\u201cHe\u2019s the same person. It\u2019s funny, his older brother, I played with him for two years at Notre Dame, and he was well-liked around the room and an awesome guy to have,\u201d Peeke said. \u201cWhen his younger brother was coming in, there were high expectations to live up to the Steeves name. But he was awesome. He fit in right away, worked hard, put his head down as a freshman and had a great personality, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeves\u2019 success with the Bruins now is not exactly a surprise to Peeke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe played good minutes for us and scored a lot of timely goals for us in college. The scoring was always there,\u201d Peeke said. \u201cAnd obviously, when you turn pro, you have to fight and claw your way through to get to the NHL \u2013 whether that\u2019s being more physical, scoring goals, everyone kind of has different roles. To see him be able to play both, it speaks a lot to the type of player [he is].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bSteeves has put in time behind the scenes to build his confidence and NHL readiness. Head coach Marco Sturm \u2013 who has been able to use Steeves up and down the lineup, in different situations \u2013 has taken note of his pure love for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a hockey nerd,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cHe knows what\u2019s going on. He follows hockey; he knows all the players. He\u2019s got a pretty good understanding in general about the league and the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeves agreed with his coach\u2019s assessment; he doesn\u2019t turn his hockey mind off very often, he said. It is partially because he wants to be the best version of himself, in sport and in life.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cI\u2019m really the same way with kind of everything, even when I was in school \u2013 I just want to do really well, and I don\u2019t want to leave a stone unturned with my preparation,\u201d Steeves said. \u201cMaybe it is insecurity or just how I am, but I don\u2019t feel like I am the most naturally talented person ever. Everyone works hard in the NHL, but there\u2019s also so many here who are just so gifted and talented on the ice. For me, I feel like I am not that. I think I am a good goalscorer, but I\u2019ve worked at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that preparation is mental for Steeves. He consistently does visualization practices and breath work to get his mind ready for the demands of the NHL. He also watches a lot of video.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cVarious things to kind of ramp myself up for a game. To me, it\u2019s just having a routine that tells your body and mind that it\u2019s time to perform,\u201d Steeves said. \u201cLike most guys, I think guys are always looking for an edge in something that\u2019s going to help them perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has been working for Steeves as of late. Those details have gotten him to where he is with the Bruins. While a lot changed ahead of Steeves\u2019 26th birthday, he is committed to remaining grounded in his same process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about playing a different way or anything like that,\u201d Steeves said. \u201cJust trusting who I am and being thankful for the opportunity. Good things will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe\u2019s the same person. It\u2019s funny, his older brother, I played with him for two years at Notre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-347603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}