Latest / 2 Many Men On The Mic / Best of 2 Many Men on the Mic (Part 2) | Olympians, Champions & Hockey Families

Transcript

Best of 2 Many Men on the Mic (Part 2) | Olympians, Champions & Hockey Families · 2 Many Men On The Mic

• 1:01
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we're done celebrating 250 years of America, which means we're on the backside of a federal holiday.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_06: Our next federal holiday is in the September time frame.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_06: It's those dog days of summer.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_06: And here we are doing part two of the best of back from assignment.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, had a great week off uh covering activities that had literally nothing to do with hockey.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_06: So big thanks to Coach Jared and also Grant, who's not with us tonight, but that's okay, uh, for uh keeping the saddle moving.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_13: Is Grant on assignment?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_13: Is that what I'm hearing?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_13: I think Grant is on assignment.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_13: Grant is on assignment.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_13: Well, it's great to have you back.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_13: Um, you know, we uh we held the fourth down as best we could.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_13: I think um, you know, a little bit going on in what they call the silly season in the NHL.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_13: I don't know, did you get your$18 million offer letter?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_06: I did not get my$18 million offer letter, but holy cow.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_06: Um, I don't think anybody had that move uh on their on their bingo card.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_13: Well, you know, there's there was a flurry of trades.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_13: Teams are trying to rebuild their their teams, you know, kind of in an unconventional way because the the unrestricted free agent clash just wasn't you know what it has been in the past, um, especially when Tuck was traded and signed right off the bat with uh with the capitals, but Philly just going all in, basically said, yeah.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it there's a visual, and the visual is taking all the chips and just putting them into the middle of the table.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_13: I I I don't know if Leo Carlson is worth 18 million dollars today, but I will say this.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_13: Um, there's a good chance he's worth 18 million dollars in three years, and and probably even more in the next uh next three or four.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_13: How long's the deal?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_13: Eight five, eight, I don't know.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_06: Is it five or eight?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_13: Uh hang on a second.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, look we got you're the research guy.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, you're you're a research guy.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_06: I feel like it's five.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_06: Uh hang on a second.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_06: It could be five.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_06: It could be five.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_06: And and and I guess my point in saying that, uh, back to your point of I think what you were alluding to is he might be worth it in three years.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_06: He might not be worth it today.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_06: And so you're betting on the cum a little bit, yeah.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and that he's gonna be there in three years, but is it a five-year deal or is it an eight-year deal?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_13: Well, you know what?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_13: I don't think they I don't think they can give him an eight.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_13: I only think Anna High.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think I don't think they can do eight more eight-year deals anymore.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_13: I well, that's right.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_13: Is it I thought your team could do eight, but everybody else could have five-year deal.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_06: Five years.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_06: So you're betting on the fact that in year three, this guy is going to be at market value, and essentially you're gonna have him for two more years.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_06: So by year three, he's gonna be there, you're paying a little premium on the front end, which is why you're 90 million dollars.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_06: I know, but but tell me if I'm off here.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_06: If you know you're overpaying on the front end, yeah, that's why the contract is structured the way it is.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, signing bonus and it's front loaded.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_06: Let's give the guy his money and let's give ourselves release uh relief on years uh three through five.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_13: And you look at that team, you know, they get Leo Carlson again, he's a number one center for that team.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_13: Now, is he worth here's the thing is he worth 18 million to that's more than Connor McDavid for it's more than everybody's friendly reminder?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_13: That's more than everybody, which you know, if you think about a guy like Dylan Larkin, I know we're talking about Detroit, but now Iserman's like, okay, you want a number one center who's like right now producing more than Leo Carlson for 8.7 million a year.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_06: And for every team that's out there that has signed people, aren't you doing like a collective?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_13: Well, he this, I mean, like McConnor McDavid's gonna be the first$20 million man.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_13: He has to be, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_13: Absolutely.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_13: He has to be, and that's a whole we talked a little bit about that last week.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but now we're talking about like Bobby Bonilla Day.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_06: We're getting towards baseball where you know Philadelphia's kind of made the first move here and said, Yeah, we're gonna give him 90 million dollars, but we're gonna give him like 40 million dollars in the first two years.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_06: Are we gonna get to the point where NHL hockey is going to have Bobby Bonilla Day for some of these guys and just have deferred comp for 15 years and just move the chips to the to the tail end, the backside, he's gonna be 60, he's gonna be getting paid.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_13: And I I probably should know this.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_13: When's the next when's the next CBA?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_13: Because I is it because I I I think it's is it they just had one.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_06: That's why the yeah, I feel I feel like we've got two, I feel like we've got two years.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_13: A couple years of of this.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_13: So yeah, I don't know, but like if I'm Philly and I've got Leo Carlson and Porter Martone, and you've got um you know the goalie goaltender who was amazing, fantastic.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_13: Um, you know, they're they're they're pretty well.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_13: Kinectnie Kinect.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_06: So what do you do now?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_06: You got Ziegris, you just you just made that movie.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_06: He had an incredible.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_13: You know, Ziegris.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, you have Dryasdale, who's also an RFA, you got Katurier on that team.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's you're banking on uh being able to lock some guys up, but you right now in the league has gone to number one and number two centers.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_13: If you've got a number one, number two center, you are basically a contender.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_06: What I really what I really want to know is do you think that Philadelphia flyer ticket prices are going up?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_13: For sure.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_13: And you know what?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_13: They'll pay it.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_13: It's just gonna they will pay it.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_06: Is this trickle down economic?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_13: Well, everything is is I mean, they're gonna have to.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, look at how it's 24 bucks a beer instead of 22 bucks a beer.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, uh so it's funny because uh, you know, Brendan and Brendan and Kelly were out of town, so I took Sean to a blues game.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_13: We went and saw the blues play Edmonton, and even Sean's like, 10 bucks for a hot dog?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_13: And the blues aren't paying 18 million dollars to anybody.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_13: So, you know, I I just look at it as as a fan, this is like PlayStation hockey where you're or or Xbox hockey where you're able to, you know, just we're gonna trade these guys, we're gonna try and build this team.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, even though we just saw Carolina win with the model of patience and development, but Florida, Vegas, all right, Tampa.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_13: There's no patience in development.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_13: It is it is pay and and let's go win now.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, you're Pat Verbique.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_06: What do you do?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_13: Pat Verbique should be fired.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_06: Do you do you match or do you let him?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_13: Take that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_13: Hey, that's a hot take.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_13: Clip that Pat Verbique should be fired.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, how do you let Leo Carlson get to the point where like you you should have all the leverage and it's gone?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_13: Clock strikes, the clock strikes midnight.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_13: Leo's we've already agreed to this$13 million.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_13: They probably could have locked him up for well maybe maybe 13.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_13: Maybe 13.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_13: Because you look at Capri Soff got Capri Soff's a winger, and he's a he's I mean he's Russian, so he could be 10 years older.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_13: We don't know, but he's at least five years old.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_13: He's like Albert Pool.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_13: Exactly.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_13: He's at least five years older, and you're like, well, you know, if you're Leo Carlson's agent, you're like 21 years old, almost a point a game.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_13: Carrot, it was was a force in the playoffs.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_13: But like and here's the thing you get your four first-round draft choices over the next four years.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_13: Well, what if Philly's drafting in in 27 plus?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_13: Then it then it's like I think you have to re-sign him if you're Anaheim.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_13: You can't let a number one center walk out the door, and you're not gonna be able to go get Dylan Larkin because he's not waving his no trade clause to go to go to Anaheim.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_06: But then what are you gonna do with Cutter?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_13: You know what?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_13: The whole the like the whole that actually I didn't even think about that because the whole Philly Cutter go the changes the whole dynamic.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_13: Well, like, is this Philly saying we don't like you because you guys I mean this is so I I love if this is where the NHL's going, there's me in.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_06: I mean I mean, isn't there a John Lennon song called Mind Games?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_13: Oh, I that's a great song.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_13: You know, if we bring Lennon up, we're gonna we we are we will go way off the rails.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_13: Best of uh 1978 debut albums.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_13: Go ahead and name them Van Halen.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_13: Um we will go off the rails if we start talking music, but um but we're here for a best of part two.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_06: And uh let's start off with uh uh a youth hockey organization from far in the northwest, so far in the northwest that uh we separate lower 48 from uh two states, and this is one of them.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_06: And so this is from the great state of Alaska and the Alaska Youth Hockey Association.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_06: And I learned some great things in this conversation, like the Alaska Youth Hockey Organization has one of the largest, they claim the largest.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_13: I would say it's is that like the ketchup bottle in Collinsville?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, largest ketchup bottle in the world.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_06: It is, it's like every nostalgia ville uh uh uh uh place that you drive on the highway and they're like largest ballots wine, largest beef.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_13: 66, 66 heading up to Alaska.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_06: But uh, but uh we had the pleasure of speaking with the Alaska Youth Hockey Organization and hearing about their youth hockey B and C tournament.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_06: I love this B and C.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_06: So the equivalent of this for people that don't play B and C hockey at the youth hockey level is these are your players that are just trying to get better every day.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_06: They're figuring out how to skate forwards and backwards, they're figuring out how to make a pass uh on the tape, they're figuring out how to move in stride, they're trying to figure out how to keep their head up and each day just get a little bit better, and maybe they progress and eventually become uh a higher B level player or an A-level player.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_06: And maybe if they even continue that, they might have might have the opportunity to play uh double-A hockey potentially.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_13: Well, the great thing in Kirk Kulberg, the director of hockey for Alaska, who we talked to, he also talks about the challenges they have um being so far removed from the from the lower 48 and the challenges they have in retaining players in Alaska.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_13: Um, there's been a lot of talent that has come out of Alaska from per capita, you know, not just Scotty Gomez, Colton Breako.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_13: Exactly.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, they talk about his coaching philosophy, but the one thing that's stuck with me, and you know, I'm a nerd about you know hockey and all of that, and he drew up a great drill for us.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_13: But the one thing that really stuck with me is we're here to build great humans through hockey.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_13: And so have a listen.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_13: Uh, we're gonna this is from the Alaska Youth Hockey Organization out of Anchorage.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_13: Um, we got a great chance.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_13: This is Kirk Kullberg.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_13: Um, have a listen and then go go ahead and like and subscribe and YouTube and go listen to the full the full interview um and your free time.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_13: So here is Kirk Kulberg, Anchorage Youth Hockey Association.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_11: Hey guys, thanks for having me on.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_06: Kurt, welcome.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome to the Too Many Men on the Mic Show, and thanks for spending time highlighting the great things that are going on in youth hockey in Alaska.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, before you joined, you were telling us a little bit about uh a little bit of off-ice facility that you built there.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_06: So why don't you share with the listeners how you're improving the environment over at Anchorage Youth Hockey with uh with your off-heads facility?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_11: Well, as uh we are the biggest program in in the city of Anchorage, one of the biggest ones in the state.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_11: I think it kind of goes back and forth between us and Fairbanks, who's bigger.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_11: And so uh we felt the need from our membership to kind of enhance the you know, we wanted like, you know, what's the perk of being a member of the Anchorage Hockey Association?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_11: And we we felt like off-ice training was going to be one of the things that was next for us.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_11: I think I don't know where they pay what they pay for ice in lower 48 everywhere we go, you know, other when we rented for tournaments and stuff like that.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_11: But here it's you know$385 to$500 an hour, which is crazy in a state that's cold and you can go skate outside.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, no kidding.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_13: You guys have ODRs, I would think, right?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_11: I mean, I typically I have one in my backyard that's 70 by 40, and that's you know, that's a good rink from end of October, maybe early November through March.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_11: But um, the off ice training was a big thing that we felt we needed to incorporate, and so we just actually we're in the end of our first season with this uh office facility.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_11: It's got a full-on parent lounge shooting lanes.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_11: Um, we have uh we call it our cognitive trainings training area where we can do like reaction-based stuff, and some teams just come in here and do like yoga, and then other teams come in here and they take advantage of shooting pucks and stick handling and whatnot.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_06: I love it, I love it.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you uh you don't let any of the parents into the shooting lane, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_06: You keep them in the parents' lens, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, they got a glass area.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_11: They get to it's like it's like a zoo, and they just get to hang out behind the glass and watch watch the animals train.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_13: You know, Drew and I were part of an organization where we we built out an off-ice facility, sounds very similar to yours.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_13: And um, I think the biggest piece of that, obviously getting kids in to be able to be with their team and you know save a few bucks uh when you're working on uh passing and shooting, but it's also the community aspect, you know.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_13: Um, I'm sure you guys have you know trophies and banners and medals, and and and when those kids come in as you know, you know, mini mites, you know, six U's and eight U's, and they see that they see the older kids and what they can shoot for, it's gotta be great and just a great culture and environment for them.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_11: Yes, yeah, I agree.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_11: That's cool to have that just be everything about your organization encompassed in one little area.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_06: Tell our listeners a little bit about Anchor G Faki.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, you probably have lots of different players in your organization, boys and girls, I would imagine.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_06: How many members are there?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_06: And then tell us a little bit about uh all the different levels in your organization.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_11: We have uh every every level.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_11: So we start we start with the little learn to skate kids at three and four years old at the Diamond Center, uh, with with you know programs of learn to play and six you there all the way through eight you red, white, and blue, just like per USA hockey.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_11: And then uh we have full-fledged rec and comp programs for both boys and girls.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_11: So we have we field teams at the national bound level for tier two for boys and girls, and then we have our developmental programs at 10U and 12U.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_11: Uh Alaska does do something kind of weird where it's not necessarily classified like it is down in lower 48.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_11: We have 10U and 12U, we call major and minor.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_11: So, you know, that would those that those kids play in the Alaska League.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_11: And um, then we also have our rec programs with our recreational B and our recreational A divisions.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_13: Sounds like, you know, although you guys are isolated, you call us the lower 48, which I absolutely love.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_13: Sounds like though the journey from might to 18U for boys and and might to 19U for girls, you know, it's a similar trajectory.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_13: You guys are national bound.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_13: In fact, my son at 14U played Team Alaska in uh in nationals up in uh Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_13: Um, unbelievable talent and competitive group of kids that we played against then, and that was five years ago.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_13: Talk a little bit about you know when you you you you go from that rec league to your team, your your Alaska league into that uh 14U, 15U, 16U bracket.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_13: What uh in Missouri and in other places, you tend to the teams get there's less teams and the talent gets a little bit more uh filtered.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_13: How do you work that with kids that maybe aren't at you know double A or even that triple A level as they progress to 14U and 16U?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_13: What are their options and where can they get to play it?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_13: And what does that development um journey look like?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_11: Well, we have a the nice thing about Alaska is it's very everyone knows everyone, right?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_11: Like it's and every everyone knows everyone in a specific birth year, and so we have great we have a great feeder system, you know.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_11: Like our this Anchor Shockey Association has a big rec program that feeds our comp program that then in turn feeds team Alaska, right?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_11: And Team Alaska being our our tier one program housed underneath the state affiliation.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_11: Um, so there's always a spot for any one of them to play.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, I would say, you know, developmentally, it's just it's it's been a process.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_11: Matt Thompson's done a great job of kind of creating this environment for team Alaska to thrive in and keep kids back in Alaska, and that gives something for all those kids.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_11: You want you want all those programs for to look up to each other.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_11: So you want the rec B kids to see the Rec A kids and be like, I'm gonna be that next year.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_11: Right.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_11: And then the Rec A kids are like, I'm making a comp team.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_11: I'm going to a camp, I'm doing power skating, I'm doing whatever, I'm gonna work out all summer and I'm gonna make a comp team in August.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_11: Typically, our our our tryouts for our comp programs are the second week of August, which is kind of weird, but it works out.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_11: Um, and then you know, those those comp those kids who played tier two, you know, they're like, I'm gonna make Team Alaska 15 only or 16s next year.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_11: And so I think for us it's it's it's pretty simple, like you're right.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_11: It's just the landscape is there, and kids just have the ability to go play where they they fit in.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_06: I love it.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_06: So tell us a little bit about what role does hockey play in the culture of Anchorage, and uh you have a very uh large indigenous community there.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, is that part of the culture uh that feeds into hockey?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_06: And is there outreach to that community that goes on?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, and I would say I, you know, I couldn't give you specific numbers because we just go like, hey, everybody's in this program.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_11: And I don't even know if we we look at numbers based off of ethnicity or like whether they're indigenous people or not.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_11: I think that we just have like a big family and everybody's a part of it.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_11: I know that we've had more outreach recently because we've had uh a good relationship with the Seattle Kraken, and that's brought the NHL Kraken Learn to Play program.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_11: I'm pretty good friends with Marty Halenka, who's the youth director for Seattle Kraken.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_11: And this all kind of started a long time ago with this camp I run.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_11: They wanted to come up here and run a camp, they ended up just joining with me, and now we have Kraken Week at the Anchorage Hockey Academy every year, and then that fed into now we're gonna do the Kraken Learn to Play once a year and get another hundred plus kids into the game.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_11: Well, Bristol Bay Native Corporation's affiliated with the Seattle Seattle Kraken, they're they're good, they're good with us, and so we just kind of have this trio of how many kids can we get into the game in one summer, and so that's been awesome because that's also given us this great process for like hockey's an expensive sport, and the most expensive part of joining a program is buying all the gear.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_11: So when you get into that NHL Learn to Play program, and then you get this kid who maybe couldn't have afforded to couldn't have afforded to be able to buy the gear, gets a full set head-to-toe, 10-12 practices.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_11: Now they love the game, done, right?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_11: That kid's hooked for for life, and then you know they get to grow with all the the same uh reasons that we love hockey, you know, building good people.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_11: So I'd say so.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_11: That was a roundabout answer to say, like, I think there's good outreach, and I think that um everyone gets incorporated as much as they want to be.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_13: So it's awesome.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_13: I love it.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_13: Yep, you gotta you gotta get the Kraken up there to play a game like Mystery Alaska, that movie.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_13: You gotta get them up there, maybe get them and the Canucks to play a game up in uh up in Acre.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_11: Unreal.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_11: I would be a legend if I could sort that out.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_13: But we would love to come up to Alaska and broadcast live with that game.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_13: So let's let's put our heads together and figure that out.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_13: That that sounds like that's uh sounds like a pretty good idea, right?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_13: We were talking about or we were talking about Oregon last week, but we've got a little further afield with uh with coming up to Alaska in this show.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_13: So um that would be really, really cool.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_13: Tell tell us a little bit about you know um hockey teams, hockey organizations, they try to build an identity and a culture.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_13: You know, here in St.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_13: Louis, we've got uh you know 12 different organizations, and each organization has their own um what they're known for, whether it's high skill, you know, gritty, tough play, um, you know, kind of blue collar.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_13: You know, talk a little bit about beyond just the the skill development with uh Anchorage and Anchorage hockey.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_13: What's kind of that identity that you and your fellow coaches and directors try to uh to instill with those kids that that they take beyond just their youth hockey?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_11: I would say uh a friend of mine, Clint Lancaster, once told me we had this discussion.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_11: Like, what do we want our identity to be our ambition to be?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_11: And we came up with we make good people that play hockey, and understandably, that you know, we want to build like a system of work ethic and sportsmanship and just good human beings, and so I'd say that's our biggest identity, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_11: That's that that's the culture that we want to portray.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_11: I don't know that we get portrayed as like the winners all the time, or uh even though, like, I think our that's worth the applause there, my friend.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_11: I appreciate that.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_11: Uh, we do have two national bound teams that are going to or two teams from our program, the 14U North Stars and the 60 U North Stars are now going to compete for nationals.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_11: So, you know, the the end game does work.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_11: If you do the right things for the right reasons, eventually you get rewarded.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_11: That's the way it is.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_11: So we really impress upon like the building good human being things, and we do that by trying to provide this environment where we have the coaches that are in the right spots and the coaches that we want to be there that are creating good human beings and reinforcing the good habits.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_13: Um can I can I follow up on that?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_13: Because you mentioned coaches and we're all coaches here.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_13: Um, you know, Drew and I, you know, kind of grew up with this sport.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_13: So with us, it was kind of you know, as we had kids, it was an easy transition.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_13: You know, are there a lot of coaches, volunteer coaches in your organization that you know kind of came to hockey because their kids found it?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_13: And how are you developing you know those great coaches um to create a pipeline of talent from the coaching coaching ranks?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_11: You know, it's funny that you asked that specifically because I always have this joke like the number of dads that I've taught to I've taught them how to skate with their kids, like they're like, Hey, I like I was like, I'd come out and help you, but I don't know how to skate.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_11: And I'm like, dude, USA hockey number, put a helmet on, I'll show you.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_11: And you know, that's the number of guys that that that's happened with or girls, it's been unbelievable.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_11: And I think growing the coaching core is probably one of the biggest struggles, right?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_11: Because like the number of volunteers that you have really is the backbone of your organization.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_11: That's the way it is.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_11: And and Anchorage Hockey Association, I would say 95% of our coaches are volunteers.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_11: I say that because some of our, I think we have a comp a couple of comp coaches right now that are not dads on the team, so they're they get paid a stipend, and that's they earn that, they they put in the work.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_11: Um, but everything else, all of our rec program coaches, all of our little dipper C PUP coaches, and I'm talking about programs that we have right now, they're all volunteers.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_11: And so our Mike program alone has 85 different coaches, and so each one of those is like you know, we're trying to build this six to one, four to one, five to one ratio on the ice, and also the coaching education aspect for us has been huge.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_11: So we have coaches symposiums amongst our own organization where we bring in a high, uh, a highly sought-after coach, like a Nick Walters, who formerly was was with uh University of Alaska Anchorage with the Wolverines, then kind of just floating around like gun for hire, I'll call him.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_11: You know, we bring him in.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_11: Hey, come talk to our coaches about power play and make it to where it's an environment where those volunteer coaches want to learn.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_11: It's awesome, right?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_11: Because they all want to get better, they all want to be good at what they're doing, and so um we get a mixture of the coaches that learn to learn to play, and then you get the mixture of the coaches that they grew up playing here.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_11: They're former UAA players.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_11: I'd say we, you know, we've had a we took a hit now that the aces aren't around.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_11: I don't have you ever heard of the Alaska Aces.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_11: That was our former ECHL team.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_11: What's that?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_13: ECHL team, yeah.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_11: And so we were hope like we banked on those guys, like they're stayed here, they played here, they retired, then they then they coach youth teams.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_11: Well, I don't have that anymore, so that kind of sucks.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_11: But uh so now we're developing homegrown coaches or getting, you know, like I'm gonna throw a guy out here uh right now in our eight you red program, and our learn to play program is Joey Crab.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_11: Joey Crab played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the best part was my son's on the ice, my 14-year-old son's on the ice helping me, and he's a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_11: And he goes, Dad, that guy's wearing Toronto Maple Leaf gloves.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_11: And he's like, Yeah, that's Joey Krab, he played for him, and he just couldn't even go near him.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_11: It's hilarious, and so and so you have you have a range of guys like that, and then like the dad that we taught how to skate last season with his kid because he wanted to get involved.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_06: So and do those coaches I I gotta ask, now that you've trained them and got them on the ice and got them to a place where they're comfortable and they're coaching.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, does that extend into men's?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_06: What's the men's league uh look like up there?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_11: Yep, that's usually what I see about year two or three with them.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_11: Is then they start, I'm on you know, I'm they friend me on Facebook and I see them score their first goal or they're playing some adult league game, and yeah, it's it's that I've never heard of a men's league coach pulling up a live bar.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_13: Never heard of it.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_13: Never heard of it.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_11: Oh, the St.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_11: Louis flag fell.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_13: Hey, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_13: We'll take that.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_06: Um, that's fantastic.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_06: I love that you're uh developing uh dads along with the kids, and I love that there's an extension into uh into men's hockey.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_06: Uh that's fantastic.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and like a lot of organizations that we've talked to all over the country, uh, that's a common theme, right?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_06: We're uh we're we're we're training up uh uh dads and moms that maybe haven't been exposed to the game and putting them in a position to uh to to learn the game and coach.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, here in St.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_13: Louis, where we have uh an NFT target that's been here since 1967, not as long as Anchorage is uh no, that's math, and math is undefeated.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but it was amazing to me as I was coaching um my sons, the dads who would some moms too, but mostly dads would be so on their kids, so on their kids.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_13: Oh my gosh, you're not you're not doing this, you're not doing that.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_13: And and mind you, they're great hockey fans, but their exposure to the game is watching the best of the best play it on.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_13: And so our team manager, I'll never forget this.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_13: My my older son was in uh 10 years ago.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_13: Uh manager said to these dads, well, you guys still play?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_13: And they're like, We can't skate.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_13: And so by the end of that season, they started with an adult learn to play program that we have here in St.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_13: Louis, and um I think about three practices in, they were like, My kid is so good at hockey.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_13: And and those to those to their credit, uh, a couple of those dads became coaches, and all of them uh are still playing in adult hockey and probably became better hockey parents because of the perspective that that that you know sometimes when when somebody's voluntole to be a coach, they actually get a greater appreciation and greater perspective for the game than somebody who's played it since they were eight years old.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_06: Hey Kirk, uh uh tell us a little bit about how uh the opportunities that are available for kids to move on as they grow and develop in the game.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_06: So as they uh uh get in, uh get out of, I should say, Pee-Wee and get into the high school ranks, and then potentially uh junior opportunities.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_06: What's that look like up there?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_11: Uh so we have uh we have a pretty we have a good high school league, and I would say unlike, yeah, or I guess not unlike not like most programs, we have kind of like a weird dynamic with high school hockey, right?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_11: You have like the Bannams, the the 14-year-olds, the freshmen that they can, you know, they kind of like they're kind of gumby.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_11: They're their C seasons kind of run all year long, and so they kind of dual participate.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_11: They play high school and on their comp teams pretty much the entire year.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_11: The 16U and 18U teams, they have a little bit heavier schedule when it comes to high school hockey.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_11: So they for the most part, those national bound teams shut down.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_11: Um, this year specifically, the team Alaska kids didn't participate in it.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_11: There's you know, I don't you trust me, you don't want me to get into like that dynamic.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_11: That's it is it was what it was, but it gave some of the younger kids an opportunity to be able to participate in high school hockey.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_11: And I got to my son got to do it for the first time this year, which is great.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_11: He's a freshman, so I got to watch him play against 18-year-olds as a 14-year-old.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_11: And that's that's a cool dynamic to see, you know, are they either gonna sink or they're gonna swim.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_11: And I think that's been that's been good for him and kids like him.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_11: Um, as far as the junior teams go and like how kids get opportunities, we've had plenty of players from our team Alaska teams this year have gotten to play gnall games within you know, amongst the three gnall teams that we have, because we have the Fairbanks Ice Dogs up north, we have the uh Anchorage Wolverines here in town, and then we have the Kenai Brown Bears down three hours away.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_11: So um, and there's been a bunch of different kids that have gotten opportunities to kind of go there.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_11: Each one of those teams has Alaska-based kids on it, which is important, right?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_11: Like those, and even our division one program, the the uh seawolves, they have a bunch of Anchorage and Alaska-based kids on their team as well.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_11: So it's important for other kids to see that too, right?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_11: Because we were talking about you know, the rec B kids want to be the rec A kids and and so forth, like getting to see those players from Alaska get those opportunities and then how much they you know publicize it, that's important because kids kids know that there's an opportunity.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_11: We do as a state have a huge problem with kids leaving at young ages.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_11: Yeah, and I think one of my buddies who was looking into it, um, or Matt Thompson, sorry, he's the team Alaska director.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_11: Um, he was telling me, I want to say it's like 40 kids in one birth year.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_11: It's like 2010s, 40 2010s or 09s are gone.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_11: Wow, and so that's that's huge, that's a big number.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_13: Well, we hope you liked a little bit of flavor of uh Anchorage Youth Hockey.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_13: Uh again, go back and listen to the full episode on either uh Spotify, Apple, or Amazon or wherever you get your podcast.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_13: We would really love if you went over to YouTube, uh, looked it up on our uh our YouTube feed and liked and subscribed.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_13: Just like you, we hope that you like and subscribe to uh to this uh this episode.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_13: But one of the things that you know uh Kurt Kolberg had mentioned is they're trying to build great humans through hockey.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_13: And we this next segment, we have what I consider a great human.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_13: Um so we'll set the stage here through our mid-states game of the week broadcast.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_13: Drew and I had the opportunity to talk to um high school hockey coaches and players who we were spotlighting their game.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_13: And we had a chance to spotlight uh uh Rockwood Summit.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_13: And one of the players we got to talk to was junior uh alternate captain Blake Warren, and it was around Christmas time, and let's just say Blake did not disappoint.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_13: So we loved Blake so much in his little pregame, you know, minute and 42 second uh snippet that we brought him back for a full episode.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_06: He came back for his own episode, he was that memorable.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_13: And and Blake may become a show contributor this season.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_06: I think as a senior year, I think we absolutely should be our he should be our roving uh ice reporter.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_13: Absolutely.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, Blake uh also runs track uh and he talked about how he actually stepped away from hockey.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_13: Here was a kid that was playing Central States, but wanted to not just be a uh a one sport athlete, he wanted to get the full high school experience, um, and then came back to high school hockey and realized how much he missed it.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_13: And he he's a great, not only is he a great hockey player, but like I said, he's an he's a great human being.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_13: And and um he had some funny stories, not all of which I think made the show.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_06: Lots of energy.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_06: If you need a little pickup, this is your episode uh clip to listen to.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_13: So we're gonna break here now and turn it over to Blake Warren from Rockwood Summit in his own interview, and I think it was more of an audition tape to be uh the uh the roving ice correspondent for the Too Many Men on the Mike show.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_13: Have a listen.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_13: Blake, what's going on?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_13: Welcome, welcome back to Too Many Men on the Microsoft three-time member.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_13: Third time on the show.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_13: Did you know?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_12: I I would I just had a jaw-dropping moment hearing that.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_12: I'm honored to be the first.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_12: I'm honored to be the first three-time guest, guys.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_12: I'm honored.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_12: Thanks for having me on.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_06: You know what?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_06: We're gonna we're gonna be like SNL.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_06: You're gonna get a five-timer jacket, and uh then you'll be able to wear that on the fifth time in.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_13: Well, if you play your cards right, you might get a guest host uh gig.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_13: Or we'll we'll do a little spin-off show, you know, one mini men on the mic or something from Blake Lance.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_12: Blake, you can't change the two mini men on the mic.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_12: It's such an iconic name.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_13: Can't change you know, are you subscribed to the YouTube channel?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_13: The answer is yes.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_12: I'm subscribed, and I'm uh I don't know what it's called on uh Spotify, but it's in my library.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_12: Is it uh subscribe following following on Spotify?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_13: Following there you go.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_13: Well, Blake, man.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_13: Um obviously we love having you on.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_13: You were so memorable when you came on into our round table in our pregame for the game of the week when we were doing the mid-states game of the week.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_13: Um, we're shifting to more of that uh player focus here as we go into the offseason.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_13: And coach and I were like, you know, who's a great player to come on and talk about his journey from the time he was playing mini mite hockey all through youth hockey, some other sports, took a couple detours, maybe some time off.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_13: Um, we may have a couple stories or two to to ask you about.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but uh thanks as always for joining um the show.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_13: Start us off though, man.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_13: How did you get into hockey?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_13: You know, and talk a little bit about that, the program you were with, and who was the who was the uh catalyst, there's a word, that got you into uh into hockey as a as a little guy.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_12: Well, well, first of all, I want to say I might be the first five times uh guest on Too Many Men on the Mike because I'm actually a junior.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_12: So oh that's right, that's right, that's right.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_12: You are a junior, yeah.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_12: No offense taken.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_13: You're gonna have to be the six times.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_12: Yes, yeah.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_12: So I might edit because the hockey journey isn't over, right?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_12: It's just getting started.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_04: But let's talk about it.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_12: I yeah, I first got into hockey.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_12: Um, my dad played hockey in high school for a short stint.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_12: He played with the Limburg Flyers, he was on the Limburg Flyers.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_12: Um, played for yeah, I know, right?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_12: Terrible jerseys.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_12: Um played for four played for four years there, but nothing, nothing other than that.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_12: And then my older brother was playing when I was about six or seven.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_12: He was in eight you.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_12: And you know how it is when you're at that age, you just want to be like your bigger brother.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_12: So that's how I first got into hockey and to learn to play, watching my brother play.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_13: What organization you were with after and were you with oh, yeah.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_12: We were we were with Afton.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_12: We were with Afton pretty much the whole way up until I stopped playing club.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it still looked the same back then.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, right.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_12: Has their logo ever changed?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_13: Just the colors, just the colors.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_13: They've got a little darker blue every once in a while.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_06: Locker rooms haven't changed, one shade darker, yeah.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_13: One shade darker.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_13: I and uh I don't know if they've changed the grease off the fryers for the uh breakfast sandwiches, that's why they're so good.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_12: Oh my gosh, so good.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_13: Well, well, talk a little bit about that.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_13: You know, you're starting off as a as a as an 8U, 6U player.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_13: Um, you know, there's a lot of kids that they don't like the equipment, they don't like being out on the ice.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_13: Why did you take to it?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_13: Why was it like you were like, hey, I want to do this.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_13: This is fun.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_13: Talk a little bit about that.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_12: You know, I feel like just growing up in a hockey house and you know, being around a hockey culture, which I feel like we need to do better as a hockey community, is push that hockey culture.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_12: I just saw it from a young age and saw my brother do it and saw you know people around me talking about it, and it kind of got hyped up to the point where it's like, like, I want to be a part of this, you know, like I don't want to be left out, you know.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_12: And it just you know came down to you know, when I was in second, first grade learning how to play, playing eight you, you know, going to school and tell my friends about hockey, you know.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_12: Not not necessarily black bragging because none of my friends played hockey, but you know, something different that they didn't do, and it was like, you know, look at me, I play hockey, you know.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_06: Dad, what what position did your older brother play?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_12: He's he's been uh a center all of his life, center left wing, forward at that young of an age, but forward, I guess, at that young of an age.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, does he still play?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_06: Is he still play playing men's now?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, he played he played junior notes this year, but I he's he's done, he's done now.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, he had a short stamp with the junior blues, yes.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah, you're never done.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_06: You just go into men's hockey.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what you talk about.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_13: What'd you say?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_13: That's what you mean.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_13: That's kind of part of what you mean by culture.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, I love that you said that as uh you know, as a 16-17-year-old, you know, young man talking about culture um as to why you like hockey.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_13: Tell us a little bit more about what you mean by that because that's that's something that that feels like there's a take there.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_12: Just there there's a spe there's it's it's hard, it's hard to know the culture before you get into hockey, right?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_12: But playing football and playing track, there's a special bond you create while playing hockey that's different from other sports.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_12: There's this this this sense of brotherhood that you create while playing hockey that you carry into men's league with you know all the older men, you know.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_12: There's just this this type of culture, this type of connection in the hockey world that's hard to explain unless you're no you're out there playing and you're a part of it or been a part of it.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you brought up football and you brought up track, so uh you you've had a foray into both, then yes, I have.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_12: Hockey's not actually my main sport, even though I love it to death.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_12: We'll never stop loving hockey.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_12: But track's actually well, track was my second love, but my main love now, you know.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_06: Were your races?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_06: What are your races?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_06: What's your what are your go-to races?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_12: So, do do you guys know what the decathlon is?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_12: Oh, yes, oh yeah, yeah, that's that's what I'm trying to do.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_13: Dan and Dave back when we were younger.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_13: Dan Dan and Dave, I mean, before he was born, but they had the two guys with a Bruce Chip.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_13: He was, but after him in the 90s, it was Dan and Dave, and they did like the Nike thing.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_13: Oh, yeah.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_13: So talk about the so you're doing javelin, you're doing um put doing it all, man.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_12: So in high school, my man will that's 10 events and one.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_13: 10 events in one, right?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_12: It is yes, 10 events and one.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_12: How you guys know?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, I'm just catching up on my Greek DECA.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_12: No, but in uh in high school, I'll usually stick to the 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, and the javelin, and then I'll throw in a relay every meet because in high school you're limited to four four events per um per track meet.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_12: Um, last year was great.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_12: I really got into track last year.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_12: I set a few freshman sophomore records for my school, and that's you know, that's when I really started to take it seriously, like training every day, you know, just going hard in the off season, which actually led to because I was training track all through hockey season and all through football.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_12: I was just training track, lifting, sprinting, doing all the 10 events.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_12: I ended up with a stress fracture in my back during the hockey season, which was insane to play through.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_06: So, what'd you play in football?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_12: I'm a receiver tight end, so I'll I'll do some receiving and then they'll split me and then do some blocking, kind of like a utility guy.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_06: So I have to believe all of that movement.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_06: 10 events, I know you're limited to four, but still four events and track, you're playing both sides of the ball in football.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_06: I have to believe that only makes you a better hockey player, right?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_06: And and when you when you get on the ice after playing football and running track, do you feel light?
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, and vice versa, by the way, too.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_12: Playing hockey makes you a better athlete for your other sports too.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_12: So vice versa, too.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, playing track and playing football has made me such that's what I credit like my hockey growth and because like freshman year, because I didn't play my eighth grade year.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_12: I originally click quick club to go to football, but playing football on track, like I'll always I'll always till I die encourage hockey guys to play more than one sport, like don't just be a hockey dude.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_12: Playing football and playing track just made me so more so more so much more quick on my feet, so much more faster.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_12: And I was able to utilize those skills in hockey to just improve my game so much and change my play style.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_13: That quick twitch.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, man.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_13: Well, it's funny you mentioned football because uh I had a little little little text back and forth with one of your teammates, uh Wyatt Schneider, who's a huge who also you know, multi sport athlete, huge baseball, great baseball player, great, great athlete, great baseball player, great athlete.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_13: Um, and he mentioned that you know your football mentality, whenever you know the guys would always try and be on your team in the 1v1, the 2v2s, the 3v3s, because you were just gooning people out there on the ice.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_13: So talk a little bit about that, you know, as it as it makes you, you know, you embrace that physicality.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_13: Talk a little bit about uh about that aspect of uh playing multiple sports and bringing that to hockey and vice versa.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, so obviously, you know, in football there's a extreme, you know, weightlifting the oh, you know, big man culture, you know, just gotta get those traps going, man.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_12: Just just a total like dude culture in football.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_12: So so like I said, in eighth grade, I didn't play hockey, I went to football.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_12: So that's when I started to, you know, get that you know, oh I'm a dude, you know, type of type of message.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_13: You do you did the you dude up?
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, so and then I went into freshman year and played another round of football.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_12: So this is now two seasons of football without hockey.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_12: And then I'm like, you know what?
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_12: My my brother's playing hockey, I've played hockey all my life.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_12: Like, I gotta, I gotta join up with my brother, I gotta play with my brother.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_12: That's the reason I first played, but then stepping back onto the ice freshman year, I'm like, I've kind of lost some skill.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_12: Like, what do I have?
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_12: And the only thing I had was my total, like, I'm 6'2, you know, 190, I'm bigger than anybody else.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_12: I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna go out there and beat everybody up because that's the only thing I can do.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_12: So my my role freshman year, obviously I progressed past that, but my role freshman year is just I was a fourth line guy.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_12: I was good.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_12: My role maybe called you a bully, man.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_12: My role every every time I went out there freshman year was just to put someone on the ground, try to put as many people on the ground as I can, you know, get snow in the goalie's eyes, you know, do whatever I can to get that you know competitive advantage.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, I'm sure the first line was loving you coming in on the backside of your shift.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_06: They're like, okay, great.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_06: They took out all the took out all the bodies, and uh now we can just go out and score.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_13: Everybody's running and hiding because Blake the bully's out here.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_13: Right.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_13: Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because certainly your freshman year, you weren't you weren't lighting up the scoreboard or your but as you progress, I mean, 18 points in 19 games your next year, and then 28 points in 19 games this year.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_13: So if you didn't, if if you kind of forgot your skill, I think you found it.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_13: So talk a little bit about you know what what were you doing um to help with that skill besides playing other sports away from the ice?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_12: Well, first of all, in the offseason, I would get in.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_12: Do you guys know Coach Rhodi by chance?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_13: Oh no, I know Sean Rudy.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_13: You know Sean Roddy talking to him a couple weeks ago.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_12: Yeah, me and my brother would get him get in with him over the offseason, and then Summit also has a thing over the summer, a summit run high school thing that we skate three times over three three times a week over the summer together as a team, and the middle school guys will come up.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_12: So I did that every summer, and I just met like man, every time I went out there, I it was just intent on getting better in something, you know.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_12: I didn't just show up there just because I had to go, because you know, oh I gotta go to practice.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_12: It was like, what can I do today to get better?
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_12: You know, how can I how can you know I get better at a skill that I can incorporate into my game?
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_12: So just really like focusing, pinpointing something in practice and focusing on something and then applying that to a game, that's what really made me better.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_12: And also my mentality really shifted from freshman year.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_12: Like, freshman year, I was like the defensive guy, you know, going out and hitting people with the puck.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_12: This this year I kind of took that, I kind of took that playstyle and like adapted it almost to where like no like my mentality was not I'm gonna knock everybody down.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_12: It's like nobody's gonna take the puck from me.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_12: Like, I'm gonna get the puck down low and I'm gonna just keep it for 15 seconds and wait for a play to open up because nobody can take the puck from me.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_12: So just that mentality shift with the new acquired skills that had gain back or gain, just that really elevated my game.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_13: That's awesome.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_06: So uh when you were playing football as a receiver, uh were you uh uh uh were you kicking on your uh your sprinting skills there?
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_06: Because you're I mean you're decathlete.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_06: Were you just no it was it was it smoke as soon as you got the ball?
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_06: And no, none of those cornerbacks and safeties could catch you.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_06: Or are you a possession receiver, man?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_13: You're a pole receiver, right?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_12: So yeah, funny enough, I've never like I'm I'm not to brag, not to brag, not to brag, but like I'm even though it doesn't look like it on skates, too.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_12: Like, I look slow on skates, but like I'm fast.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_12: So even though I'm fast in football, like I feel like I started late to where I never really learned how to like you know bounce off attack or you know, juke out someone in open field.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_12: So I was you didn't have to, you just run away.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_12: Oh, yeah, I was I was always that go up and get it, guy, and then just run north as long as I can in football.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_06: Last minute of play in this period.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_06: So, how does that translate over to hockey?
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_06: I have to believe then with that kind of speed and that mentality and just breakaway, you're probably a nightmare on the forecheck, then, right?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_06: You're you're forechecking hard and your first on puck.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_12: And and playing defense in football, it's it taught me so well how to like angle the puck and and hockey and use the boards to your advantage because the boards, what it essentially is, is like a sideline in football.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_12: And you know, in football, they teach this whole technique about like using the sideline as a second man, like it's you and the sideline against the the dude with the ball.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_12: So learning that through football just really helped my defensive game with hockey on just learning how to angle people and learning how to get the puck away from them.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I love that.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_06: From one Blake to another, we're shifting gears and we're moving over to a fantastic interview.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_06: One of the things that we didn't cover up until this point over the last year was what happens to you beyond ATU?
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_06: What are your hockey options that are out there?
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_06: And we had the pleasure of speaking to, I have to say, one of the most articulate young men I think I've ever spoken to in my life.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_13: We've been lucky to interview a lot of intelligent guests, and I think the IQ level on this show uh more than doubled with Blake.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_13: And that was three of us.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_13: So what does that tell you?
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_13: Maps undefeated.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_13: Um, and Blake's journey is amazing how you know he he was not a triple A player, um, not a Central States player, but he's what we do this podcast for.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, a k a kid who has a great story about how he came in and became a hockey player, um, and now he's playing in college, he's playing ACHA hockey at Northwestern, not a big deal.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_13: Um, pretty, pretty awesome.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and I would add uh also to it that at one point he thought about walking away from hockey completely, and he stuck with it and he found his groove, and ultimately he has found a place playing on the Northwestern University ACHA team.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_06: Fantastic interview.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, so such a great spoken young man.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, I won't say he's gonna be Blake Warren, our roving reporter, no, but he might be a contributing editor on the Too Many Men on the Mic, uh, maybe ACHA coverage here in the future.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, either that or he's gonna like do all of our investments for us.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_06: He will.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_06: This is Blake Dorn from Northwestern University.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_06: Have a listen.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_13: It's great to see you, and uh thanks so much for joining us, man.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_13: Tell catch us up, man.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_13: Tell us, tell us what college life is like at Northwestern.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so first of all, thanks so much for having me on.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, I appreciate it a lot.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, winded down the year at Northwestern.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have about a few weeks left.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely been a great ride so far.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the academics have been pretty challenging, but I would say it's going well.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm having a great time.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of great friends, hockey's going well, uh school parts going well.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, no complaints at all.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_06: So, so Blake, uh, how often are you on the ice uh practicing uh with your ACHA team?
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um on a regular week, we'll have two or three skates a week and then games on the weekends.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: So say four or five times a week.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, so that's a good healthy amount of ice that you're touching.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_06: And uh uh I take it you you've got games in town, but then you've got games out of town.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: And how uh how frequently are you hitting the road?
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so the divisions, it's kind of weird.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: It got realigned last year.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: So most of our teams that we play are in the Chicagoland area.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we do have a few trips though.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: So like this past year we went to Los Angeles, we played Loyola Maramount, uh, we went to Madison, Wisconsin, we went to a place called Fondu Lac in Wisconsin, uh, not the best place to go.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then next year we're going to Arizona, uh Miami of Ohio, and then St.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: Louis for playoffs.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's a good amount, but most I would say most of our games are in the Chicagoland area.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_13: Well, tell us a little bit about, you know, you know, we're we're gonna get into this journey and we're gonna have a little bit of fun.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but tell us a little bit about what do you what are you studying?
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_13: Are you what are you majoring in at Northwestern?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_13: And uh, you know, how often are you catching the train down to the city?
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_13: Uh and and you know, you know, we'll we'll make sure your mom and dad aren't listening, uh, you know, when we we talk when we have the when we brought drop the episode.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I've been I've been going downtown a lot, obviously.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's a train station right by my dorm, actually.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's super convenient.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: I can go down anytime I want.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a great time.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what was the first question you asked?
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: What are you majoring in?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, what's the studies like?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm right now I haven't declared, but I'm planning on doing a double major in political science and legal studies, and then a possible minor in history or Spanish.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't decided which one.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but obviously the pre-law track, yeah.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, right away he's the smartest guy on the podcast, Drew.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_13: A lot of definitely.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_13: Well, we're super excited to have you on here, and I know you've listened to the show.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_13: Um we we talk a lot about you know what we call the 90% in youth hockey, the kids that are playing, you know, C through A1 level, and you know, understanding that that's where the sport needs to grow.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_13: We need to make sure we're keeping those kids in it.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_13: You went through that track.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, you were an A-level player.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_13: Um, I think you ended your minor career playing double A midget.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but you know, between that and going to such a great high school, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you know the 10U and 12U Blake was like and what that experience was and why you kept playing this great sport?
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll start off going way back.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: My dad played hockey at Slough High, actually, uh, back in the day, you know, a long time ago.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_01: So he always visioned me and my brother Noel playing hockey.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think I started when I was six.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: I went to a skate, absolutely hated it, hated it so much.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: I cried and left ice.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't I didn't go back and I refused to play for a while.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started watching hockey, watching the blues, going to blues games, getting into it.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, hey, I can give this another try.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe nine or ten, I started skating again.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, played my first year with the Rockets with Coach Whitworth.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to him, he's absolutely amazing.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, I quickly found that I was that level, I was one of the better players on the team, one of the better skaters.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I got moved to defense, and then yeah, from there it's it's been a uh been a movie for since then.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, you see how we slid that in there, Drew.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_13: I heard it.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_13: Well, all of you two guys hash it out here because it's gonna be a love fest now that you talked about skating and defense.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah, yeah, I love it.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_06: I I love a defender, but uh you went to blues games.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_06: I love how you said that.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_06: So you went to blues games, and what was it about watching the uh the pro game?
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_06: Because one of the things we talk about on the show a lot is uh watch a player uh that plays your position and uh follow them for a period or even an entire game.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_06: So, what was it about going to blues games that really kind of made you uh get into it maybe the second time around?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_06: What was that?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'll start off by saying that I went to Clayton for elementary school and soccer was the sport to play.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone loved soccer, but for me, I absolutely hated it.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_01: And no no hates all the soccer fans out there, but for me it was pretty slow paced.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, couldn't really tell what was going on.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I start going to hockey games and it's super fast-paced, everyone's moving, everyone seems to know what they're doing, moving the puck, hitting people, it's physical, and I loved it and I decided I want to try that out.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_06: So you like the physical part of the game?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_06: Of course.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: Love it.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_06: So um uh I have to imagine that uh uh ACHA hockey with 18 plus year old uh players out there can get physical from time to time, right?
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah, it does.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_06: And uh uh how old would you say uh some of the players that you're playing against are?
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_06: Uh uh do you uh do you age out of ACHA hockey uh when you get to a certain year?
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_06: How long are you are you able to play?
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't believe so.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think you have four or maybe five years of eligibility because I know grad students are able to play.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um there was a 25-year-old on my team this year that came from playing NCAA D3, and we played Loyola Chicago, and they had someone on their team with a family, a wife and kids.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not a very wide age range.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_13: I I mean that's I mean it I remember when I was in school and being out there, uh, and there, I swear to god, there was like 10 guys with beards, mortgages, and three kids.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_13: Oh yeah, so so cool.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but what a great experience.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, so I love how you talk about like hey, I'm gonna give this a try again.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_13: I'm gonna go back.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_13: And it was tied to the local local hockey team, the the blues.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_13: And I think a lot of kids get that, especially those kids that saw the blues win the Stanley Cup.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_13: That was you were a little bit before that time, as far as like that being an impact.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_13: But like, were there kids in your elementary school?
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_13: Were there other kids besides the Rockets that you were able to kind of you were friends with that maybe were playing, you know, a little bit sooner than you were?
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_13: Um and what are some things that if you could go back and tell that 12-year-old Blake, hey, this isn't as important, or do this, what would those what would those things be?
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so on the first point, I would say I was one of the first to start playing hockey at my school.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think before me, there was one other guy, and he grew up playing triple A.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we weren't the closest of friends.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't talk to him a lot about hockey.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you know, after me, maybe I started a trend because a lot of people started to started to play.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then on your second point, um, I would tell myself to just have fun with it.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like growing up, maybe around until high school, I was kind of like a scared player out there.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was always one of the better players for my level, but I was always kind of afraid to make a mistake, you know.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want my teammates to yell at me, my coach to yell at me.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't want I didn't want to try new things that I'd worked on at practice or at least sticking pucks, you know.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say don't be scared to make mistakes.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's a game, it's supposed to be for fun.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: You should try your best to be the best player you can out there.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be scared to make a mistake.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_06: And so when you were thinking about going to college and you were wrapping up your 18U season, uh, was there ever a point where you said, uh, boy, I just don't know what I'm gonna do with hockey?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_06: Or did you get to Northwestern and find out information about the ACHA team?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_06: And then did that lead you to discussions?
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_06: How did that work for you?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so that's an interesting question.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: So my senior year, I was playing on the SLU varsity team and then ATUAA for Rockets with my friends.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a few months into the season for SLU in the J Cup game, actually, I got a concussion.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this was one of the I've had a few concussions I'd won the year before.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: So after that, I took a long break from hockey a few months, even after I was cleared, I was hesitant about playing.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I ended up finishing up the season with my double-A team and we won the Blue Note Cup.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I went into that game really, you know, thinking that that would be my last ever game of hockey, that that would be my last time placing up playing.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a such a great time in that game.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: We won, you know, uh great memory.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then a few weeks later, after I had pretty much said, like, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna play hockey, um, an Instagram notification popped up.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it was from the Northwestern team.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: I had followed them a while back after I knew I got in.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it turns out they were playing at Meryville that night for playoffs.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, you know what?
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'll go check out the game, I'll go see what's up.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_01: I went to the game.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all the guys were having a great time out there.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, skill level wasn't super crazy, and I was like, okay, maybe I could do this.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I started thinking about it over the summer.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I uh texted the coach and we were exchanging a few texts, um, talked to some guys on the team, and I still wasn't really decided.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I left on September 9th, and the morning of the day where we're leaving, I was like, you know what, I'll bring my hockey stuff up.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll see if I want to skate.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: I still hadn't decided, but you know, I would decide to bring it up.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, went to a skate that week during my welcome week, and I loved it.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_01: The guys were super welcoming and great.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: They asked questions about me, they wanted to know about me.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like they wanted me to be a part of the team.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then meeting the coach, I got the same vibe also.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna try it out and made the right decision for sure.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, they obviously wanted a guy who was a you know great skating defenseman.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_13: I don't know about well, hey, um, I I could tell you you're an excellent, excellent, excellent skater.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_13: Um talk a little bit about you know the lead up you know through the years here, you know, because you you make that jump to to A1, I think your Bantam year, um, and then you you stick with it through midget and and and you start to go you go to one of the best hockey schools, hockey high schools in SLU, where you're competing with and practicing with some of the best talent in the in the area, not the not only the area, but the region.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_13: Walk us through how you navigate that and what did you use?
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_13: What what how did that shape you and help you grow and develop even more?
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so my banana one year with Coach Meek, uh, obviously Brandon was on that team.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, great year.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_01: We were pretty good for a team.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_01: We won the Blue Knight Cup.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um throughout the year, my coach, Coach Meek, um, he was reaching out to Coach Walters at SLU, and he was wanting to know a little more about me, wanting to get me to play.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_01: So he put in a good word.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_01: And over the summer, I was actually invited to play in the varsity summer league for SLU, which for SLU, we put out a lot of like borderline guys, like JV level guys compared to varsity guys from Viani, Kirkwood, Shamanad, etc.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: And going out there, I was like, okay, like I'm screwed.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: I can never play varsity at this school because you know, playing against like junior, senior guys that play varsity at Shamanade, very intimidating for eighth grade me going into my high school year.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, my freshman year, I readily, I didn't think I would ever make varsity.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_01: I played on the JV team.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then in March, we won the we won the state championship for SLU.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was at that game.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I saw how much fun it was, how we had thousands of people there.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I really started to be like, yeah, this is what I want to do.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be on this team, I want to be in this situation.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that really started up like the okay, I need to start doing more lessons, start practicing harder, go to more stick and pucks because I wanted to get there.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_13: So awesome, awesome snippet of an interview with Blake.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_13: And again, I recommend uh if you didn't get a chance to catch it the first time around, go back onto our Spotify, Apple, Amazon, wherever you get your podcast, look up the Blake Dorn interview.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_13: And if you really want to make it easy on yourself, just go to our YouTube channel and and type in Blake Dorn, it'll pop right up there, and you can like and subscribe.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_13: Um, it's it won't hurt your finger, I promise.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_13: Um, well, we have this great connection with USA hockey that we've built over the year, and we get a chance to meet with and talk with different directors and coaches that are USA hockey uh uh employees, all thanks to our buddy Bob Mancini, who we highlighted last week in the best of part one.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_13: We had the opportunity to talk to a two-time US men's Olympic hockey player, a former NHL player.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_13: He was also the coach of our sled team in 2018 that just happened to win the gold medal.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_06: No big deal.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_13: Not a big deal.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_13: And with this year with the Olympics and USA taking home the gold in men's, women's, and sled hockey.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_13: Um, I just thought it was so awesome.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_13: We had a chance to talk with Guy Goose Gosling.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I every time we uh talk about goose, I mean my first thought is Stop Gun.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and then right behind it is this also was the episode where we had the return of the ghost.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_06: Grant, he disappeared for us or disappeared with us for a while.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_06: He was uh on assignment for a few weeks, and suddenly he was back in the fray.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_06: So this is when uh not only did we have Goose uh and potentially Maverick to talk about, but we also had producer Grant back to join us.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, and and if you get a chance, uh go back and listen to this full episode because it is full on.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_13: Like we we didn't miss a beat from our last show with Grant, which was back in February, to now he's back and we couldn't be happier as a fixture on our show.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_13: And um, you know, again, being able to talk to a uh an a two time Olympic gold medal or two time Olympic uh USA hockey, USA men's hockey player, who's also a phenomenal coach.
• 1:06:00
  unknown: Coach.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_13: And I don't know if it's going to be in the clip, but go back if you're a coach, definitely to our website and look up the rhythm of the goose uh drill.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_13: Because we started talking, we started talking music and we started talking rhythm.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_06: And it sounds like a Duran Duran song, but the rhythm of the goose, check out the drill on our website.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_06: If you're a coach out there, give it a listen.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_06: Here's Goose.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_13: Hey Goose, what's going on?
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_13: Just hanging out.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_13: Thanks for having me.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_13: Now, if we were on Spit and Chicklets, we would start off with some, you know, some campfire stories because he's played.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_13: This guy has played with some guys.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_13: Mike Richter, Brian Leach, Big Walt, Keith Kachuk.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_13: Back before they were back when you had to be an amateur to play in the Olympics.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_06: So the Rangers were my uh 90 NHL 93 Sega team.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_06: They had Leech, they had Messier, they had Adam Graves.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, what a loaded team.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_06: Brian Leech, that's outstanding.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, congrats.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_13: So, I mean, before we get started on our topics, we got it here.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, you were in Calgary and France, right?
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_13: Albert Gulf, Albuquerque, France.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_13: What was that experience like, especially now that we've got, you know, we're the best hockey country in the world right now.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_13: And that's that's not me talking, that's the gold medals that we've scored that we've won here over the past, you know.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_13: But what was that experience like?
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_13: You know, that's something that uh, you know, being a lifelong hockey player, fan, and coach, I can only dream about.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_13: So share a little bit of that.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I've spent 30 years trying to figure out that answer.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_08: Um, it was unreal, you know.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_08: It's you you put that USA jersey on, and it's a uh special feeling.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_08: So, you know, 88 Calgary, I was uh still pretty young yet, and it was all new to me.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_08: Um, we didn't finish like we wanted to, um, but we had some players on that team, you know.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_08: You talked about Brian Leach, we're partners, and uh he was a heck of a hockey player.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_08: He just wanted me to give him the puck and he could go.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_08: Right.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_08: And uh he did a good job.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_13: Absolutely.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_13: Can I get another assist?
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_08: Um, so you know, Albertville, France uh was something that you know, up in the mountains in a foreign country, um, something that you dream about when you're a kid, you know, and that was a great experience for me.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_08: Um, our team played very well.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_08: We had two chances to meddle.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_08: We didn't, we ended up in fourth place, but uh it was a great experience.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_08: Um, really enjoyed it.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_13: I I just can't imagine just that experience and how you just take that leapfrog to success, you know, on the professional hockey level, and then you know, give them back to USA hockey.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_13: And we're so humble and grateful that you did you've you're able to join us tonight to talk about uh you know some topics that we think will hit home with the players and coaches and parents that we're we're trying to speak to.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but I mean yeah, that roster, Craig Janney, former blues, you know, former blue, yeah.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_13: You know, so like just some just some players, and um, you know, and they had Goose Gosling, who was just feeding apples to Brian Leach, which is all I'd be doing.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_08: Well, Goose I love the energy, guys.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_08: You guys are bringing it.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_06: Goose, we're at the end of the uh youth hockey season, so uh I think this is a a great time to reflect and think about uh player development from looking back, looking at player development from looking forward.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_06: And so let's dive into when you look back on a youth hockey season, what would you say coaches and organizations should do to define success beyond just the wins and losses?
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_06: And uh, and then how do you communicate that?
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_06: You know, because I'm sure you probably run into uh uh and many coaches run into parents have a certain expectation and they're defining success in a way, but then you as a coach have an opportunity to provide a different perspective, like hockey perspective, a coach's perspective.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_08: So what's that look like?
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I guess it it's different at various age groups.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_08: Um, you really need to focus on um did we get better as players?
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_08: Not just the wins and losses.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_08: Um, development happens in practice for the most part, and you need to look at if your players got better, um, did they learn from our practices?
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_08: Um, did I run great practices with constraints, teaching our kids what we'd like to teach them to do?
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_08: Um sometimes that's hard, but like I say, it looks different at various levels.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_08: Um but you know, did I have my players moving, especially with the young kids?
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_08: Are they actively skating and playing hockey or are they waiting in line?
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_08: And we want to get our kids active out there.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_08: It turns a little, it changes a little bit uh later on.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_08: You know, you talk people talk about work to rest ratios and uh how intense the drill is, etc.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_08: But um reflection is really a good thing, and it looks differently at all age groups.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_08: Um, you know, did we build a positive culture?
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_08: Everybody talks about culture today within our group.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_08: Um, did we teach our kids how to be good teammates, to be happy for successes of other teammates?
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_08: Uh it's it kind of sounds corny, but the culture thing is really important.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_08: A lot of people talk about it, but you actually have to do it.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_13: You know, you you said something there that I kind of picked up on um when you talk about practices, and that's where I think as a coach, you have to really look at yourself critically.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_13: And almost what I've learned, and you know, some of this is from falling down and making mistakes, is you got to almost evaluate yourself first as a coach before you can offer that feedback um to the kids.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_13: But talking about that communication, and and let's you know, let's say we're talking to a Pee Wee major team that's gonna be going on to their first year in Banham when hockey really takes that big step.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_13: You know, what is that effective um, whether it's an effective format or an effective template of communication, what does that look like?
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_13: Is it written?
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_13: Is it verbal?
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, is it a combination?
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_13: What have you found is very successful, especially when you're looking at that, you know, 12, 13, 14-year-old age group.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_08: Well, I think that uh first off, you have to have some empathy for these kids.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_08: Um, you know, we as coaches can give the kids as much confidence as they need or take it away, you know.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_08: So you need to create this positive learning environment and interaction with the kids.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_08: Um, make it fun.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_08: That's that's the key.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_08: Give them a sense of belonging, and uh, you know, utilize everybody.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_08: They sign up for hockey to play hockey, if that makes sense.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_08: And so they need to be a part of something.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_08: We need to have a common goal together, and we need to discuss that with the kids, and uh again make it fun.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_08: And I know that sounds corny to the tough guy out there, but uh that's the key, and then they're gonna be engaged and they're gonna be learning.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, Bob Mancini has been uh preacher of making hockey fun and uh uh starting there before you take additional steps.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, I'm just curious, you know, what's your perspective on being at the end of the season?
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_06: Because you know, these families, these players who spent eight months together.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_06: Uh is there a right amount of games for players at youth hockey to be playing?
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_06: And it's probably the different answer, I would imagine, for different ages.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_08: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_06: But there are three there are teams that are out there that uh you know, uh, and I and I'll say um with my firstborn son, uh we would play as many games as we possibly could.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_06: My perspectives changed on that.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_06: So so uh how do you feel about that at the end of the season looking back on you know, knowing you're spending eight months together?
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_06: What is the right amount of games to be playing at some different ages here?
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_08: Well, just like you said, it looks different at each level.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_08: Um, but we really feel like development time happens in practice.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_08: Um, just talking about how many reps you get.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_08: Um, the activity time is where the kids figure it out, and that's when they're learning.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_08: Um, there is a balance to all of this stuff, and you know, the teams that practice once a week and go play five on the weekends.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_08: Uh, are the other kids will eventually catch up.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_08: I can promise you that.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_08: We need to work on physical literacy, the way kids move through you know, around on the ice.
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_08: And um, we want to develop resilient, um, confident hockey players, and that's the way you do that through practice.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_08: And and practice can be fun.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_08: We don't want to turn it into a job, and uh so there's a balance there for the games and and practice time.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_13: Um when you talk about resiliency and physical competency.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_13: It's um I almost think, at least here in Missouri hockey, you know, we play you know, in our C through A levels, you know, they play a regular season where they're sometimes playing teams two or three times a year.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_13: Um, and ICE is is a commodity, I mean, ICE is a commodity that we all, I think most organizations across the country, that's their um most precious commodity.
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_13: But what if this is crazy, but what if we played instead of playing a team three times, you play them two times, and you practice an extra skate each week, but then the playoffs, instead of being one and done, you have two and done, you know, and maybe have maybe backload these seasons with the games and front load the seasons and with practices, and to your point, you know, evaluate our coaches at the end of the year and help them get better at practices.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, I managed to rink for 14 years.
• 1:17:03
  SPEAKER_08: Um, scheduling and curriculum have a big part in this with how we have the kids um practice to game ratio, etc.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_08: Um, it's super important.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_08: And again, you the puck touches you get are are the learning and the development that's going on.
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_08: So um, you know, somebody did a study years ago on some of the best players in the in the world, um, and they only have the puck on their stick for approximately a little bit over a minute, right?
• 1:17:39
  SPEAKER_08: So if you can get out there and and get these kids active for 20 or 30 minutes skating, touching the puck, getting those reps in, um, they're gonna be learning.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_08: That's a learning environment for our children.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so what do you think?
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_06: Uh being at the off at the end of the season now, headed into the off season, what are things that are important to reflect on as a player?
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_06: And and then also as a coach, I would say, and and and carry into the next year.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_06: So as a player, you know, what how do you help the player understand where they are, where they where they performed well, where they can grow, uh, and continue to develop and and take that motivation into the next season?
• 1:18:34
  SPEAKER_08: Well, it's got to be constructive, absolutely.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_08: Um, and it varies, you know.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_08: But you as a coach, you know, when you have that meeting, is your is your player gonna know what he did well?
• 1:18:49
  SPEAKER_08: Is he gonna know what he needs to work on for next year?
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_08: Um, does he believe he can improve?
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_08: Um, you know, does he want to come back and play ice hockey?
• 1:19:02
  SPEAKER_08: That's what motivates, right?
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_08: You know, I mean that that's what you want him to do, and that's what you want him to feel.
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_08: And uh that's a reflection.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so I I guess what I'm hearing you say is almost the first question is you know, did you have fun this year and do you want to come back next year?
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_08: Absolutely.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_08: And if they want to come back next year, and they had fun, you've done your job, right?
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_06: And then you can offer that construction.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 1:19:35
  SPEAKER_06: Here's what I think.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_06: Here's where I think you can grow.
• 1:19:39
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, but uh I like that.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_06: I like how you pitch that of uh how did the season go for you?
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_06: Did you have fun and do you want to come back?
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_08: And you know, I mean it's in and we can slice it and dice it however, but it's not rocket science.
• 1:19:56
  SPEAKER_08: If you have a motivated individual, um, they're gonna excel in the game.
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_13: Real quick before we jump back in, if you're enjoying too many men on the mic, hit like and subscribe on our YouTube channel.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_13: It's a quick click for you, but it helps us grow the show and keep bringing you great hockey conversations.
• 1:20:14
  SPEAKER_13: You can also follow us on Instagram by scanning the QR code on your screen.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_13: And be sure to download, follow, and rate the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, iHeartMusic, or wherever you get your podcast.
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_13: Or you can go directly to our website, www.toomanymanonthemic.com.
• 1:20:31
  SPEAKER_13: That's the number two.
• 1:20:33
  SPEAKER_13: Those small things from you help us keep delivering new guests, downloadable coaching content, and more from the ring.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_04: All right, back to the show.
• 1:20:47
  unknown: St.
• 1:20:48
  SPEAKER_13: Louis hockey families and business leaders, if you need custom gear that stands out and stands for something, it's time to meet 5B Designs.
• 1:20:55
  SPEAKER_13: Founded by Shannon Brahini, a proud St.
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_13: Louis mom and entrepreneur, 5B Designs is a woman-owned small business that brings purpose to custom apparel.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_13: Whether you're suiting up your youth or high school hockey team or leveling up your company's branded swag, 5B delivers top-notch quality with a personal touch.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_13: Need team stores, not a problem.
• 1:21:14
  SPEAKER_13: Corporate polos or event giveaways, they've got you covered.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_13: 5B makes it easy with fast turnaround, flexible service, and designs your players or employees will love to wear.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_13: Check them out at stores.inksoft.com forward slash 5B designs.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_13: That's the word five.
• 1:21:31
  SPEAKER_13: And if you are watching on our YouTube feed, go ahead and scan the QR code on the top right hand corner of the screen and see what great gear and great service looks like.
• 1:21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that was a fantastic episode.
• 1:21:48
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, one that I will not forget.
• 1:21:51
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, this one is also a fantastic episode because we really brought in the kids and we got to hear about the backside from a kid's perspective and also a coach's perspective of winning it all.
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_06: If you're a youth hockey association, you probably play in a league where you at the end of the season have an opportunity perhaps to play for a championship.
• 1:22:15
  SPEAKER_06: In this case, we were with the Twin Bridges organization and coaches DJ Schwab and also Kyle Garrick, who were featuring their winning Blue Note Cup Twin Bridges organization.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_06: And uh just I don't want to give it away here, but uh the kids are certainly a feature item on this interview.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_13: There are very few shows where we don't get a chance to get a word in.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_13: And uh this this is one of those.
• 1:22:42
  SPEAKER_13: So if you don't want to hear me or Drew, this is a great show to go back and take a look at.
• 1:22:46
  SPEAKER_13: But yeah, this this team, the the Twin Bridges 10 UB1 team, won the Blue Note Cup for the 25-26 season here in St.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_13: Louis.
• 1:22:54
  SPEAKER_13: Um, there were some funny stories, uh, some things from the locker room that kind of that were hilarious.
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_13: A kid going out in it with the smoke and uh and the and the disco lights for the pregame.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_13: Um I think there was an impression or two of their coaches, which was hilarious.
• 1:23:12
  SPEAKER_13: Um, but the root of all this is what you said.
• 1:23:16
  SPEAKER_13: This is why we have this podcast.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_13: It's for moments like this where you have you know 10 uh 10, nine and 10-year-olds talking about playing hockey and winning and winning the championship.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, I thought the funniest thing about this was most of their stories were about um things that happened off the ice.
• 1:23:37
  SPEAKER_06: They were.
• 1:23:37
  SPEAKER_13: And uh if if you've ever, you know, obviously if you're listening to this, you're probably you know related to youth hockey in some way.
• 1:23:44
  SPEAKER_13: This is what it's all about.
• 1:23:45
  SPEAKER_13: And I hope it brings a smile to your face.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_13: So here is the Twin Bridges Lightning 10U B1 Blue Note Cup Championship team.
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_13: Uh, have a listen.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_13: Ask you know the coaches and the players to to share with our our listeners what goes in to having a very successful youth hockey team.
• 1:24:04
  SPEAKER_13: What's going on?
• 1:24:06
  SPEAKER_10: How's it going?
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_06: They look very relaxed.
• 1:24:09
  SPEAKER_06: They're still uh they they they've got their they're still basking in the afterglow of their win.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_13: Where's the blue dog cup right now?
• 1:24:18
  SPEAKER_10: Uh believe it or not, it's it's in my truck.
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_10: And it's and uh one of the other uh Cooper's dad's supposed to get it from me in the morning.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_10: So they're gonna pass it around every couple weeks, I guess.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_10: So it's the best.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_10: We're starting that tomorrow morning.
• 1:24:36
  SPEAKER_06: So so I gotta ask.
• 1:24:37
  SPEAKER_06: You've got the cup, uh, you've got the uh symbolic physical piece uh to represent the win.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, I have to imagine uh with all these kids on, uh, who's gonna eat cereal out of this cup first?
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_06: Ava, is that uh what kind of cereal are you gonna eat out of the cup?
• 1:24:56
  SPEAKER_06: And what's what's your what's your go-to cereal uh that you're gonna eat out of the out of the cup?
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_06: Or is it are you gonna do something else with?
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_13: Ava, you're on mute.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_09: You're on mute.
• 1:25:09
  SPEAKER_09: Oh shoot.
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_13: Well, Cooper, why don't you tell us?
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_13: Tell us a little bit about what you're gonna do with that cup.
• 1:25:16
  SPEAKER_13: Um, is this the first time you've been on a team that's won the Blue Note Cup?
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:25:23
  SPEAKER_13: What are you gonna do when you get the cup?
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um drink a milkshake out of it.
• 1:25:29
  SPEAKER_13: There you go.
• 1:25:30
  SPEAKER_13: What's your go-to milkshake?
• 1:25:32
  SPEAKER_13: We talking five guys, we talking you know, Dairy Queen, we talking McDonald's, where are you gonna do it?
• 1:25:38
  SPEAKER_13: Homemade.
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_13: What?
• 1:25:40
  SPEAKER_13: Homemade.
• 1:25:41
  SPEAKER_13: Homemade milkshake?
• 1:25:42
  SPEAKER_06: Homemade, nice.
• 1:25:43
  SPEAKER_13: Sounds good.
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_06: Rowan, I I you you've got your gaming headset on, it looks like.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_06: Just imagine maybe you're gonna be playing some games with your buddies, and you're just gonna have it maybe in your screen next to you, so your buddies, every time you guys are playing each other, can just can look at you and then look at the cup right next to you, or you got something else in mind.
• 1:26:05
  SPEAKER_06: What are you thinking?
• 1:26:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't really know.
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_07: Like time to think about it.
• 1:26:14
  SPEAKER_03: The second we got it, I was gonna say, are we gonna are we gonna all drink soda of it?
• 1:26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Did you?
• 1:26:21
  SPEAKER_03: No, we didn't get to.
• 1:26:22
  SPEAKER_03: They wouldn't let us.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_13: Well, they don't they're not gonna be around when uh you take a day at the officials when they handed you the other cup.
• 1:26:30
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:26:33
  SPEAKER_13: I can see him though, tap it over his shoulder and look at his buddies.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_13: Oh, you don't have one of those.
• 1:26:41
  SPEAKER_13: Cannon, what about you?
• 1:26:42
  SPEAKER_13: You and your dad, miss your guys' first cup?
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah.
• 1:26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um my parents won't let me eat any other cereal but plain Cheerios.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_13: Plain Cheerios.
• 1:26:53
  SPEAKER_13: Hey, it's good for your heart, man.
• 1:26:55
  SPEAKER_13: It wasn't good.
• 1:26:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I would eat cereal out of the eight.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_07: You can eat whatever cereal you want out of the cup.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_13: Okay, no chocolate.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_07: Lucky charms.
• 1:27:07
  SPEAKER_07: Lucky charms.
• 1:27:08
  SPEAKER_13: It's magical.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_13: So, Ava, what about you?
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_13: When you get that cup, what's what are you gonna do with it?
• 1:27:18
  SPEAKER_10: Babes can hear us?
• 1:27:20
  SPEAKER_10: Can you hear us, Ava?
• 1:27:23
  SPEAKER_14: You can just it cut it, it cut out at first, so I couldn't hear what it was saying.
• 1:27:31
  SPEAKER_14: I can't hear what you guys were saying at first because it was cutting out.
• 1:27:34
  SPEAKER_13: What are you gonna do when you get the cup?
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_13: Uh well we'll take a we'll we'll come back to it.
• 1:27:45
  SPEAKER_06: What what about the coaches?
• 1:27:46
  SPEAKER_06: What are the uh uh what are the coaches gonna do with their uh day with the cupboard?
• 1:27:51
  SPEAKER_02: Drink deer.
• 1:27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_07: Obviously.
• 1:27:58
  SPEAKER_07: We're gonna eat some spaghetti out of it.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_13: Oh, that's a good one.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_13: That's better than clam chowder.
• 1:28:03
  SPEAKER_07: I've I've heard somebody cut New England.
• 1:28:09
  SPEAKER_13: So Coach Schwab, talk a little bit about this season.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_13: You know, as you put this at Ms.
• 1:28:16
  SPEAKER_13: Keen.
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_13: Lucky Charms?
• 1:28:18
  SPEAKER_13: Anyway, you're gonna do some lucky charms?
• 1:28:22
  SPEAKER_13: Alright, that's good.
• 1:28:24
  SPEAKER_13: Well, coach, talk a little bit about, you know, as the as the season, you know, came into focus.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_13: You know, you're getting through September and October and deck season.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_13: You see this team.
• 1:28:36
  SPEAKER_13: Talk a little bit about, you know, what made these group of kids special?
• 1:28:40
  SPEAKER_13: How are they to coach?
• 1:28:42
  SPEAKER_13: When did you see they were gonna be good?
• 1:28:44
  SPEAKER_10: I think uh from the get-go, um, the when they did the tryouts and stuff, the the team above had a lot of really good players, and I felt like they they had a a good pool to choose from, and and that left us with a good group too.
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_10: Um, and so whenever the season started getting underway, this is my first year head coaching.
• 1:29:06
  SPEAKER_10: Um, I relied on the other coaches who knew some of these kids a little better than me.
• 1:29:10
  SPEAKER_10: I didn't pick the team, it was handed to me.
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_08: Sure.
• 1:29:14
  SPEAKER_10: And um we just I talked to all the coaches.
• 1:29:17
  SPEAKER_10: I was you know, we're all very humble.
• 1:29:19
  SPEAKER_10: I feel like I I don't I listen to everyone's opinion, and we looked at the team and said, hey, we got some really good skaters, and most of them are on defense, and so we just we went with that, and then we said that you know, on the bottom side, we needed to increase um our uh skating ability, and and so a lot of our practices revolved around almost 20 to 30 minutes of just edge work, especially in the beginning of the year, and then we focused on using the points a lot and moving the puck around the perimeter.
• 1:29:50
  SPEAKER_10: Um, we did that a lot, and it it it just slowly kind of evolved into just a very uh good little system, and we focused on a lot of skills.
• 1:29:59
  SPEAKER_10: We had half-ice practices, so it's not like I could teach a crazy amount of breakouts or any kind of regroup.
• 1:30:05
  SPEAKER_10: I I think we tried a cycle one time, and that was a disaster.
• 1:30:09
  SPEAKER_10: So I gave up on any kind of system work and just kind of worked on keeping the puck out and around the perimeter, and it seemed to work well.
• 1:30:17
  SPEAKER_06: That's great stuff to do at 10U.
• 1:30:19
  SPEAKER_06: So, Coach Schwab, you said it was your first year coaching this year.
• 1:30:23
  SPEAKER_06: Were you an assistant coach uh before?
• 1:30:26
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, I always helped out um on 8U and 6U with with my kids' team, and then uh this year was the first year they handed me the rein.
• 1:30:35
  SPEAKER_06: So so Rowan, if uh if if you had to pick uh what what's Coach Swab's style?
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_06: What's what what what's a word would you say is Coach Swab's style when he's out there coaching you on the ice?
• 1:30:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'd say he's way nicer than my dad by a lot, by very much a lot.
• 1:30:56
  SPEAKER_07: Who's also an assistant coach?
• 1:31:03
  SPEAKER_10: Um was I nice to my son, though, Rowan?
• 1:31:07
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no.
• 1:31:09
  SPEAKER_13: You didn't even invite him on the show here.
• 1:31:11
  SPEAKER_10: Oh no, no, no.
• 1:31:15
  SPEAKER_10: We don't want that.
• 1:31:19
  SPEAKER_06: Well, and you talked about half-eyes practices a lot.
• 1:31:22
  SPEAKER_06: Uh that's great.
• 1:31:23
  SPEAKER_06: We had uh uh your coaching director, Tyler, on our show a couple months ago.
• 1:31:29
  SPEAKER_06: And uh does he come out to any of your practices throughout the season and uh and and help out and share some words of wisdom?
• 1:31:36
  SPEAKER_03: We have uh some elite, we he does elite with us sometimes.
• 1:31:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so he comes out a lot of times for those.
• 1:31:46
  SPEAKER_07: So that's like a special practice that his hockey school runs, and they do all the drills and everything just to give the kids a break from us coaches.
• 1:31:57
  SPEAKER_10: That's pretty nice.
• 1:31:58
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, so Coach Kyle, when you're looking back at this season, and it sounds like you know, you've had some experience with a lot of these kids.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_13: Um, what surprised you the most?
• 1:32:08
  SPEAKER_13: You know, whether it was from the team or individual players or just you know, what surprised you the most, you know, being around these kids?
• 1:32:18
  SPEAKER_07: I mean, just their their compete level um was honestly amazing to me.
• 1:32:25
  SPEAKER_07: They just we were not you know, we asked a lot of them in practice and we pushed them hard, like further than you normally push 10-year-olds, I would say.
• 1:32:36
  SPEAKER_07: But they the only reason we did that is because they kept responding every time we did it.
• 1:32:42
  SPEAKER_07: So we're like, okay, let's let's keep doing this, let's keep going more.
• 1:32:46
  SPEAKER_07: And honestly, like I would say for me, I didn't know what we had going into the season.
• 1:32:53
  SPEAKER_07: I knew some of the kids and I knew we'd be pretty good, but we got into the very first tournament, uh, probably right after deck season, and we played up against mostly a teams, you know, a two, a three teams, and we won the whole thing.
• 1:33:08
  SPEAKER_07: And I think that's when I looked at the coaches and I'm like, okay.
• 1:33:15
  SPEAKER_07: Uh uh.
• 1:33:18
  SPEAKER_07: So let's go.
• 1:33:21
  SPEAKER_07: So that was that was that we realized it right off right off the bat, I think.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_07: Um but they just continued raising their level all season long.
• 1:33:33
  SPEAKER_06: It sounds like you've had uh some players that maybe started at one position and then maybe move positions uh as the season went along.
• 1:33:43
  SPEAKER_06: Talk a little bit about that.
• 1:33:44
  SPEAKER_06: Did uh did did the kids come in?
• 1:33:47
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I know you had a you have a 10 U team, so you're playing full ice for the first time.
• 1:33:54
  SPEAKER_06: Did kids have an idea of what kind of position they wanted to play, or did you just kind of look at the kids as you started off and say, okay, based on what I see, I think you're gonna be uh most successful as a defenseman or a forward.
• 1:34:08
  SPEAKER_06: How did that work?
• 1:34:09
  SPEAKER_10: Uh we tried a couple different things.
• 1:34:11
  SPEAKER_10: Like I wanted Rowan to play D, but he doesn't really care for it.
• 1:34:14
  SPEAKER_10: So I wanted him to even though he's really good at it, he was really good at it, but if the kids aren't having fun, then you know what's the point here?
• 1:34:24
  SPEAKER_10: So if they didn't want to do it, I tried another kid, um Brady, at defense, and he came to me after like a game was like, I don't want to do this.
• 1:34:31
  SPEAKER_10: And so um I actually asked Ava, who was a forward, um, and she moved a D and she was absolutely incredible.
• 1:34:41
  SPEAKER_10: Um, she she locked it down.
• 1:34:43
  SPEAKER_10: It was it was a fun season uh to watch her play and develop.
• 1:34:46
  SPEAKER_10: She she grew a lot.
• 1:34:47
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I've heard you say fun now twice, and I'd love to hear Cooper.
• 1:34:53
  SPEAKER_06: What uh what do the coaches do?
• 1:34:56
  SPEAKER_06: What does Coach Swab and uh and and the other coaches do to make practice fun for you?
• 1:35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um a lot of times we do like two-on-two and like activate the um third person, or like a lot of times we did this drill called the sunglasses, where we have two people in the corners, and then like we have two lines in the corners, um, and then we have a line of defense, and then you have a defense on the boards and then one out in the middle, and then the forwards um pass it up to the per the defense on the boards, and then uh they pass it over to the defense in the middle, and then they shoot, and then the forwards tries to deflect it in.
• 1:35:42
  SPEAKER_06: Love it.
• 1:35:42
  SPEAKER_06: Rowan, what about you?
• 1:35:44
  SPEAKER_06: What do coaches uh what do your coaches do to make practice fun for you?
• 1:35:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh probably most of the times, like whenever we were like getting really angry at them for pushing us, they like swapped the drill to make it like better.
• 1:36:02
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, what's your favorite?
• 1:36:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh probably the drill where like you it's a shootout, but like there's one side and then they shoot, and if they miss, then you have to if you miss you have to like do sideboards and then the other team goes, and if they make it, then the other team has to do sideboards.
• 1:36:26
  SPEAKER_13: Uh how many times were you missing, Rowan?
• 1:36:28
  SPEAKER_03: A lot.
• 1:36:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not great at I'm not great at shootouts.
• 1:36:33
  SPEAKER_13: Kane, what's uh can tell me a little bit about you're a forward.
• 1:36:38
  SPEAKER_13: Um tell me a little bit about the thing that you were at this season after you got to a certain point where you're like, hey, we can be really, really good.
• 1:36:48
  SPEAKER_13: We may we may go pretty far.
• 1:36:50
  SPEAKER_13: When did you realize that as a player?
• 1:36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um after we won that first tournament, I just thought a lot of us had chemistry and we were like really good at passing and talking on the ice.
• 1:37:02
  SPEAKER_13: Talking on the ice.
• 1:37:03
  SPEAKER_13: That's like the I I coach high school, and there's some high schoolers I can't get to say a word out there.
• 1:37:09
  SPEAKER_13: So you guys as 10 use are out there communicating with each other.
• 1:37:13
  SPEAKER_13: Imagine what you're gonna be like when you're playing high school and midget hockey.
• 1:37:16
  SPEAKER_13: That's just so exciting.
• 1:37:18
  SPEAKER_13: Ava, you've been you've you've been a little quiet there.
• 1:37:21
  SPEAKER_13: Now, somebody who went back and just locked it down on defense.
• 1:37:24
  SPEAKER_13: What was your favorite thing about playing defense?
• 1:37:26
  SPEAKER_13: What did you like to do the most?
• 1:37:28
  SPEAKER_15: Um probably like pushing them to the boards.
• 1:37:31
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, uh it's um yeah, tenu you can't check, but you get a little physical.
• 1:37:44
  SPEAKER_13: Do you sometimes get in the corners there and maybe you know a little bit of a facial?
• 1:37:53
  SPEAKER_10: Ava got two penalties all year.
• 1:37:55
  SPEAKER_10: I think it's in like the last four games.
• 1:38:00
  SPEAKER_10: Um I challenged her to actually take a penalty uh earlier in the year.
• 1:38:04
  SPEAKER_10: I wanted her to be more aggressive, and so I wanted to see her take a penalty.
• 1:38:07
  SPEAKER_10: And uh it took her a little bit, but uh she got after it.
• 1:38:11
  SPEAKER_07: So she went crazy when she was DM from us her clapping, and the other teams like, what are they clapping about?
• 1:38:19
  SPEAKER_07: And we told her, told them, and they they started clapping, it was great.
• 1:38:25
  SPEAKER_13: Well, tell talk a little bit about um you know some of those things that you did.
• 1:38:30
  SPEAKER_13: You know, you talked about going to a tournament, you know, when you're playing youth hockey, some of the best memories are at the hotels or at the restaurants when you get together with the team.
• 1:38:40
  SPEAKER_13: You know, Cooper, tell us a little bit about some of the favorite things that you did when you guys were on the road traveling this year.
• 1:38:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, probably knee hockey.
• 1:38:51
  SPEAKER_13: Excellent, excellent.
• 1:38:52
  SPEAKER_13: Did you guys get in trouble from you know, because some hotels are not they're not all big on Shinny, they may be like who is staying up past curfew, by the way?
• 1:39:02
  SPEAKER_13: Connor.
• 1:39:05
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely Liam playing um NHL.
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_13: Oh, you guys are Chell?
• 1:39:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he brings his PlayStation everywhere he goes.
• 1:39:14
  SPEAKER_13: We're taking this to another level then.
• 1:39:16
  SPEAKER_13: Canon, if you're if you're making yourself in Chell, tell the tell us a little bit about the like what's gonna be your number one skill set, man.
• 1:39:22
  SPEAKER_13: What's gonna be number one?
• 1:39:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um probably um checking people.
• 1:39:29
  SPEAKER_02: I would probably put my I would probably put my fight mode on often and then probably speed and shot.
• 1:39:40
  SPEAKER_13: We're gonna have to introduce you to our buddy Cam Jansen.
• 1:39:42
  SPEAKER_13: I think he thought about that.
• 1:39:45
  SPEAKER_13: Rowan, what about you?
• 1:39:49
  SPEAKER_10: Rowan, you're on mute.
• 1:39:50
  SPEAKER_10: There you go.
• 1:39:51
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 1:39:51
  SPEAKER_03: I tried to get it off.
• 1:39:53
  SPEAKER_13: Um coach, it's the off season, buddy.
• 1:39:58
  SPEAKER_13: I'll get there.
• 1:39:59
  SPEAKER_13: He's like piping out, coach.
• 1:40:01
  SPEAKER_13: I got that.
• 1:40:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I really don't know.
• 1:40:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I have zero clue.
• 1:40:10
  SPEAKER_07: Zero clue?
• 1:40:11
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 1:40:12
  SPEAKER_07: You're pretty you're pretty fish.
• 1:40:13
  SPEAKER_07: You're pretty physical too, bro.
• 1:40:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, I punched a kid in the face one time because I picked our goal.
• 1:40:20
  SPEAKER_13: We don't want to celebrate that, but it's I can see it.
• 1:40:23
  SPEAKER_13: More like in the strikes me as Ava strikes me as like a as like an 85 plus skater.
• 1:40:28
  SPEAKER_13: How's her skating?
• 1:40:29
  SPEAKER_13: How's your skating ability, Ava?
• 1:40:32
  SPEAKER_10: No, I don't think I saw her fall down one time all year in a game, and that's a lot for a for a B1 team.
• 1:40:41
  SPEAKER_10: I mean, she she was always on her feet, always present.
• 1:40:44
  SPEAKER_10: She won't come out and say it, but she was she was definitely a very talented skater.
• 1:40:51
  SPEAKER_06: So uh what's uh what's an ism uh of the coaches?
• 1:40:56
  SPEAKER_06: So Cooper, uh, when you're uh what's one ism that your coaches say?
• 1:41:01
  SPEAKER_06: So maybe it's a a phrase they say frequently.
• 1:41:06
  SPEAKER_06: Uh one of the things we sometimes say is uh net front.
• 1:41:10
  SPEAKER_06: Uh do your coaches have a uh an ism that they say frequently when you're out on the ice?
• 1:41:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um play hard, fast, and strong.
• 1:41:18
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 1:41:20
  SPEAKER_06: Canon, I saw you with your hand up.
• 1:41:22
  SPEAKER_06: What do you think?
• 1:41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh DJ always says win the period during the break of the periods.
• 1:41:30
  SPEAKER_06: Ava, how about you?
• 1:41:32
  SPEAKER_06: Is there an ism that sticks with you?
• 1:41:35
  SPEAKER_15: Back door to like the forwards, like if there's someone behind the to like cover the back door.
• 1:41:43
  SPEAKER_06: Cover back door.
• 1:41:44
  SPEAKER_06: Cover the back door, okay.
• 1:41:46
  SPEAKER_06: Cooper, you got another one?
• 1:41:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Coach Chad Rowan's dad always says um win the shift.
• 1:41:54
  SPEAKER_13: Yep, absolutely.
• 1:41:56
  SPEAKER_13: We've got a bunch here too.
• 1:41:57
  SPEAKER_13: Like, if you lose a battle, start a battle.
• 1:42:00
  SPEAKER_13: And uh you can't spell goal without you can't spell goal without net front.
• 1:42:04
  SPEAKER_13: Look it up.
• 1:42:06
  SPEAKER_06: Rowan, you got one?
• 1:42:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um wheels.
• 1:42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do wheels count?
• 1:42:16
  SPEAKER_02: Ah dad always says that like he's obsessed.
• 1:42:20
  SPEAKER_07: I would always I would always yell that from the door when when I thought they had a lane from the from the defense.
• 1:42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Mostly Jet.
• 1:42:30
  SPEAKER_07: Mostly Jet.
• 1:42:31
  SPEAKER_13: Well, let's talk.
• 1:42:32
  SPEAKER_13: Let's let's let's see what your coaches think about about your team here.
• 1:42:36
  SPEAKER_13: Um so we're gonna ask the player.
• 1:42:38
  SPEAKER_13: We have we've been talking to the players here, but like let's talk to the coaches.
• 1:42:42
  SPEAKER_13: So who's the who's the kid that forgets their gear?
• 1:42:48
  SPEAKER_08: My kid Clayton.
• 1:42:51
  SPEAKER_02: I've never forgotten a theme.
• 1:42:53
  SPEAKER_07: You forget you had to wear Rowan's little brother shorts one time at a tournament.
• 1:42:58
  SPEAKER_10: That was last I do remember that, yeah.
• 1:43:02
  SPEAKER_10: Oh, didn't you?
• 1:43:03
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, canon Clayton.
• 1:43:04
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 1:43:07
  SPEAKER_13: Coach Cal, who's the biggest clown on the team?
• 1:43:10
  SPEAKER_13: Who's the guy?
• 1:43:10
  SPEAKER_13: Who's the kid that gets in the rink and you can't help but smile and laugh, even though you want to be mad?
• 1:43:16
  SPEAKER_07: Connor's definitely the the like class, the the team clown of you know, always cracking up and messing around.
• 1:43:26
  SPEAKER_10: Now, I've got a story about Connor.
• 1:43:30
  SPEAKER_10: So Connor is second to none, probably the most hockey smart player we had, probably in tenure.
• 1:43:38
  SPEAKER_10: I mean, the kid just positionally his body position is just incredible.
• 1:43:42
  SPEAKER_10: His skating is great.
• 1:43:44
  SPEAKER_10: Um, now imagine going to the we're going into the Blue Note Cup championship game.
• 1:43:48
  SPEAKER_10: They got the lights down and they got the fake smoke going, and they're the we're all busting through the through the the opening of the smoke, and uh Connor has one skate guard on his skate.
• 1:44:02
  SPEAKER_10: So we're supposed to come out and look like super tough, and one of our best skaters just bites it in the ice, and I'm just like I remember he kept looking at his skate, like, what is wrong with my my blades?
• 1:44:16
  SPEAKER_09: We didn't look at it, we didn't look too tough uh coming onto the ice during the championship.
• 1:44:22
  SPEAKER_09: So kind of light in the mood though.
• 1:44:24
  SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:44:25
  SPEAKER_13: Well, once you hey, once you get past the intro, if you fall in the intro, it can't get you'll only get better, right?
• 1:44:30
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, that's true.
• 1:44:31
  SPEAKER_07: That's what we told him.
• 1:44:32
  SPEAKER_07: After all this lights and all for the fans, that's all for them.
• 1:44:37
  SPEAKER_07: That's still now it's just a hockey game, just like you guys have done all season.
• 1:44:42
  SPEAKER_13: Well, when you got into the the playoffs, I mean, through the regular season, you guys, you know, there's a term in hockey, it's called wagon.
• 1:44:49
  SPEAKER_13: You guys were a wagon, um, which is awesome to see.
• 1:44:53
  SPEAKER_13: But you get to the playoffs and you got a little tighter.
• 1:44:56
  SPEAKER_13: In fact, you had some tight games, you had some tough games.
• 1:44:59
  SPEAKER_02: We almost lost to Kirkwood.
• 1:45:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was like 20 seconds.
• 1:45:03
  SPEAKER_13: Tell me about that, Canon.
• 1:45:04
  SPEAKER_13: How did you how do you almost lose Kirkwood?
• 1:45:06
  SPEAKER_02: There was like um, I think we were down like 2-0 with like a minute and 30 left.
• 1:45:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know who scored.
• 1:45:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was maybe William.
• 1:45:16
  SPEAKER_02: William scored like 60 goals this year.
• 1:45:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and then Jet, like what go ahead, did you?
• 1:45:24
  SPEAKER_10: It was one, it was one nothing, right?
• 1:45:26
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, it was one nothing.
• 1:45:26
  SPEAKER_10: Yeah, one nothing in the third.
• 1:45:28
  SPEAKER_10: We had 40 seconds left in the game.
• 1:45:31
  SPEAKER_10: And then I tried to pull the goalie earlier, and then I had to send him back because the play was coming out of the zone, so it was delayed, and then I kind of forgot to get him back off, you know.
• 1:45:45
  SPEAKER_10: And it just so happened I put a kid on the ice right whenever I finally realized that we didn't have our goalie pulled, and he basically collided with another kid, and the puck shot out.
• 1:45:57
  SPEAKER_10: It was like the perfect timing with 40 seconds left, and jet skated in and tied it.
• 1:46:02
  SPEAKER_10: And that's the same team, I believe.
• 1:46:04
  SPEAKER_10: We beat 14 to 1 like two weeks prior.
• 1:46:07
  SPEAKER_06: I was just gonna say that.
• 1:46:08
  SPEAKER_06: I'm sitting here looking at your season, and two weeks prior, you beat them 14 to 1.
• 1:46:16
  SPEAKER_13: Speedish fish.
• 1:46:17
  SPEAKER_13: Well, if that doesn't bring a smile to your face, um, then you need to go back and listen to the whole uh whole episode and then you'll get a good laugh.
• 1:46:23
  SPEAKER_13: But what a great group of kids.
• 1:46:25
  SPEAKER_13: Um, hats off to Coach Dave DJ Schwab and Coach Kyle Gehrig and the rest of that entire organization.
• 1:46:32
  SPEAKER_13: If they're putting a team like that on the ice, um, it only says great things about the organization, and really, you know, that it's all about the fun.
• 1:46:42
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, we're coming off of a of a recent interview a couple weeks ago with Dr.
• 1:46:47
  SPEAKER_13: Adam Gletell, and he was talking about how fun is really the cornerstone for keeping kids involved in sports through all levels, whether it's beginner, intermediate, or elite.
• 1:46:59
  SPEAKER_13: And you know, he talked about a uh a study done with the Swedish uh youth hockey association.
• 1:47:08
  SPEAKER_06: We have not talked about Detroit this entire episode.
• 1:47:11
  SPEAKER_06: And uh you well, I talked about Dylan Larkin.
• 1:47:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you did talk about Dylan Larkin.
• 1:47:16
  SPEAKER_13: So I mean he's not gonna be a part of Detroit much longer.
• 1:47:19
  SPEAKER_13: So so so what's gonna happen here is uh well here's the thing.
• 1:47:24
  SPEAKER_13: Um if Patrick Kane re-signs apparently he's got an offer on the table, if he re-signs, um you'll have I think they're gonna start the season with Dylan Arnold.
• 1:47:40
  SPEAKER_13: I really do.
• 1:47:41
  SPEAKER_13: I don't think Ivan's gonna trade him.
• 1:47:42
  SPEAKER_13: I think he's like, no way You think he's gonna hold out?
• 1:47:46
  SPEAKER_13: You've got uh no, yeah, I don't think he can he can't hold out.
• 1:47:49
  SPEAKER_13: But they just signed Victor Arvin.
• 1:47:52
  SPEAKER_13: Um they just got uh Kolazar from Vegas.
• 1:47:56
  SPEAKER_13: I love Keegan.
• 1:47:57
  SPEAKER_13: Exactly.
• 1:47:57
  SPEAKER_13: I mean he's and that's that's a that's a guy who's bringing grick and probably play in that you know middle six or bottom six, bottom six, middle six or bottom six in a pinch.
• 1:48:08
  SPEAKER_13: You know, de brinkett they're talking about trading him, not re because he's not gonna resign.
• 1:48:12
  SPEAKER_13: I mean, this is this is a dis look, this is an unmitigated disaster.
• 1:48:17
  SPEAKER_13: And uh I have a Steve Eiserman jersey in my closet.
• 1:48:22
  SPEAKER_13: I do have a rule that you don't wear another man's name on your back past the age of twelve age of twelve.
• 1:48:26
  SPEAKER_13: That's how long I've had the jersey since I was 12.
• 1:48:29
  SPEAKER_13: And I love Steve Iserman.
• 1:48:31
  SPEAKER_13: Like, you know, I didn't I grew up not too far from where he lived.
• 1:48:35
  SPEAKER_13: I may have known some girls that would drive up to his his uh his driveway and try and flash their lights.
• 1:48:43
  SPEAKER_13: Look, this Iser plan has been an unmitigated disaster.
• 1:48:48
  SPEAKER_13: And you can't hold on to prospects because prospects don't prospects don't help you prosper.
• 1:48:54
  SPEAKER_13: They're there, that's another one.
• 1:48:56
  SPEAKER_13: They're there to bring in assets, and when you have Morit Seider, Lucas Raymond, Simon Edmondson, that is a core group right there that you should be building around.
• 1:49:08
  SPEAKER_13: And you have Dylan Larkin in his prime, Alex Debrinkett coming off of 40 goals, Patrick Kane still being able to drive play, like you gotta go out and get a number two center.
• 1:49:19
  SPEAKER_13: And the fact that Dylan Larkin was like last four years, I mean, look, I love David, I love me some David Perron and Justin Fuck.
• 1:49:26
  SPEAKER_13: We get all the former blues players in Detroit.
• 1:49:29
  SPEAKER_13: Hey, we'll give you uh uh we'll give you Suter.
• 1:49:32
  SPEAKER_13: I would have liked to have gotten I would have liked to you know who I went.
• 1:49:37
  SPEAKER_13: I I would have liked to have gotten Robert Thomas.
• 1:49:39
  SPEAKER_13: Yes, I got a chance to do that.
• 1:49:41
  SPEAKER_13: We here's the thing we could have had Quinn Hughes, the deal was done.
• 1:49:46
  SPEAKER_13: Iserman didn't want to give a prospect away.
• 1:49:48
  SPEAKER_13: It's like what Vancouver was okay.
• 1:49:52
  SPEAKER_06: Anyways, we need to have an entire Detroit episode.
• 1:49:55
  SPEAKER_13: I need an intervention where I can stop rooting for this team because it's been ridiculous.
• 1:49:59
  SPEAKER_13: Eight years and
• 1:50:00
  SPEAKER_06: the original 16 eight years ten years what do I think eight years I just been there eight years it's been ten years since they've been in the playoffs my son said to me Dad I don't remember when the wins were ever in the playoffs I was like and I like I'm like and you know what he's right yeah well the only comparison I can make is uh at least you have an NFL football team because we used to have one and for 10 years it was the dark ages and we couldn't draft and we were terrible and never could sniff the playoffs.
• 1:50:31
  SPEAKER_06: So misery loves company I hear you and uh and it's an original six frame your I feel like your football team won a Super Bowl remember I'm a I'm I'm a lion I I'm also a Lions fan and last couple seasons that's another they blew their window when they gave up a 21 point lead against San Francisco two three years anyways calm calm breathe breathe breathe breathe I breathe I breathe well on a uh welcome back Drew thanks for coming back on a brighter note it's July and the next thing you know it will be August and then we'll be talking about training camp absolutely and then we'll be talking about uh games and preseason but between now and then we're gonna continue to do what we've always done on the show bring voices to youth hockey whether it's coaches or associations and organizations around there women's hockey men's hockey ACHA hockey referees USA hockey this is what you're gonna continue to see too many men on the mic in year two it's July go to a lake go to the beach go on a hike put the sticks down except for Lido players on Friday make sure you come to Brentwood at four o'clock um but those are fun have fun enjoy the uh the weeks here um enjoy the summer vacation and um again this concludes our best of it really kind of puts a bow on year one and I I think I said this last week when you weren't in the room and I'm always a fan of when you have something nice to say you should say to the person but I can't thank you enough and I'm so grateful that we're on this journey together and we've got a we got a year two likewise I could not imagine doing it with anybody else and it has been so fun going on a tour bringing these voices to youth hockey thanks for all the listeners out there.
• 1:52:19
  SPEAKER_06: If you haven't already like and subscribe we'll see you in year two have a great week he shoots he scores