Arturs Irbe can definitely relate to the notion that Goals & Dreams really can come true.

Irbe, who played a dozen National Hockey League seasons, recently made it a point to fly back to his native Latvia to be on-hand when the National Hockey League Players’ Association handed out five sets of equipment to nine different teams as part of their Goals & Dream Fund 10th anniversary celebration.

“It is the ones who have the least that need so much,” said Irbe, who was selected in the 10th round, 196th overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, before launching his NHL career with the San Jose Sharks in 1991. “That’s why having something like the NHLPA’s Goals & Dreams is so wonderful.”

Launched by the NHLPA in November of 1999 as a way for the players to give back to the game they love and the game that has given them so much, the initiative, the largest grassroots hockey program in the world, is funded entirely and solely by the NHLPA Members.

The “10 countries in 10 days” tour began its whirlwind voyage to help deserving young children around the world play hockey on November 13 in Sweden, followed by stops in Finland, Russia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia, Germany, and the United States, before finishing at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on November 22.

A one-hour television documentary on the tour aired nationwide on CBC during CBC Sports Weekend on December 19 (which included an interview with Irbe), with narration from former NHLPA member P.J. Stock and CBC personality, Scott Russell.

For Irbe, though, knowing that children who wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity to play the game they love, now do, is something he is quite grateful for.

It’s also something Irbe can appreciate.

“We were pretty poor,” recalled the man who now handles the role of goaltending coach for the Washington Capitals. “Sometimes we didn’t have enough food, but we always managed to get by. We always found a way.”

It also taught Irbe to be grateful for what many might take for granted.

“I believe I was about eight years old when I received a pair of skates,” remembered Irbe, who was selected as a member of the class of 2010 for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. “I think I went to bed in those skates I loved them so much. I had been dreaming of playing hockey since I was four and to receive those skates meant the world to me.”

Two years later, Irbe finally had his first set of equipment.

“It cost my parents a little bit, but the local youth hockey club supplied us with the goalie equipment,” said Irbe, whose distinguished international career began as a teenager at the 1985 IIHF European Junior Championship where he was named the tournament’s top goaltender, leading a Soviet Union squad that won the silver medal. “It is a feeling you can’t quite describe.”

Irbe’s story is no doubt inspiring to all Latvians, young and old.

He starred for Dinamo Riga for four full seasons, played in two consecutive IIHF World and European Championships for the gold-medal-winning Soviet Union – claiming the IIHF Directorate Award for Top Goaltender during the 1990 event. In 1991, when Latvia achieved its long sought-after independence, Irbe began what would become a stellar 12-year NHL career. He appeared in two NHL All-Star contests and backstopped his Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002.

Irbe dressed for his native Latvia in eight more IIHF World Championships and two Olympic Winter Games, including the 2006 competition when he was selected Latvia’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremonies.

“When we played against the Calgary Flames in a special series it opened my eyes to the NHL,” noted Irbe. “It was the year (1989) they won the Stanley Cup. We tied them in the game and I remember after, I wrote in my diary. I wrote, ‘This is my goal, to make the NHL.’

“I hadn’t known too much about the NHL before that. But to see all these great players from all over the world playing on the same ice, it was amazing. I love the game so much. I always have.”

Which is why Irbe will never take his past or present hockey life for granted.

“The glass should always be seen as half full,” he offered. “Life is wonderful.”

He’s hoping the kids who have new equipment courtesy of Goals & Dreams will think in those exact terms.

“This is a gift that gives hope,” said Irbe. “It might help keep kids off the street and it might make them believe they can one day make it to the NHL. And even if that doesn’t happen, they can now play the game they love with proper equipment. It is a dream come true."

Not only for the kids, but for one of Latvia’s most beloved figures, too.