The following is an excerpt from Tie Domi’s autobiography, Shift Work, now available.
BY TIE DOMI
Every experience I’ve been through – the fun ones and the tough ones – has taught me a lesson that’s made me the person I am today. Those moments have come from every part of my life, from my childhood to my hockey career to my life now. The people I’ve met and things I’ve seen have showed me what leadership, respect, and loyalty are all about.
Here’s just one example.
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It was January 14, 1992, and I felt like I was on top of the world. We’d just played the Buffalo Sabres, and not only had we beaten them 6–2, but I had scored a goal and done my job standing up for my team. To top it all off, I was named the third star of the game. Messier had had a four-point night and the Rangers fans were loving us, but as I skated off the ice, it was my name that the packed crowd at the Garden was chanting. I didn’t think it was possible to feel any better about myself than I did at that moment. It was a great night to be in New York at MSG. I felt pretty good about myself; I thought I had it all figured out.
Well, that feeling didn’t last very long.
Moments after I got off the ice, Messier said, “Tie, come here,” and led me into the trainer’s room away from the rest of the team. It wasn’t the biggest trainer’s room at the old Garden, and as Messier shut the door, I knew he was serious, so I immediately calmed down and focused.
The first thing Messier said to me was, “Enough is enough.” He told me that I had to stop the WWE antics and the showboating after fights. He looked me right in the eyes, and he said that I had to change my ways. “You’re never going to get respect in this league if you don’t respect your peers!” he said.
I remember that I didn’t say a word; for the first time in my life, I just listened. Like every guy in the league, I knew that Messier’s track record spoke for itself. With five Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy, a Hart Memorial Trophy, and over a thousand points, Messier was known as one of the greatest leaders in all professional sports, ever. Messier continued to school me. He did all the talking, and I just stood there and nodded my head.
There wasn’t much I could say as the master told the kid what it takes to be a pro in the NHL. When Messier finished, I just said, “Thank you.”
Looking back, I think Messier knew exactly how to handle me. He knew that I was fearless. I wasn’t the best player on the team. And I wasn’t the captain. I wasn’t a bad teammate, because we all have our own ways. But I did need a reality check. Messier pulled me aside because he saw something in me. I think he knew and believed that I could be more than a fighter. When I got to play, I usually did pretty well. I just didn’t get the opportunity very often.
Messier was a big believer in treating everybody on the team like family and in keeping them close. Messier thought that if everyone was a part of the team and was pulling their weight, then we had a better chance at winning. And Messier was all about winning. That was another reason why I listened to him so closely—because I was the same way: I just wanted to win. I honestly never cared about stats; I only cared about winning. I have been that way since I was a kid.
As I was listening to Messier in that trainer’s room, it hit me that I had a lot to learn about the NHL. More than anything, I realized that respect was something I would need to earn in the big leagues. What Messier said to me in that trainer’s room changed my career. It changed my life. That moment in time and those words changed everything for me and stayed with me even after the end of my time in the NHL.
The funny thing about that night in New York is that it basically sums up my entire life. Every time I have been taught a lesson or run into hard times, I have made sure that I learned from those moments and bounced back. We all need a push in the right direction sometimes. The important thing is to be humble enough to take that advice to heart. Nowadays, I like to refer to stuff like that as “old school” values. Others might just call it common sense.
At the end of the day, what Messier told me that night really wasn’t too complicated. He just made me tone it down and respect my peers more. The timing of his talk could not have been more perfect. I was in my early twenties, and that night I told myself that I would try to do things the right way for the rest of my career.
Turns out I still had a long way to go.
