Our Girls Play Hockey: Pro Hockey Secrets for Young Players | Mailbag with Hayley Scamurra (Part 2)

Hello, hockey friends and families around the world, and welcome back to another edition of Our Girls Play Hockey. You have asked for it. You have waited for it. You kept going, Lee.

when are you doing the second mailbag episode you promised us a second mailbag episode well friends it is here today i am with hayley Scamurra and mike bonelli mike and i once again rapid firing questions from the audience to hayley got some great ones here today again today's theme right we had to organize these because we got so many

It's kind of how pros do it. How do you train? How do you eat? How do you keep it fun? So this is all about, hayley, your experience as a professional hockey player, which you are really successful in succeeding at. And Mike and I are very humbled. And really, I say all the time, just two kind of schmucks sitting here with a pro athlete. So this is going to be pretty good today. All right. We'll dive right in. First question. What do you eat on game day?

I love this question. I get it all the time. It's so funny. To be honest, if I had it my way, I would have breakfast for pregame meal every day, regardless of time. Like eggs, bacon, potatoes. It's just a perfect pregame meal. However, we typically have night games and we normally don't have breakfast available, like especially on the road. And when it's that, I usually do like plain grilled chicken, plain pasta. I add like a little butter and cheese.

and like broccoli or carrots and like that's it i keep it super super plain um and that's just what works for me but it also took years of tinkering with it to be honest we need to get the research someone needs to do the research on is there really any any reason not to have breakfast three meals a day it's clearly the best meal everyone agrees breakfast is awesome for those of you don't eat breakfast don't get you at all okay i bet you they could do some real scientific research of breakfast would be fine five times a day

All right. But hayley, I love your answer. Look, bland. You don't want to feel anything in your stomach when you're playing. I get it. I totally get it. But great, great answer. Yeah. But favorite type of omelet? Are you an omelet person? Oh, I love omelets. I'll put anything in my omelets, like all the veggies, all the cheese, all the meats, just any sort of omelet I will enjoy for sure. I'm asking because Liv is definitely going to be like, I eat what hayley Scamurra eats. Mom has to go re-shop now all of a sudden.

Change your game schedule around. Nine-year-old Sarah is asking, other than eating, what do you do before a game to get ready? I like to keep it pretty chill. If we have a night game, I usually will go for a walk. I love to go for a walk. I will just relax, watch TV, pretty much schedule it around eating. Once I'm at the rink, I always take my stick and then play.

a game of some sort so right now with the pro league we play sewer ball which is where um it's a big group of people and it's with a soccer ball and you're only allowed to touch it twice and you kind of are like on the attack more so and if you're like the last person to get hit and it hits the ground you get like two outs in the whole game we get pretty intense with it but it's just so much fun so that's pretty much the ritual i have at this point

You know, I love hayley. Sometimes I got to say this. I talk to the young kids sometimes that I coach about the competitive engine turning on and that it can't just turn on.

like when the game starts right like it's got to be on already right um you know you've talked in previous episodes about how when you get on the ice you want to find that first hit you're looking for that first physical contact but the engine's on already it's not like you're doing that to turn you're you're revving the engine at that point so i i love that you said hey we get competitive in the pre-game ritual kids listening find a way to do that with your team okay because i'm going to tell you that i don't know too many people really not anyone

That just is engines off game starts. I'm at full force. It just, I, am I wrong on that? Like, I don't, I don't know anybody that can do that. You're not wrong for sure. And I actually, funny enough, I never really thought about it that way, but I also used to play spike ball.

And we'd also get competitive with that. So that's also a fun one. Yeah. Kids want to do that as well. Not hard to find one of those. All right. Look, Miranda has a similar question. So I'm going to frame it a little differently. She's asking if you have a pregame ritual. So I know you said taping your stick and, but is there anything else that, that you do habitually before a game or, or like, do you have like a little doll in your stall that like you put some, you put it light a candle, like Joe Boo from major league that nobody, nobody under 30 is going to know that one, but.

Do you have any rituals before a game outside what you said? Not rituals anymore. I do get dressed for a certain time frame, if that makes sense. We know we get on the ice at a certain time. I'm always fully dressed in my gear 10 minutes before that time. And then I'm like...

focusing usually like visualizing or just chatting honestly a mix of both because I don't like to only visualize and be dialed in I like to keep it somewhat loose but if I find I'm not like chatting I'll kind of like visualize things during that time yeah but you want like I said you're ready 10 minutes you're always always like 10 minutes before yeah that's good so I like this one from Sarah nine years old she's already thinking about you know how can she be motivated for practice and so her her question is going to be one that she's going to go right back to her coach she's going to say

this is this is the one this is the one here what's your favorite drill at practice right now and if i had to guess if i had to guess it has to be something of a battle drill it has to be it can't be crossover circle drills it just can't i like the butterfly warm-up that we do somebody else yeah okay i was gonna say a warm-up drill actually where it's like um two people are across from each other at like

in the middle of the ice at each blue line and there's one puck that's always getting passed between them and then there's lines on opposite blue lines so you pass pass go to that line curl around does that make sense i'm visualizing it i see it i'm gonna write it up yeah and then that's like my one of my favorite warm-up drills for like a team practice i would say and then honestly i love small area games like you should see our team we get so fired up when they say we're gonna play a small area game so probably one of my favorites is like power play game

where the Nets are on the goal line facing out, and it's four people on one side trying to score against two people, and then it's the same, obviously, just opposite colors in teams. And you can either do it where there's one puck, and you can hit it to your team on the other side, or you can do it where it's race to score, so both sides get the puck at the same time, and then whoever scores first wins. So that's one of my favorite games.

Yeah, great competition games. Like you said, kind of the theme earlier. It's just one of those things that gets you all pumped up and ready to go and everybody can contribute because no matter who you are on the team, you can be involved in that. Yep. I'm very certain that Sarah's coach is listening to this episode. I can almost short of guarantee it. You're making me think of this. I just want to share it because it's one of my favorite drills that I saw recently was you have two teams, right?

and you can go one player, two players, three players, or four players. Your team decides how many players go in, and the other team decides, but you can only use a number one. So if you throw in your four, you can't throw four in again. So you can end up in a four-on-one. You can end up in a four-on-four. Poker. Yeah, I love that joke. We didn't call it that, but I am never going to not refer to it as poker moving on. Anyway, great question from Sarah there.

a whole episode on drills too. All right, Clark, who is six, asks a simple question, but it's a very important question. I don't want to undersell this one. He says, how do you get really fast at skating? That's a good question from a six-year-old. That is a great question. I think it's on ice and off ice. For sure, he is in the right place. For sure. Yeah, I think off ice for sure is huge. I think...

doing sprints off ice doing jumps doing plyometrics again if you're six train maybe later in life i don't think you need to be doing that at six uh can be when you're older but um i think all of that stuff all the plyometrics i would say would translate to on ice speed for sure yeah no i i would say this too to him is that it's a good thing you're asking that question because that is by far by far it's not close the most important skill in this game

All right. So if you're already thinking about becoming a better skater at your age at six, that's massive. The question wasn't hayley, how do you do a great Michigan four times? Right. That's what we like to say. Go ahead, Mike. All right. Well, I got Bennett here, 11 years old. It's been around the game a little bit now. And I think maybe she has to watch a little bit more pro hockey with the, on the women's side, but she wants to know where do you get most of your goals from?

And I have a follow-up to this anyway, but when you're scoring your goals, where are you getting most of your goals from? Probably net front, 100%. I think, I mean, if you look at stats for anything, it's like that's the dirty area right in front of the net where you get most of the goals. I would say like popping off the net, like those quick shots is usually somewhere I score often. Yeah.

Now, would you say like, so if I'm speaking, if Ben is listening now and she's like, okay, well, I got to find out where hayley's getting, like how she's scoring those goals. I know she's scoring in front of the net and popping pucks in, but would you say like that's a definition of, would you define yourself as a goal scorer or are you scoring goals from those dirty areas just because of the type of player you are? I wouldn't define myself as a goal scorer. I think my game is, you know,

energy, being physical, creating offensive opportunities for sure, whenever I can. And that tends to be in that front causing chaos. It also could be causing that chaos to then help another line score, right? It's not always for my direct benefit, but maybe my line mates, maybe the next line and things like that. I think that's super important to kind of note. Yeah, no, I love it.

Yeah, we're going to follow up on this one for a second here because, hayley, you know, I think young kids have to understand most goals are scored in front of the net. And I don't think a lot of kids work on scoring goals in front of the net. I think they work on fancy stuff, which is fine. We always say, like, you got to have fun. You got to have fun and be creative. Like, that's why we never say to kids, we never say don't do a Michigan or don't. Like, there's a time and a place. But the time and the place for those is very rare, whereas the puck.

Being in the slot off a rebound guaranteed will happen 10 times a game. Most likely, most likely, especially in youth hockey. All right. Work on that net front presence, right? Another thing I'm going to say about you, hayley, and we'll get into this a few times today about your role. And I want the players to understand this. One of the things that hayley does is you are a magician at creating time and space for your teammates.

And I'm going to try and tell everybody here as a coach, and I'm speaking as a coach, Mike, you can too, invaluable. It's an invaluable skill. Don't get me wrong. Scoring is a big-time skill. It's important. You get a lot of notoriety for that. But as a high-level coach, if you have an athlete that can create time for your goal scorers or, as you said too, hayley, can create havoc with an opponent that's going to allow the scoring line to come out, however you want to look at it, invaluable.

And kids, these are skills you can develop to create immense value. Now, unfortunately, kids, if you get good at this at 10, I cannot guarantee you that your 10-year-old coach will understand that or see that. But I can guarantee you when you get older, the coaches will see that. So it's about being well-rounded as a kid. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you have to go out there and be just one type of player yet.

hayley, Team USA, pro athlete. I mean, this is someone who's doing it, and you have a very defined role in that sense. I create time and space for my teammates. I create havoc for my teammates, and I will hit you if you come near the puck or my teammates. Right?

I think some of the answer to this might be, you know, where do you get most of your goals from? It's from me and my teammates creating opportunities. I love that. I mean, so it's really like, that's where I get goals from. I get goals from being in the right place at the right time and make sure my teammates are put in the puck where I can get it. And I think that's like, I think because most of us think when we're teaching goal scoring.

That you're skating down the wing, you kind of cut in at an angle, you shoot the puck upper right-hand corner, and that's a goal scorer. I just think it's just not a realistic expectation. We've had Steve Balliquette on episodes here where he's talked about that clear-sighted analytics idea about if you're a goalie, yes, you want hayley coming down on you, one on O, shooting from the top of the circle.

Awesome. I love that. I'll take that shot every day of the week. But you get me in front of the net where I got to battle and box somebody out and get my feet moving one way and my hands free. That's what that's what goal scorers do or that's what people do to create goals. And I think so. It's a it's an answer where I think when you watch the game and you see the way you play and the way you create goals for yourself and for your teammates. I think that's really the nuance of, you know, where Bennett could kind of see the answer to that question. Yeah.

And we joked a long time ago, hayley, I'm going to bring this one back that your last name's Gamora rhymes with Gamora. And if you are a comic book fan, she is known as the fiercest woman in the galaxy. So not only does it rhyme, but it totally fits your style of play, which I love. Maybe one day you'll get to watch those movies when you're not busy being a pro. All right. Yeah. Keep doing what you're doing. Those movies are not important. All right. Next one is from Mallory. Great question. Did you play any other sports growing up?

I did. I played tennis and soccer were like the main sports. And then like, we'd always play like football. Oh, is that me? Oh, that's her. She'll be back in a minute. Hold on. Yeah. Let me text her. My phone died. It might happen to me if my phone dies, by the way. Yeah. I wonder if that's her. Oh, there you are. Okay. She's back. Can you hear us?

I can hear you. Are we going to be okay? Can we just redo that question? Yeah, yeah, no, totally. Okay, my GM did call. Oh, do you have to take it? She's never really called me before. I think, let me take it real quick. Go take the call, please. Okay. We'll be here. I'll pause this. You said you don't have to go to practice?

Yeah, like, so anyone who is at, like, rivalry series and things like that, just with how busy it's all been and then time on ice and everything, they just said that we can come in and just work out tomorrow and not skate. Do you know what you're going to do yet? Nope. Just some sort of workout. I'll have to give her that, what's it called? That freaking advice. I'll let her know. Oh, my God. Yeah, so do you understand? You had to tell her, too. I was live on the air.

I love to do this. Oh, I'm hoping Mike's phone didn't just die. Hold on. No, I'm good. Thank God. All right. Here we go. Let's keep going. We got this. We got this. All right. Let me see. Okay. Here we go. You ready? Sorry. Everybody's good. I'm ready. Okay. We're back in. All right, hayley. Next question is a simple one from Mallory. Great one though. Important one. Did you play any other sports growing up? I did. I played tennis and soccer.

And then always played outside sports with my brothers and, like, all the neighborhood kids and stuff. We'd play football. We'd play street hockey, of course, baseball. But my main sports, like travel-wise, were soccer and tennis. Kids play multiple sports is the moral of the story. I mean, we'll even count soccer as a sport even in this episode just for that reason. But, yeah, you've got to play multi-sports. And I think maybe just digging into that a little bit more, was there any of those other sports that rivaled?

Like your love for hockey, like where you're saying, oh, man, I'm really good at this. I think I might want to do this instead. I would say soccer was the closest, but hockey was always like my first favorite. But soccer, I had some of my like best friends coming out of that. So I think sometimes I was maybe a little torn between the two. Tennis, I loved playing, but I was so bad at keeping score. My dad would always get a kick out of it. Like if I ever did do it competitively, I would forget the score. And he was like, hayley, they like told you the wrong score, like the other player. And I was like, ah.

Oh, well. Yeah. Yeah. He played until they stopped. hayley was everyone's favorite opponent. Basically. Were you fierce in, I already know the answer, but were you fierce in football too, in soccer? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't, a lot of kicking, I'm sure. All right. Go ahead, Mike. Here's a message from Jocelyn. Now she doesn't give her age, but so she might be a coach trying to get some free intel here, but she said, will you send in your step-by-step fitness routine?

Oh, actually. So can you give it up? Let's go. You can message Coach Stoop LFG for my fitness routine. I will do this for you. But Jocelyn, funny you should ask because hayley does have an online community where she shares a lot of information. And I promised the audience we did not set this up this way. But hayley, would you please actually tell the audience a little bit about that community real quick? Yeah. Because it's a good one.

Yes, my boyfriend and I, Nick, who I alluded to earlier with the Instagram handle, but we have an online community, the Pro Athlete Mentorship. And we do weekly calls where we're on live with whoever is able to join us at that time. And we kind of just talk about either things going on in my life or things going on in their life. And we end up having these really in-depth discussions about the mental side of the game, about life. But on that...

platform we also have workouts that you can access with whatever equipment you may have body weight resistance bands full weight gym um and you can also like interact with us and ask us questions on there and things like that yeah it's a tremendous opportunity for all you out there um and again i'm selling it for you heli because it's it's it's like that's not why you do it right it's right i want people to know about that because

I'll be honest with you. When I was a kid, or even a coach, if a pro athlete's going, hey, come check out Behind the Curtain. I'll tell you everything I know. I probably would have been on that. Mike and I didn't have the internet growing up. We had these things called books and VHS tapes. If you're lucky, you laser disc every once in a while. Plus, you didn't have to be in shape when you played hockey. You just got in shape with Jesus.

Yeah, you should look at those workouts from that time. All right, the next one is from 420. That's the handle here. We've done full episodes about this, but it's a great question. Is my eight-year-old, got to keep in mind the age here, is my eight-year-old daughter better off sticking with boys hockey or switching to all girls hockey? It's such an individual question.

a lot of it really depends on how they're feeling i'd you know definitely ask them what they think if they're having fun you can maybe tell like on the ice like how they're doing if they're keeping up um physically in that sense um i know for me i didn't switch until i did one year of body checking aloud and then i switched to girls hockey

um i personally loved playing with the boys up until that time like i always had a lot of fun i loved like the compete and the um the challenge of it uh so maybe just chat with your kid and see how they're feeling and maybe they want to be with their peers and that's perfectly okay it's also for the social aspect as well so don't overlook that either i would say

Yeah, I want to say here too that for the listening audience here, especially if you're newer to Our Girls Play Hockey, when we created this show, it really, no pun intended, was made for answering questions just like this. So if you go to ourkidsplayhockey.com, we have the episode segmented by show. And if you go to the Our Girls Play Hockey tab, you'll find this exact question and several other questions too that we've...

dove into over the, I guess the years now specifically for, for girls in hockey and that lifestyle and those decisions. And as hayley said, it's, you know, it's different for everybody, but we give a lot of great context on that. We will continue to do that as we move forward. Although we love highlighting you here today with all these questions, hayley, I'm not going to lie. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mike.

All right, so we have a question from Harry, and Harry has the same question I think I would ask, and we work with a lot too on any athlete going into the quote-unquote offseason. The FOMO, when deciding whether or not to play summer hockey, is real. What's your advice? My advice is to always take a break from hockey. I do not think any kid should be playing hockey all season long. I don't play hockey all season long.

You physically and mentally need the breaks or else there's burnout. There is, I know there's data to back that up 1000%. I think even if other maybe friends are doing that as well and you feel left out or things like that, find other ways to connect with them outside of hockey. I think that's just another possible solution if you feel that you want to have that social connection with them. But I just, I really don't think anyone should be playing hockey all year round.

You know, I'm going to follow up on this too, Mike, to Harry. I'm speaking as a dad too, okay? The FOMO is real. I'll acknowledge that. And where my kids are at now too, my kids are about to be 12 and 9. We do not play in the spring, okay? Like when the season ends, they take a break. And I'll tell you what's – let me say this right. The FOMO, that feeling, what trumps that feeling for me.

is in the late spring or in the summer when my kids come up to me and say with passion, hey, dad, when do we get to play hockey again? I want to play hockey. That feeling trumps FOMO 10 to 1. Way better feeling than whatever you think you're missing out on. And they're rejuvenated. They're ready to get back out there. They want to get back out there. And you will see a tremendous physical difference.

And if you've let their bodies rest. All right. Again, my son's a goaltender. I, I, he must rest after the season. All right. So FOMO is very real, but hearing your kids kind of almost beg you to get back out there. That's way better. All right. That's that way. I'm trying to find that it's not, that's not fear of missing out. That's joy of.

Hockey playing. I'll work on that one. I'm just going to interject for those rink owners and program directors, just really quick, because I think you also need to define for your children. What is the.

fear that you're missing out on like what is what is it like so so to me I agree with hayley I agree with you Lee that you know spring hockey

as the winter goes is not recommended. I don't think by any professional, but there is opportunity in the spring to work on your game. If you really pick and choose what you're going to do to work on your game and when, and what, you know, and what aspects, you know, if you wanted to really improve some, some, some skating technique or some, some shooting techniques on the ice, or maybe you wanted to help with just understanding space on the ice, depending on where you are in your development as a player. I don't think I would recommend like shutting it down.

I mean, that's always the ideal situation. But the thing is, you know, around where we are, like people need to keep rinks open and people need to keep programs going in order for us to all survive. I think there is, though, the nuance of doing something that's going to help in your athletic development and hockey ability other than getting in a car and on a plane and playing in tournaments where you get 12 minutes of ice time on a weekend. I think there is the difference in what you can do as an athlete.

in the spring and avoid some of that, that missing out piece. Yeah. I think also too, you've kind of been through this more recently than Mike and I have too, but I'll say this again, breaks are very important. Now, what a break is to a nine-year-old versus 12-year-old versus 16-year-old versus 19-year-old versus collegiate slash pro that can vary, right? Cause

I think that with my kids where they're at, I don't mind the month or two off, right? Now, with that said, if they're 17 years old and they're trying to become a collegiate hockey player, that two months might be two weeks, right, in my opinion. But there's a break there, right? And hayley, again, I'd love your thoughts on this too because now that you are where you're at, it might have elongated the break a little bit again too. But I think we're all saying the same things, that it's important to take breaks.

The size of that break varies and where, what you're trying to accomplish impacts how you're going to approach it. But Mike, I like what you're saying too. Like the off season is the time to work on certain things without any pressure. Yeah. But yeah, sorry, hayley, did you have any, that's my fault. Did you have any thoughts on, on that? Or is that, I mean, again, is that spot on? Like you said, I'm not, I'm not in your position. I didn't play at the level you play that. Yeah. I think it's definitely spot on. It just.

for me rest is something i've learned how important it is and i'm very adamant about teaching that to my mentees and anyone that i you know uh can share that with how important it is and how much it helps you in the long run and makes you a better player eventually as well

Right. Now, Mike and I would like to learn how we can get some rest from parenting because apparently there is no rest. There's not like rest is, hey, I want to watch this TV show. And then, you know, dad, will you come tuck me in? And, you know, I go, no, I'm resting. But then I still get up and I walk over to the room and I thought there's no rest because I love my kids very much. I will have this introspective breakdown another time. Let's get to the next question. All right. This is from siblings. Harper and Weston asked together.

This is such a young kid, but great question. hayley, what's it like being a pro hockey player? It's a great question. Oh, wonderful question. It's so much fun. Every day I get to wake up, go to the rink, see all my teammates and my friends. We get to work out together. We get to practice together. At the pro level, we're given meals. We do meetings where we focus on the little details that will make ourselves and our team better.

It's just the best. It's so much fun. And I'm just so blessed I get to do it here in Montreal now. And the team has been great. And, yeah, it's just been – it's always so much fun every day. Something new. So I don't know if it's a different Weston, but we have Weston who a 12-year-old is asking. And this is a loaded question, I think. So we're going to tiptoe around this. I don't want to get anybody upset with me.

Um, but how many goals do you have? I love it. Cause it's like, now is it this year? Right. Like in my lifetime, it was, it was it when you were 12? Like, I think like, like, I love the question because I think, um, you know, and I'll, I'll give you some time to answer it. But I think sometimes we think about like, well, the hockey player is defined by how many goals they score. So you're going to tell me you scored a lot of goals. You're going to be a pretty good hockey player.

Yeah. Lifetime, no idea. This season I have won so far. It was a good one. Yeah. I've also made it a point to not focus on that stuff as much. I think when you focus on the points, you tend to get too tunnel visioned and you don't really focus on the little details in the game that matter. And that will eventually lead to production in that sense. But there's other things that can help your team. And I think when I've been focusing on that, it's helped me.

immensely all over the board. And then it's allowed me to produce more, but I try not to think about it as much. Yeah, we wanted to ask this question. We talked about this question before the show, Weston. In our last mailbag episode, we dive in a lot about too is hayley and her role and the type of player she is. Her role is not to be a goal scorer, right? Like not that they don't want you to score on goals, hayley, but that is not what you are known for in professional and Olympic level hockey. You're known as a physical player, someone who creates time and space.

you know, someone that's going to charge for your teammates and, and you are incredibly valued in professional hockey as that player. Like this is going to sound funny audience, but like this is hayley Scamurra. Like that's, that's who she is. Right. Like, like people model themselves after her. Right. So, so again, Weston, we're not making fun of you or anything like that. I just want to make sure that, that everybody listening understands that.

You know, goals are great, but the value here for hayley is a different type of player. I mean, and it is valued.

hayley, you've scored more goals than Mike and I this year combined. I think for Weston, too, coming from a coaching perspective, it's like, how many goals are you not on the ice for? And I think that's sometimes just as important. I don't want you on the ice. I used to laugh at a lot of players that were big goal scorers. Listen, I love the fact that you're scoring four goals a game, but you're on the ice for five against. You're not helping me here. So really, it's just as important to be.

the player that's playing the game. And then if you are going to score a goal, like Lee just alluded to, make sure it's the right time and the right goal. Right, right. Especially if you're in the playoffs in the championship game. All right, this next question is a deep one. It's from T. Chichu. Two words. How's Montreal?

i know this one she's one of my mentees um yeah she's uh she's great but uh no i'm loving montreal um we had like a 10-day road trip earlier and

It's such a great way to bond with teammates, honestly. And you guys have your own versions of road trips, obviously, with your weekend tournaments and things like that. And I think it's so important to take advantage and spend time with your teammates when you can. I think that camaraderie helps so much to translate on the ice as well. And it's just fun socially, obviously, to bond with other people.

get to know them on a different level rather than just how they are at the rink alone uh so i know we played lots of games we're big on games in montreal um card games dice game like you name it we play uh so it's been a lot of fun and the fans here are absolutely incredible we actually just got to play at bell center uh this past saturday which is where the montreal canadians play for those who don't know and we had over 18 000 fans and it was so loud

it was the coolest thing like in our locker room we could hear like the music blaring through the from the stands like it was so cool you mean that's where the victoire play that's what you're trying to say now yeah now you guys own we got one game there but yeah no i'm saying that night it was your rink is what i'm trying to say i'll also say too that

Anybody listening, if you're traveling anywhere in North America, Montreal should be a destination. It's a beautiful city. For those of you not watching, we get to watch the sunset with hayley every time she's on the air here. We get to see the skyscrapers light up behind her, which is pretty surreal and cool at the same time. But yeah, hayley, great answer to that question. Mike, you have the final question of the mailbag episode, unless you and I keep jabbering.

Yeah, I mean, we can keep talking, but I think Gene's question is going to be a good one, I think, as a travel advisory question more than anything else. And this is an East Coast problem, I think. This is a unique question, yeah. Most people. But when traveling across the U.S.-Canadian border, hayley, do you have to go through customs as a team, an individual? I mean, I'm sure you're just let through and people like see you, they know.

and you go right through customs no or is it is it you or just as a team what's the process there so it depends if we're traveling by bus we go as a team because you're literally on the bus together so you have to get off the bus and it's the whole process um but if you're on a plane then you're going individually because everyone gets off the plane at different times and you go through the line like everyone else so we don't get uh no special treatment at the borders for us

I got a funny story about this. So it's not U.S. Canada, but when we flew to Argentina recently, we landed in very different process in every different country. And there was a massive line. And the way our schedule was is we kind of had to get from the airport right to the rink to go right to practice. This happens sometimes. And I'm pretty chill with things I can't control. So my attitude at this point is, look, if we miss practice, we're going to miss practice.

There's no way around what we have to do here. And then our team manager, who's the greatest manager in the world, comes running, screwing up to me. She goes, found us a loophole, right? And we were escorted to essentially like an automated process where we just kind of scanned our passports and it went through.

We got lucky that time. You never know. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Border Patrol, yeah. Everyone does it a little differently. We should add on to this. USA, Canada has one border. You've traveled all over the world for hockey. Do you have any funny stories or most Border Patrol is pretty much the same? Oh, gosh. In terms of the process. I know they're all different in terms of what you're doing.

Nothing funny that I can think of, to be honest with you. Well, that's the problem in Border Patrol. You don't want to be funny. You want to stay focused. You want to head down. Let me get through. I got my hockey bag. My hockey stick. I'm clearly here to do this. And I think Gene's answer, it's like this is the time if you're going through the border, U.S., Canada. I go to Norway a lot and Europe and going through. It's just like wherever you're at.

Just understand that these are professionals. You've got to get through. They're there for our safety. And I think it's just getting through that. I mean, even when I go through with the kids, I'm always like, this is not the time to joke. It's not the time to be a wise guy. It's really just the time to understand they're doing a job. We want to get through. We're compliant. We're just going to go play a hockey game. But I think Gene maybe wants to know if you're getting any special privileges there.

It doesn't sound like you are, and you're getting the easy pass to get through. Athletes, they're just like us. They're just like us. They're just like us. They go through border patrol. Although I watched the whole team from New Jersey one time go through customs in Newark, and the whole team got to bypass this hour-and-a-half long line. And I can tell you, as a coach.

And as somebody who, like, watches other athletes and teams in their full uniform and regalia, I was offended and horrified that this team got to go through, you know, before everyone else. But this is the border. And, you know, just be prepared. Have your pair sport out. Phone off. And get yourself through.

Yeah. On the next episode, hayley, we'll talk about all the times you had to go through Border Patrol with the medals that you've won. And how fun that is. Explain it. Yeah, yeah. What is this? It's exactly what it looks like. Yeah. All right. That's going to do it for this episode of The Mailbag. Audience, I'm going to say this again. I said this in the first episode whenever you listen to that. It's unbelievable questions. Unbelievable participation. We absolutely will do this again. But I am realizing if we did this every week, we would be doing these episodes every single week. So we'll let these breathe for a little bit.

little bit um you know hayley's got a pretty impressive schedule here coming up we'll have to do another uh daily life episode to see where you're at soon but uh hayley thanks so much for letting us grill you today this has been really fun no problem it was great

Always. All right. For Mike, for hayley, I'm Lee. This has been another great episode of Our Girls Play Hockey. Remember, if you have questions, topics, anything you want us to discuss, email us at team at ourkidsplayhockey.com or hit the link accompanying this episode in the description with your name, your location. We love hearing from you. It really makes the show go straight. All right. You guys have a great day. Have fun with hockey. We'll see you next time on Our Girls Play Hockey.

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Thank you.