🏒 Hockey Is More Than a Game—It’s a LifelineWhat if the rink is the one place a child feels safe?That’s not just a feel-good idea—it’s reality for many kids. And in this episode of Our Kids Play Hockey, former NHL f…
🏒 What Can a 14-Year-Old Goalie Teach Us About Success?What were you doing at 14?For most young athletes, it’s about learning the game, having fun, and developing skills. For Estela Vazquez, it’s all of that — plus competing in…
Every young hockey player wants to score goals. Every player wants more ice time. Every player wants to make the top team. But when former NHL All-Star Scott Hartnell joined Ride to the Rink, his advice wasn’t about skill moves, shooting techn…
When a player spends 17 seasons in the NHL, plays over 1,200 games, scores more than 300 goals, and still talks about hockey with the excitement of a kid at the outdoor rink — you listen.That’s exactly what happened when former NHL pow…
Inside the Olympic Experience with Hayley Scamurra (Part 1)For many hockey players growing up, the Olympic dream feels almost mythical.The bright lights. The national pride. The gold medal game.But what does that experience actually feel like …
The Right Mindset for Hockey Tryouts and EvaluationsFor young hockey players, few moments feel as big as evaluations and tryouts.Maybe you’re excited. Maybe you’re nervous. Maybe you’re worried about making the team you want. A…
Tryout season can feel like the most stressful time of the youth hockey year.Parents are sitting in the stands gripping their coffee cups. Kids feel pressure to perform. Coaches are evaluating dozens of players in a short window of time.But here…
What do professional hockey players eat before a game?How do they train?Where do most goals really come from?These are the kinds of questions young players constantly ask — and in this special Our Girls Play Hockey mailbag ep…
Think tryouts start on evaluation day?Not quite.In youth hockey, the process often begins earlier — at pre-skates, ID skates, tune-up sessions, and camps. And while those skates aren’t official “make or break” moments, th…
If you’re a hockey parent this time of year, you can feel it.The emails.The announcements.The “exclusive” invites.The pressure.ID skates and pre-skates have become a major part of youth hockey culture — but most families …
“I am a gold medalist.”She wrote it on a whiteboard for over a year.Not “I hope to be.”Not “Maybe someday.”I am.And now, she is.In a historic Olympic tournament that captivated over five …
🚨 Tryout season changes families.The car rides get quieter. Group chats get louder. Other teams suddenly look better. And parents feel the pressure to “make the right move.”But here’s the truth:The wrong decision in youth hoc…
f talent were enough, every “best 9-year-old in the country” would end up in the NHL.They don’t.And in this week’s episode of Our Kids Play Hockey, Jimmy Law explains exactly why.Jimmy — Director of Sports Perform…
Every young hockey player dreams big.The national team. The Olympics. The game-winning goal.But what if you could sit in the car on the way to the rink and hear directly from someone who’s already lived it?On this episode of The Ride to …
What if the best hockey development tool isn’t inside the rink?For former NHL forward and Stanley Cup Finalist Ryan Carter, it wasn’t elite showcases or private lessons that shaped him first. It was a Minnesota cul-de-sac, a tennis bal…
What if the thing holding your child back in hockey… is the rush to get ahead?In this powerful conversation on Our Kids Play Hockey, former NHL forward Ryan Carter challenges one of the biggest myths in youth sports: that fa…
There are hockey dreams… and then there are Olympic dreams.For Haley Winn, that dream started on a backyard rink built by her dad and sharpened through years of competing with three older brothers. Today, she’s a rookie defenseman wit…
đź“Š Stats Are Everywhere — But What Do They Really Mean?If you play hockey today, stats are impossible to avoid. Goals, assists, plus-minus, save percentage, turnovers — they’re tracked, posted, compared, and talked about constantl…
Youth hockey parents and coaches love stats — until stats become a problem.In this Our Kids Play Hockey mailbag episode, we tackle two questions that seem unrelated on the surface but are deeply connected at their core: How we teach accounta…
Mid-season in professional hockey is where things get real.The excitement of opening night has worn off. Bodies are sore. Travel is relentless. Games come fast. And in an Olympic year, the stakes somehow get even higher.For Haley Scamurra, this …
If you spend time around youth hockey, it’s easy to feel like the game is moving faster than ever.Kids are pulling off moves at eight years old that many adults didn’t learn until much later — if at all. Social medi…
n today’s youth hockey culture, it’s easy to feel like everything is happening at warp speed.Kids want to learn the Michigan now.Parents feel pressure to keep up.Coaches are navigating expectations shaped by social media highlight reel…
If you only saw the highlight clips — the crowd shots, the late-game scrum, the attendance number — you still didn’t see the full picture.The PWHL Takeover Tour stop in Washington, D.C. wasn’t just a game.It was a statement…
If you ask young female hockey players what they worry about most off the ice, the answers often come quietly — or not at all.But the truth is, body image, confidence, and comparison weigh heavily on girls long before they reach elite levels…