I think playing with great players and great teams, I've been given opportunities to succeed.

I feel very fortunate.

I mean, that's playoff hockey. You're not going to dominate every game, you're not going to score every goal.

I've always enjoyed the emotion of being out there in the last minute of a game or the last couple minutes down by a goal. I think a lot of guys tend to thrive in that situation and I prefer to be out there.

When you're able to rely on four lines and every D and both goalies, it's big.

You have to be able to win on the road if you want to win in the playoffs.

Obviously a little easier playing at home.

We want to be better players than we do a pest, but you have to find something to do coming into the League.

I'm in the NHL and I'll take whatever reputation I can to get here and to stay here.

For me, when I came in, I was always worried about making the other guys happy and giving them the puck and almost giving them a little too much respect. It can take away from your game a little bit.

There's very few guys that play for one team their whole careers, nowadays, especially in the cap era it's a lot tougher.

I think when I was younger, I knew I was either going to get a penalty or score a goal. It was a gamble. But it benefited me.

I had to play a certain style to get in the league, but now I want to be a player that stays in the league a long time, and you have to change your game and adapt.

I guess if the president of the United States gives you a nickname, you have to stick with it.

Those split-second decisions that you can't take back, that's what I need to continue to improve.

Everyone's going to have an opinion on the way I play the game, or things I've done.

Sometimes, you go down to Florida and Tampa and you get a couple days off, you can get complacent.

Goals come in bunches. When you're hot, things go in. Then there will be times where you go through a span where you have about 20 games without a goal and it's just how it is.

I'm aware of the fact that a lot of talented people out there will never get this chance.

I love any and all situations where you celebrate creativity.

When they say you're the best, I always remember that the majority of the audience probably thinks someone else should have gotten the award.

If you're really on top, you probably didn't do that great, 'cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal.

I've heard my share of Van Halen. I never liked rock.

I'm sure there are a few things in my CD collection that might surprise people. I like classical music, the blues, and I'm a big fan of alternative rock.

If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I'm a musician first. I'm not limited by the fretboard.

I like to look at the songs like they're little movies.

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.

Even on the most serious ballads, I'll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.

Even in your darkest moments, you'll think of something that'll crack you up.

As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

Guitar playing isn't really for everybody.

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren't real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.

I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?

If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.

Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that's ever lived. I've never heard anyone like her.

I imagine there's a market for total depression. I grew up on George Jones and that really dark stuff.

It just gets easier in that you become more you in the process.

I've been on the road I think probably three years.

It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

I go to eat dinner with my folks when I'm home. I think that's the trick.

Willie Nelson, out there 200 days a year, calls his band family. And it is.

With my guys and with the way that we live out there, we work out a lot and try to eat right, but we try to basically keep it our own rhythm and our own world.

You look out there and there's people that, their day is changed because of your contribution to it.

The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.

Anytime you do something from the heart, people just know it.

I have a to-do list and I have a farm I care for, and things I like to do for fun - going to movies and all that stuff. It's a painfully normal life!

No one can make the album they made 10 years ago with a straight face. There are two reasons: one is you change as a person. To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. And the second thing is these are different times.

If you fall in love with somebody, then you're not even worried about your bills. Love can take your mind off of anything.

That there's no more important decision in life than who you marry.