Sharks Mic Check: Mike Ricci

Sharks Mic Check: Mike Ricci

This is an interview I’ve been waiting years for. Mike Reichi has always turned me down, but now it’s alumni night and he’s here, so he has no other choice. Thanks for doing this. How bad do you feel right now? No, the word mandatory means something to me. It’s not an optional skate. This is a mandatory interview. Do you like things like this? I I feel like you’re a guy that’s a bluecollar guy and when it’s time to give you recognition, time to bring you back, you’re okay with it. This is more for the fans than you or are you going to get something out of this, too? Um, I mean, I appreciate it, but yeah. See, I knew it. I knew it. Yeah, I appreciate it, but it’s it’s always, you know, the stomach I feel more pressure in these than I did during a game, but it’s always it’s always nice. You know, you don’t have to do anything tonight. Just smile and wave and watch the highlight video. I ain’t good at that. Why do you think Why do you think you were so relatable as a player and especially here in San Jose? I’ve been asked that. I don’t have an answer. I I think, you know, I was brought up be yourself. um and brought up if they like you, they’re going to like you. If you don’t, don’t worry about it. You know, treat everybody with respect. If they don’t treat you with respect, then respond to it. But, um I don’t know. Um I I obviously enjoyed my time here. The fans were unbelievable. The building rocking and you know, hearing your name being chanted, it’s obviously something I dreamed of as a kid. But um you know it definitely sent some goosebumps and and it I’ll be honest with you the first time I might say it is it sometimes of tiredness and stuff you hear that it it makes you get going still well not feel that way you think about those days much I um yeah I think about them but you know it’s one of those things where you just think about them you know uh there’s other things to conquer now and uh you know for myself I got to save that energy for that. Well, I know you’re on the rink all the time still, and I do want to talk about your coaching efforts in just a second, but if you never had the chance to get into hockey or professional hockey as far as you did, what was your plan B? What else would you have done? Well, there’s zero plan B. Obviously, I played a lot of soccer growing up, so people I would have probably pursued a career in soccer, but other than that, as my dad said, you you know, hockey, school, or construction, and he said, you’re not very good at school. So, it would have probably been construction. We have a lot of plumbers in the family. So, okay. I like plumbing. All right. There you go. Well, uh, come over my house. We’ve got we got some projects for you. Pretty good. Um, you know, in terms of taking care of yourself, and you played in an era where it was hard out there. Um, it was very physical. How did you take care of yourself? How did you keep your body in the right shape so that here you are, you know, still coaching, still active, still doing what you want to do? I feel like as many games and as many years and more than a thousand games played, you put your body through quite the paces and you’re still doing fine. Yeah. Um, the more I move, the better I feel. I sit here for too long, I’ll look like an old man, but I love to get moving. Obviously, I would feel like I was born to be on the ice and be around the brink and be in a dressing room. Um, but, you know, I’ve lost some weight here in the last few years. Old Logan Couture asked me to lose some weight, so I did. And, uh, I feel great. That’s the best I’ve felt in a long time. How did he approach that conversation? He just see me one day straight up. Yeah, he was pretty straight up. It we, you know, chewing tobacco, chewing tobacco. I was I was huffing and puffing for no reason. So, I lost some weight. Cooch got on you and that was it, huh? He may not even remember, but I took it to heart. Well, he’ll hopefully see this and know that at least he helped you out. Speaking of helping people out, I mean, that’s your job. That’s your role here with the San Jose Sharks, and it’s to work with the youngest players, especially. How do you how do you even approach doing your job? How do you get these guys ready from wherever they come in, wherever they’re at, to take them to the point where they’re ready to be on the Sharks and succeed? How do you how do you approach your job and and what you do? Well, I think first of all, I try and show them that I’m going to bring the energy. I you know, I’m going to bring I think uh sometimes we forget about how much emotion, how much intensity it takes to be at your top. So, I try and bring a lot of that obviously with some laughter. Um, you know, some yelling. Um, I’ve heard the chirps. Oh, yeah. They’re good. You know, that’s what I try and do. I try and show them first that I’m I’m into like this isn’t just for fun. You know, we’re in it together. I’m going to bring the energy. I’ll, you know, if you don’t have it, I’ll try and give it to you. And then also, I think the easiest way to put it is, you know, a lot of times I’ll say it now. I wish I knew then what I know now. hopefully at the end of their career they don’t say that as much as I did. So that’s kind of where I sum it up. How do you feel about the culture of Sharks hockey? Because you saw it obviously in an era where it was pretty good and then this team was really good through the 2010s right after you had retired and I know you’ve been part of the organization like this entire time and then we went through just recently some very lean years, some very tough years and now here we are on the ascent again. How do you start to see kind of the roller coaster of where it’s been and hopefully where it’s going? Well, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. But for a few years there, we couldn’t see it, you know, but we see it now. Um, these young guys, obviously, you know, the names, um, have brought life, competitiveness, uh, skill, um, brought joy to the rink and the veterans have really this year taken them in and and they’ve created some chemistry there that, you know, makes that light bright and hopefully we can continue to build that chemistry and keep getting better. I know Warso talks about it and that’s how we try and look at it and that’s it’s easy for me to say we’re just trying to get better every day. They’ll get a little bit better every day and we see it but again like I said there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. But for a few years there it was hard to see. Do you ever have the aspiration to be an assistant coach on a bench on a regular basis? A head coach somewhere? Do you like your role here? I haven’t thought about it. You know I think I enjoy what I’m doing. Yeah. it. Uh I put a lot of time into it, a lot of energy, and I don’t really think too far. You know, I get up in the morning and let’s try and get better. I try and get better, try and get somebody around me better, and you know, we’ll we’ll decide later. What are the royalties like from the 2005 movie The Rocket? I didn’t know. I must have I should have read the fine print. I don’t know. I haven’t I didn’t realize you were even in a movie. I literally just found that out. Yeah. I I should have had even a bigger part, but I declined. I said I only went for 11 days. But what was your role? I was Elmer Lock. So, the Rocket’s best friend and centerman. I gotta go back and watch the movie. Apparently, I I missed that or I missed out on that one. Yeah. And I’ve missed a few calls from Brad Pitt and those guys, but I might get in another one one of these days. You you’ll you’ll start another movie. Yeah, why not? Huh? Mighty Ducks 14, Mighty Sharks one, maybe. Uh, last thing for you, and I know you kind of touched on the future and how bright it is here. Um, how does it make you feel to know that maybe the future of this franchise right now is in really good hands at a lot of levels? And I’m saying from the coaching staff to some of the emerging stars to a general manager making decisions to even some of the um team and core type players here. It really feels like everything on all the levels are starting to click. It’s like you said from uh you know, Hasso all the way down Greer. Let’s start there. Yeah. All everybody’s in line right now. They’ve done a hell of a job. and just not getting too ind depth. You could see our our organization has gotten bigger, which we needed to do. We have some size, some skill. I mean, uh, they’ve done a hell of a job and the coaching is coaching staff’s been great, and we’re just all trying to stay in line, everyone do their job, everyone pull on the rope, and that’s what’s happening right now. It’s it’s so fun to be around. And obviously we you know Mac and Will and and Dicki and the guys in the Misa Asi and all those guys have brought life to all of us and obviously made that light brighter at the end. But I mean it u you know what the organization has done is has been awesome and uh the rest of us are just trying to work hard to keep it moving. Don’t say a name but do you have a favorite player in the Sharks organization? You can keep it secret. I have a lot. You got a lot of favorites. Reach favorites. We can only imagine who they might be. I have a lot I have a lot of and that’s a good thing. I was about to say that’s a good sign especially knowing who you were as a player and who you are as a person. Mike Rei, thank you for doing this. I hope it was painless. No, beautiful. It was great. Thanks, man.

Brodie Brazil sits down with Sharks alum Mike Ricci about his playing days and his current player development role with the organization.