Quote:What is the speech about? How are you going to try and inspire (or at least entertain) these kids? How does it go? Do you wind up mumbling on stage because you are a big buffoon who isn't can word good or are you an eloquent and captivating orator? Do you think the next [you] is out there in the audience listening?

Before the season began JT went back home to Killarney to pay a visit to his childhood elementary school. While he's not a massive figure around town due to Ireland not exactly being a hockey hotbed, he is still quite well known and there is a small hockey community he is a part of. He's never really been one for big ra-ra, inspiring kind of speeches, and instead choose to talk of his experiences playing hockey in North America, what it takes to make it and how he got there, and kind of intertwined those experiences with a message for the kids on working hard and believing in yourself. Afterwards he took questions from the students for a while, took part in a floor hockey game with the students and staff, and signed autographs. He also donated some new hockey equipment for the school gym and some Blizzard merchandise to be raffled off for the kids.