Four nations are facing off in Montreal right now, and if you&#8217;re a player not participating in the league&#8217;s newest best-on-best tournament, you&#8217;re probably somewhere sunny, tropical, and as far away from a hockey rink as you can get. Unless, of course, you&#8217;re Zach Hyman, who was boots on the ground this past week with the Brantford Bulldogs.

Hyman appeared on Jeff Marek&#8217;s show, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSBGmA13ko">The Sheet</a>, to discuss the end of his family&#8217;s 20-year-long pursuit to purchase a team in the Ontario Hockey League and his involvement in this venture with the Bulldogs.
<blockquote>&#8220;It was a long journey. Twenty-odd years, Spence [his brother] and I were kids following my Dad around to junior hockey rinks or minor hockey rinks and cheering on guys who played for him. My family was always around the OHL. That was always the next logical step for us, and it never happened for whatever reason. Things picked up again this past year, and we were able to make things work here in Brantford.&#8221;</blockquote>
For Hyman, it was a surreal experience, as he had the chance to meet everyone involved with the organization, from the players to the coaching staff, and experience the environment which his family now owns.
<blockquote>&#8220;It&#8217;s probably the [mid-season] break that I&#8217;ll remember the most out of all the breaks that I take.&#8221;</blockquote>
Jokingly, Marek let Hyman complain about the budget now that he is president and governor of the Brantford Bulldogs. However, since he&#8217;s still a player, he finds it difficult to voice his concerns.
<blockquote> &#8220;It&#8217;s tough to complain about the stick budget, because I use a new stick every game, so if I start complaining, then the Oilers are going to see that and they&#8217;re going to look at me like &#8216;hey, you use a stick every game.&#8217; Okay, you&#8217;ve got my hands tied,&#8221; he said laughing.</blockquote>
Later in the one-on-one, Hyman discussed the opportunity to play with talents such as Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
<blockquote>&#8220;I&#8217;m very fortunate, obviously. Being in the NHL, a lot of things have to go your way, and you need opportunities to go your way. You also need to be able to seize the opportunity and understand how to play with great players and what they&#8217;re looking for, because when you&#8217;re playing with the best players in the world, they&#8217;re pretty demanding. They have a high standard, and it takes a whole line to be successful
When you get to the NHL level, it&#8217;s not just one guy that can go through a whole team, albeit sometimes he can do it. You need a full line, and you need everybody pulling together. I&#8217;m fortunate that coaches have always found that I played well with those players.&#8221;</blockquote>
Now, to have earned those opportunities, he needed to go through a journey as a player. It wasn&#8217;t smooth sailing for Zach Hyman. He shared the advice that he got from Red Berenson, who coached him in college at Michigan. A piece of advice that he would want young kids who are pursuing a career in hockey to know.
<blockquote>&#8220;I remember sitting in Red&#8217;s office and he said – &#8216;You know, Zach, you just need to keep working, and if you&#8217;re not scoring you have to learn how to do something else to be effective for our lineup.&#8217; – and I just remember that stuck with m. I remember going into college and just thought I was going to score goals, but also how can I help the team win in other ways.
And I learned how to penalty kill, I learned how to block shots, and my dad always said to me – &#8216;It&#8217;s a marathon, it&#8217;s not a sprint, it&#8217;s a journey, and the two things you can control are your work ethic and your attitude.&#8217; – So you can&#8217;t control where the coach is going to put you every day, you can&#8217;t control where you are in the lineup, all you can control is how hard you work and what your mindset is, and are you going to be a good teammate every day or are you going to go in there and sulk, and be a sore.&#8217;
Those two things stuck with me because those are things I could control every day, and those are things that have allowed me to get better every day because nobody wants to be around somebody who&#8217;s upset all the time or is sulking about themselves. Everyone has their problems. If you come into the rink with a positive attitude, you go to the gym, and you work as hard as you can, and stay on the ice, you&#8217;re going to get better.
Like my Dad said to me: You may not be an NHL player but give yourself the best opportunity to do so and work as hard as you can so that at the end of your journey, you know that you gave everything you possibly could and you can be satisfied and happy. That was the best piece of advice I got.&#8221;</blockquote>
Hyman continued to emphasize that a positive attitude and hard work enabled him to succeed and reach the NHL. He also recounted the moment he broke his nose earlier this season when Evan Bouchard&#8217;s slapshot deflected and hit him directly in the nose and went into more detail about what playing was like while his nose healed.
<blockquote>&#8220;Not to get too graphic, but as soon as it hit me, I knew something was off. I thought I lost my nose, to be honest. As soon as it hit me, I instantly put my hands up, I didn&#8217;t want my mum or my wife to see my face.
When it happened, you&#8217;re kind of just in shock. That game, I just grinded it out, I was breathing through my mouth. The bleeding was the hardest part. The breathing I would say, the next couple games after that, the breathing was really tough because that&#8217;s when you get swollen, once everything settles in.&#8221;</blockquote>
What more can you say about Zach Hyman? The man is the definition of a hockey player, a warrior. On top of that, he doesn&#8217;t stop working, on and off the ice. You can listen to his full interview with Jeff Marek here:
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Final Countdown ft. Zach Hyman &amp; Tyler Yaremchuk | The Sheet with Jeff Marek" width="1424" height="801" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BTSBGmA13ko?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Four nations are facing off in Montreal right now, and if you're a player not participating in the league's newest best-on-best tournament, you're probably somewhere sunny, tropical, and as far away from a hockey rink as you can get. Unless, of course, you're Zach Hyman, who was boots on the ground this past week with the Brantford Bulldogs.



Hyman appeared on Jeff Marek's show, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSBGmA13ko">The Sheet</a>, to discuss the end of his family's 20-year-long pursuit to purchase a team in the Ontario Hockey League and his involvement in this venture with the Bulldogs.
<blockquote>"It was a long journey. Twenty-odd years, Spence [his brother] and I were kids following my Dad around to junior hockey rinks or minor hockey rinks and cheering on guys who played for him. My family was always around the OHL. That was always the next logical step for us, and it never happened for whatever reason. Things picked up again this past year, and we were able to make things work here in Brantford."</blockquote>
For Hyman, it was a surreal experience, as he had the chance to meet everyone involved with the organization, from the players to the coaching staff, and experience the environment which his family now owns.
<blockquote>"It's probably the [mid-season] break that I'll remember the most out of all the breaks that I take."</blockquote>
Jokingly, Marek let Hyman complain about the budget now that he is president and governor of the Brantford Bulldogs. However, since he's still a player, he finds it difficult to voice his concerns.
<blockquote> "It's tough to complain about the stick budget, because I use a new stick every game, so if I start complaining, then the Oilers are going to see that and they're going to look at me like 'hey, you use a stick every game.' Okay, you've got my hands tied," he said laughing.</blockquote>
Later in the one-on-one, Hyman discussed the opportunity to play with talents such as Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
<blockquote>"I'm very fortunate, obviously. Being in the NHL, a lot of things have to go your way, and you need opportunities to go your way. You also need to be able to seize the opportunity and understand how to play with great players and what they're looking for, because when you're playing with the best players in the world, they're pretty demanding. They have a high standard, and it takes a whole line to be successful

When you get to the NHL level, it's not just one guy that can go through a whole team, albeit sometimes he can do it. You need a full line, and you need everybody pulling together. I'm fortunate that coaches have always found that I played well with those players."</blockquote>
Now, to have earned those opportunities, he needed to go through a journey as a player. It wasn't smooth sailing for Zach Hyman. He shared the advice that he got from Red Berenson, who coached him in college at Michigan. A piece of advice that he would want young kids who are pursuing a career in hockey to know.
<blockquote>"I remember sitting in Red's office and he said – 'You know, Zach, you just need to keep working, and if you're not scoring you have to learn how to do something else to be effective for our lineup.' – and I just remember that stuck with m. I remember going into college and just thought I was going to score goals, but also how can I help the team win in other ways.

And I learned how to penalty kill, I learned how to block shots, and my dad always said to me – 'It's a marathon, it's not a sprint, it's a journey, and the two things you can control are your work ethic and your attitude.' – So you can't control where the coach is going to put you every day, you can't control where you are in the lineup, all you can control is how hard you work and what your mindset is, and are you going to be a good teammate every day or are you going to go in there and sulk, and be a sore.'

Those two things stuck with me because those are things I could control every day, and those are things that have allowed me to get better every day because nobody wants to be around somebody who's upset all the time or is sulking about themselves. Everyone has their problems. If you come into the rink with a positive attitude, you go to the gym, and you work as hard as you can, and stay on the ice, you're going to get better.

Like my Dad said to me: You may not be an NHL player but give yourself the best opportunity to do so and work as hard as you can so that at the end of your journey, you know that you gave everything you possibly could and you can be satisfied and happy. That was the best piece of advice I got."</blockquote>
Hyman continued to emphasize that a positive attitude and hard work enabled him to succeed and reach the NHL. He also recounted the moment he broke his nose earlier this season when Evan Bouchard's slapshot deflected and hit him directly in the nose and went into more detail about what playing was like while his nose healed.
<blockquote>"Not to get too graphic, but as soon as it hit me, I knew something was off. I thought I lost my nose, to be honest. As soon as it hit me, I instantly put my hands up, I didn't want my mum or my wife to see my face.

When it happened, you're kind of just in shock. That game, I just grinded it out, I was breathing through my mouth. The bleeding was the hardest part. The breathing I would say, the next couple games after that, the breathing was really tough because that's when you get swollen, once everything settles in."</blockquote>
What more can you say about Zach Hyman? The man is the definition of a hockey player, a warrior. On top of that, he doesn't stop working, on and off the ice. You can listen to his full interview with Jeff Marek here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSBGmA13ko

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