Kelly Buchberger- Leading By Example

If you've ever been to a hockey game or seen a game on TV, you've noticed that almost every team has a player wearing a big letter "C" on the right side of their hockey jersey.

That "C" means the player is a captain.(Hockey 101 here. If you see a player wearing the letter "A", it means he's the alternate captain, not something else that starts with the letter a.)

The captain of a hockey team is the only person on the ice who can speak with the referee or linesmen if there is a disputed hockey call.

Usually, the captain, who is either chosen by the coach or his teamates is a veteran player or one who has outstanding hockey qualities.

Sometimes, you can lead by example and not be a captain.

One such player is Kelly Buchberger of the Los Angeles Kings.

While Mattias Norstrom is the Kings' captain, he and the younger Kings' players look up to the 35year old Buchberger, who recently played in his 1,000 career NHL game.

Kelly's been in the league for 15 years, and while most young hockey players I've interviewed said they look up to former Oilers' players such as Wayne Gretzsky, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr, "Bucky" not only looked up to these players, he was their teamate.

He joined the Oilers in 1987 and his name is on the Stanley Cup not once, but three times.

And like Gretzsky and Messier, Kelly was also at one time captain for the Oilers.

He proudly wore the "C" for the Oilers for four years.

Those Edmonton teams were so loaded with talent that Kelly found himself killing penalties with ex teamate, Craig McTavish, who is now the Oilers' coach.

15 years later, Kelly is still killing off penalties and he plays every hockey game as though it were his first.

Kings' assistant coach, Mark Hardy, who had played against Kelly says, "he would go through a wall for his team."

Talent alone doesn't win Stanley Cups. Hard work and determination does.

That's something Kelly Buchberger hopes to pass along to his younger teamates.