LEAD BY EXAMPLE

"Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it.
"Players will see right through a phony.
"And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got."
- NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird
The ability to elevate, to inspire, to influence, is innate, inborn.
You can't fake it or buy it or appropriate it.
Matthew Tkachuk, quite simply, has it.
"You don't change a thing,'' says the abrasive left-winger of his elevation to the alternate captaincy of the Flames.
"There's a reason you've been given the opportunity in the first place. So, no need to change, I guess."
Nope. Not a thing.

He does look, in a sense, impossibly young for the job.
Players with letters stitched on their jerseys are often grizzled veterans with a lifetime of experience at the top level to draw on.
Tkachuk, by contrast, is 20, with 148 games on the ol' odometer and a mop of unruly curly hair.
"Was I … surprised?" he says of the responsibility bestowed on him. "That's a hard question. I do know I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable with everybody. I do know I feel I have more to contribute to the team and I do know I want to continue to do more and more.
"When they gave me an 'A' in pre-season I was kinda like: 'OK. Step in the right direction. Maybe for real in two or three years …'
"So to get one right now … really cool."
Over these past three winters, through good times and bad, Tkachuk admits he's been culling crib notes on the sly.
"You can,'' he says, "get a whole education by watching the right guys. Gio is the obvious example. The way he goes about his whole day, how he prepares, how he conducts himself, is exactly what you expect of a captain.
"I can't think of anybody you'd rather model yourself after.
"Actually, you've got a veteran presence like Gio to look up to but also a younger guy like Monny, who's taken on a bigger and bigger role. He's a driven guy. Brouw was awesome, too. Made me feel so comfortable. My first year we talked all the time.
"Someone who didn't wear a letter that also sticks out for me is Staj. One of the best teammates you could possibly ask for. Great to every single person on the team, whether you were 35 years old or 18 years old. It's a real eye opener coming into the NHL and you're never quite sure how the older guys are going to accept you.
"But guys like Gio and Staj made it so easy to feel you belonged, a part of things."

Tkachuk, like his skipper, is a firm believer in the do-as-I-do philosophy, not the do-as-I-say. Night after night he's out there, playing on the tightrope without a net or parasol, only the collective welfare on his mind.
"There's still a time and a place, though, to speak up," he reckons. "But you have to know the right moment to say the right thing.
"When nobody wants to say anything, when everybody's staring at their skates in their stalls and the room is so quiet, that's when you've kinda got to step up and be heard.
"If guys are down after a tough loss, maybe then.
"When we're not playing up to our potential, maybe then.
"But it's all about the timing."
Saturday is the Flames home-opener at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Tkachuk and the rest of his brethren determined to wash away the bitter taste of a 5-2 curtain-raising loss to the same Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
"We've got to be better,'' he says. "And that starts with me."
The evolution of Tkachuk, his growing influence on the present and future of this team, will be one of the most compelling storylines moving forward.
Asked if he's set any targets to chase over the next six months, the newly-appointed alternate captain replies with a firm head shake.
"I'm not,'' is the frank confession, "a big personal numbers guy. I'm not someone to sit down before a season and say: 'Oh, I expect to do this' or 'I should be scoring that many goals'.
"What I do want to do is continue to make myself a bigger part of this team. That's a goal. For sure.
"I don't want to take any nights off this season. I know there have been nights over the past couple where I haven't started great and failed to make an impact during a game.
"I want to eliminate those.
"Most of all, I want to help this be a playoff team. For a long, long time.
"Starting with this year."