The Ride to The Rink: Mike Knuble’s Net-Front Scoring Secrets (Go Where the Goals Are)

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world, and welcome back to another edition of the Ride

to the Rink. We're so excited to have another retired NHL player with us today, Mike Knuble, who

played many, many NHL games in the league with several teams that you know, had a long tenured

career, known as a little bit of a hard-nosed grinder, right? Going to the net, getting the

rebounds, finding ways to play in the game. Detroit. A Red Wings player, won a Stanley Cup with

them back in 1998. Just setting it up for you, kids. The guy probably knows what he's talking

about. So, Mike, the first thing I want to ask you when we talk to these kids is... we talked about

going to the hard areas and how rebounds happen in the hard areas and that it should be really an

essential part of everybody's game to learn to go to the net. Obviously we're talking skaters, but

this benefits goalies too, right? Can you talk to the kids for a few minutes about how, why that's

a very important habit and maybe even some of the bad habits that we see that they should think to

remove from their game to get better in that area. Right, right. So. Some of you guys,

some of the kids out there, you're like, oh, man, I just can't. I don't score very many goals. I

like to score some more goals. I'm sorry. It's just not going in for me. I don't get any chances.

And then so then you go back and you look and you're like, OK, all right, let's figure out why

we're not scoring goals. So I've got players not scoring goals. I'm like, well, look, you're you're

standing over here. The puck is on its way to the net. You're standing over in the corner thinking

that you're open for a pass. Meanwhile, the whole. play the whole rink knows the puck is going to

be going to the net yet we're still standing in the corner right so these are things that like when

we feel a shot on goal coming to the net and being a hockey player and use our hockey senses we've

got to head to the net ourselves so a thing I think I have for kids a little mantra a little little

trying to relate to kids I'm like I'm like so Everybody knows sharks in the ocean,

right? Sharks are in the ocean. They swim around the ocean. I'm like, do you think sharks just, and

some people may be listening who know me might have heard this before, but I said, do you think

sharks just, do you think they just swim around the Atlantic ocean or the Pacific ocean and they

just. hope to find a fish here and there. They, you know, wow, I got lucky. Oh, there's a tuna over

there. I'm going to, Oh, I finally get to eat. It's been three days. Or do you think that shark

kind of hang around in areas where the warm water is and the fish are going to eat and the fish

should have to come through to move to a new area. They all come through this area. If I was a

shark, I'd probably hang out where all the fish are, right? If I wanted to get fed, does that make

sense? Same thing as a hockey player. If you're going to hang out in areas where the puck has no.

is very rarely coming or it doesn't lead to a goal like the corners the sideboards you know you're

not going to score many goals if you start hanging out in that area where the puck likes to hang

around a lot the puck tends to come into a little bit more you're probably going to score some more

goals so for me that's the easiest way to equate it a shark wandering around the ocean or do they

hang out where all the fish are and get fed as a player do you hang out on the sideboards you hang

out away from the net or do you want to hang out in front of the net and where you're going to get

fed as a hockey player so that those are things the more you find yourself in that area where

there's the food the puck where that you're hanging out there you're going to find yourself getting

fed more often i think that's a pretty easy way to understand and think about it as a young player

these days

Hey, Mike, while we have you here, too, your career evolved over the course of your playing time

and the type of roles that you were asked to play and playing with different players in different

systems in different cities. What advice could you give to a youth player right now in embracing

the opportunity to experiment in different roles and understand that their game is always evolving

and they might not always be the type of player they think they are? how important it is for them

to play within the team and the system that they're placed in. Right, right. Always a difficult

situation when your perception of yourself as a player might be different than what the team is

seeing you as. And I even go back to, I mean, Steve Eisenman's a little bit too old for these guys,

but even Sidney Crosby. I mean, Sidney Crosby is arguably one of the best players that ever played

in the league, but he keeps evolving as a player, right? When he came in. You know,

he might have had, I think his first couple of years, he was light on the goals, a lot on the

assists. People kept saying, well, Sidney Crosby, well, you're obviously not a goal scorer.

He was like, okay, well, maybe I need to score more goals. So he found a way to score more goals.

Now, as a player, I think evolving and how you fit in and changing your game and picking up things

as you go, adding to your repertoire as a player is super important. Now, you can get to one team

one way, maybe you're a pure goal scorer. When when you when you enter a new team and that's how

they recognize you and that's how you got there and you made the team is that. But as you get in

and start playing, you realize, well, OK, so there's guys actually a little bit better scoring

goals than me. I'm going to have to, you know, I'm going to if I'm going to play with those guys,

maybe I got to work on my passing. Maybe I got to figure out a way to be a really good penalty

killer. And so these are things that that you have to adjust. And and you call it self-awareness

as a player, right? As a player, you've got to understand what you're good at, where your holes

are. And it's very easy to go and party maturity as a player. It's very easy to go practice. I've

got a heck of a wrist shot. Well, I tend to shoot my wrist shots a lot. That's very easy to

practice. Well, I'm really not great at backward crossovers. Well, that's what you need to

practice, right? The things you've got to find the things that you're not really good at and make

sure you harp on those. Very, very easy to go out and practice the things you're good at. That's

fun. It's easy and no-brainer. I can go out and do that all day. Lots of fun. It's hard to find

the things that you're not good at and work on those and maybe fail and maybe not be as good and

maybe have some failure and some tough times with it before you cross over that barrier and start

to get better. And so I think as a player, that's part of your maturity and part of your growth as

a player is to figure out what you need to do better as a player and how to go about doing that.

And whether you need help, whether you can figure that on your own or you need to ask a coach or

ask somebody who's close to you who you trust. who gives you a pretty honest assessment of your

game, that that's how you need to figure out and how you get better. Yeah, Mike, to the kids

listening, you might be wondering, how do I go about that? Well, let me tell you the first thing.

Games are not the time to try something you've never tried before, right? Mike made a great point.

Go to your coach and ask that question. of, hey, what are the bad habits I have to break or what's

something you'd like to see me work on? Get it from the coach's mouth. They'll probably give you

drills or even create drills for their practice to give you the reps to work on them. That's number

one. Number two is you cannot be afraid to fail the things you're not good at. You're not going to

get any better if you don't fail over and over again. You brought up Sidney Crosby. It's a great

example. I remember him. working on his backhand early in his career to become really the greatest

backhand shooter probably of all time, working on his face-offs to become better at that. The guy

still works. So, kids, it's a constant journey of finding things to improve on, and you're not

going to be awesome at it at first. I will also say this, that when the three of us were kids and

you still have this ability with even more. uh tools at your your disposal we would go outside and

practice things with a ball or or you know eventually a puck just finding ways to work on those

reps over and over again to find ways to get better at something we're not and again it doesn't

mean you can't spend time getting good at the things you're good at either right i i i i'm pretty

sure alex ovechkin probably still works on his shot i mean he's as close to a perfected shot as you

can get All right, but I'm sure he leans in on getting better every single day. So, Mike,

I'll let you have the final word, but I just wanted those kids to understand. Look, it takes a

little bit of guts to say, hey, I'm not good at something, and then to work on it. And it doesn't

mean you've got to sacrifice working on the things you're good at. But if you want to be really

noticed, I'll say that too, you've got to find ways to become well-rounded, especially in youth

hockey. And as you get older, some of your skill sets will shine through and help you find ways in

other lineups. But you've got to work on all of it when you're young. Right. Right. You know, for

the kids, you might hear this term, maybe the older ones again, it's called ownership. Right. And

so you're taking ownership of your career and it's very difficult to sit in a room or to hear

somebody say what you don't do well or what you're not good at. And it's very difficult to hear.

But as you take ownership of your career, those are the things you have to say and you have to walk

away and you have to think about it and you say, OK. I'm going to figure out how to improve on

that. I need to improve on that. If this person who I trust and I respect is telling me this,

then I need to really work on that. And that is taking ownership of your career. Because at some

point, you're going to get to a point where practice isn't going to be enough. You're going to have

to go to the gym. Who's going to make you go to the gym? You know, when you get older, 15 and 16,

you are. That's taking ownership of your career. Who's going to help you get stronger? Nobody but

yourself. That's taking ownership of your career. So that's a very difficult thing for a young

player to understand. It's no longer mom and dad driving to the rink, you know, the next level. And

for the kids that move on, they take ownership of their careers and they figure out what they need

to work on, what they're good at and what they need to improve on. And that's that's the never

ending journey of being a good hockey player. No, just play that on loop,

that last piece. Just play it on loop. And just use that as the motivation to understand that

you're going to have to do things that other players, when you walk in the locker room tonight and

you get in the room, there are going to be a lot of players in there that won't make the sacrifice

that you want to make in order to get where you want to get to. Don't be intimidated by that. Don't

be embarrassed by that. If you have a motivation and a goal and a desire to get better, follow

Mike's advice. Put yourself on in a different mindset. and then really focus on that mission and

that goal. Don't worry about all the other noise that's happening with other players in your team

because it really is irrelevant to your development. Kids, wherever you're at on your hockey

journey, we all want you to know we believe in you. You should too. All right? Enjoy your hockey.

Enjoy your day. Go out there and learn something and have fun. For Mike Canubal and Mike Benelli,

I'm Lee Elias. We will see you on the next Ride to the Rink. Take care, everybody.