Our Kids Play Goalie - ECAC Goalie of the Year, Ian Shane on Mindset, Adversity, And Doing Your Best

Hello hockey friends and families around the world and welcome to another edition of
our kids play goalie. You heard me say that, right? I'm Lee Elias. Today I'm joined
by my co -host Christy cash out of burns and Mike Benelli. You did hear me say it
a moment ago. This is an episode of our kids play goalie. But like all of our
shows, the information we provide is for all hockey parents, players, and coaches.
Plus, if you aren't showing goalies some love, what are you doing? Our guest today,
Ian Shane, recently wrapped up a stellar NCAA career at Cornell University, earning
such accolades as, get this, the ECAC Ken Dryden, Goal Tender of the Year Award,
God bless his soul, unanimous Ivy League player of the year, multiple All -Star
honors, and several others. All of this after posting some incredible statistics in
net, including a season leading the entire nation in the goals against average
column. His story is one you'll want to hear also, because after a season canceled
by COVID, you'll all remember that. Ian began his freshman year as the third goalie
on the roster. But as all great stories go, once he was given a chance and made
the most of it, seizing the starting role and holding on to it for graduation is a
California native, which means Ian's journey is also an inspiring one. I'm going up
in a non traditional hockey market. I think we still say that although that's
starting to break down as well to now competing at the professional level. We're
also proud to share that Ian is a consistent user of NHL Sensorina, our show's
title sponsor, which he has used to sharpen his game and maintain a mental edge. We
will talk about that today as well. So today we're going to explore Ian's path, his
training habits, the mindset required to thrive as a goaltender and a hockey player
at the collegiate and pro level. This is going to be a good one. Ian, welcome to
our kids play goal. Thank you guys so much for having me. And we're so excited.
Welcome. Um, we just mentioned that your journey started in California, also mentioned
by Lee. Great intro, by the way. Thank you. My friend that you grew up in a non
traditional hockey climate, so to speak. So what drew you to the crease?
Oh, well, first it just started out with being just attracted to the game of
hockey. My dad played at Hobart just down the road from the point L and he played
a little bit professionally overseas. And so I grew up going to just his beer
league games on Friday nights and whatnot and loved being around the rink and
hanging out at the Toyota center in El Segundo where the L .A. King's practice. And
familiar with all those places. Yeah, so I was exposed to it from an early age and
always wanted to hop on there and finally got my chance to start up playing some
of my in -house hockey and I believe is our second game into the year I started as
a forward and our goal tender didn't show up so coach asked the locker room does
anyone want to throw on the pads and I was the first one to raise my hand and I
guess I never really looked back since so I had a lot of fun and I think our
goalie actually ended up leaving about halfway through the year so I just Stuck with
it and you know disappointed my dad a little bit. It was a one -position and hockey
He knew absolutely nothing about He would have loved to have access to a podcast or
something like this to sort of help guide him through that process, but I gotta say
in it that say I my son plays goaltender and I remember what he put the pads on
What was funny about it is that he put him on and I you know It's kind of a
jokey type moment kind of like what you said Like you said, we just need to put
somebody in the net. I saw the smile on his face. And I remember thinking that
that is an uncommon smile that he has just put on. But you know what? He loves
it. And he's a goaltender now, and that's his role. And it's been fun for me,
actually, as a coach and as a former player, to rediscover the game through the
eyes of that position. So I'm sure your father had some of that as well. Oh,
absolutely. I think He loved being involved with it while he could. Obviously, as
they get a little bit older and out of his wheel house, the training has to be
left more to the coaches and my development. But I do think he had a great time,
sort of like you said, rediscovering the passion for hockey through me. Yeah, I'm
also glad I never played that. I'm not going to lie to you.
Well, that's the beauty about being a part of Sensorina. You get to play goalie
without having to put all the gear on. If you play your cards right if you're a
parent that really knows what they're doing you'll be able to put them in a
position to scare them the hell out of the net so use that virtual reality to your
advantage but Ian you know obviously you got your starting job at Cornell which I
guess a lot of people would say in pretty dramatic fashion you know I think almost
you know in the same vein of getting thrown in as a as an 8u player from the
mites right just just, you know, your preparation and being ready for that moment.
And obviously that's a big difference between getting in the net for the first time
ever and then getting in the net for something you believe you should be in, you
know, pretty much, you know, at that point in your career, you just talk about that
moment and how you prepared mentally and physically, you know, step into a spotlight.
Maybe weren't when you weren't designated to be there. Yeah, I would honestly give a
lot of credit to Coach Schaefer at Cornell, my freshman year. He really kept pushing
everybody, especially the goaltenders, because Matthew Galida had just graduated from
Cornell and he was a stud in all American.
Richter and Hobie Baker finalist, goaltenders. So to go from that to three guys
who'd never played a game of college hockey before was pretty tough for him. So he
was hard on us, but he definitely made sure that, you know, you guys got to be
confident here. You need to keep working with each other. You all need to develop
your games. And it was same for me. The other two were playing, but I remember I
was in the rink early one time in the locker room and he came in, was just
writing stuff down on the board for practice and turned around and saw I was there.
And he said, you know, I haven't forgotten about you, right? Like you're still very
much in my mind for playing. And so just keeping sort of my spirits high and
realizing I'm never really out of the question. I'm not out of the battle yet. Was
big and it was around Christmas time when I sort of let go a little bit. I
stopped really kind of competing against the other goalies and I was like, you know
what? I'm just gonna compete against myself. I'm gonna have more fun out here. I'm
gonna make it just a game every single day and just compete against the puck and
make it what I can. And I think I started having really good practices sort of
leading up to our series against Arizona State. And I think our goalie sort of
struggled a little bit, unfortunately, that weekend. I think our team sort of
struggled a little bit that entire weekend and was fortunate enough where we went
down early in the first period of our second game and was a little bit surprised
when Shave called my name, except instead of the other freshman goaltender's name,
'cause that guy had played about six or seven games by that point and just went in
there and said all right I mean it's kind of trial by fire at this point if he
wants to throw me in like there's literally nothing for me to lose we're already
down in the game I've never played a hockey game there's zero expectations so I
would say it was honestly one of the easier kind of points of coming in where I
didn't have all this pressure and all these expectations on myself it was more like
just going to go out there have fun see what I can do see if I'm a college
hockey goaltender and you know that either way I'm kind of proving people right that
maybe I should be here or nothing changes and I'm still back to just competing in
the same spot I was so. It's interesting that you got to that point because I
think a lot of kids and young adults and college kids obviously put a lot of
pressure on themselves when they're in that position so was it just you kind have
switched your mental thought about the position or, I mean,
how did you make that transition? All of a sudden you kind of, all right, this is
it. I'm just going to go and have fun. How did you get to that point? I honestly
think it was really quick. Like I don't think there was necessarily a conscious
conversation with myself in terms of, okay, this is how I should, I don't know,
perceive it or sort of how my perspective on this situation should be it was more
they Ian go you're going in the net and I was like oh okay well I'm gonna get
out there and now I'm standing in the crease going okay I'm playing Arizona State I
got nothing to lose we're down three nothing let's just see what we can do with
this us this situation yeah you know what it sounds like and kind of even leading
up to this with the practices is that you you let go of what you could not
control. You got very focused on what you could control. You get very present. I
love that you said, I'm not competing against them anymore. I'm competing against
myself, right? Which, which in turn feeds each other, right? That's a big revelation.
Yeah, a lot of people come to that conclusion. And I think that changed your game,
right? Yeah, absolutely. And I, I will say I read about that a little later on a
book called Fearless Golf, which another Cornell alum Ben Scriven's recommended to me
and it's all about having sort of a practice and a process mindset and being
oriented as to all these professional golfers playing the course instead of playing
against other golfers and how well they manage their mindsets and their games when
they approach it in that style. That's something that I have definitely, especially
since I started playing at the college level, been trying to really hold on to and
sort of keep as part of my as part of my process.
Shane, Ian, sorry. I think one of the things that you'll hear a lot in these-- our
goalie podcast and the focus on goal -tenning and a lot of us that coach goal
-tenners that aren't goal -tenners ourselves or aren't a goal -tenning coach. And you're
kind of not helping in my side make the argument that you've got to prepare your
goalies well ahead of time and give them a chance. But on a regular basis, would
you say that having the youth level growing up and having the ability to have one
or two, maybe three goalies on your team, and the constant battle of always trying
to compete helped you or, especially at the college level, you have to.
You probably have three, four goalies all the time, always kind of in the mix. But
at the youth level, it's pretty much two goalies. If you talk a little bit about,
you know, that preparation growing up as a goalie, you know, with the coaches tell
you a day ahead of time, when they tell you two minutes before you got on the
ice, you know, how did that, how did that preparation change as you got into more
of like a competitive, you know, trying to get in a game type format?
I think I've always had really good relationships and my goalie partners, even going
back to, I don't know, my first years of travel hockey, playing squirts and Pee Wee
and whatnot.
I think that was first and foremost. My dad was a big advocate of that, that just
be friends with them, like they're, you know, you're on the same team. And it's, he
would always say it's a bit of a maturity standpoint for you to be able to say,
yeah, it's someone I'm competing against, but it, you know, I can learn from them
as well. And I don't really remember any situations growing up where I really felt
like I was really competing just against like the kid on my travel team. I think I
saw it as more of like a relationship or a partnership where, hey, we're kind of,
you know, the tide raises all ships, so to speak. Like if we both get better here,
both work harder here than things will be better for both of us, we'll both get
equal playing time. And I mean, growing up, most of my travel teams, I think we
just split the games for the most part and, you know, right, right down the middle,
someone to play the first half, someone to play the second half. And as you get
older, I started to not like that as much. I kind of wanted, I preferred playing
my own games and, yeah, to your point though, I think that even now,
like at the college level, it's, it can be so different. Like you don't always know
if you're going to play. We would find out, especially that freshman year, like the
morning of games. So I would
say probably just, I don't know, being mature about it and being mature about your
own preparation and being accountable for what you do away from the rank and
approaching the rank and going to the games prepared. Whether you're going to play
or not is huge and something that all goalies need to focus on, that was big for
me. Growing up was making sure I got my confidence throughout the week and then
showing up for the weekend games is a little bit easier. - Right, I think that's so
important, what she said, I'm very mature, even at the youth level, to be friends
with the other goalies on the team, that's so important. And to say that we're
raising all ships together as a team. I think that gets lost on parents sometimes.
They get a little jealous and competitive. And why isn't my kid in the net?
He's so much better.
Did your parents ever have to deal with that, you know, some jealousy from other
parents? And how did they deal with that? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I also wasn't
on a lot of great teams. I think some of the issues for my situation growing up
was it's just California hockey was, there's not a lot of teams out there. When I
was growing up, I played AA hockey my whole life or AA hockey. I never played AAA
before I got out of the state of California. - Everybody heard that, right? Sorry,
audience. Everybody heard that? You don't have to play tier one to play. - Well,
Well, first of all, let's say he's a goaltender, so he needs all those pucks. I
mean, those are but a great opportunity to be on really subpar teams and get all
that acting, right? So be careful about being on the, be careful as a goalie to be
on the best team, never see shots. - Yeah. I think my parents, yeah, my parents
didn't have as much of the jealousy factor from other parents as much as they did
the, hey, we're sorry that we gave up 60 shots again at a 45 minute game.
Yeah, so it was honestly a blessing in disguise though, like you said, having that
opportunity to see that many pucks in game situations growing up, but I think it's
huge. I wouldn't be where I am without it. - Well, okay, so parents, if you have a
goalie who's taken a lot of shots in the net, don't get upset with the team, just
hang them. If - My kid is getting a lot of opportunity. He could end up in Cornell
someday. Thanks for your-- (laughing) - Justy, I'm gonna jump on that. - It's got to
be defense, right? - I'm gonna jump on that, 'cause look, the adversity is what
hardens the person, right? And obviously this is not just limited to hockey here,
but it's the seasons, and you can comment on this. It's those tough seasons where
you face so much adversity. Those are the seasons that really grow and develop you.
It doesn't mean it's, you know, but look, I love it when a kid has a kid.
Yeah, I think going into my freshman year, I wouldn't have had the same mindset or
maturity approaching the situation I was in where I wasn't playing. If I hadn't been
cut the previous year from the USHL, I got sent down in my overage year from the
Chicago Steel to the Bismarck Bobcats and the North American League. I was obviously
very disappointed with my situation and my setup, but
I started reading a couple of books. I read the Ryan Holiday sort of series of
books. The Ego is the enemy obstacles away. Stillness is the key. And really just
appreciated the Stoic mindset of really approaching these obstacles is like, okay,
it's something to go through. It's something to figure out. Like this is a blessing
in disguise. Let's see what we can sort of do with it.
I remember my first couple of games in the Null weren't going very well. And then
once I started getting to that stoic mind space, it was like, okay, things, things
started sort of clicking for me. I had way more fun and ended up being a much
longer season because the null started much later than the USHL. So I was playing a
junior hockey season from about August until midway through June, but I ended up
having just a, yeah, just a great time with the group of guys and I really loved
my situation. And I think that kind of gave me a foundation of, all right, once
I'm in a spot that maybe doesn't seem like it's working out for me, I can sort of
find my way to get through it. I can find my, I don't know, my click or my
routine to sort of make the most of it. And I think that that really helps me
going into the freshman year. - Yeah, you know, Ian, I mean, for those of us that
recruit goaltenders, right? And look for those players when they're really at their
peak performance. Can you Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the other
players that you grew up with when you were 16, 17, 18 years old? And really how
goal -tenning, which is a little different than the rest of the positions, is really
a late -bloomer position. Like, it's really one of those things where you're talking
about. When you have the athletic ability that you obviously have, and then to be
able to take the maturity piece and put in all the mental pieces, and then all of
the structure, And then all of the things you know, that maybe you didn't know at
17, can you talk about like maybe the players that you competed against at 17 and
18 that are probably not even playing anymore? You know, because of that, that goal
-tenning maturity is just a different timeline than a lot of the players. - Yeah,
I think a lot of the guys, when I was 16 and 17, I was playing prep school
hockey for Westminster in Connecticut. And I think a lot of the guys didn't really
have the same, I don't know, they had been playing AAA ocular whole lives. There
wasn't as much adversity for a lot of them. It was more streamlined of I'm gonna
play for my talent team in the East Coast. I'm gonna go to prep school. I'm gonna
try and go to college, whether it's D3 or D1. A lot of those guys ended up going
D3, but I think for me at that age, I mean,
I was such a different goaltender at 15 than I was at 17, than I was at 19 when
I finally committed to a division one school. I wasn't even in high school when
that happened. I think a lot of people rush it and they go, they see guys like,
for instance, when I was a freshman, we played against Spencer Knight when he was a
Dave on old farms. And you see guys like that and you're like, oh my gosh, he's
already, he was committed to Boston college at like 14. He's like six foot three.
He skates like an NHL goaltender, like why can't I be like that? Why can't why
can't I do that yet? I mean, if you look at the guy off the ice, he's genetically
gifted. He's a giant human being, an unbelievable goal -tenner, unbelievable athlete,
and I know from playing against him and doing like camps with him and whatnot. He's
an unbelievable work ethic, for sure, but it just takes time for everybody.
I was probably about 130 pounds when I was
It was definitely not, you know, super strong. I couldn't bench press or squat a
play yet. And that stuff came with time. I think the goaltender,
he was at 16 or 15. I hopefully was around that at 19. So it's just kind of
realizing where you are. And that's so hard in the moment because you see all these
guys, especially with social media, it's impossible to get away from it. You're gonna
see kids across the country or just absolute anomalies who are going to be
committing to these, to Boston universities or Michigan states. And it's hard not to
see it, but I think it's kind of the duty of parents and coaches a little bit to
be like, hey, you got to realize like they are anomalies. Like it's, this is a
rare instance and they're one in a couple, I don't know, tens of thousands of kids.
Like that, that is not what you have to strive for. The same thing we were just
talking about, the realist golf approach. You need to strive for approaching the
process the right way every single day. If you want to compete with kids like that,
you need to maybe do things a little bit better than they do. You need to have a
stricter diet, a better routine. You need to be more accountable. You got to be
better at school so that you can maybe boost your standings with these schools and
the recruiters, maybe more than some of the other kids that aren't focusing on that
as much. So just sort of finding your ways, you're different routes. Everybody's
route is different, but paving your own path with, I guess, accountability and
responsibility and being proactive about it, not worrying about what so -and -so was
doing from social media on this and that team. Excellent point, Sid.
Ian, maybe we can talk a little bit more, especially for the younger goalies who
may be listening and parents of younger goalies. What are some good habits that kids
should be developing now specific to the position?
Specific to the position. I don't think it changes that much from just a general
athlete, especially at a younger age. You need to put diet first and foremost, trash
in, trash out. You need to put in the right fuel.
I think you need to have sort of a set philosophy about how you approach the
position or maybe like what your training regimen is, whether you want to focus on
right now, maybe in the offseason, it's, you know, I'm going to be in the gym or
doing the dry land work much more. We're working on hand -eye and doing sensorina or
something on the side to kind of keep my touches in action and then sort of honing
in on finer details of the game in the offseason on the ice.
I don't I don't think it changes necessarily from player to forward, though. I think
you need to find a good routine that helps you develop I think it looks a little
bit different for everybody and obviously varies from the access you have to gyms
and coaches and whatnot But making sure you have a good foundation of being on the
ice a fair amount being in the gym a fair amount And not letting any of that take
away from school or the academic side of things You you also want to be a well
-rounded person. I know that that's huge, especially at the division one college
hockey level. A lot of these teams will take guys who may be B rated players over
an A rated player just because they're a better student or a better person. So find
a routine that keeps you a well -rounded individual is also extremely important. You
know, I'm smiling guys because
all the high performers including yourself that come on this show. Give an answer
like that and I love it. It's not cliche. What's funny to me and why I'm smiling
is because parents will hear that and go, "Okay, yeah, I got that, but what's the
secret?" And I'm like, "He just gave it to you. Yeah, he just gave it to you.
You got to be well -rounded. You got to think about these other things. You got to
create a whole person." And again, Christy, your daughter division daughter division
one player same same thing it's like you don't just get there on your talent
everyone there has talent all right I was I was just reading today about Tom Brady
talk about yeah everyone has talent that's not gonna be the separator you know again
outside the one in 50 billion person that you talked about and even then you got
to be a well -rounded person to get to the top so I just I wrote this down I
want to say it you know the common thread that you keep coming back to when we
ask you. And what I love is that in your story, we talked about college, we talked
about youth, we've talked about life, is this this present moment awareness and this
coming back to, okay, no, I'm not going to let these distractions dictate how I
play. I'm going to play social media, parents, players, coaches, that that's the
secret. If you want a secret, that's the secret, right? These elite athletes are
able mentally and physically but mentally able to compartmentalize what is trash and
what is going to help them, all right? And I don't think we do a fantastic job as
a community. I'm not just talking hockey at removing trash, right? It's almost like
we let it in. So, yeah, and you're a news anchor. You would know,
Christy, right? But yeah, I just wanted to comment on that, because like, I think,
Again, when we talk about youth hockey, you know, there's a mistake by a lot of
people of, "Oh, we can't start building these at a young age. You absolutely can
start building mental fitness, you know, physical fitness, all this stuff as young as
you want." You know, there's an age -appropriate way of doing it, all right? But you
know, it's been funny for me, and this is going to turn to a question. You know,
watching my son play goaltender, the thoughts that he tells me he has are all kind
of new for me as a former skater in the sense of I understand the skaters thoughts
I understand a lot of the pressures that that forwards and defense feel but I'll
give a great example I remember last year he was on a team where he played I
think he had 50 starts it was crazy and we it was a great group of kids man they
worked so hard but we just could not score it was like a we were averaging two
three goals a game and now he's on a team with that that that averages way higher,
like we're averaging five, six goals a game. And he said to me, I've never heard
this before. He goes, man, it's just so much easier to play when I don't feel like
every shot is the end of the world. And I'm realizing like, wow, last year he
really had this understanding that if one goes in, that could be enough to lose the
game. Now, he stood up to that pressure. I'm very proud of him, but I had never
heard that mentality before. I never even thought about that as a coach of, Wow,
they know the pressure. Are there other thoughts? I'm just kind of for the coaches
and the parents at home that goalies have like if you could tell us What are the
thoughts that you have that we don't ever know about right that you wish we did? I
Mean, I would say the same for if for anyone who knows Cornell hockey We we don't
really outscore teams We like to get one or two past them and then we're just
gonna work a team down and try and grind them down for the next 60 minutes. We
don't care if we score any more goals. We just want to take care of our own zone.
So I can definitely relate to that. That kind of getting in my head a little bit
of like, oh man, we're only up one. Nothing was five minutes left. Like I need to
be on top of my game right now. But I would say for coaches,
parents, I mean, it's so hard, especially at the goal -tending level or the goal
-tending position to play and think at the same time.
You just can't really do it, so I think a lot of that, the thoughts are probably
before the game because it's a lot of time, you don't have time to be thinking
about, alright, who's around me, we're on the penalty kill, where are our guys,
okay, I'm looking at him, what, which way does this guy shoot, where's the puck,
how many people around me, what are we doing, it's all, pretty much pattern mapping.
It's pattern recognition. You, you've practiced it. You've seen it a bunch of times.
There's just trusting your game. And I think a lot of times when things aren't
going well, it's just a lack of trust. So I would say anytime your, your
goaltenders thinking or overthinking should kind of be assigned that to the coaches
or the parents that, Hey, there's there's something maybe mentally a little off
there. It just was just with confidence that maybe they're, they're overthinking over
analyzing. So let's, I don't know, sit down, have a conversation about that. I know
Mike Schaefer, when things weren't going well for me last year or the year before,
I definitely had to stretch this year in January where I just, things were not
going well. I didn't feel comfortable on the ice and we would watch video. And he
was like, just, you just don't look comfortable. Like you, you look like you're kind
of being a little too jumpy. So I think a lot of the things that Coaches and
parents need to pay attention to isn't necessarily what are they thinking about right
off the bat It's gonna be easier to sort of see are he's playing differently. He's
maybe being too aggressive or he's Trying out new things or maybe he's being late
to read the reactions and that'll give you sort of a an inkling as to Okay, it
might be feeling a little bit off mentally. So let's let's check in Let's sit down
have a conversation and just see where his heads at it could be about life, it
could be about hockey, whatever it is, but just paying attention to those little
things and knowing your your goal tenor and your kid like that is important. I'm
glad you're normalizing this. Coach Schaefer, what a legend, right? Just an amazing
coach. For the fact that he could see that, and it probably wasn't super obvious,
but even subtle differences in you. Right away, he said we got to figure out what's
going on here? - Yeah, he pulled up clips from my junior year and clips from North
Dakota early on in the year. And he's like, he's watching these with me and he's
not saying a word. And he's like, all right, now you saw those and then he showed
me a clip from, we played UMass Amherst at a tournament this year. And definitely
it was not a good game for me. And we're watching sort of similar situations. And
even I right away was like, Oh, why am I playing like that? Like, what am I
doing? It doesn't look good. You have to see it yourself.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Wow, that's a great technique, too.
Say, look, this is what you used to do. And look at you now, you might not even
realize the differences until you visually see it. Yeah, I would have had no idea.
I think it's a good segue in about just your relationship with Sensorina, 'cause I
know the way I use it for our goal tenders and even for players is those positive
reps and those low -impact reps and the ability to not have to get in a locker
room and get dressed and do everything you wanna do, but be able to work on that
cognitive side and reaction times and reading and reacting. You talked about, you
don't have time to be thinking in the moment, like Is my left D off the post? Is
my right D in front of the net? Where's the puck coming from? Where can the puck
go? If it rims up, where's my position? Can you talk a little bit about your
relationship with Sensorina and using that product
in this process of preparing for competition and how you think it's helped you and
could help, especially our youngest goalies? Yeah, like I said, I think going out
onto the ice and thinking about where I am and thinking about how do my hands
feel, how do my gloves feel, how am I tracking is all detrimental. And you want to
be able, I think sensory is a great tool to be able to kind of feel those things
out before you even step on the ice so that you get on the ice with confidence.
I, that's why I do it every single morning skate. I'll throw on, I think Joby
DeCord has little programs on there, like morning skate routines. I'll do that before
our skates or I'll do that and a couple other drills or routines. If we don't have
ice or I don't feel like copying on the ice for morning skate. And it is really
nice because that is a controlled setting where there's no real shooters. There's not
any like, I don't know, there's no accountability. There's no one watching going, Oh,
he looks ready for tonight. Oh, he doesn't look ready for tonight. Like they're kind
of sniping him right now. It's just a situation for me to go all right I'm seeing
the puck well okay maybe I didn't feel good on that so I'll put the the cannon on
and I'll just take 30 shots of the glove and just really feel the mechanics and
then I step out on the ice and it just it comes so much more naturally I've loved
adding it's my routine yeah I got to say this too about sensorina I always
recommend that every coach parent adult Get in there and take shots Because it's
it's not only going to change your perspective of the game But you quickly realize,
you know, I'm saying this in a sarcastic tone. This is not just a video game,
right? Like it feels real. All right, and when you feel especially at the NHL speed
these shots coming You start to understand how little maybe you know about this
position. But you also start to understand what it's like to be there and see those
pucks coming at you. And I'll say it too, like Sensorin is totally building out
their skater side parents. I think the biggest hurdle, we always talk about this as
a sponsor, is just, oh, it's a video game. Now, it's not. Ian just told you that
this is a transfer thing for him too, that this stuff directly transfers to the
game on the ice. And I have found that to be true too. I also say this too, Ian,
as a coach, I would never say like I'm Experienced in net but I have a totally
different perspective of that position after having been in the headset and doing
some of those drills Right and and it's education for me as a coach, right?
I also you know, I'm saying coaches and parents players can do this too Just to
have a quick understanding of what it's like and again, they're they're building
their stuff out all the time I don't want to I don't want to make it like I'm
doing just an advertisement here I'm talking this is an advancement in the game,
Right, it's going to better prepare players to be on the ice So I love that you
use it and you know, I love that that you find it valuable also cool How cool is
it's like? Yeah, no Joey to cord is just throwing stuff up here for me to be to
learn stuff I mean, I think that's just really impressive and I love it too Well,
I think for Ian just to stay on this subject real quick I'm not not so much the
sense arena piece But just the preparation piece is that, you know, depending on
where you live, and, you know, for me, like, if I have to bring a 12U to practice
at goal -tenning, it's like an hour and a half routine of traffic and cars and
getting in and getting equipment, going to locker, hoping you have ice, you know,
and you're coming from, I mean, both sides, right, the college hockey world of
having, even prep school, like, having the best facilities in the world at your
disposal and probably getting as much ice as you really want and need, but having
the opportunity like for a youth player. I mean, think about you out in California,
right? How easy it would have been to just stay at home and throw on the headset
and get into action, you know, without ever really leaving your room. And I think,
you know, that's really where those extra reps and those extra opportunities, we talk
about this as coaches all the time, find the secrets of how you how you can put
yourself and give yourself an advantage over players, this is one of those things.
It could be-- there's a lot of things out there. But you talked about earlier,
nutrition. That's a huge piece and a piece that you can do. Mental toughness and
reading and understanding the game at a different level other than positioning. But
Ian, for players, for those goaltenders that don't feel like they ever get the reps,
they have a crappy coach like me that just has seven guys ripping pups at them
from all angles during practice, you never really get positive reps unless you have
really good coaching. So this is really a way to cheat that back into your
development, I think. Yeah, it kind of goes back to what I was saying with getting
like 60 shots a game on my Bantam double A teams. And it's all about that
repetition, especially if you can get that at an earlier age, if you can get those
positive reps and really start feeling the mechanics, maybe 152, even just 200 more
times, like that's only like nine or 10 drills. You can get that done in like 12
to 15 minutes and get 200 extra shots that you're tracking. And that is absolutely
huge, especially for a younger goalie's development. - I love it. I love that you
were able to dive into it like that. You know, I want to dive I wanna dive into
youth hockey for a few minutes here. We talked a lot about how great your coaching
was in college and the development there. Talk to me about your youth hockey
coaches. 'Cause again, you alluded earlier that youth hockey was not exactly easy in
terms of like, there's no triple A, you're not winning a thousand games. You're
getting a lot of shots, you're getting a lot of adversity. What were the moments of
a coach? You could even go to a parent that you needed someone, they were there.
What did they say to you? Are there any of those that stick out to you?
- Yeah, I think it was my goalie coach James Jensen just always had my back. I
mean, we had shown him the video. My dad started taking GoPro video of the games
'cause I wanted to go to prep school. So he was like, all right, well, they're all
in Connecticut so we need to send them something. They're not gonna come out to
California. It's a high school team. So we were recording the videos and we show
him to my goalie coach and he was, I mean, he thought we, I guess we were kind
of exaggerating or saying like, yeah, 60, 65 shots. And he's like, this is insane.
You have this many clips from like, uh, literally a, a ban them double A hockey
game, like, um, but just the, the support of him, like having someone who's kind of
not affiliated with, with the team, he was a, that's all he does. He's a, he's a
personal goalie coach. And now he, uh, consults with the Everett silver tips tips up
in the Western League, but he's consulted with a bunch of various NHL teams now.
He's a great guy, but having someone like that to be able to kind of be on the
outside of it and let you know that, Hey, you're doing the process the right way.
I'm seeing you skate with me every single day. Like it was me, my goalie partner,
my training partner with him was Dustin Wolf. So getting to like get reps in with
that guy was awesome. But sort of seeing the like, all right, this it is highly
touted and, you know, when I'm out here with these skates and we got AAA shooters
on us, like I'm right in the mix was, was, was huge for my development because it
kept that confidence in myself or like, Hey, I, I, you know, I'm playing double
hockey, but I, I think I'm a AAA goal tenor and I, I think it's realistic for me
to try and maybe get out of California and go play prep school hockey. I think
that's just the route I need to do. It's different than other people, but I'm, I'm
happy with it, I'm confident in this decision. And this is what's gonna help me
keep moving forward if I wanna play hockey. - I gotta say, you said something I
think that's actually pretty profound there. You said, I play double A, but I'm
thinking like a triple A goalie, right? And the reason I bring that up is 'cause
like, I think a lot of kids need to hear that, right? You're not always gonna make
the team you want. Sometimes your parents don't have the financial means to put you
at triple AAA, right? These are literally just letters, all right? It's up in your
mind. That's what's going to help you get to where you want to be. You talked
about training with Wolf. I can tell you, Mike can tell you, Christy can tell you,
anytime myself or my kids train with better players, that is a better experience for
them. They are going to challenge themselves. The point I'm making, kids listening,
parents listening, so much of your development, if you want to look at that comes
from within and in the mind of I'm gonna be this I love it when I hear kids say
you know I want to play at this level one day right and and too many people
you'll no one makes that level but you're never why would you take that from that
kid he's saying I have a goal I have a dream let him chase the goal on the dream
all right I know the odds why would you take that away from Well, I don't want
them to be disappointed. Well, life's going to provide plenty of that, all right? So
I'm sorry, I just, I love that you said that. I was playing double A, but in my
mind, I knew where I wanted to be. You want the secret at home, that's part of
the secret. Go ahead, I'm sorry. I'm off myself box now. - No, I think that's a
great point. You say they might be disappointed later on down the road, but I think
if they have a good mindset like that, they're accountable and, You know aim for
the stars land on the moon if you don't play college hockey, but you Worked your
your butt off in high school And you know you get good grades because you have a
Responsible mindset you're a mature kid and you end up at an unbelievable university
and you get a great job down the road Then yeah, I mean who cares you took the
lessons and ran with them. That's that's really all the matters at the end of the
day Yeah, I do have to say I'm sorry. I want to give one little disclaimer. I'm
not against AAA hockey. Sometimes parents ask me that. I'm not against tier one. I'm
not against AAA in any way I've seen some incredible athletes at that level I only
like to make the point that it's not a prerequisite All right, and that that if
you can play at that level that is fantastic for you and your kid and I wish you
the best I really mean that my kid may be there one day. I don't know but I just
think there's too much pressure And this is where I get, you know Angry about it
that if you don't play triple a hockey you have no chance and I just firmly don't
agree with that And I don't think we should be telling anybody that So that I'm
sorry. I just had to say that in like yeah, but then just just you know to stay
on the topic too of goal tending I think Ian please make a great point of just
the fact that if you put the Disciplines in your life that that required you to be
a good goal tender And we've had this theme on every episode, you will be a good
person. Like if you focus on being a good person and being a committed student
athlete and think about all the things that are gonna drive you to play at the
highest levels, when you don't make that level. And again, some of it has nothing
to do with your talent. Some of it is just circumstances. The place you ended up
and the coach you committed to and the team that surrounded you.
All of those things are out of your control, but what Ian's saying, which I really
like, and I hope that our young goal is listened to, is if you implore all those
other aspects of your life, you're going to find success.
And whatever function that's gonna be, and I think it's really important to
understand that, I because graduating from Cornell is not too shabby.
No, not alone is pretty good. So I think finding the way to reach those
opportunities and to use goal -tending and hockey to get you there is such an
important piece of any player's development. Right. And if now mature professional
college grad Ian were to look at young Ian Goley stepping into the net,
what would you say to your younger Goley self? Now that you've had up,
you have a perspective.
- Oh man. - Great advice for little kids. - That's a tough question. (laughing)
- That's a good question. I feel like there's a lot of lessons. The one that really
just sticks out though is just have fun. I, I would stress myself out a lot. I'd
put all these different expectations on me, like I want to go to this prep school
and then I want to try and play junior hockey somewhere. And then when it gets
called, I want to be the guy that's playing. And I would say it just, just have
fun and kind of make the memories. I remember my dad, a lot of the times with, if
I, like, there were two times it's playing for the California Wildcats, one of them.
And we had a tough game, which they're not even a program anymore. I think they
got bought out by the Ontario rain, but, um, had a tough game and we were driving
back from Riverside, California, back up to Manhattan beach and pretty quiet car ride
and sitting there. And my dad just looks at me and he's like, you know, we don't
care if you play hockey or not, like as long as you're having fun. Like we, we
could care less. This is something you want to do, right? And I, like, yeah,
absolutely. This is something I want to do. And he's like, all right, then. Do your
best, forget the rest. That's the whole point. Just have-- - Do your best, forget
the rest. We need that on every hockey car SUV, right? That was a bumper sticker.
- I'm gonna pull the throat on this too, Ian, 'cause it's good stuff. I don't think
we say to our kids enough, you know, this is a choice. This is not, you don't
have to do this. My love for you is not based on whether you win or lose a game
or play a game. And parents, I think there's a fear sometimes. Well, if I say
that, they might quit. Well, I mean, if that's your fear, you know, like, that's,
you know, it's okay to tell your kid, like, this is a choice, right? The other
thing I want to pull a thread on in is this, you had started that by saying,
well, I put a lot of pressure on myself, okay? Now I'm going to play devil's
advocate for a minute to try and get to a point here that, You know, one can make
the argument that pressure is again, that's what forged you into the person that you
are. But am I correct or incorrect in saying that when you say have fun, I think
you're at a point in your career now you understand that that work, that grind is
the fun. So was there a disconnect as a youth hockey player with the pressure that,
okay, I'm not having fun with this pressure, but you've maybe learned how to do
that because I do think sometimes Sometimes when we say, and it's not a, it's a
great answer, but when we say have fun, sometimes people perceive that as well, just
relax and you don't know if it'll be easy about it. It doesn't, I don't think
that's actually what you mean. I think it's understood how to harness the fun.
Right? Yeah. It's, it's understanding that you're going to reap the rewards later on.
Like when, when I was younger, as with many, I don't know, 12, 13 year olds,
I didn't like going to have to work out and do dry land. Thailand, I wasn't a
huge fan of, ah, we got to go do skill work and, you know, I don't want to have
to do skating and edges and all this stuff. Like it's, uh, it's so hard. Like I'm
not seeing that. Okay. I'm see it. It'll make me a better goal tender years from
now and all this stuff. It's, it's kind of hard when you're in the, in the dark
and all that. And nowadays as a, a college athlete or a pro when you're in the
gym, it's more like, all right, no, like I know what I'm doing in here. I know
why I'm doing it like you get on the ice for skill work with the goalie coach and
like I know exactly what I want to work on it's and you're a little more driven
in the practices as opposed to my dad's driving me an hour to practice and I got
to put on the pads and I got to work hard for him and make it make it seem like
a chore which it's not it's it's I think from that age it's just hard to kind of
wrap your head around like no like I'm putting in the right work it's not all
about playing games like if I really want to do this well I need to understand
what I'm doing in my preparation and how it kind of comes to light during the
games. Can I just say one thing too about this and when you are as for coaches
right and you're if you're a parent listening to this and you're listening to Ian
and talk about you know that's the fun part like learning to have fun in
development well that's a lot of our obligation too right as coaches, like we have
to make development fun. We have to make training fun. We have to make it where
the Ian Shanes of the world say, dad, get me in the car, get me to the rink. I
can't wait to, I can't miss Coach Benelli's practice. Like, it's our obligation too,
right? To put athletes in those situations where they can learn that development is
part of the process, but part of the process needs to be like just love and joy
for getting out there and playing. Why is it just Coach Pinelli's practice, Mike?
I'm a coach, too. My practices, my practices are better. Well, you're my mentor.
They probably are. I love that. Guys, make it up.
You know, I want to bring this up, too. You're an interest musician now. Let's just
go through the thing. You're California. You figured it out. You got to Cornell.
You're You're the third goalie on the on the depth chart. You've figured it out.
You graduate. You got all these awards Now you're stepping into your pro career
Feels like we're starting out again, right? You're trying to move up the ranks.
You're trying to figure it out Can you can you talk the audience through now? This
this transition of I mean you were nominated for the Hobie Baker I mean did this
is top stuff in college and now you're back to You know, I don't say the bottom
but now you're back starting again into the pros. Walk us through that. Where are
you at with that? How is that how is that process? Yeah, it's really interesting.
I've honest I've been going through it all summer trying to kind of wrap my head
around it a little bit and I'm a big advocate of journaling so I'll go back
throughout my college career my junior career and kind of look at where was I
freshman year? Where was I when I first went to the NOL? Where was I when I first
went to the USA jug? Where is whereas my head and I think I'm in a place where I
was fortunate enough to be able to end the year in the in the ECHL with the
Norfolk admirals. So I got a little taste of it and got to see like, okay, I'm at
this level. And these are, you know, it's it's not a very different situation. Like
it's mature guys, it's older men. But it's very similar to college, I wouldn't say
it was as big a jump as maybe high school to juniors or juniors to college. It
was, I would say it was a little more lateral. So
-
impact and trying to sort of prove to the guys around me that I'm capable of
playing at that level and this is something I keep in contact with Tim Jockus who
was my coach at Westminster and high school and we'll text back and forth a lot of
the time and one thing I was journaling about and I brought this attention was like
it just the game becomes so much easier when my focus is how can I make the guy
across the room the guy next to me, like, better at something. How can I make his
day better? How can I make his situation better? Like, the work becomes so much
easier when the purpose is external.
So for me, it's going to be just going and trying to be a good teammate off the
bat. I want to just be a good friend, first and foremost, you know, have some good
memories with some good people and get to know guys. And I think sort of the rest,
the rest will follow. I'm comfortable with where my game is at. So it's really more
of a matter of just trying to sort of not necessarily just like fit in just to
fit in, but I want to make friends. I want to be a good teammate first. And then
I think the same thing as earlier, the tide raises all ships. I think if
everybody's happy and we're all in a good situation, it'll be good for me as well.
So that's sort of where my head is at.
leadership is is a calling and I think you know it's fun servant leadership what
you're describing is very hard when you're young because because when you're young
things are things are pretty me me me and and you expect some of that but you
know I always tell kids and parents you know no matter what the sport it's the one
thing you don't require talent to do is to be a great teammate right you don't
need to be on the ice, you don't even need to be starting the game if you're a
goal -tender, just be a great teammate. And I find more often than not,
Ian, that that ends up paying off, it actually does help your game. Like we said,
you do need talent at the high levels, but being a great teammate and playing for
the person next to you is a hallmark of team building and all the stuff that I do
as well, right? It's, if you're not playing for the person next to you, like
something's off, something always It feels a little weird when that's going on.
That's part of the mental journey that's been growing. I love it. Fantastic answer.
Kristi Mike, you got a question? 'Cause I've got more, but I've asked two in a
row. I'm trying not to hug the mic. - No, no, I'm just learning. I'm taking it all
in.
- I love that he said it again, "Tike raises all ships." That's fantastic. - It's a
true statement. - Yes. - I'll ask you this too. Let's talk to the young goalies
listening to the show.
You know, I think about my own son, right? The waves of confidence, the waves of
maybe being unsure of himself. You talked about it a little bit with being present,
but let's think we're talking to younger goaltenders here. What's your advice to them
to stay confident? What's your advice on them to keep going? You know, whether
they're having a great season or, you know, 65 shots a game, like what would you
tell those young goaltenders? I would to check in with yourself, make sure you're
having fun, make sure that first and foremost, whether you're winning or losing, that
while you're on the ice in the heat of the moment, 'cause there were times we were
down eight nothing and we're getting just blown out. And I remember still thinking
that, oh, I just had a great backdoor save. Like, oh, I just made a great
breakaway save. I'm just having fun with it. So checking in with yourself and making
sure that I'm having fun first and foremost is probably the most important thing and
then second would be is I don't know is there anything else I want to do or
anything else I really want to focus on whether that's in school or other sports
and just sort of being aware of. Know where your priorities are and if that's
hockey awesome and if not then that's fine too there's tons of great things for
great people to do in this world other than hockey so. I love you brought some of
the misconceptions are of the position of goalie, you know, we all have, have a
belief that goalies are a little different, you know,
on the team. And of course, parents are always so fearful of the cost that it's
going to, you know, bust the family budget to doesn't have to does it?
I would say it definitely doesn't have to. I think nowadays, there's more affordable
options. I know a lot of these like Bauer and CCM make affordable gear lines for
people who maybe just want to try it out who aren't all the way in. I know a lot
of ranks will have setups. That's how they got me. It was my first set of gear.
The rank just gave me every time I came to play my in -house mic game. Then the
next year when I played travel hockey, my dad was like, "Wait, what do you mean
the gear isn't free anymore? We Get our own gear, but uh, yeah, I would say some
of the misconceptions are I think a lot of them are Kind of being debunked or
proven against now that you know The goalies don't have to be some of the better
athletes that maybe you stick a bigger kid in or someone who's less athletic in the
net And I think that's couldn't be further from the truth. I think your goal
tenders have to be some of the best athletes the best skaters on your team I mean,
we're playing we're not even playing We're not playing hockey, we're playing goalie.
It's a completely different sport, doing its own thing. All the goals are different.
The way we train conditioning now on an anaerobic basis is much different.
So I think that would be probably the biggest misconception that I feel is that
they think the goal is just kind of where you stick the kid who might not be as
athletic. And I think usually they are probably one of the better athletes, if not
the best on the team. There you go parents. Yeah, but I think also to that they
have to be really good communicators, right? They think it's a goal -tender, you know
It's so hard to be the last line of defense and everybody's gonna blame you for
every loss, right? And you really don't get a lot of accolades for overtime wins.
You're like, oh, well that just did my job, right? But talk about your relationship
with the other players on the team and not just the other goal -tender but can you
talk a little bit about, you know, as you were growing up and maturing as a goal
tender, you know, how that communication piece worked with the fenceman and centerman
and other players on your team. Like you said, you know, you want to make those
guys better, right, that helps you get better. But how did you do that in a
communication setting? - Yeah, I think goal tenders, an issue with that is they tend
to isolate themselves a lot. They took to my point of earlier that we play
different sport. It's, They think, "All right, I just have to prepare myself. I have
to prepare my game," and that's it's not the truth. You should be in those meetings
with the defenseman and the defense, the d coach and knowing, "Hey, what are we
doing on the penalty kick? Like, where can I sort of help out? Maybe I should be
looking through one lane while the defenseman blocks the other. What's our strategy
when a two -on -one comes in? Is the defenseman going to slide? Is he going to hold
his feet? What are we going to do on rushes?" So there are ways for the
goaltenders to branch out and be in those conversations, you shouldn't isolate
yourself. You should talk to your defense them as much as possible, talk to your
coaches about, "Hey, what do you think about my situation or the way I should sort
of strategize in these scenarios?" It sparks a conversation and gives you a better
relationship with your coaches, your teammates, and makes it obviously also seem like,
"Hey, I'm invested here. I'm involved.
This is why I'm here. I want to work hard. And this will, yeah, I think that that
helps everybody to be on the same page for those situations as well. - Thank you.
- Oh, glad. I had another question for her. I was just curious. A lot of times
I've seen goalies have a threat to resetting. Like, let's say you're having a really
bad game. One of our goalies, I used to love what she did. She would take her
stick and she'd hit post to post and then settle down and you knew she was
resetting because she had just taken a whole bunch of shots. Did you have a trick
or method to kind of break out of a funk if you were having a really bad game?
Yeah, I would I would try and focus on my heart rate and just feel like my
heartbeat and I would do sort of like a I don't know if you're familiar with like
non -sleep deep rest protocol like meditation where you take big inhales and a long
like breath out. And I once I do that, I just kind of pay attention to my
heartbeat and notice like, Okay, it's slowing down. It's slowing down. That must mean
my body's calming down and sort of just convincing myself that I am calm and I'm
right here. And sort of brings me back to the present moment. That's that's
something I that's new for me, though. I started doing that probably my sophomore
Oh, that's a great technique, but believe me in if you're working on present moment
awareness at your age you're way ahead of most people That's that's not something a
lot of people figure out Mike did you have a follow -up as I have a follow -up?
Yeah, yeah, I mean just just in that in the same conversation you're having about
you know Just communicating and communicating with the fence been being in those
meetings Can you talk a little bit about you know how especially because the goal
tender position is a different sport. I get that. But, you know, and most goal
tenders now probably have somebody that's working with them, whether it's a mentor or
a physical goalie coach or somebody remotely. You talked a bit about the importance,
though, of that goalie person communicating and being involved with the coaching staff
and how that affects the relationship between coach, player, goal tender, and then
the rest of the kind of ecosystem of a team? Yeah, I think that's tough because
the last thing you want to do is put a wedge between two coaches that you really
respect or a wedge between yourself and one of the other coaches by saying, you
know what, I don't believe in that. I'm going to go with this philosophy or not
going to buy into what the team coach says because my goalie coach says something
different. You should always be taking the best from every coach you work with
because everyone's right to some capacity. Everyone has experience that they're trying
to share with you and you should be taking that in.
Yeah, that's a tough situation to navigate. I never really had a goalie coach with
my youth teams growing up. I had James Jensen, who I skated with on the side, and
then I had my teams. I can't really think of situations where I brought up what he
or more so, is like, "All right, my coach has said this about a goal or about a
situation. Like, what do you think?" And he would kind of give me his two cents,
and I trusted his game a lot. So I would bring it in, and we, I don't know, we'd
talk about it with video and whatnot, but I think the only thing you don't want to
do in that situation is say, "I believe in this one philosophy, and therefore you're
wrong with that. I think it has to be done this one way. I think you should take
it both into consideration. - Oh, it's like growth mindset over fixed mindset, right?
- Yeah. - And take all the tools. I mean, you don't have to use all of them. But,
you know, if you close your mind off, you're just not going to evolve as fast as
you want. I mean, we say it all the time in that, if you look at the top players
in the world, they won't, you know, they respect their coaches, but they're
constantly jumping from skills coach to skills coach to skills coach because they're
looking for more right when they feel like they've gotten everything out of that one
coach they will they will consistently move on to the next person um hey look last
question for me this is a goalie specific question um probably more for the coaches
than anybody um there's just I don't know why there's such a lack of awareness of
goaltenders in youth hockey from a coaching standpoint when you're making practice
plans and uh you know making your drills but I want to talk about how coaches can
focus more on goaltenders at practice. And I also want to talk about, when you have
two goalies or three goalies, the process of choosing a goalie for a game and when
that should be communicated. With the understanding that it's not always easy,
sometimes it does have to be the morning of a game. There's a lot of things that
can play into that. But I'd like it from your mouth about preparing for practices
for goaltenders, preparing for games with goaltenders, and why anyone in the right
mind would forget to do that is beyond me. - Yeah, I would think at the youth
level a lot too, you're probably thinking I need to teach these kids structure and
systems and how to go through scenarios. So I would say the goalie stuff to get
sort of lost in that thought process where, okay, well, we're doing these drills, so
they're gonna get a shot, right, that should be fine. But a lot of times you end
up getting straight line shots in practice as a kid when in reality a game is
someone's coming down sort of an air flow route or they're passing it or they're
drop passing it or they're coming in and shaving and delaying and giving the puck
across the blue line to somebody else like there's so many different ways for them
to come in. I think that coach Schaefer was actually unbelievable with this where he
would bring like me and my junior and senior year and like here's some of the
drills we're going to do and what do you think about we add a pass here or a
pass there so that you have to make this angle change you have to make a down
drive there or we'll do drills that start like a two on one out of the corner and
then advance out so you get post work in so bring the goalies in or goalie coach
in and saying here's what the the drills we want to do here's what we want to
accomplish as a team how can we maybe tinker them a little bit bit or even just
started off differently so that the goalies have to work on a certain mechanic or
movement as well and just kind of looking at it as you don't need to necessarily
change the entire practice plan for a goalie. You have to coach the team. Like that
is the point of your practice. You have to be mindful. Yeah, you have to be
mindful and I think it's a little easier for coaches to change the process or to
change the practice plan or change the drills up a little bit just to sort of get
the goalies more invested and like what are they working on as well?
And then, should I remind me the second part was? - Oh, the,
you know, picking a goalie for a game. You know, it's not easy. - And letting the
goalie know why you're not picked too. - Yeah. - Yeah.
- I think that that's tough. That It depends on every coach's philosophy. Coach
Schaefer was a little old school. So, and I mean, it's Mike Schaefer. He's been
there for 27 years when I've gotten to Cornell. So it was kind of like,
find out the morning of, okay, not complaining, just going to be ready for the
game. The guys that aren't playing, it's, you usually expect it. You kind of know
what's going on. I don't think anyone is sort of blind to the situation, especially
at this level, but for you Thaki, I think it's different. If you're not gonna split
the goalies and you're not just telling them, hey, one's starting, one's gonna
finish,
might be good to just have a plan. I don't think that you should really schedule
your goalies out and say, hey, you're gonna play this better team, you're gonna play
this team, or we have a starting goalie and a backup goalie at 12 years old
because that doesn't help anybody Um, I think it, you just have to have sort of an
ongoing dialogue with them and say, this is what our plan is. We're either going to
split games or we're not going to split games. And it's going to be pretty much
back and forth the entire time. And I loved, uh, Mike Garmin in juniors. He was my
goalie coach. He's now the associate head coach at Notre Dame. Um, he's also Cornell
alum play goalie and his philosophy was like, we're never on a goalie, we're going
to, we're going to split guys every weekend. Cause even at the junior hockey level,
he was very development minds, like development oriented. And so you just want the
goalies to play and feel shots. And you know what? It's junior hockey. If you're
having a bad game, now is the time to figure out how to get yourself out of it.
So where he was very against polling goalies, even if my second year in juniors,
I think we lost the game like 10 to eight. And Unfortunately, I was in there for
all 10 and it was not a fun experience, but looking back at it, I realized why he
kept just not taking me out of the game.
So like just having a philosophy as to like, what do you want out of your goal
tenors and how much do you want to develop them and age also plays a factor that
I think it's tough. It'll vary from coach to coach. I don't think there's one
cookie cutter way to do it, but I think just having a I'm being open to letting
them know why you're doing what you're doing, whether that's splitting games, playing
every other game, you're going to play one kid more than the other. It's all about
communication. I really want to praise that philosophy because we didn't see that a
lot, especially when my daughter played college. There's just such a tendency. We
lose the game. Pull the goal.
My 12 -year goal is we had them changing on the fly for a couple of games in a
row just because it kept him in the game and he loves it. He thought it was the
greatest thing ever, like, oh, you just like, you know, the puck goes down at any
other coaches, going ballistic, like, what are you doing? We're just trying to match
up lines. You keep putting that better line up there.
You get people all crazy. But again, I think to get the footage of that, it's all
about how we do. But I think it's really just about the relationship, right? Knowing
your kids. I can say hey you know and because I would always think that as a
youth coach like I'd want to protect my goalie - like if I had a goalie it clearly
wasn't as good I wouldn't make sure I put them in games where they could have
success against the team where they I just knew they couldn't because kids are kids
like they're just ruthless right I mean they're gonna blame the goalie they're gonna
I mean I said like guys I know we lost eight to one but you none of you scored
either yeah I know the kid gave up eight - Yeah, I've used that line before too.
- Yeah, just trying to find ways to, as coaches,
to make sure you really know your goalies and have that communication piece. And
then you don't have to tell them, "Hey, I'm putting you in against this game." But
you, listen, you're an adult, you can figure it out with a 12 year old, try to
put them in good situations for success. That's the number one thing, you wanna give
them the confidence, you wanna give them success, you wanna have them come back and
And you also want them to, you know, have their teammates have their back. So it's
all this, this, I think that's one of the greatest parts about coaching is learning
all of those things about your athletes, then trying to find ways to get your
athletes to work together. I agree. Yeah. That's a great note. Yeah. Listen,
I think that's a great note to end on. I'm going to say this too. Ian's going to
join us for a ride to the rink episode, parents. This was really good. You might
want to listen to this whole thing with your kids, but but make sure you tune into
that one. But Ian, unless Mike and Christy have another question, fantastic episode.
I mean, just really great stuff, man. Yeah, thank you for being here today. - Thank
you for having me on. Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, well, I'm hoping you talked about,
you know, 12 -year -old you, 16 -year -old you. I'm hoping we get, you know, 22 -year
-old you, 26 -year -old you, but we'll get 31 -year -old you as the years go on. But
Ian, Shane, great episode today of our Kids Play goalie and for the listeners,
remember, if If you have any questions, goaltending, defensemen, forwards, whatever you
want coaching, you can always email us at team @ourkidsplayhockey .com. We answer
those. Or as we get a lot of them, you can go to the link in the description of
this episode and text us directly. Make sure you put your name where you're from if
you want us to know. We get all of those. We enjoy them and we make episodes out
of this. But for Ian Shane, for Christy Cash and the Burns, for Mike Vannelli, I'm
Leo Lias. This has been another exciting, amazing, wonderful episode of our kids play
goalie because goalies matter too. Some would say the most, should probably do more
of these. We'll see you next time on our next episode of our kids play hockey, our
kids play goalie ride to the rink and our girls play hockey. Take care everybody.
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