the light that shines on a ninth round draft pick of the world who are too slow, can't skate don't have a chance to make it and compels them to achieve greatness anyway. This applies to all of us and all of the kids around the world be alight all your dreams. Anything's possible.
• 25:35
  Luc Robitaille: We it actually came from our foundation. That was some of the kids that Eric was over the time they did written something about being a light. And that's how this came about. Actually I'll be honest, my wife helped me write that but that's really what Amanda was the message Yeah. Looking at your parents looking at my parents was, was overwhelming.
• 25:59
  Luc Robitaille: Because you go through it when you don't play it again in the Hall of Fame, you know, but
• 26:05
  Randall Kaplan: you knew at that point you were getting it, you know, you know,
• 26:07
  Luc Robitaille: because you got the call and everything. But when you're there that night and I looked down on my parents and and then it goes in your mind all the sacrifice they did know like every one of us has had success had someone help us, no one can do it alone. You do it alone, you do the work alone, but there's always someone there. And it's my dad never was hard on me. You know, from that standpoint, he was he was a hard man, you know, at home.
• 26:36
  Luc Robitaille: Sometimes He was impatient, but never went hockey, he just drove he was at every game never criticized my game. He's just keep working hard, keep working hard. I think one time he questioned my game. It was one time in my whole life. But he never say anything in new and when you're there in a hall of fame, you're like, wow, you know, there's, then by that time, I realized, you know how our life was and so forth. So it was I could tell it was a meant the world to them. And that was a mess. That point it was pretty overwhelming.
• 27:10
  Randall Kaplan: Roll up for a second because I want to say no down for a second, the other way. So, so many people look at the odds of doing something so difficult, right? I can't do that. I can't win an Academy Award. I can't play professional sports. I can't. I'm Mount Everest. They're very hard to do. What's your message to everyone out there in personal life and their business life or looking at something? They don't do it? The odds are too small and they fear of failing.
• 27:44
  Luc Robitaille: I think fear of failing sometimes makes you great. I remember hearing Bill Gates says this fear of failure like what made him great every day. But it's what you do with it. It's just like they said, well, courage just like in our game. It's really hard to block a shot and he's come 100 miles an hour, you know, it's going to hurt, guys still dive in front of it all the time. And that's, that's courage. You know, it's going to hurt, you know, you're going to get hurt. While you're trying to win the game, you're going to block a shot. Now you can take that into going to war and you know, you're taking a bullet for some reason to help your country. That's that's the same idea. You know, you might die but you still do it. And I think when when someone is is scared or is questioning something, it's if you're willing to push yourself. It you're going to have success.
• 28:36
  Luc Robitaille: You know, it's what you do. When you're against the cliff, what do you do when things are hard when you what do you do when no one's looking? If you do something when no one's looking, and you're trying to get better at it. First of all, you you're picking the right thing. Because if you're only doing it when people are watching, you probably got the wrong job or the wrong things like a great doctor, they try to get better all the time. If you're a heart surgeon, you're trying even though you might be the best surgeon, well, you probably try to learn all the time. That's what makes you the best and that will be the same to have any success. You've got to try to do what other people are not willing to do, especially when no one's looking.
• 29:18
  Randall Kaplan: So one of the elements of my success has always been something I call extreme preparation. It's something I teach is something that I coach, when someone prepares one hour for something I'm going to do tend to on here sometimes even 30 I'm always the most prepared guy who walks into the room. Can you talk about you talked about a little bit starting players even though you were great. austere, you've talked about waking up at 430 in the morning can you give some other examples of how extreme preparation was important to your success? Extreme
• 29:48
  Luc Robitaille: preparation is everything me? I remember like okay to give you an example like we like sometimes people will talk about sport our sport we play 82 games a year and they're like oh you might get tired and everything and and I'm always a whoa wait a minute, you only have to rest for a tonight that's it. You still got 260 or whatever Turner Navy nights you can do whatever you want but those those 82 nights you make sure you go to bed at nine o'clock make sure the day before you have the proper meal. Like I would I would have a very like I never said no people will always say Luke never says no he sign autographs he's there for fam But what people don't know is like, from the time I had a practice, say on a Wednesday we played Thursday. Like I was regiment like you know my I went to practice if I was tired I practice certain way if I felt good to practice certain way.
• 30:42
  Luc Robitaille: Then when I started learning about working out with weights, I would do my weight program. I eat a certain meal at one o'clock after if in the afternoon. When I wasn't sure what to do, because I didn't want to sleep, I want to see a movie, you know, then I had a dinner at certain time that I had my ritual to go to bed, my ritual to wake up in the morning, I know exactly what I was going to do. And by the time I got to the game, every single game, I knew I had done everything right to be ready for the game wasn't good every game.
• 31:11
  Luc Robitaille: You know, I was I wasn't the best skater ever game to some games, I was tired. But if I knew I had to drink six balls of water between 8am Till game time, it was done. Like all those little things were done. I never played a game like people will say, you know, some players will say I and I had to hurt older players say, Man, I wish I would have been a little bit more serious than this than that. I remember thinking, I'll never say that. I'm going to be ready for every single game. And every single one that I play, like I said, wasn't good every game. But I know one thing like every single game, I was prepared the best way I could.
• 31:51
  Luc Robitaille: And I've kind of lived my life like that. Even now on the business side, I'm always okay, we got to prepare, we got to have a plan, we got to stick to the plan, and it's not gonna be good every day. You know, we're gonna have ups and downs but, and that's kind of like the way we built our franchise to kind of change your culture that way.
• 32:08
  Randall Kaplan: Most people think that your actual performance starts, the minute you walk in the room, but the best of the best do something different in the best of the best. Now that greatness starts the night before they get a good night's sleep. They focused on their diet, they focus on the diet the night the night before or the day of the game. They get there early, the best ones get there first. Yep. And they stretch to meet with the team, maybe with their teammates, their coach, and it's something that I think most people don't do. Certainly, I can't tell you how many people walk into my office and can't tell me the name of my dog. And you may not know the name of my dog. But if you're coming into my office for a meeting, and you want something from me, I hope you would at least read my website.
• 32:48
  Randall Kaplan: And it's right there. That's right. It's right there. So they and people don't know how to spell the name of one of the companies.
• 32:57
  Luc Robitaille: It's funny you say that because there were a time when I started with the kings. I didn't really understand the business side of it. Like I had to learn and I what I did, I hired people way smarter than me. But I remember sitting in an office and I remember in 2008, when we were we were looking to hire a marketing agency to help us. And these guys would come in and add kids that were really smart around me. And they were like, well, this agency looks really good. And I remember when picking agency, and it was five of them that we met, and three of them came in. They had the wrong kings logo, they had players that weren't playing for our team, you're on their presentation. And the kids who come out and go out they're really good. These guys have good nowhere and I'm like, oh, we can't hire them. Like why go?
• 33:44
  Luc Robitaille: They didn't even get a digger the wrong logo they got they got two players that don't play for us anymore. They play for other teams. You can't you gotta know that I'm like, I used to play hockey but I know that enough that you better pay attention to those details. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And you know, it's I think those guys have made it you know, because they were right out of college or looking at me like hella Zeno, but then I know over time, we kept working now when we became more Stickler deallocate if you're coming to visit us, you better know who we are. Yeah.
• 34:16
  Randall Kaplan: This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by sandy.com s a n d e.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world, more than 100,000 beaches, and 212 countries. sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed comprehensive and easy to use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad. And to make sure you're never disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sand.com the link is in our show notes. Stay Sandy my friends. As you know I do a ton of coaching. I have interns every summer. I have 36 interns every summer we have a guest speaker program. And people like both our kids and college they have anxiety, they don't really know what they want to do like my kids have right now. They're seniors in college, and I coach a lot of young professionals, mid professionals. And what's interesting is and then I coached some athletes who have retired with just a ton of money. And I asked them to write down what are the things most important to them and their next job. And we could probably sit here and name them but one thing that never comes up ever is passion. To know how important is passion to our success and what do you say to all the people out there? where money is the number one most common answer
• 35:53
  Luc Robitaille: It's funny you say that because I think it's probably the most important.
• 35:55
  Luc Robitaille: Even to a fault, sometime we've hired people with the Kings, because I knew they were hockey player, they understood the hockey, and they would help us run our business. And if you're passionate about your job, you're gonna want to get better, you're gonna want to if you do it for money, or you're doing it, you're usually probably, unfortunately, in a world that very few lucky people do a job that they're passionate about.
• 36:23
  Luc Robitaille: But if you're like an ex athlete, or someone that's had like a good run, pick something you love, so you can be passionate about it that I always I tell my kids are in the entertainment business. If you're doing something, you're not looking at the clock, you pick the right job, you know, and that, to me, it's everything. You got to be passionate. And this my staff with the Kings, they know, I'm passionate about the franchising, not perfect, you know, we're going to make mistakes and so forth. But we're going to be passionate about trying to get better every day I'm in sports a little bit different is there's the you know, the mindfulness part of it, where we're working on it and everything. It is still a result business, you have to win the games and you know, you got to fill up the building and so forth. But I would say passion is one of the most important thing on everything you do. And that
• 37:13
  Randall Kaplan: was Lucky Luke right? I mean, that's your your nickname right here. So your name is Lucky Luke. And I hear so many times that people who get successful are lucky and especially when someone does really well, they're envious.
• 37:28
  Randall Kaplan: They're jealous. Randy got lucky. Luke got lucky. What do you say to all those people? Who say people are lucky and as luck and ingredient of our success?
• 37:39
  Randall Kaplan: What
• 37:42
  Luc Robitaille: Yeah, like, give it to you like as a as a hockey player? Like, yeah. Okay, I was known as a goal scorer. And I would get points so far, but more known as a goal scorer as my career went on. And then but sometimes people would say Luke is is a streaky, like, he'll go four or five games, he wants score, and then he'll score for five games in a row, and then go and then they would see me like the fifth game, I would get another gonna go, he's so lucky.
• 38:07
  Luc Robitaille: The puck comes to him. What they didn't realize is the 456 games that I didn't score, I was at the same place, I did the exact same thing, but the puck bounced the other way. But I kept going, I kept going to the front end that, you know, I would take a beating in front of and I kept going and next thing, you know, by game seven, whoop, hits me and the pattern goes into go, he's so lucky, it always hits him, then the next game, I would rebound would lay right on my stick, He's so lucky. But I was always there, I kept doing it over and over again. And that's, that's part of being lucky is, you know, just keep doing something. And, and same thing would work. You bring your luck by, by preparation by by, by coming in by, you know, overwork, you know, working out working other people. You know, there's, there's no secret to it, people show up early. If you show up a little bit earlier, you might get ahead. If you're a little bit more prepared, you'll be better. And the next thing you know, people will say you're lucky but you kind of know deep inside. It's not luck. And there's another thing too is like I tell my kids, I can open doors for them. There's always people that can open doors for you same with thing where you can. But once the doors open, it's up to our kids or it's up to the people who open the door to do what they can with it. You know, my door was I was a ninth round it was was very slim. I had to push it open. But it still was an open door and it was up to me to do something with it. And I did
• 39:38
  Randall Kaplan: have all the elements of success. I think the most important is work ethic and how hard you work I teach something called Philo. If you do Philo, you're gonna make it no matter where you are. First in last out, you got to be the first one in that door. You got to be the first one in that door and the last one to leave and I don't care who's there before and who's there. And people say, Oh, you got to put in FaceTime.
• 40:02
  Randall Kaplan: That's bullshit. I don't think it's bullshit. Because if you're there before anyone, there's always something you can do to add value. And there's always something you could do. You could say, oh, I'm I'm done with my work. Well, good. Go do some additional work that no one asked you to do. Go show someone and be proactive and think about how can I add value to my company or what I'm doing? Yeah.
• 40:24
  Luc Robitaille: There's no secret to it. I mean, it's in our world too, is like, you know, like our look at our GM.
• 40:32
  Luc Robitaille: It's, it's a 24 hour job.
• 40:32
  Luc Robitaille: They're always available. You're always thinking, What can I do to get better and like you're saying Lastly, if you like what you do, you're you're reading about it. You're listening to podcasts, you're there's so many ways to learn and be better at the job that you like or the passion you like today like Kids are really lucky, my son's a musician. And I remember him being a kid learning to play guitar, How'd you learn that stuff? He goes, I went on YouTube and I picked it up, you know, no one was pushing him to do it, he just did it. So that's a small example of whatever job you want to do. It's so much easier to get better idea today, you don't have to go to a library literally drive there and read about it. You could go on the internet and get better.
• 41:16
  Luc Robitaille: So at anything you do now,
• 41:19
  Randall Kaplan: let's talk about being kind of being humble.
• 41:22
  Randall Kaplan: You've been described as both.
• 41:22
  Randall Kaplan: You are both. You do very nice things for people. Got my kids, Zamboni rise, which is on my bucket list. So I still have not had my kids
• 41:39
  Luc Robitaille: one. But maybe
• 41:41
  Randall Kaplan: maybe one day you have helped me get Stanley Cup tickets. The year you won the game. And by the way, something really funny about that we go to Cpk right across from Staples Center, where they're early, right? And I'm waiting for a table and I'm sitting there and it clears out.
• 42:04
  Randall Kaplan: I'm not okay, whatever. I was talking to my kids or whatever, I'm looking up and I'm thinking they're playing an old game. And so there's three minutes left in the first period, I realized, holy shit, I miss most of them.
• 42:15
  Randall Kaplan: That was that was a great mom.
• 42:22
  Randall Kaplan: But but you're known as a down to earth guy. I there was a father at our kids school, had tickets, his son wanted to meet you. And I sent you an email, can I send your email? Yes, he met you. You know, let that kid up. And then in terms of being humble, you're very humble. I mean, you know, you're humble.
• 42:50
  Randall Kaplan: Tell us about the time that you were 17 years old, you're at a restaurant with your uncle, and he took you into the kitchen.
• 43:01
  Randall Kaplan: And well, that influenced your life. I
• 43:04
  Luc Robitaille: think that was that was an important moment. I mean, I think I grew up in the humble way where my dad was like, my dad was the guy that he would rather have a car that was all beat up, but have a big engine. And if you don't want the guys lining up to get the stop sign, they got like a really nice shiny car and they're going wrong home when my dad would be with a beat up car, and he tells me the story. He'd win the rate, you know, like it's got to so so that I think there's that side of me. I always kind of kept that probably. But I think that, that I remember what Yeah, that's right. I was 17. I had in my my first year in June, I was had a good year and and we went to a restaurant and the manager came out and talked to my uncle and met with the owner of the restaurant. So Nanda manager, and my uncle says, you know, when you when you go to the restaurant, every owner as if you have six, if you ever make any agile, they'll want to meet with you basis. Don't ever forget the person that serves you water. Those are the people that will that will that are really part of real life. And that stuck with me. I never forgot that that. You know, though, everyone, every one of us is lucky to have something. I was fortunate to have a talent a sense for a game that I love.
• 44:23
  Luc Robitaille: But every one of us has some type of sense. And few of us get to live our passion or dream.
• 44:32
  Luc Robitaille: And I think I never forgot where I came from. I never forgot that part. I never forgot the kid. I waited for this player to get an autograph and I had a match.
• 44:41
  Luc Robitaille: Like not a buck but I got a match thing as you unfold and it was kind of funny. He was a player for the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, it was Pierre Bucha. He wasn't even a star.
• 44:53
  Luc Robitaille: And I waited an hour and I got to him and he wrote PB the years later, I make it to the NHL funny enough and he were on TV and he is interviewing me. He's doing TV and he was kind of a tough guy for the Canadian North Star. And he goes Hey, Luke is very nice to meet you on TV. And I go no, I met you before. It was because he was a very nice mentor and I go Yeah, I said I waited an hour to get your autograph and I go Euro PB I go What the hell was that? You should have seen his face. But I think I never forgot that kid because I did kept that Packer match for years, you know, just because it was my first NHL player to see and never forget that feeling. So for the rest of my career, there was some time be tired my wife is say look at the kids in the eye. Make sure you make their moment because you should never forget when you live your dream. You can make a difference. would look at a kid or saying High just it's amazing. And then on the other thing, what you're saying about helping people, I think, I've always had this philosophy if you like, we run a hockey team and we try to not say no, I'm a big fan of The Four Seasons Hotel. Yeah, I always do tests.
• 46:04
  Luc Robitaille: I'll call them in the middle of the night go. Can you get this?
• 46:07
  Luc Robitaille: They always seem to say they never say no, I love their, their culture, their way of being they, no matter what, they seem to be better in every hotel in the world. Everybody's happy there and there. So I tried to emulate that with what we do.
• 46:25
  Randall Kaplan: Your give me a signal back there. I've got like 15 minutes more. Okay. Okay, cool. I mean, you're finding time, right? So is it you has a time commitment or on your end?
• 46:43
  Randall Kaplan: Okay. Yeah, I'm
• 46:44
  Luc Robitaille: done. So 1145 Hammadi, I'm good. So
• 46:49
  Randall Kaplan: how important is being kind and humble and our success? Something people don't talk about or don't think about.
• 46:56
  Randall Kaplan: I
• 46:57
  Luc Robitaille: think being humble is, is very important.
• 46:59
  Luc Robitaille: But most people it's very, very rare that I see Highly successful people are not humble. Now, it does happen in the middle range. Yeah, where some people it's suddenly happened or not aware of it. But very successful people. They took a lot of work in a you know, they're very busy.
• 47:18
  Luc Robitaille: Sometimes they might be moody unerring, but most of them are, are humble, I would say the majority of them. And I think it has to do it. Like you meet Tom Hanks, one of the most humble person you'll ever meet and one of the most successful person.
• 47:32
  Luc Robitaille: That's a great example for me like to always look up to him.
• 47:35
  Luc Robitaille: But I think it is very important because you should never forget where you come from, no matter what you do, how successful you are. We're all kids. We're all had dreams. And you should, you should never, you know, forget that feeling once you made it, whatever deal at whatever you're doing. I'm gonna go
• 47:58
  Randall Kaplan: back to something that you skipped over, and then we'll continue where we left off before I forget. So you mentioned Pat Burns, who was a coach in the National Hockey League for 14 years. Awesome.
• 48:08
  Randall Kaplan: Coach, you played for him and the junior you played for Barry Melrose? Yep. All thing coach.
• 48:16
  Randall Kaplan: You played for Scotty Bowman, or the Redwings? Awesome coach. As a hockey fan. I always look at the coaches and and what they're doing. They sit there. They have no facial expression. They don't do anything. And it seems like the only thing they do is tap guys on the back. How important are coaches in hockey? And what do they actually do? And do they actually make you better player?
• 48:40
  Randall Kaplan: A Yeah, well, coaches,
• 48:43
  Luc Robitaille: they're very, very important. Because in hockey, unlike other sports, you know, you play every 40 seconds you go over and a coach decide who's next. And then a lot of time the coach is looking at the other team and he is matching.
• 48:58
  Luc Robitaille: And he's figuring out and then there's a there's a technique to a coach to make sure you keep everybody involved. There's some guys that play more minutes, some guys play less minutes. And you got to make sure each of them understand their roles. And and that's the most important.
• 49:13
  Luc Robitaille: The best one I've ever seen that on making sure every player understood their roles within the team concept. Even though everybody said well, Scotty moment coach your greatest team of all time, that's the hardest thing to do. Because you got to keep every big ego in line, you got to make sure you make them all feel important. And Scotty was not the best communicator when he coach. But he was the best at the way he handled the bench we call it to making you feel that you had a role within the team concept that I had never seen that. And that's why he wants so many standard cups.
• 49:49
  Luc Robitaille: Now you get another guy like Pat Burns, who juice was really scary. I had him a junior and, and he was a scary, intimidating man. And he he would come in it wasn't just in fear. Because he really had fun when when you when you worked on your day, right? He had more fun than than any of us. So it was a it was a fun ride to be with him. But when you lost you are scared to come the next day to to practice and, you know, it was it was hard work and everything but you got rewarded for for doing it right. So every coach is different, but they're really important Hockin and then also in today's game. Now the preparation of knowing like the specialty units, and it's very technical now and they could fix things quickly because of technology and so forth. So that's true and Marshall, I think coaches will become even more important.
• 50:43
  Randall Kaplan: We're going to move forward now and we're nearly at the end. You've always been very focused about giving back to the community. Could you talk a little bit about your foundation? And how people can help? And what motivated you to give back? And In Search of Excellence? How important is it to give back? I think it's,
• 51:05
  Luc Robitaille: I mean, In Search of Excellence, I think it's important when you live your dream to give back, because and then when you're fortunate, if you make a little bit more money and people are you doing well, whether something is financially, you should give back, but sometimes your time too. And for us, my wife and I, when we started echoes of Opa, it actually started before that when Hurricane Katrina happened, we had a big house in Utah, and near Park City. And I remember we were watching I think it was CNN and and we both had worked with numerous foundation we'd work with I remember she she actually don't want to stop me to when we met in 1989. I had a billboard in town who was a Lakers, I it might have been, I can't remember if it was James worthy. And it was a Dodger player. And I couldn't tell you it was and it was a Raiders player and myself, were on a billboard. And there was to help. It was the foundation it was with the police. And any kids that they could see we're on the cusp of joining gangs that were trying to help them. I can't remember the name of the foundation. And she says to me, she says all you help these kids you work for she goes, what do you do? And I'm driving my car to borrow way was it was a date, I took her by my billboard. Like Funny enough, my answer was, I took the picture. And she's like, What have you took the pictures to Ghana? No, we're going to meet these policemen and really helped. So she actually helped me meeting kids, we started helping them and then 9090 91 We start working with some of those kids. And over the years, some of them have thrived that families and we'd still see some kids once in a while to reappear in our life. But anyway, so move forward. So over the time, we've helped numerous foundation, I was the guy that a lot of people would ask me to do thing I would say yes, and she would participate with me. So anyway, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina happened, we both looked at each other was a five or six, I can't remember the exact date.
• 53:15
  Luc Robitaille: And we said we should do something. So she said, we're going to start a foundation, we're going to help them family, because remember, we would see all the families where they know where to go. So I didn't know with being a training camp for us. I didn't know she would literally fly to she didn't fly to I think she flew to Boca Raton, and then and then drove to New Orleans, New Orleans and, and we picked five families. And then we relocated them into our home in in Utah. And that, that the charity was we're going to help them start a new life. And so over a year, we they stayed with us, and then the we got some apartments and we started elaborate what we saw as a lot of those families weren't well off already. And we saw some of the kids have teenage kids, they didn't know drive, they didn't really understand they weren't well off. So after that, we started getting involved more in Los Angeles and understanding the foster system. So we realized there was a hole, there was a gap, where a lot of people give a lot of money for kids, younger kids. But there was that gap when you age out of the system, or 63% of those kids end up homeless. And then I think 3% of those kids graduated high school, and I think one or 2% of that 3% end up graduating from college, and they all want to go to college. So our foundation is called Echoes of hope. And we started with not it's not just foster kids anymore, we help any kids that are at risk that that need help. But you have to graduate high school, and we see you before. And then we make sure you graduate college. And then we keep a lot of them. If they don't have parents, we end up being their parents. So we talked to them. But over the years, we have a group that we there, our leadership group we usually add are down to 60 to 70 kids a year. They come to our house, we do a lot of programming, but they help other kids. But on a year I think last year we have over 10,000 kids where it was books, computers and everything though, and we're helping them sometimes it's just getting them a cell phone, you know, like getting them and helping them in their apartments and so forth. So we get a lot of grants and it's been very rewarding to meet kids later in life and I am married I got two kids. I got a job. I'm an engineer. I'm an architect. We have a kid who's who's a great attorney. Now, you know he's got married one. Most of those kids tell us they always want to help kids like them. Yeah, so a lot of them work for non Profit. And we have one of our first kid he's running his own nonprofit in Sacramento, working with the government, which is it's very rewarding to see them thrive in their life and help pay it forward to other kids.
• 56:09
  Randall Kaplan: Imagine LA is a charity here that takes families in transitional homelessness and takes them out. They keep the kids together. As you know, in the foster care system, they're often the families don't get together, the shelters won't take full families. And I started this event with my friend John Terzian. Nine years ago, all the Imagine ball, we just had it two weekends ago, and we raised $5 million. Now.
• 56:35
  Randall Kaplan: My grandmother was raised in foster care she passed away one year ago, 204 years old. So that's the charity near and dear to me. And it's something that is very important to me. Also, we also had a family from Hurricane Katrina, our rabbi at Temple sent around, hey, if you have extra room or whatever, please let me know we have a guest home and the family stayed there for a year. The family was not the family was actually well off. And that's another story which we learned nine months into it. And then they didn't want to leave either. We kind of have a nice setup at home. But we're at the end of the show today. And I always conclude the podcast was something I call fill in the blank. Excellent.
• 57:21
  Randall Kaplan: Are you ready to play? Okay,
• 57:24
  Luc Robitaille: let's do it.
• 57:25
  Randall Kaplan: All right. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is lesson, never give up. My number one professional goal is my family. My number one my biggest sorry. My biggest regret is
• 57:53
  Luc Robitaille: probably not spending enough time. You know, like, with my family, I was so driven. But I probably wouldn't have had the success is kind of funny. So it's a weird, weird thing. But my big, biggest regrets in life is probably not spending enough time with
• 58:11
  Randall Kaplan: family and that way. The one thing in my life I'm the most proud of is my family. The one thing in life that I'm the least proud of is
• 58:31
  Luc Robitaille: I don't have anything I'm the least proud of.
• 58:34
  Luc Robitaille: So that's a hard one. I moved on from bad things so fast. So there's no I have no regrets.
• 58:42
  Randall Kaplan: The one thing I've dreamed about doing for a long time, but haven't done is Hmm.
• 58:52
  Luc Robitaille: Climbing a good tough mountain.
• 58:56
  Randall Kaplan: And in particular, I
• 58:58
  Luc Robitaille: don't want to do anything crazy, something a nice 14,000 photo in Colorado somewhere.
• 59:06
  Randall Kaplan: If you could go back and give your 21 year old self one piece of advice. What would it be? Ah
• 59:14
  Luc Robitaille: don't overthink things. I think I got caught up overthinking and worried for no reason. Don't overthink.
• 59:24
  Randall Kaplan: If you could make one person in the world who would it be?
• 59:27
  Luc Robitaille: If I could be one person if you could meet one person in the world, it would have been technique con. It would have been who take not calm. So it was a user. He passed away now but he was such a great speaker and then you just hear him speak as you know, is a little bit in the vein of you know, I'm forgetting his name right now. from Tibet. The Dalai Lama the Dalai Lama is a little bit like that. But even more the way he spoke it was so peaceful. You just heard him speak and every time I heard him speak he just I was mesmerized, you know, so that would be besides that again. Oh boy. I've been pretty fortunate to beat everybody. I was I was looking to meet
• 1:00:13
  Randall Kaplan: the one question you wish I had asked you but didn't is oh
• 1:00:22
  Luc Robitaille: no, I think you hit it all. You did pretty good.
• 1:00:29
  Randall Kaplan: Luke has been awesome having you as a guest. I know. We've been trying to set this up. Yeah, sometime. I'm a huge fan. You're a great guy.
• 1:00:34
  Randall Kaplan: You're a great friend. Thanks a lot for being here and continue to do some amazing things for LA or community. Thank you so much.
• 1:00:43
  Luc Robitaille: Great to see you. Keep it going. This is great.