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“My first year there you go in and I’m excited, I just signed a new deal as a UFA, get a chance to play with the best player in the world for hockey and, you know, we end up being one win away from going to the Western Conference final. And it was almost like too much came at us too fast last year with the Vegas odds pegging us as the second best team to win the Cup. So many guys came off a career year. So, there was just a lot of, it was almost like we were set up for failure. There was so much expectation that it was like we were set up for failure and there was maybe too much expecting things to happen versus making them happen.

“So for us I think for us, I think a lot of guys are excited to come back. I know I’m excited to come back and go back and have that ‘prove people wrong’ kind of mentality and get back and be an elite team all over again and for myself personally be an elite player once again.”

He was asked if the game had sped up too much for him.

“I think it was definitely more of a mental thing. It was almost like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for our team and for me personally and it was the snowball effect or the quicksand effect. It was like the harder you tried, the more you sunk in the quicksand.

“For me it’s just mentally having fun going to the rink again and mentally looking forward to the challenges we face as a team and as an athlete every single day, where I think my mindset got very negative last year. So I was almost my own worst enemy, where this year I’m just going in with a happy, healthier mindset. I think that’ll help me get back to the player I am and I think when you’re playing with the best player in the world, you know, it gives you a vote of confidence to try and step up and not let him down. I think we’re all feeling that and we all had fun in the 2016-17 season so we want to get back to being that team and winning on a nightly basis.