The Ride To The Rink - How to Watch and Learn Hockey Like a Pro with Steve Valiquette

Lee MJ Elias [0:08 - 0:40]: Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the rink. Got a retired NHL with us today. Steve Alaquet's joining us, and in our long episode this week of our kids play goalie, which you should all listen to, he talked about the importance of watching a lot of hockey. If you want to be a great hockey player or at least be competitive, be serious about it. So, Steve, I want to throw it to you. Talk to the kids listening about what you mean by that. Number one, where can they watch it? What should they watch? Who should they watch? And then. And then how should they just go about that? Because we're on screens all the time. You can use this to your advantage. 

Steve Valiquette [0:40 - 4:42]: All right, so I'm just going to rephrase one thing, Lee, and that's going to be not just how you watch hockey, but how do you edit and watch hockey. Ooh. I like it because I really encourage kids to make their own highlight reel, and it can be a coaching teaching reel at the same time. I did it when I was a youngster and I was using vhs. Most people listening don't even know what that is. You now have much stronger capabilities. What I learned as a former player was that working with a goalie coach the morning after the game, we would go over video just like the players would. And there were certain things in the game you didn't see that you thought you felt but you weren't sure about. It's a teachable moment. You need that feedback. This is how you get it. And I'll give you a story. Working with the New York Rangers, the best goalie coach in the NHL over the last 30 years is Ben Aller. He just retired. We played in Washington. There was a pass from the corner that went all the way across the ice to the point man. His name was Mike Green, and he was a sniper. At this time, he was one of the top defensemen in the NHL. And Allaire says, I thought you had a track on that pass, but why did you miss it? Because Mike Green scored. And I said, benny, I played my game. I knew he was coming, and I know what I'm doing out there. So I made a save. And the way that you have to really frame this is that I never really beat myself up if I allowed a goal, but if I abandoned my system, that would bother me because I worked on it all week in practice. Why didn't I do it in the game? Why did I give up on my game? And I. And I was kind of wrestling with that. As I was watching this video, I made a save. The puck went to my blocker side corner. I followed. As soon as my foot hit the post, I scan. That's. That's my rule. As soon as my foot hits the post, scan, try to find the backside, because I knew green was coming. Sure enough, that pass comes through. I came across late. It went between my arm and my body. And Benny said, watch the video again. I'm like, benny? I mean, I don't. I looked. I my foot at the post, I took my scan like, I don't get it. And he goes, watch it again. We're watching this over again. And then he slows it down. And you can see that I reached for it with my stick to try and intercept it, but it was only a fraction of the inch. But only that point right there made me realize that I took my. My center, my center of gravity, my body's core out and not able to recoil and then make a save east to west. It was so small, so subtle, that only the video picked it up. I didn't pick it up in the game. He would have seen it from up top. But now what he did was he showed me a video of me doing it without doing that, making a save showed me making the error. That's the feedback. And then showed me making the save again. And he sandwiched the good clip with the bad, followed by the good. And that, to me, was the feedback that we always got with him. Now I can watch hockey today and watch the game and say to myself, all right, well, he got scored on because he didn't hustle back to his post. He didn't take his look. He reached for a puck. There are several small things that you learn from watching the game, which is why you need to watch the game. You need to watch hockey as much as possible and figure this game out, because at age 47, I am still learning new small things about the game that help the bigger piece. And you have to. I really encourage kids to learn how to edit video. It's not that hard. Do it on your iPhone. You have imovie. You have final cut. That's what I use on my computer. You can find good. A good screen grabbing technology is screencast or screen pal. You can record your screen on your computer, on your phone, on your tablet, and then put that into imovie and make your own video. That could be teachable clips, they could be inspiring clips, they could be clips that are going to help you perform better, have to learn how to edit and watch, you know, Steve, one of. 

Mike Bonelli [4:42 - 5:15]: The things you do, you know, as a, as an analyst, right. Not on the big screen at MSG, is you don't just talk about goaltenders. You talk about the play and how things materialize. How can players watch? Like, so, you know, we don't want them watching the goal. We want them watching the 10 seconds before the goal. Like, there's so many instances for defensemen and forwards to not blame the actual thing that happened at the end. Maybe talk a little bit about, like, how do you watch film as a player to determine, like, where it went wrong or what you could have done different to avoid the catastrophic play at the end? 

Steve Valiquette [5:15 - 7:44]: I think that the one thing that really drove home the point of growth for me was I was 18 years old and I was working with, coincidentally, Benoit Allaire, the goalie coach for the Rangers. His brother is Francois Allaire. And I'm going to play this story out for you guys because I think it's interesting. I was 17 years old. I wasn't drafted by an NHL team at this point. And one of my friends from goalie camp that I met, his name was Zach Burke. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning. His brother is Sebastian Bach, lead singer from Skidborough. True story, true story. Very successful in life. So Berkey calls me up one time this summer. He's like, hey, Valley, I got it. We're going to play in the NHL. If we could just work with this goalie coach in Montreal. It's 1500 bucks. We got to take your mom's car and we got to get to Montreal by Wednesday. He's going to work with us Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, three dollar. Excuse me, three days for 1000, $5,800. And I'm like, all right, Berkey, talk my dad into it. My dad is an electrician, and he says to me, he says, my nickname Styro. He goes, Styro, when am I going to see this 1500 bucks again? I go the day I signed. So anyhow, in that camp, what Alair says to Berkey and I is, the harder you work and the smarter you work before the shot, the easier the shot will be. Just think about that. If you're a defenseman going back for a puck that goes into the corner, the harder you work and smarter you work, taking the right line, driving through your rotation as you turn, taking three hard strides, scanning. I like to use scanning rather than shoulder check because when you're scanning, you're getting multiple looks. Then add a little deception before you pick that puck up. Now you know where to go, when to go, how to go. Add some deception so you can shake your checker. And now you're making your first pass and we're out of our zone. But if you don't understand how to work hard, work smart, and you lift up as you're turning around, you lose a couple strides because you lolly a little bit, lolly, gag towards the puck. And now the four checks on you, and you're getting hammered. Puck squirts loose, goes to the slot, goal goes high glove. And you're blaming your goalie for the high glove shot. No, that play happened. That's hockey. It is always going to be several touches, several seconds before it ends up in the back of your net. What could you have done to work harder, work smarter before that next play? It applies for every position. 

Lee MJ Elias [7:45 - 8:09]: Well, I'll say this to enclosing, buddy, that I love the editing piece of this because that shows investment from you as a player, right. That you're looking to do a little more than just watch. I think that investment point is important. I like the idea of that watch more than just the end result, right. You have got to be watching this play develop. I'm going to say what you just said again. There's no goal that's starts and ends on the shot, right? 

Steve Valiquette [8:09 - 8:12]: It's a result from what happened. 

Lee MJ Elias [8:12 - 8:42]: Right? And then my last question to you is this. Now with social media today, the ability to scroll, there's a lot of content out there. You can save this content. I mean, something that I do with my son, which I'm shocked he likes to do this, is we'll look at goaltending videos online and we'll save them and we'll watch them again. And we'll watch them again. And he seems to do well with that. To the kids listening with social media, there's a lot of people out there telling people a lot of different things. Any advice on what to look for or what not to look for? Yeah. 

Steve Valiquette [8:42 - 11:01]: You know what my advice is? You become a student of the game and, you know, because, you know, you've done your work. Nobody's going to talk me out of what I'm doing out there. This is my game. You're going to tell me that. I had a goalie once, go to Shattuck St. Mary's, and he was jumping over tires in the crease before facing a shot on the other side of the net. Now he comes to me in the summertime, and what is he doing in his movements instead of tracking his pass low and driving through his rotation, he's popping up, you know, and I said to him, his kid's name is Drew. And I'm like, drew, let's think about this. You know better than that. We drive through our rotation, you get your head over your leading knee. That's the way you scan and get through the crease. Why would you allow somebody to tell you to jump a tire? That's not. That's not. There's nothing hockey about that now in that. He was a young kid, he was 16 years old. He was learning. But you have to be able to protect yourself against bad advice. How do you do that? You need to know your game because you put all the time in to be a student of it. Like, I have my game. I had a moleskin my entire career writing it, you know, Alair says something, I write it down, explode on the past, head over the knee, you know? And so if I go to the next team, I get traded to the Buffalo Sabres, and the goalie coach is saying, don't worry about head over the knee. Not important. I'd be like, whoa, this is everything for me, you know? Like, what are you talking about? You know, nobody's going to push me around that way. And one last point that I want to make, Lee, that you, you kind of touched on earlier was, look, coaches are going to be inspired by players that are all in. Mike, you brought up the name earlier. Dylan Lee Stack. He's a goalie that plays for Brunswick. Met him two years ago. He was five seven, like 120, and now he's six to 180. And this kid's an NHL prospect. In my mind, that's how highly I think of him. But do you know what type of kid Dylan Lee Stack is? Valley. What goalie should I be watching? Oh, then he'll come back the next day. You know who's awesome? Joseph wall for Toronto. You know what he does really well? Like, Dylan Lee stacks in hockey 24/7 so guess what? He gets the best version of me, his coach. I go above and beyond for him, make more calls for him, edit more video for him, learn more about him, interested in everything he's doing at school. The kid's all in, you know? And kids need to know that when you're all in, you're. You're going to get the best version of your coach. 

Lee MJ Elias [11:01 - 11:05]: I love that buddy. Look, you get out of it what you put in. 

Steve Valiquette [11:06 - 11:12]: Come out of nowhere to help you people come out of anywhere to help you. And the right people are always watching. 

Lee MJ Elias [11:12 - 11:16]: Well, I also like to say like minded people will find each other. 

Steve Valiquette [11:16 - 11:16]: Yeah. 

Lee MJ Elias [11:16 - 11:48]: Highly competitive and you are highly motivated and you're into it. You will find naturally other people like that. They will attract to you and you will attract to them. So I think that's great advice. Steve Aliquette, fantastic episode of the ride to the rank. I know the kids and the parents. I know parents. You listen to this, too. Don't try and hide it. That great episode here, the ride to the rank and Mike Benelli as well. That's going to do it. Kids, remember, we believe in you. You should, too. Make sure you have fun out there. Be competitive. Take this advice, bring it to your game. And as always, enjoy it. Have fun. We'll see you next time on the ride to the rink. Skate on it.