Shane Doan -- Home on the Range

Shane Doan is in his seventh season in the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes and he's from the prairies of Alberta, Canada.

Of course, he grew up playing hockey.

His father, who introduced him to the sport, was selected by the St. Louis Blues as their 80th pick in the NHL draft.

His cousin, Catriona LeMay Doan, won the Gold Medal for Canada in speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

However, if you go to the Doan family home in Halkirk, Alberta or the home of Shane and Andrea Doan in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona and look at the family pictures, you'll notice two things about Shane -- he's either holding a hockey stick or he's sitting high in the saddle of a horse.

That's not unusual for a player who grew up on a ranch and came from a family that not only excelled in winter sports, but summer sports like calf roping and basketball. (Shane's sister played on the Canadian National Basketball team and was named as Canada's Female Athlete of the Year in 2001.)

If one were to describe the personality of the Coyotes' Shane Doan, words like -- team-oriented, determined, focused, and believe it or not, happy -- would be thrown around.

He always has a smile on his face, no matter how tough the situation is.

In the beginning of the 2001-2002 hockey season, when the "hockey experts" gave the Coyotes a snowball's chance in hell of making the playoffs, Doan believed and did what he was paid to do -- play the game of hockey the only way he knows how -- with grit and determination.

His philosophy is, "even if things get tough, you've got to put them into perspective. There are better days ahead."

It seems as though he has an inner peace. A peace that seems so natural for someone who has spent a great deal of his life at home on the range.