This one's for all the coaches out there, the men and women who offer a pat on the back or a word of encouragement at just the right time.
And if you don't think little things like that stick with the kids you're coaching, then listen to what Manitoba's Darren Helm had to say this week.
Helm is one of the better hockey stories to come out of this province, a guy who was playing Junior B hockey in Selkirk four years ago and today suits up for the NHL's Detroit Red Wings.
It's an unusual route to the bigs, to say the least.
But Helm had plenty of help along the way, and earlier this week the 21-year-old took time to talk about the men who helped steer him in the right direction, beginning with Doug Cook, his coach from the age of five to 13.
"The encouragement he gave me -- that's what I remember most," Helm told the Canadian Press. "He made playing hockey fun. And he always believed I could go far."
Back then, Helm was one of the smaller kids playing, and because of his skill was often a target. That might discourage some players, even cause them to quit the game.
"When you're like that, a lot of players are taking runs at you," Cook said. "I always encouraged him: 'Darren, you're going to outwork these guys and obviously outskate 'em. They're not going to catch you.' "
Truth is, they're still chasing.
"His speed is uncanny," Cook said. "Some parents probably complained a bit that their kids didn't get the puck very often. But he was always a zone ahead of everybody."
Combine that kind of raw ability with quick, soft hands and a zeal for hard work, and you've got a future NHLer. Cook was convinced of it, as was the Western League scout who saw Helm at 14 and said he'd "go as far as he wants to go in hockey."
At 16, though, Helm failed to crack the Manitoba Junior League's Selkirk Steelers. Understandably, the kid was down in the dumps.
Enter Al Hares, coach of the Selkirk Fishermen of the Junior B loop.
"When he came to us he had a pair of skates that were falling apart," Hares recalled. "He could fly on those things."
While the team trainer repaired his skates, Hares got to work on Helm's self-esteem.
"He pushed me along and helped me gain a lot of confidence," Helm said.
The coach says by the end of that season, Helm "just kind of took over in his own way."
"He could skate that much better than anybody else," Hares said.
"He wasn't the toughest guy in the world, but he battled for his own piece of ice."
Hares, with the Fishermen for 27 years, talks about Helm like he's his own son, saying he gets goose bumps when he sees the kid skate onto the ice for the Red Wings.
"I got a couple thousand of my own kids that have gone through the organization over the years," Hares said. "He's kind of special."
And it makes the old coaches feel pretty good to hear the kid hasn't forgotten them.
Then again, they're not surprised. That's part of what made Helm stand out.
"He's very unassuming," Hares said. "He works hard, but he really didn't let anything go to his head."
Not the world junior gold medal he won two years ago. Not being drafted by the Red Wings. And if he wins a Stanley Cup in his first season as a pro, they don't expect that'll go to his head, either.
Cook could find out, firsthand -- he's off to Detroit this weekend, with Helm's parents, for a possible Game 5, next Monday.
"There's eight of us going down to watch him," Cook said. "And if there isn't a Game 5, we'll be visiting and partying with him when he comes back with the Cup."
Must be hard to believe it's the same five-year-old he began coaching 16 years ago.
What, possibly, could he tell Helm now? "Just how proud I am of him," Cook said. "I always believed he would go somewhere in hockey."
Knowing Helm, he probably should have known it would be fast, too.
