Forward Sean O'Connor is this month's player in

“Breaking the Ice with…” The feature showcases different Whalers players so we can get to know them better.

Selected in the 2nd round (24th overall) in the 2003 OHL Draft by the Erie Otters, O'Connor was traded to the Whalers on January 9th for Frank Grzeszczak and a conditional 4th round draft pick. In his first 3 games as a Whaler, he recorded 6 points, including his 50th career goal, 100th career assist, and 150th career point. The Brownstown, Michigan, native took a few minutes to help us break the ice and chat about his trouble getting to Ottawa, his dream of scoring on Jeremy Smith, and the death threat he received because he laughed.

» On the best advice he has been given…

“You’ve got to stay on an even keel. There are highs and lows wherever you play. I came from Erie and this year there were a lot of lows. It was a tough year this year. You just have to stay positive even when your team loses five or six in a row. You just have to go out there and do the best you can.”

» On how he started playing hockey…

“I started skating when I was two and shortly after that I started playing, so I was around three. I had two brothers that played ahead of me and my sister is a figure skater. My father really got into it. When he was a teenager, he kind of broke away from baseball and got into hockey, so that’s where the family thing came in.”

» On his most memorable goal…

“Most memorable goal would be with Honeybaked at the Pee Wee Quebec Tournament. I had to score a shootout goal for us to continue in the tournament and I was the final shooter and ended up winning it for us.”

» On his youth hockey highlight and the championships he has won…

“I won the state championships three times. I went to nationals three times and twice I finished third, so those would be my highlights. I won a ton of tournaments. Playing with Honeybaked and Little Caesars, I have been fortunate to play on good teams and we won all the time.”

» On who has influenced him in hockey…

“That would have to be my parents and really my family in general. My two brothers both had a lot of experiences in hockey. I have a brother that plays for the Western Michigan Broncos and we talk to each other a lot about personal things, changes in the game, and the mood swings and head games that hockey causes. It’s good to have a brother that has been there and done that to talk to me about it.”

» On the player he most admires…

“I think Steve Yzerman. He’s a tremendous captain. He’s a guy that doesn’t say a whole lot and gives all the credit to his teammates. He changed his whole game just to win a Stanley Cup and I think a guy who can change the way he plays just to win has high regards in my book.”

» On if he has ever played with any of the guys on the team before…

“I grew up playing with Ryan McGinnis on Honeybaked and we played together for three years in minor hockey. We played against (Dan) Collins quite a bit because he was from New York.”

» On picking major junior over college hockey…

”I don’t know. I had a lot of college interest. My brother went the college route. He had a little bit of a struggle with it. He played in the North American Hockey League for two-and-a-half years; he played in the USHL for 2 years. He had a lot of experiences with all the different leagues. It had always been a dream of mine to play with him and I had that chance before I came to OHL when I played with him in the USHL. I think the development in this league is a lot faster than going the college route. You develop a lot faster between 16 and 20 than you do if you go and play college where you are developing between 18 and 24 or so. I thought this would be a faster way of development to make it to the NHL. My whole life until I was 16 and at the training camp in Erie, I wanted to play college hockey. That was my dream. Something happened at that training camp where I thought that this was a good route for me and a good opportunity to try to get to the NHL. It was a surprise to my family and myself to have the situation for me to go to the OHL.”

» On playing at the Select 17s and U18 World Cup…

“Select 17s was a good experience for me. I made the US Under-18 team and got to go over to the Czech Republic and Slovakia and play at the Under-18 World Cup and represent the country. It was a good experience for myself and (Ryan) McGinnis was on my team at Select 17s, so it was good to see a familiar face. The World Cup was a good tournament. It’s a different lifestyle over there in the Czech and Slovakia. It was a good time. There were a lot of guys from around the country. We got to meet the coaches from universities and see a different route. Most OHL players don’t get to go play in that, at least for the USA, and I was fortunate to get that experience.”

» On his most embarrassing hockey moment…

“The most embarrassing hockey moment would probably be when I fought Marc Methot two years ago. He’s a big defenseman that played for London. He’s like 6’4, 240 pounds. I don’t think I even threw a punch. I was just sick of it because he was all over me the whole game. I was trying to get our team fired up, but it didn’t work out too well.”

» On his shoulder injury…

“I’ve had some injuries in this league before, but none of them caused me to have to miss any games. I broke my jaw my second year in Saginaw. Nothing major just a broken finger or something, but I’ve never had to miss any games until this year. I separated my A-C joint in my shoulder and it’s a slow recovery process. The shoulder is still not 100 percent; it’s as good as it is going to get for awhile. Surgery is still an option I’m considering in the off season. Right now it feels pretty good. Every now and then it gets real sore and it’s just a constant ice thing. I just keep rebuilding the strength in it.”

» On the trade process…

“In Erie, the rumor had been since the beginning of the year that Plymouth was trying to trade for me. After about the first fifteen games like right after I hurt my shoulder, I knew most likely I was going to be traded. The team is developing and they need younger guys. It doesn’t benefit me to play the end of the year out and not make playoffs. The GM there, Sherry Bassin, he really pushed for me to try to get to a contending team. I thank him very much for giving me this opportunity to play for the Whalers. I was really excited when I heard I was coming here and I guess my shoulder injury delayed that situation a little bit, but I’m fine and happy just to be here.”

» On adjusting to new teammates…

“It’s always tough because you don’t know what the guys are like. You compete against them, say stuff to them on the ice all the time, and battle with them. Now they’re on my team and they’re just like any other teammate. They accept you. I haven’t been through all the hard times or good times that they have had, but I think they have accepted me pretty well and they’ve done a good job of making me feel comfortable.”

» On playing in front of the hometown crowd…

“You always feel a little pressure, especially when your family is there. I only have a few friends still left in town; most of them are going to school somewhere. They have been to a couple games already and fortunately I have been playing pretty decent so far. There’s a little added pressure, but you’ve got to thrive on that.”

» On living at home again…

“It’s a little different experience. Moving away when I was 16, I was ready to move away to go play. Now coming back home, it’s real strange because I feel like when I’m driving to the Compuware Sports Arena that my parents should be taking me and I should be playing against Compuware or something. It’s different, but I’m enjoying it so far. I was ready to move out then and still think I’m ready to move out, but I’m dealing with it ok.”

» On the Whalers downriver connection…

“I guess a bunch of the Whalers a couple years ago, probably 10 years ago now, used to go to school at Saint Frances Cabrini in Allen Park. Both of my brothers went to high school there and they were friends with (Jared) Newman and (Damian) Surma and they played baseball with Surma. That’s how I kind of got some interest in the Whalers; I came to some of the games because my brothers knew some of the guys and that’s what really opened the door to the OHL.”

» On hitting so many milestones in his first weekend as a Whaler…

“That’s a surprise to me (about notching his 50th career goal, 100th career assist, and 150th career point in his first 3 games as a Whaler). I didn’t even know that all of that happened. I was hoping that I’d be over that by this point in my career. It’s good to come here and start off well, especially coming back from my shoulder injury seeing as I haven’t played many games since I came back. I’m still getting used to the guys and my line mates and how the coach likes to play. Every game I’m still learning things on how he wants us to play. It has just been a good experience.”

» On the toughest player he has played against…

“The toughest player I’ve played against is probably Marc Methot. For some reason we did not like each other. I think he even stated in the paper one time that he was going to kill me in the playoffs. I think it all started off with my rookie year. I had a pretty good rookie year and I came down and I dangled him pretty hard. I got around him and ended up scoring and turned around and just laughed at him. Ever since then, the next two years he was all over me every time I was anywhere near the puck.”

» On if there is anything behind his jersey number 13…

“Not really. There was not a whole lot of numbers to choose from. I wore 10 in Erie and obviously Ryan McGinnis has 10. I wanted to get 16, but Brett Valliquette has that. That was the only other number I really wanted. So it was between 13, 24, and any number in the 30s. I figured 13 isn’t so bad, (Pavel) Datsyuk wears it, so why not.”

» On his typical day…

“We have to be at the rink at 10 o’clock. I live about 35 minutes from the rink, so I’ll get up around 8:30 and have a bite to eat. I’ll hit the road, get to the rink, and have a light workout. Usually I’ll do a shoulder workout and the bike and a little bit of abs. After practice, on Mondays and Tuesdays I do legs and then upper body and on Thursdays before a Friday game I’ll usually just do a light workout to flush out my body so I’m ready for the game.”

» On his pre-game routine…

“Pre-game is pretty simple for me. I usually get up around 9:30 or 10 o’clock, have a bite to eat, find the golf channel or ESPN and watch that for a little while. I’ll play video games or watch the TV and I usually head to bed around 12:30 or 1 o’clock, sleep for about 2 hours, wake up and eat and get ready for the game.”

» On what he'd do if he didn't play hockey…

“If I wasn’t a hockey player, I’d probably be playing baseball or something. I played a lot of sports growing up. I played baseball, football, hockey and I was probably just as good at baseball and football as I was at hockey. Baseball was a big sport in my family. My grandfather was really into baseball and we all played it. It was a very fun sport for me, but as I got older, it ended up getting a little slow for me waiting around all the time for the play to happen, so I ended up choosing hockey over everything.”

» On what he brings to the team…

“I think I should bring a lot of skill and playmaking ability as well as some strong defensive play. I feel that I can make something out of nothing and I can make the play and anticipate what is going to happen. I want to be here to try to put up points on the board and get us some wins, but I also want to stop other teams from scoring.”

» On his nicknames…

“Here my nickname is O.C. That has been my nickname for a long time. In Erie I developed the name ‘Cheese’ or ‘Cheddar’ and it means that you shoot the puck high into the top corner because I don’t shoot the puck low very often.”

» On his superstitions…

“I used to have some superstitions. I always have my brother’s name written on my stick somewhere – my brother’s initials. Lately, coming to a new team you lose some of your superstitions because other guys have others that conflict with yours, but a lot of times I used to get a roll of tape for myself and a roll of clear for myself because I go through a lot of tape.”

» On the craziest thing that has happened on the road…

“When I was in Erie, there has always been this rumor of bad luck that Erie has every time we go to Ottawa. It’s the farthest road trip - that and the Soo - but it’s always Ottawa that the bus would break down. My first two years there, the bus broke down both times in a snow storm. We made a 9 hour trip in about 16 hours because of that, so two years in a row we had that bad luck over us.”

» On his funniest teammate…

“On the Whalers, it’s tough to say. (Jared) Boll and (James) Neal are pretty funny, but sometimes they get a little out of hand. They’re just goof balls all the time and they’re all over everybody about everything. They’re fun to have around as long as they don’t say anything about me.”

» On the person he would most like to meet…

“I’d like most to meet Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods, I think, is the best trained athlete in his sport in the world. His focus and determination is unmatched by anybody that I can think of.”

» On what one thing he could not live without…

“That would be hockey. I can’t live without it. I think about it every day.”

» On his dream vacation…

“I would like to go to Ireland or Scotland. I’m a big golfer; that’s probably something I would be doing besides playing hockey, I’d probably be playing golf. I would like to go to Ireland and play the K Club Golf Course. I’d like to play St. Andrew’s. I’m an Irish kid, my family is from over in Ireland, so it would be nice to go over there and see what it is like.”

» On his dream goal…

“Originally it would have been against the Whalers and (Jeremy) Smith because he’s from my hometown, but I don’t know now. Any goal that I can either set-up or score to put us ahead, give us that extra momentum, or even win the game in the playoffs to get us to the final round or win the OHL would be a dream for me.”

» On one rule change he would make in hockey…

“I would change a lot of the obstruction stuff. When they made the rule changes, they wanted to get rid of any stick work so you couldn’t hook a guy, which is fine. A lot of times, though – I know it happened a couple times this weekend to (Tom) Sestito and myself – you’re just lifting up a guy’s stick to take the puck and we’re getting a penalty for lifting a guy’s stick. It’s getting to a point where the whole game is being played on the power play and penalty kill and it takes all the flow out of the game.”

» On what type of character he'd be on a reality TV show…

“I’d be considered a little brother. I’m the youngest of four and not so much on this team yet, but on the other teams that I’ve played on I’ve been known to get a little annoying at times. I can get on people’s nerves a little bit, but that’s just the little brother in me coming out.”

» On what other five players he would want on the ice with him…

“For the goalie I’d pick Terry Sawchuk. I never got to watch him play, but just hearing stories from my father, he was just always the best goalie. He came to play all the time and was just amazing. Forwards I’d pick Steve Yzerman and Henrik Zetterberg. Henrik Zetterberg’s not in that Hall of Fame category yet, but just watching him play, it’s absolutely amazing how he moves the puck and how he is always aware of his surroundings. I think he’d be a great teammate to play with and a great line mate. For defensemen, I’d probably take a big tough guy like Scott Stevens and also Scott Niedermayer. Scott Niedermayer is a very good skater. He’s a very good passer and a very good player. I think that would be a good lineup for me.”

-Natalie Shaver, January 29th, 2007-

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