"To me, the message]*
"It's invigorating, it's humbling, it's a little emotional because these are people that care about the sport of hockey and want to make the sport a better sport and help players fulfill a dream," Quinn said. "Without coaches like this, our sport really is nothing."
They are, the NHL coaches said, the lifeblood of the sport, coaching at the youth levels, developing the players who might turn into the next Roman Josi or Tomas Hertl.
And it's not only the attendees who are learning.
"You can always learn something in the game," Ward said. "I come to these things and I'm here as a participant myself, so I always find if I can take one or two things away from the clinic that I can take back and use in my coaching, it's worthwhile. So, I look forward to it a lot. It's a great chance just to sit down and talk hockey with people."
One of the things Ward reflects on, both for himself and for the attendees, is how important it is to focus on the job you have now, rather than the one you want. How important that the environment for the players is the right one.
He's hoping that, for each coach, one or two items hit. That they learn a few things that they can then take back to their teams, to better their players and their approach to coaching hockey.
It's what makes it fun for both sides.
"Coaches enjoy doing this," Quinn said. "When they ask us to do this, this is something we all look forward to doing. We all want to give back. We all want to interact with these coaches that are coaching at all different levels and love the sport the way we do.
"Our job is just a little bit different because a lot more people watch it and we coach guys that make money and are a little bit older, but we're all doing the same thing in a lot of ways."
