1-On-1: with Cam Hebig

Roadrunners All Star Cam Hebig joined Jonathon Schaffer and Kim Cota-Robles on this week’s Happy Hour Show. For the complete conversation and to hear about Cam’s connection to Palm Springs, download this past week’s show below.

Listen to “Hey Cam, you're an All-Star” on Spreaker.

How are you feeling after getting named to the All-Star roster?

I’m super excited. It’s going to be a be a great experience, and I’m really looking forward to it. It’s great that I get to go and experience that and my family’s going to come down and experience it with me. We’re super excited and I’m just really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a jam-packed couple of days with lots of events and meeting new people. I’ve heard it’s a great couple of days. So, I’m super excited and can’t wait to go.

Do you think you’ve successful in the AHL?

I’m always trying to strive to get better. I don’t think you can ever be satisfied. This game is too good. As soon as you think you are good, someone’s going to pass you, so you always have to be striving and looking for ways to get better and improve. I think, since coming into this league seven years ago, I’ve learned so much just mentally and how to face the ups and downs. It’s a long season, so getting stronger mentally has helped me over the years, but, for sure, I’m still learning in that department too, I think it’s a huge part of it. I train physically too. In the summer, working on skills and off ice stuff, and working with our skills coach here, Brian (Slugoki). He’s been really helpful to me. So yeah, I think you always have to be striving to get better and keep improving and working at your craft.

Brian’s not here all the time. How often are you able to work with him?

Usually, if we have a week off or days between games, he’ll come down and practice with us. He lives up in Phoenix, so he comes down and works with us whenever he’s available. I try to hop on it because he’s just so knowledgeable about the game and he’s so fun to work with. I think he just brings a lot of knowledge. He likes his skill work and it translates well to the game. I see it in games, and I see how valuable it can be. He knows what clips to show me and stuff like how to get open, and offensive zone plays and that kind of stuff. So, it gives me a different view on things.

What’s the message in the locker room right now? It’s been a tough homestand.

Yeah, I think it’s just that we have to focus on moving forward and solving this slump and I think this week off here will help. We had a good meeting today about just focusing on how we can get back to our values, what we focus on, the standard and getting back to what we’re good at because it’s been a bit of a struggle for us. I think that just getting back to that foundation and I think (Steve) Potvin has been focusing on that, and it’s up to us in the room. Obviously losing that many, I think is unacceptable. You have to win; it’s a tight division and every team is good. So, I think we have the group in there to do it and to figure it out.

What are your takeaways from the first half of the season? Your line with Poganski and Yamamoto has been connecting well.

Yeah, I think as a group, we’ve proved that we can play with any team. We’ll have good periods and show that we can play with anyone, but it’s about putting it together for 60 minutes. I think during the season, there’s always stretches of adversity and ups and downs. But as a group you can learn from that, learn from those adversity times, because when it comes down to the end of the season and playoffs, you can look back on those experiences and they’ve helped to become a stronger team. So, we can look at this as a learning curve and use it to our advantage.

You’ve been around for 28 years. What’s your proudest accomplishment?

I think maybe signing my first NHL contract. That was pretty exciting for me and my family. Playing the Memorial Cup was a good experience too. Yeah, those are probably the two.