Hello Hockey Friends And Families Around The World!

🏒 What happens when the game you’ve built your identity around is suddenly taken away? This week on Our Kids Play Hockey, Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli sit down with Doug Smith, former NHL forward, 1981 second-overall draft pick, Ottawa 67s standout, Bobby Smith Award winner, and one of the most powerful voices in hockey when it comes to resilience, recovery, and perspective. Doug’s story is extraordinary. After being drafted second overall and playing for NHL teams including the Los Angeles Kin...

🏒 Want to become a better hockey player? It’s not just about what you do during practice — it’s about the habits you build everywhere else, too. On this episode of The Ride to The Rink , Lee, Mike, and Christie are joined by Coach Andrew , a high-level junior hockey coach and former NCAA player, to talk directly to young skaters and goalies about what really helps players improve. Andrew breaks down the balance between skill development and team systems , why younger players should spend most of

🏒 What really makes a hockey player better — more ice, a higher-level team, a longer commute, or the right culture? This week on Our Kids Play Hockey , Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Christie Casciano-Burns sit down with Andrew Trimble , GM and co-owner of the New England Wolves Hockey Club , founder of Scoring Concepts , and author of Beyond the Scoreboard . Andrew has coached from learn-to-skate all the way to the collegiate level, giving him a rare perspective on what true development looks lik

🏒 What happens when you win a championship, celebrate the biggest season of your career—and then learn that your entire professional future may be changing? In the first Day in the Life episode of the new season, Olympic gold medalist and Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra joins Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli to discuss her next major chapter: signing a three-year agreement with the PWHL’s new Las Vegas expansion team. Hayley takes listeners inside a fast-moving expansion process filled with compli

🧠 What if you could begin preparing for your best game before you even stepped onto the ice? In this episode of The Ride to the Rink, Lee is joined by goaltending and mindset expert Pete to introduce young athletes to mind mapping—a simple but powerful exercise that can help players visualize success, strengthen their confidence, and prepare mentally for tryouts, big games, and pressure-filled moments. Pete shares how he used this exercise with a goaltender preparing for a championship game. ...

🥅 What separates a talented goalie from one who consistently performs under pressure? According to renowned mental performance coach Pete Fry, the answer often begins with the picture that goaltender holds in their mind. Pete Fry—known throughout hockey as “The Goalie Mindset Guy” —joins Lee Elias and Christie Casciano Burns for a powerful conversation about confidence, visualization, resilience, preparation, and the mental demands of playing one of the most challenging positions in sports. A fo

🏒 How do young athletes develop the desire to win — without losing their love for the game? In this episode of Our Girls Play Hockey, Lee Elias and Olympic gold medalist and PWHL Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra dive into one of the most important conversations in youth sports: how girls hockey players can build competitiveness, resilience, and a healthy will to win. Winning matters. Competing matters. But for young athletes, especially in youth hockey, the scoreboard can’t be the only thi...