Intro: This is for the sled dogs in the trenches. Real hockey parents, real stories. The Good and the Gong Show. No filters, no sugarcoating, no politics, just straight hockey talk, and the best guests around the barn. Welcome to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Alright, boys. Grind them corners, chirp responsibly, and bring that savage fire.
Scott: Alright, everybody. Welcome back to episode 59 of the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches. And thank
Jamie: you to BJD, Big John Dangles himself for our awesome intro. Go check him out at Big John Dangles' Instagram.
Scott: Absolutely. You know what I want? I wanna get that the that diamond crusted triple a gold necklace the kid has on our intro. 100%. That's bling.
Jamie: Dude, we should have one made. Just for shits and giggles.
Scott: That we that that should be like
Jamie: a We should hang it behind us or something like that.
Scott: Should give it to like Dom's It should be like the
Jamie: It should be like the the for like the biggest dog. Instead of, like, a like a bone or, a championship belt or, like, a hard hat. Yeah. It should be like a like a a diamond encrusted triple a logo.
Scott: It's ridiculous. So dumb. So good. So good. It is
Jamie: so good. And he looks so good with it too. I feel like he wears that well.
Scott: The baby? Yeah. Cartoon?
Jamie: 100%.
Scott: Wears it like a champ.
Jamie: Don't you think?
Scott: Absolutely.
Jamie: I couldn't agree more.
Scott: Let's go. VJD. Check him out on Instagram.
Jamie: Yes. Yeah. So Where do want to go here?
Scott: I think we I mean, there's like
Jamie: so much to do right now. Well. I don't know where to start.
Scott: Listen, we're coming off an amazing weekend up in Lake Placid. Dude, you know, going up there for the first time, like as an adult, dude, that place awesome. I would love to go back. Love to go back.
Jamie: Magical.
Scott: Yeah. Mean, obviously, look, we're, know, love hockey. We were there for hockey. You know, my kid got out on the ice and played some hockey. You know, it was like super hockey themed.
If you're like forget the hockey part of it. If you're just like a winter sport, like winter vacation kind of person or family, it's it's great. You know what I would also consider as well? Like for hockey aside, like looking at like whatever the calendar calendar of events just maybe the calendar. Look what's happening up there.
If there's something that's interesting, you know, would be really cool just to go up there and be a part of like the, you know, if it's
Jamie: Whatever's going on.
Scott: Whatever's going on.
Jamie: Yeah. No. No. The place is great. And thank you again to ECAC and Doug Christensen and Nick and their team for having us up there.
That was an insane
Scott: And Julia?
Jamie: I said on team because there's so many people to to like
Scott: No doubt.
Jamie: Mention. It's like, I feel like I'm missing somebody regardless.
Scott: Fair enough.
Jamie: You know what I mean? So their their team is is is first rate. They put on an unbelievable event. It's and it's only getting better every
Scott: year Yeah.
Jamie: Which is really cool to see.
Scott: And look, I've been to college games before. Yeah. Excuse me. But I've never been to like college tournament. Yeah.
That was my first time. Yeah. Like the whole thing was it was great.
Jamie: Sick weekend.
Scott: And and the the rink where they're playing and I think we said this on the
Jamie: On that bonus content thing we did. Yeah. But,
Scott: what a great experience for also like the players that being where the tournament's being held. Just the whole thing is special.
Jamie: It's very, it's a very impressive place to go play your conference semifinals and finals.
Scott: No doubt.
Jamie: Right? I mean, you know, the coaches were saying when we interviewed them, they're like, it's awesome up here. Like, what a great place to come play hockey.
Scott: Yeah. No doubt.
Jamie: You know? Now the place is great, you know? And it's not that far. It's four hours from us.
Scott: It's totally doable. You know? I mean, if you're in
Jamie: the Northeast, it's not bad of a drive.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Place is great. And it seems to always fucking snow.
Scott: Yeah. Which we got some of, but nothing that was terrible.
Jamie: It wasn't awful, but it was I must say, I feel like when it snowed Friday is it Friday or Saturday? Friday? Friday snow or Saturday? Why can't I Friday. Snowed Friday.
Yes. So I feel like normally they're so good at like removing snow from the roads and the sidewalks.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: I almost feel like I caught them by surprise or something.
Scott: It's funny you say it like that because Orly was like, god, this place knows how to plow and shovel.
Jamie: They do. A 100% they do. But normally, like, you don't see snow anywhere.
Scott: Oh, what?
Jamie: Really? Yeah. Normally, like, normally they move it and you don't even know that it that
Scott: It snowed?
Jamie: I remember we were there with, like, 14 or 15 inches of snow a couple years ago. And, like, you could barely tell that, like, like, the sidewalks were perfect. The roads were great. Like I almost feel like it caught them by surprise. I don't if it a time that it started snowing or they were just super busy in town.
So like all those parking spots along the street
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Were like weren't plowed because there were cars there.
Scott: Well maybe it just didn't snow enough for them to give a full effort. Maybe. You know?
Jamie: Maybe they're like, oh, it's only six inches. It's like a dust into them. Right. When we're when most people are like, holy shit. What am I gonna do?
Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe that's true. Maybe.
I mean, it was really nice of my family to to take the six inches off of off of the top of my car.
Scott: Yeah. They they did a great job of not removing snow on your car.
Jamie: It was
Scott: really nice. Question though. Yeah. You know, in in their defense, by the time you left, how much snow was actually left on your car? Was it still covered?
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Scott: It was.
Jamie: A 100%. Scott and I worked like a fourteen hour day that day.
Scott: Yes. That was a long day.
Jamie: We were at the ring from eight till ten plus. And I walked home and I was like and so Scott's Hotel came before mine. I was at the end. So I had to walk much farther. So I I wind up like passing my car parked out in front of the Mirror Lake Inn.
And I look and I'm like, what the fuck?
Scott: Do you really expect them to have like taken the snow off of it without being asked?
Jamie: My family, no. But wouldn't it have been nice? I mean, literally, we I we I left I left the hotel at, five to eight that that day. Yeah. And didn't come back to, like, ten, what?
Ten, fifteen ish?
Scott: Something like that.
Jamie: Something like that. Like, and I and I walked by my car and I'm like, Jesus Christ. Like
Scott: I mean
Jamie: Everybody else's cars were cleaned off.
Scott: Well, I don't oh, okay. I mean, I I wouldn't have expected it for my family and not because I
Jamie: Me neither. But wouldn't it have been nice?
Scott: Oh, sure. It would have been nice. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, it's a good thing you didn't need to drive anywhere.
Jamie: This is true. We walked everywhere. Yeah. Which which if you stay at Lake Placid, you really can walk everywhere if you stay in town somewhere. Yeah.
Like, it's really difficult to to you really don't need a car. Matter of fact, we parked it Thursday when we got there, and I didn't and I took the snow off
Scott: Of course.
Jamie: Sunday morning before we left.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: You know?
Scott: Right. Because you didn't drive anywhere.
Jamie: Because they didn't drive anywhere. Exactly. Right. You know? So, yeah.
No. It's great. If you ever get a chance to go up there, it's, a very special place.
Scott: Yes. Is. Indeed.
Jamie: Yeah. And I know we were I know our crew was was putting up a lot of pictures and and videos and stuff like that from from the weekend. Yeah. So hopefully you guys got to kind of see Lake Placid if you have not seen it before. Yeah.
And for those of you who have seen it, you just get to see it again.
Scott: Yeah. It was cool. Yes. It was pretty sweet. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Jamie: We were trying to do as much as humanly possible.
Scott: A lot of learnings. Oh my god. Give a lot of credit to people that are in the the media business. 100%. And like doing things on their own and you know just it's listen there's a lot of variables and you don't know what's gonna be thrown at you and like you appreciate the time effort energy that goes into like scouting a place and understanding what equipment you need for what situations and like it's just there's a lot that goes into it.
Jamie: And why do you say that, Scott?
Scott: Well, I say that because
Jamie: I'm just curious why you say this. There were
Scott: a few hiccups along the way. There were. We ran into
Jamie: a few roadblocks.
Scott: We expected it. We did. But not not knowing exactly what those were gonna be. Correct.
Jamie: Kind of first time on location like that.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. Note note to selves, make sure you have backups of everything in case something craps out on you, which It sounds very
Jamie: does. But when you it does after the fact.
Scott: Well, look. I I mean, part of it's also yes. After yeah. Hindsight's always twenty twenty.
Jamie: I was just saying, people always listen on their
Scott: own. Yeah. Course. But, yeah, in any event. So there was a few hiccups.
Jamie: What were those hiccups?
Scott: Oh, you wanna go through
Jamie: it as list
Scott: of hiccups?
Jamie: Were there that many?
Scott: I think
Jamie: there were two major. One major.
Scott: So the major The the cable like the cables that we use to connect the microphone to whatever that thing is.
Jamie: Whatever our audio interface is.
Scott: Yes. Yes. Like the the heavy duty, like thicker gauge Heavy duty
Jamie: mic cables.
Scott: Seemingly, like, well constructed cable that just decided not to work Started whole time.
Jamie: Started shorting out
Scott: on us. Going in and out.
Jamie: It it it didn't die completely, but it started getting finicky.
Scott: Which caused some audio issues. So just remember we're talking about that when we get fast forward to the interview later you might notice some less smooth transitions we had to make.
Jamie: We normally don't edit at all ever. We had to pull some pieces out of our
Scott: Here and there when things died out.
Jamie: You just couldn't hear him at all. Yeah. I mean, it was we tried to save it, and Scott did a great job saving what he could save. You know, it's funny. We when we did our interview with Tapper, it was a long interview.
Yes. So even the stuff we had to take out, it's it's still like 45.
Scott: Yes.
Jamie: So it still worked.
Scott: No. You know? But that his interview was the least troubled one.
Jamie: It was. The other two are not as friendly. Yes. We may have. So we, for those of you who don't know, we interviewed Jason Tapp, assistant coach of Dartmouth.
We interviewed Sean Flanigan, assistant coach of Cornell, and we interviewed Connor Jones, assistant coach of Princeton. Three awesome dudes. Like awesome
Scott: dudes. Such a pleasure getting to So talk to
Jamie: cool. Like awesome, awesome guys. They all know each other like really great guys. Three awesome interviews. So we're going to try to save as much of Sean and Connor if we can.
Maybe, maybe not. We may have to just redo their interviews. But listen, you live and you learn. We didn't know. Now we know we have the backup cables wherever we go.
Scott: No doubt.
Jamie: That and so we apologize for that. It's still fine, but we'll figure that part out. And then when we were recording that bonus footage that we did from the boardroom in the Mirror Lake Inn, we were in a very large room and the sound was probably bouncing around and we were using The wireless mics which The are our wireless Rode mics which are our backups, yes. And there's got to be a setting where we can filter that better. It sounded a little echoey, you know, so for those of you who listened to it, I hope you enjoyed it.
So we will figure that part out too.
Scott: Yeah. Work in progress.
Jamie: It is a work in progress. But listen, for the first time, I thought we did nicely.
Scott: Dude, yeah, I also agree with that. But then the funniest was when, so we went back to the rink before the finals on
Jamie: Oh Saturday my God, know exactly what you're gonna say.
Scott: And we were gonna do like an Instagram live and we were gonna do some recordings with the rink in the background.
Jamie: Scott had a great idea to do it from the rink. From the rink. Yeah.
Scott: You know, because we had access.
Jamie: We had access.
Scott: And then, so like we're
Jamie: And nobody was really there yet.
Scott: So we got there early and then we're just kind of figuring out where are we gonna set up and we, you know, unpack the things and get the things set up, and then locked cameras on and get the mics lady who is like an usher that had gotten there very early
Jamie: Yes.
Scott: Starts talking to us and, like, you know
Jamie: This was at about 03:15, I would say.
Scott: I don't even
Jamie: The doors don't open until four. Until four. The game started at five.
Scott: And it was like, it's our fault for like putting up well, I say like putting up with, but like we should have cut her off.
Jamie: We should have, but we were too nice too.
Scott: We were too nice.
Jamie: Way too nice. She was taller. She was like nine no. She was like 80.
Scott: She was in her eighties and she was at the game when the US beat the Soviets back in the day. It was interesting to talk to her, but at the same time, and then someone else walked by and we get another conversation, which was fine. It was great talking to you.
Jamie: Dennis from Catapult.
Scott: From Catapult. But then before you know it, the time goes and then we were about to hit the record button and then the doors open, the music starts.
Jamie: My God. And it
Scott: was just like, okay, well I guess this is a fail.
Jamie: So we start literally as Dennis left. So she got us from like 03:15 to like 03:30 I would say. And then we of brushed her aside and then all of a sudden Dennis shows up like five minutes later, right before we started. And we talked to Dennis. And you guys will actually get we're trying to get Dennis on.
Catapult is a really cool technology. It's like a
Scott: wearable sensor that Dude, it's more than really cool. It is insane. It's like the professional wearable that is very common. Over in Europe, you'll see soccer players, premier
Jamie: league, when
Scott: they take off their jerseys, those bras that they wear, that wearable, that's catapult. And they've got cameras set up throughout stadiums, arenas, racetracks.
Jamie: Racetracks, yeah.
Scott: Like for Formula One, And horse so Catapult gets all these analytics that are like biometric and they're like,
Jamie: So cool.
Scott: Whatever else they do. We're going to learn more when we have them on. But so we're talking to Dennis. Yeah. And who's a great guy.
Jamie: Awesome dude.
Scott: Yeah. His brother-in-law. Is his brother-in-law? Brother-in-law. Brother-in-law plays in the KHL.
Jamie: Plays in the Russian
Scott: Yeah, the KHL, which is interesting.
Jamie: Yeah, it was interesting conversation.
Scott: So we started talking to him and then before you know it is like game time and they got to pack up the or they open the doors and then we still have to Anyway,
Jamie: it was it was like unbelievable. Like Scott and I start talking like Dennis finally leaves and, like, literally as Dennis walks away, Scott and I kinda got in a position and we have our mics in our hands and then the fucking music starts blaring.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: They were testing the PA system. And then you look and we're on the opposite side of the rink and then you look and the doors open and people start filing and you're like, God damn it. And then while we're talking with the music blaring in the background, that nice old lady came back over and she's like, Oh, by the way, and I'm like, hey, great. Can we just can you give us like 10 we're kinda like live right now? Like, can you give us shit?
Scott: No idea. No idea. She paid no attention to us talking into microphones and the cameras that were Zero. Anyway Zero.
Jamie: It was very
Scott: funny though. In hindsight, lot of this stuff sounds a little bit like rookie mistakes. But the truth is like, you know, going, if you don't know the place where you're recording and the landscape, like the timing, if you're not paying close enough attention, like the time Everything goes by takes longer than you think. And then if you have to pivot or call an audible, it's just like a whole nother thing. So next time we do something along those lines.
Jamie: We'll be ready.
Scott: We will 100% be better We
Jamie: now know what to and what not to do.
Scott: So, you
Jamie: know, hopefully next year we
Scott: don't talk to old ladies.
Jamie: No. Or Dennis from Catapult.
Scott: No. Joking. He's great. No. It's just the timing of
Jamie: it. Timing. It's the timing. We should have cut her in hindsight, we should have cut her off and him off. True.
And then we probably would have had
Scott: In 30 hindsight, we should have gone to the rink way fucking That's true.
Jamie: Should have been there.
Scott: Mean, it's not their fault.
Jamie: But don't forget, It's we also had like audio issues in the boardroom at MiraLAKE. Mean, got into the MiraLAKE boardroom at like 10:45. Don't forget, we were there early.
Scott: Well, that's when we also discovered that the mics
Jamie: Yes, we did. And we had to Yes. So we were putting fires out, which took a lot of time. And then we recorded the bonus content, which took time. And then we left the Mirror Lake Boardroom and walked right down to the rink.
We stopped and ate something on the way.
Scott: Also, probably could have waited.
Jamie: Probably could have waited. Yeah. But I was so hungry. Don't know about you.
Scott: I went back to that place.
Jamie: Place is crazy. Fresh Tracks. Tracks. Tracks. Fresh Travels.
Fresh Tracks.
Scott: Yes.
Jamie: Yeah. It's right. It's right next to those of you know, like Placid, it's where the Starbucks used to be right next to it. And the Starbucks has gone by the way. Apparently the girl in Fresh Trucks used to work at Starbucks.
She said that they closed all stores that don't gross a million bucks a month.
Scott: Interesting.
Jamie: She said they were only doing like $7.50 or 800. Can I just tell you a funny thing about the Starbucks? And she's going, yeah, you know, I don't they just they they gross like you know, we gross like $75,800. She's like, so they shut us down. Can I tell you?
Nancy and I have like a running joke. Yeah. Because we go to Starbucks when we're, you know, like bopping around. So, at like Starbucks in Lake Placid, I shit you not, last couple times we've been there, closed at like two in the afternoon. So no wonder you're not hitting a million dollars in gross.
You're closed at fucking two in the afternoon when the street is jamming with people. Like, no wonder you're not hitting a million bucks.
Scott: Well, clearly they're like whatever formula they use to to figure out their
Jamie: Nancy I were like, what the fuck? Like, why are you closed at two in the afternoon? Like every day, bro. Was like maybe they can't staff it. I don't know what the situation was.
But when she's sitting there going, yeah, couldn't hit a million bucks a month. And I'm going, no shit.
Scott: There's probably some formula with their operating costs versus revenue and But
Jamie: it's the only Starbucks I've ever seen that closes when the streets are jamming at two in the afternoon. That was surprising to me. That is interesting. And it's closed, which is not a shocker.
Scott: Well, you know, all the other coffee slinging businesses over there, I'm sure very happy.
Jamie: So funny you mentioned that. I think you're right about that. I think they're thrilled about that, by
Scott: the way. Yeah. Yeah. They are.
Jamie: Yeah. And it's it's it's very it's a very like mom and pop ish type town.
Scott: Yeah. And that, know, like, no Starbucks, no problem in my opinion.
Jamie: Yeah. No. The local stuff, the local places are good. Yeah. You know?
Anyway. No. It's a pretty cool place.
Scott: Yes. So listen, without going any further, let's shout out partners.
Jamie: Yeah. Howie's hockey, Crazy ten.
Scott: Crazy ten.
Jamie: Know, you're going in those of you who are playing on spring and summer teams, go get your tape, laces, your gear. Scott's favorite, the candle. Scott loves his candle. And go get your yellow handled scissors. Again, you know, probably the best logo in youth hockey next to ours.
Just saying. So go to howieshockey.com and use the code crazy10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey game.
Scott: Yes, sir. And next up, you got hockeytraining.com. Coach Kevin.
Jamie: Coach Kevin.
Scott: Coach Kevin's the man. And if you are looking to get your kid or even yourself for that matter, if you are an adult league hockey player, quicker hands, faster feet, stronger stride. He's got a plethora of Good work. We go.
Jamie: Hefe, what does it mean to have of a
Scott: videos and virtual, he's got virtual stick handling classes that you can do from your home, garage, outdoors, weather's getting warmer, especially up here in the Northeast. Sooner than later. So check out hockeytraining.com. He's got great material to get your kids stronger faster. That's gonna translate to on ice performance for the spring summer this upcoming season.
Can't say enough about Coach Kevin. So check him out at hockeytraining.com.
Jamie: Nice. And then we got Titan Battle Gear. If you guys need base layers for your kids, they have the most stylish and protective base layer on the market. So go to titanbattlegear.com or in the link of our show notes is titanbattlegear.com backslash CrazyHockeyDads and use the code CrazyDads10 for 10% off your Titan Battle Gear. Matter of fact, Scott, I wanted to mention this to you.
They have a custom base layer function on their website. I actually reached out to them. I'm going to try to get a home and away and a third base layer for our new team for next year. Oh. I'm working on it.
Scott: Are you?
Jamie: Custom. Wait. The logo on and everything on the chest.
Scott: Oh, interesting. Your new team.
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: Do you have oh, that interesting. You have one? Not still what you mean, like, next year's team?
Jamie: Next
Scott: year's Not necessarily got you.
Jamie: Next year's team. Next year's team. Understood.
Scott: Yes. Understood.
Jamie: So I'm gonna do a home and a way and a third. Or I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna have Titan mock something up for us.
Scott: That'd be sick.
Jamie: Yeah. So we're gonna do we're gonna try to do custom base layers for for all of our kids. Kids.
Scott: Yo. That's cool.
Jamie: You should do too. I'll let you know what happens
Scott: when see it make it happen. Loop me in on that one.
Jamie: Yeah. Will. I definitely will. But that that should be I'm looking forward to that big time.
Scott: Maybe we should get it for my men's league team.
Jamie: Yeah. You should.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Alright.
Jamie: Oh, speaking of, wasn't it surprising that the college kids aren't wearing them yet?
Scott: Yeah. I yeah. That there's no neck guards. Right? Yeah.
I I mean, look, I
Jamie: We were pretty close. We got pretty close to the action.
Scott: Maybe a little too close.
Jamie: Were going streaking. The quad. We were we were, yeah, we were close.
Scott: We were close.
Jamie: We were very close to the players. And you could see, yeah, no. It was there was no neck guards. At least not that I saw much
Jason: of them.
Jamie: You know? Those kids have yeah. No. No. But I would think that would be mandated shortly.
No?
Scott: I would think so. I don't know. All I know is that when I saw one of the players on Dartmouth, I was like, he's like
Jamie: Which one?
Scott: I I know. But like the one guy looked like like noticed was like older. A man?
Jamie: Yeah. Like a 29 year old freshman?
Scott: I have kind of. Like seven years of juniors. That was like what was going through my mind when I saw this dude. Anyway, it was huge. Okay.
So just getting back to sponsors. Athletic Performance Insight, API. If any of you out there are thinking about next season and another way to help those kids on your team if you're a coach get better and you haven't used any video breakdown or analytic platforms, please check out Athletic Performance Insight. Use the contact form on their website. Reach out to Eric.
He'll happily give you a tour of or demo of the platform. Sure he'll be happy to tag a game for free if you wanna see how the whole thing works. The platform is very robust. You know, they it's used by youth hockey organizations up to college teams. So if anyone's thinking about that for next season, I definitely reach out to Eric so you can get a sense for what API can do for you.
Jamie: Well said. And I just wanna do a quick shout out. I forgot to do it earlier. Congratulations to Dartmouth and Cornell for making the NCAA tournament.
Scott: Oh, yes.
Jamie: Two ECAC schools are still dancing.
Scott: They still are dancing. Yeah. Yeah. Wish them all the look. It's a major accomplishment for any team that makes its way, you know, in whatever sport just to get, know, we all know that the best team doesn't always win.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: That a lot of things got to align to like you know get through to the next you know the next stage of whatever it is. True true. And it was yeah congratulations to them. It's really an accomplishment.
Jamie: Yeah. Know You
Scott: what I thought you were gonna say? I thought you were gonna say you forgot to give a shout out to Crazy Hockey Dads for our one year anniversary.
Jamie: That too.
Scott: Happy anniversary.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Been a pretty crazy year. Yeah. I'm a little speechless.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I mean, post that your wife
Scott: You speechless? Got
Jamie: Yeah. I know it's shocking. That's nice.
Scott: It's not even
Jamie: fucking funny. I normally don't have a problem talking. No. Yeah, man. When I saw like, I knew all of our stats.
Yeah. But when I saw them all today, like it was pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, that's a year.
Scott: Yeah. So I mean, and what does that really mean is thank you to all everyone that's been listening.
Jamie: Yes.
Scott: Appreciate the support.
Jamie: Could not do this without you.
Scott: No, of course not. It's really just it's amazing. Super humbling. You.
Jamie: Yeah. I I don't even know what to say about it.
Scott: It's think thank you works.
Jamie: Well, thank you is the least you could say, but like it's it's it's unbelievable. It's it's it's been a ridiculous ride. Yeah. I mean, like, we just we were just guests of the ECAC. Like, what?
Scott: That's true.
Jamie: Like, where
Scott: I know, like, you first started What? When you first, like, brought up, I'm like, yeah, I don't know about that. Really? What? No.
I mean, I mean, I'm talking about, like, the thank yous and all this stuff, but, like, when you were first, let's do this.
Jamie: Oh, oh, oh.
Scott: It was like, the first time we recorded, like, anything, which was probably months after you started talking about it.
Jamie: Oh, you mean our first ever, like our pilot.
Scott: Is
Jamie: that Yeah. What you're talking
Scott: But what I'm saying is that the first time we ever like messed around with recording anything. Yeah. So we started like a year ago, March 2025. Yeah. It was September 2024, the first time that we even like recorded something.
Jamie: Did we actually record something in September?
Scott: Yeah. Remember how those little GoPros like set them up like around,
Jamie: I think. Oh yeah, yeah, didn't work. Something we, yeah. So we audibled from that.
Scott: Well, yeah, we audibled from that, but more to the point was like, was, you know, it took a while for you to
Jamie: For me to what?
Scott: For you to I don't know. There's an expression that's not
Jamie: Not sure where you're going. Go ahead. Keep going. Keep going.
Scott: No. To get me
Jamie: Oh, to get you. Yeah. 100 To get into it.
Scott: Into it. It's not that I wasn't into it. I was the idea, never disliked the idea. But it was, you know, we're
Jamie: talking about like kids in life. You were a little hesitant.
Scott: Hesitant. Yes.
Jamie: Yeah. That's probably the good word. You were definitely like the first.
Scott: I don't know if this is a good idea. I got
Jamie: to tell you, Scott, your comment, when I tell the story at the end of of episode six.
Scott: What'd say?
Jamie: Your Dominic Still still says it today.
Scott: What'd I say?
Jamie: So Scott, I don't think wanted to to swear early on in our podcast, even though we're we're rated e for for explicit. I told the story about the dude falling through the roof in the bro shop, and Scott's response was, you've gotta be fooling me. Dominic still says that to this day. He's like, dad, fooling? Really?
I'm like, hey, listen. What can I tell you? Think you were trying to you were trying to even couch yourself.
Scott: But the truth is that that that there's definitely things I did that were like
Jamie: That wasn't one them?
Scott: No. Because you know who says fooling all the time? My mother-in-law always Yeah. Says You actually Are you
Jamie: fooling me? You actually said it this weekend during one of our interviews.
Scott: You gotta be fooling.
Jamie: I don't know who you said it to. It was Connor or
Scott: It's not it's
Jamie: not You said something it to Jonesy or you said it to one
Scott: of them. I definitely say it. You you So so when I said it in that that time, it wasn't me not cursing.
Jamie: I think that's the second time I've heard you say that. Fooling.
Scott: Oh, well Yeah.
Jamie: But clearly, you do say it because you definitely said it again. It just took you, like, a year to say it.
Scott: What? Fooling?
Jamie: Fooling. Yeah. Again? Dominic still says it today.
Scott: He should.
Jamie: Dad, you gotta be fooling me.
Scott: Is that the way Dom sounds? That's how he says it. Yeah. You sound like an idiot. Just tell me how he says it.
Listen. Just repeat what you No. No. I know. Just you're the voice that you do to impersonate yourself.
Jamie: Okay. What can I tell But but yes, you're right? You were a little hesitant to start.
Scott: Yeah. That's fine.
Jamie: Yeah. But now it sounds like you're clearly on board. Yes.
Scott: So getting back to, so this interview is now with assistant coach Jason Tapp.
Jamie: Yeah, Dartmouth.
Scott: Also a former BU Terrier, go Terriers.
Jamie: Congratulations to them by the way for winning the ECAC. Dartmouth. Yes. Their first time ever winning the ECAC. So congratulations to to Tapper and the entire
Scott: Dartmouth staff. For a moment, I thought you were seeing I I got I thought you were congratulating BU for winning.
Jamie: No. No. No. Dartmouth. Dartmouth is totally no.
They're they weren't even in it. No.
Scott: No. No. No. Be safe. Although watching watching Cole Hudson rag doll Jack Oh
Jamie: my god. What about when he walked the other the other devil at
Scott: the blue line? Oh. Oh my god. Filthy.
Jamie: He like walked the guy and like went in and like rang one off the the the left post.
Scott: Yeah. Was pretty gross. Christ. But Yeah. Yeah.
So today's interview, Jason Tapp, former Terrier. Former BU Terrier. Goalie. Goalie. Yeah.
And now he's assistant coach at Dartmouth. So he's our he's in today's interview. Recorded it before they went on to Yes. To win.
Jamie: Before they went on to we we got him Friday morning. Yeah.
Scott: Friday morning
Jamie: before their semifinal game.
Scott: Before their semifinal game.
Jamie: Against Clarkson. Yeah. Yeah. No. They I was impressed.
Scott: I absolutely was impressed.
Jamie: They won their first ever The goalie
Scott: stood on their I'm sorry. ECAC championship. And, you know, he so the other team
Jamie: The goalie did stand on
Scott: table. Right? At least according to the banners hanging in Lake Placid, Brown is the other school that
Jamie: Correct.
Scott: So it's not so now we're our interview. Now there's one one team left that has not won the ECAC.
Jamie: Yes. We thought that that Dartmouth was the only one to never win it, but it was if you look in the rafters, like Scott said, of the, of Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, They have all of the schools hanging there, and they have under that the year that they've won the ECAC championship.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: And Dartmouth and Brown had none, and now Dartmouth has one.
Scott: Yeah. They do.
Jamie: Brown is the only
Scott: So congratulations to them. Yeah.
Jamie: It was Yeah.
Scott: Pretty impressive. I'd like to say it's because of us and our presence and the interview with Coach Tapp that just like, you know. A 100%.
Jamie: Yeah. I mean, we were in the press conference too after we were in the press conference room after they won it. Yeah. And that was pretty cool also.
Scott: That was also cool.
Jamie: I mean, the head coach Cashman? Yeah. He was pretty I I don't think he realized what they had done yet.
Scott: Yeah. He was he was definitely there was emotion Yeah. There that was
Jamie: Didn't he say like five, like five years ago when he, so he took the program by then, let's say five years ago, Tapper was with him. They, they did that together. They were the, they were the two that, that started Right. And then they brought in a couple other assistant coaches. I believe that's the story.
I want to say Tapper's been there the whole time Cash had
Scott: been there. Yeah. He said that they were the in every every team statistic, were pretty much last.
Jamie: They were dead
Scott: last. In all of college hockey.
Jamie: Five years. And now they win the goddamn season.
Scott: And now they win it. Dude. Yeah. That's something. It's more than something.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. That's impressive. So congratulations to them and congratulations to to coach Tapp and the whole Dartmouth staff.
Scott: No doubt.
Jamie: He's a great dude. Yeah. I really enjoyed him.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. You wanna kick it over to him?
Jamie: After you, buddy.
Scott: Alright. Well, everyone enjoy our next interview with Jason Tapp of Dartmouth.
Jamie: Here we go. Were they big green? Go big green?
Jason: Yeah. Right?
Scott: Go big green. Go big green.
Jamie: All right, guys. We are here with our first interview with Jason Tapp, the assistant coach with Dartmouth. Jason, man, thank you for taking time. Know you guys are busy. I'm sure your schedule is jammed, but I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today, man.
Jason: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Jamie: Yeah. So I mean, talk to me about the team. I mean, I know we talked a little off camera, but what's the vibe around the team right now?
Jason: Excited, to be honest, I think we're excited to be back here. It's our third time in a row and we're up a collapse and obviously been here. So we're kind of leading our younger guys and I think just excitement to try to take another step here. We've made some nice steps as a program over the last few years and looking to make another one this year.
Jamie: Yeah. Like you were saying, it's tough to get here.
Jason: It's really hard to get here. Our league's competitive and anybody can beat anybody on any given night. It's really tough to get here and you don't take it for granted for sure.
Jamie: Mean, give our audience a little bit of context. Like how did you start off playing hockey as a kid? I know what you're telling me, you had a son that's playing, that's bouncing around here somewhere. Tell us a little bit about like how you started.
Jason: So I grew up in Western Canada in Kelowna, British Columbia. So hockey is just the way life. My dad played, so I was on skates when I was three, started skating and yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I had an older brother
Scott: and
Jason: I was chasing him and trying to keep up with him and got into, got into hockey and just said played multiple sports growing up baseball, flag football, soccer until I was probably 14 or 15 and then kind of decided hockey was the track and focused on hockey, but played some junior hockey out west in BC and then went to BU and then got into coach, played some minor pro and then got into coaching after that.
Jamie: How'd you get into coaching? What was that track like?
Jason: Was volunteered.
Jamie: How does that work?
Jason: No, was a volunteer. So I was, I played minor pro for seven years, I think it was. And then my wife was a news anchor in Albany and we were going to have our first and I was done kind of riding the buses. I was like, okay, it's time to be a dad. And she was there.
And so we, I moved to Albany and volunteered at union for two years with Nate and did that. And then Nate got the job at Providence and Rick, who was the associate at the time got hired and Rick fortunately hired me as an assistant and he took over the job. So kind of fell into it, did not realize how hard it was to get into our business and how hard it was to get into into coaching at the college level. I feel very fortunate that Rick took a huge chance on me way back in the day and being a first time head coach and a program that had just made the tournament for the first time and expectations were really high and to hire somebody with volunteer experience, no recruiting experience was a huge gamble he took and I'm forever grateful for him for taking that chance. So, like I said, very difficult to and probably really naive, and how hard it is to get into our business.
Scott: That's a, that's unreal. Like when you have, that opportunity to present itself, it's just, you know, you look back on things and you're just like, what a perfect opportunity.
Jason: Yeah. Right place, right time. For sure.
Scott: Exactly. That is, that's part of luck. But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, the recruiting process. And I'm sure there's a lot of our listeners out there that have kids that or families that are interested in playing collegiate hockey at whatever level. But, you know, when you when you're out scouting and you're looking at other teams play, like, you just give us a our listeners an idea of like what you're looking for in players?
Jason: Yeah. For our program, there's there's three things. We don't want to miss on it in a recruit potential recruit. And one is character. Obviously, Hanover is a small town, as well as Ivy.
It's a smaller campus. You get a couple of bad apples and that can ruin your your program's reputation. So characters is paramount for us. Good citizens, good people, and then competitiveness, we do not wanna miss on on compete. Kevin as much talent as you want, but if you don't come on the way we wanna play, it's it's just not it's in our program.
And then Hockey IQ, which is probably a little more difficult to tell, especially on video.
Jamie: So it's funny. A lot of our parents that we see in the hockey space, I mean, you have one that's playing. So you know, know, this probably just as well as we do. Parents sometimes can hurt their child being a crazy hockey parent, you know? So I'm just curious, what are the things parent or kid that you guys see that are red flags when you're recruiting a kid that you're like, you know what, We're gonna go in a different direction.
Even though the kid may be a really skilled kid, you know, maybe not the player for us or maybe not the player with the parent for us.
Jason: For sure. Yeah. There's been there's been instances where I've been in the stands watching and and and seeing a parent just berate a ref or or yell at kids on the ice. And I've I've literally crossed kids off the list. You know, it's not hard to figure out which kid is theirs, and they can really hurt that.
And it's not we just saw something we want in in our in our family of, you know, we're inviting everybody. You know what mean? So they're gonna be in the stands doing that in our games. It's not, it's not a trade that's gonna go away. And so, you know, those are some red flags for sure.
And like, as a parent, you just want to be a sounding board. Like I I have a 2,014 and a 2,012 that both play.
Jamie: Oh, you have 12 that
Jason: plays I have a 12. Yeah. Oh, nice. My my daughter plays
Jamie: Oh, okay. Does.
Jason: So So and so it's like, go when I go watch them, it's it's it's interesting and it's sometimes disturbing. Yes. And I try to sit and I try to sit away from everybody and I just, you know, my Watch. Go out and practice and stuff. But Yeah.
I really just wanna be a dad. And hey, I I I just wanna watch and and enjoy my kids playing the game and watch them having fun. And like I said, you'll see fans or parents that are just dads and moms, that are just, just yelling. So for the recruiting process, really, for us, it, it shows when, you know, when they're in our offices and you're sitting down and they're answering every question for their, for their son and the kid never gets to speak. And it's like, you know, you really want them to, hey, this is, this is your process.
We're here to guide you. You answer the questions. And then when parents send emails, a 19 year old or a 20 year old and the emails coming from the parent, it's a bit of a red flag. It's, hey, this you're at a stage now in your life. I understand with a 15 or you wanna you wanna proofread it, but you still want it to come from Absolutely.
From your son who has ownership in this development process. Right. Right.
Scott: Like you've obviously seen the whole spectrum from like living it yourself to having children in the college program where, you know, all that stuff in in when families right now, it's like tryout season also. They're looking at and evaluating programs like, you know, for what, how would you approach it if you were, let's say you were either new to the game or you didn't have the best season last year you, and you want want to move on? Like, what, who are you talking to? What are those questions? You know, how are you kind of getting your information on a good development program?
Jason: Yeah. If you're looking at, like, if you're a new parent, get into it and you want to talk to somebody that's played for that coach and what the experience is like for their son or daughter in that locker room. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, very fortunate that my kids have had some good coaches and and the culture inside that locker room, it's more like a family and fun going to the rink.
Yeah. That's a piece of it. Sure. I think it's biggest piece for me. Said is, they enjoying it?
Are they getting better? When they get older, then it's time to really focus on, okay, what's the development track record for some programs, junior programs, and, you know, get into that 16 u, that 18 u kinda age groups. Okay. Where, where are the teams that have developed some players to move on to junior hockey and then move on to the college level? That's when you can really narrow it down and try to pick your spots.
But if your son or daughter's in a good area and a good situation, I would say stay in it.
Scott: Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. And it's interesting to hear how, like, just from looking at like elite prospects or hockey DB, if you see kids that have gone team after team, after team, how that's a red flag. And what I wanted to also touch upon was just tier one versus tier two. And like both of our kids have played tier one.
They've also played tier two. My son next year is going back to tier one. Jamie's still figuring out his situation. But from you, from your perspective, does that matter? And if it does, like, and what does it matter in what context?
Like if there's a family out there that wants, you know, the kid wants to play junior or wants to ride hockey into college, no matter what level does tier one versus tier two matter? And if so, when does that really come into play in your opinion?
Jason: I don't think it matters.
Scott: Doesn't matter.
Jason: Not, not right now. No, not at the younger ages for sure. No, I don't like, I think you get maybe get into probably maybe a maybe 16 u. I would say some probably think 14 u starts to mattered a little bit. I would say not particularly.
I don't there's a huge pile kids develop it. You'll see some kids when when checking starts, that's gonna switch the pendulum quite a bit when you'll see some of the best players that when checking starts to happen.
Jamie: It happened to my son this year. They just started hitting this year, first year bantam.
Jason: Yeah. And it's it starts to drop. It changes it changes the landscape a little bit. So hey. Can I say that?
I would say when when everybody's probably gone through puberty is when it really matters. I would say that's probably probably the benchmark for
Jamie: So you said 16 you?
Jason: I would say, yeah. Some late bloomers to kinda kick Yeah. And I think the the runway is so long. Like you have till your if your parents are willing my parents were good with me playing till I was 20 years old. And so you can play your 20 in in our sport.
So that's some that's a pathway. Like, it is a longer runway. And so you do have so much more time for those late bloomers to develop.
Jamie: Right. And it's funny you mentioned about how long the runway is. We've talked a couple times about how the runway seems to be getting longer and longer.
Jason: For
Jamie: sure. It's, you know, it's it's great for for kids because you said, you know, the late bloomers have time to kinda figure it out. You know, we see kids that have a lot of ability that just haven't figured the game out yet where they're talking IQ wise or confidence wise or whatever it is. Yeah. Going to be interesting to see.
And I'm curious, do you have a story that sticks out in your mind of a late bloomer that you guys recruited that turned into, like you know, I'm just curious. Along your career, have you seen anything like that? Like a
Jason: I would say Hank Cleefs.
Scott: To
Jason: be honest, like, was so he was COVID, sent an email, and he was, I think he was five, 10, five, 11 during COVID and then went to six, three and like had to grow into his body, had to figure out his body, awesome brain, awesome skill, but just had that huge growth spurt and had to figure out how to get out physically. And he was definitely a late bloomer and had that huge growth spurt and he just had to catch up to his body. Everything else was there, but needed to catch up to his body and, and did, and, and now he's, he's unreal. Yes, for sure. Yeah.
Scott: The, yeah, the, the late bloomer piece is something that I think people are not thinking about when they're getting super into hockey. They see the, the overnight, you know, the, the generational talents, they see the highlights, they see all these things and like they they think my kid needs to be like, you know, getting drafted as soon as possible or whatever the the ideas are. But it's great to hear you talk about how long the runway can be because I think that kind of ties into my next piece, which is just like making sure the kids have fun. Right. And that's just such a reoccurring theme.
And there's a lot of families that are shuttling their kids here, they are everywhere. You know, it impacts the kids social life. It impacts the kids, you know, like, you know, being a kid ultimately. So in terms of yourself and now that you're like a hockey dad, what, how are you thinking about like the next steps for your kids? They're, they're currently playing youth hockey, boy and girl.
If you can also just talk about the girls landscape, that would be awesome.
Jason: Yeah. The girls landscape is is much different, than the boys for sure. So, my daughter just she she was an eighth grader and she she played on the high school team this year, so that was different. She played 14. Yeah.
She played 14 tier two this year for 14. And for the wizards and in mass and, then played high school hockey and now is going to go to Dexter. As a freshman next year. Got into Dexter and she's going to go play there. So yeah, she's excited for it.
The path for the girls is a little earlier than the boys. They start recruiting a little earlier. It seems like their commitments are a little earlier on the women's side than the men's side. So it's a different path, but there's more and more girls playing hockey, which is awesome. And it keeps continues to grow.
And like she sees the pub PWHL and we've taken her to the games and the fleet and she loves it. And so that that's been an eye opening Olympics were awesome, obviously, for that. So the experience on the girls side has been been a little bit different. The boys seems to be more of that jump, jump, jump, jump, jump next best thing kind of thing. So for me, just, like I said, try to get my kids into a good situation and they're happy and growth.
He said, it is a lot of parents think it's a sprint and they do see the social media famous and all this stuff. And know, those are the one percenters. You know, those kids and those generational talents. So it is a marathon. And I and it's hard.
Like, I'm in it and I I see it every day and I'm a parent and I it's hard for me at times. Like, am I is my kid falling behind? And I feel that pressure and my family feels that pressure and I'm in it. And I'm just like, am I doing the right thing for my son? Am I doing the right thing for my daughter?
Yeah. It's really hard to and I I've I've had this conversation with my wife and I'm like, I'm in this every day. Yeah. And I feel the pressure. I can't imagine families that aren't don't know it.
They aren't involved in it every day and how they must feel. And I can see why you would jump and feel like your your kid's being left behind. But, like, I mean, my hockey's over for my son and my daughter has nationals next week.
Scott: Man, over.
Jason: Then it's it's lax season. Like they're going to lax and I, we won't when they asked to do something in the spring or the summer, that's when we'll like, we will I will not sign them up or we will not sign them up for anything until they ask, hey, dad, I'd like to do I'd like to do this this camp. I wanna I wanna do some skills. Can I and then when they asked, we'll do it until they asked, we're not asking them to do anything? It's lax season.
Let's enjoy lax season. Hopefully the weather gets a little warmer and there's no rain and it's freezing at the fields. But like I said, when they asked to do something, start doing something. And like I said, we want them to drive, drive the bus.
Scott: Yeah. I think that was a, one of the, don't know if I'll call it a mistake because it wasn't for that long, but when auto is 11. So like when he was like eight and nine, there were, you know, I'd see like the kids around him playing tier one and like going to lessons before school, going to extra lessons before practice. And they're getting better. Of course they're getting better.
They're putting in more reps. And I'm like, Oh dude, you got to do this. And he's like, yeah, I don't really want to skate. And I'm like, yeah, but, and it's like, I'm having this conversation with like a nine year old or an eight year old making him like really consider his, you know, his decision whether or not like he wants to go play with his friends or he should go to a skating class. And I would be like, this is, this is nuts.
So I've also dialed that back and it's like, maybe I'll suggest it like, Hey, listen, there's a clinic. Do you feel like going? And then if he says no, fine. If he says yes, fine. But I think we're more along the approach now similar to you of like, if you want to do it, let it be kid led, you know, and follow their cue as opposed to putting it on them.
Jason: For sure. Yeah. Like, okay, yourself, I'll walk by, by my son and daughter and be like, Hey, there's a bucket of pucks out back that are a little lonely right now. You know I mean? Yeah.
No, no, no. Yeah. I'll I'll I'll suggest some things here and there. It's like, Hey, little lonely outside that net. Looks like it has been used for a bit.
Like, yeah, just to see if it'll spark something. And then they'll go shoot, but like, yeah, there's still some nudging that goes on a 100%. Yeah.
Jamie: So that made that makes me feel better. You know, when you said you won't say anything to them until they come to you, I'm Oh man, I'm doing this all wrong.
Jason: So they had the pucks and the extra work, stuff to score from the couch staring at your phone.
Jamie: That's right. All right. So I'm glad you said that because I got nervous from like, Oh wow. When I look at Dominic and I go, Hey bud, shooting hockey pucks today?
Jason: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Jamie: Okay. Sure. Makes me feel better. So alright. So what's the what would you say?
And I know I'm sure there's a lot of them, but talking to like parents, what's the biggest misconception they have about youth hockey that, you know, you being in this game, if you had to pick one or or a couple, you know, what do you think they just get totally wrong?
Jason: That you have to be on the best team all the time. Like, chasing the team. Like, you don't have to be the best you don't have to be the best team. You don't have to be on the best team. And you just don't.
Like, I just see, like, you see all these teams, oh, I gotta go to this team because they had the best team last year. Well, then they implode. Why did they implode? You know what I mean? And it's, oh, I'm gonna go this team.
And it's like, you don't need to be on the best. And I think that's the biggest thing. It's just chasing chasing the teams.
Jamie: Right. Just the chasing.
Jason: Yeah. Just the chase. It's hard. Like, I've I feel that pressure at times too of like, hey, am I doing the right thing for my son and daughter? But then I have to take a deep breath and be like, it's a marathon here.
He's 11. She's 13. Right. We'll be okay.
Jamie: You'll be okay. Okay. You'll sure. But it's it's it's it's it's it's comforting to know that that you being in the game actually gets that feeling because I I mean, I just thought it was us, You know? I really did.
Jason: Yeah. No. It's hard. It's really hard. Yeah.
It is. Yeah. You've like and part of it is, like, we did the same thing when when Kellen was younger. We played for a tier one team that and and he was an alternate. And so he went to every practice, but I watched how many tournaments they went to.
And they it must have been $20. It's crazy. I'm like, they're eight. I was like, what are we like, what's going on? Like, I look at my wife, she's like, she's like, I can't do this.
And I was like, I was like, I was like, I can't either. Like, I was like, we don't like for it's wild to me, like, nine years old, 10 years old, and just trip after trip after trip and he's like hockey is expensive enough and I'm just like they're not it's not gonna make or break you at eight nine ten eleven twelve of how many tournaments you went to you know what I mean so that like that to me it was eye opening it's like holy smokes like I know families that's that's been up to, and that's just like, it's wild to me. And you have the means to do it great. But like, most of us, we don't.
Jamie: It's hard. And a lot of people have a hard time keeping up with Jones. For sure.
Jason: Yeah. You don't have to, like I said, that's the biggest I would love to share with Parents. You don't have to. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like, especially if your kid doesn't love it, you really don't have to.
Jamie: Yeah. And and I think there's a lot of those situations in the game
Jason: For sure.
Jamie: You know, which is unfortunate.
Jason: You see a lot of kids that are there because of of mom or dad. Yes. And and they really just like, you can see them walk into the rink and it's not they're not loving being there. And that to me is hard. Like it's you see those kids and you just know it's like, isn't fun for them.
It's unfortunate. There might be another sport that they really love, but parents love hockey and they're kinda pushed into it a little bit. And that's, that's hard for me to see at times because you just know it's not, they're not really enjoying it.
Jamie: No. You know, so it's funny. I'm curious to hear your thoughts and serious injury in it with the rest of us. What do you think is the one thing if you could change in youth hockey that you would change? A lot of people say the game's broken monetarily, you know?
And what would you say, like, if you could change something or a couple things? Doesn't I don't wanna pigeonhole you.
Jason: I would train to trial process.
Jamie: You would. Yeah.
Jason: I hate the trial processes in March. Teams are still playing. Teams are almost done. You see so many kids get better from March till August that really work at it. Some kids might grow.
You know, some kid might have a great summer and really actually work on, Hey, this is what I want to do and spend hours. We're getting better at it. I would love to change the trial process and make it in September. But then you got, like I said, it's the teams that are jumping around and you might run the same problems of filling teams. I would love to get back to town hockey where town hockey was really important.
Jamie: Like in Minnesota?
Jason: Yeah. Like Minnesota where I grew up, like you played for your town. Like I played for Kelowna minor hockey and it was awesome. Like, still have friends that I played with growing up, but I don't think that'll ever happen. Now you're now USA is talking about the the new league and stuff like that.
So yeah. So it, like, I I don't see that coming back, but like you watched state tournament a couple of weeks ago. That was awesome. You know what I mean? Like unreal for those, those kids in Minnesota to have that.
I wish that was, that could be the model everywhere still.
Scott: So. Yeah. So I wanted to circle into, to the coaching aspect of it, and I'm sure we have got, listeners out there that are also coaching, but now like in terms of like preparation, now that you're like, you know, got here to the championships, what from a coaching perspective, what was that transition like in terms of approach, if anything between like gearing up for these games versus, you know, like regular season?
Jason: Nothing really changes for us. Like the one, the biggest thing for us is we try, we focus a lot on habits. Yeah. And so like talk about about our habits and how our, if we just stick to our habits, focus on our habits and know what the moment take care be too much for us. We can always come back to our habits and kind of what we're doing there.
And so our approach doesn't change from, from game to game. Doesn't your game is just, just the game. Approach. Nothing really changes. We keep our schedule the same.
Our meetings all stay the same. So yeah, our approach is, is, is really consistent.
Scott: When, before we started recording, we're talking a little bit about how this is, or maybe it is even when we started, but like, this is your third time here. You got some players that have been here, done that, you know, that are helping along with like the younger kids. Clearly the, the there's gotta be some raise and like the stakes are getting higher. You know, there must be like increase in pressure. Some nerves might be coming out.
How is that dynamic between, let's say like the, the players that have been there before, like what are they necessarily like doing to help the rest of the team kind of settle into the moment?
Jason: Just the conversations of, Hey, this is like the hotel, like what's the hotel situation? Like what's around it? You know, the guys are looking for trying to get some snacks and stuff while we can go down here and just kind of taking away some of, some of those things, some questions they might have the rink and all that gets through the rinky to kind of look at it in 1980 ton of history here. Right? So the guys have kind of been through the routine of the media and and those situations and just kind of navigating that.
But like I said, for the most part, we just focus on what we do. So a lot of it, we try to eliminate the outside noise as much as possible. And so it is different. Like there, there is more media here. There is more things that we're doing.
Obviously the banquet last night, we had some awards last night and so things are different, but for the most part, try to, when we're at the rink, we try to keep the rink similar when our meals are the same and we try to do, try to keep everything as much as a routine as we've had all year.
Scott: Yep. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And when in preparation for teams like in the, you know, for the championships, when you're, when you're looking at tape, when you're looking at film of your competition, you know, what, what are some of the things that like you're really like cluing in on and taking a look at closely in preparation?
Jason: Just some tendencies that we can take advantage of, you know, certain things that they do that they're consistent with how they do things. And, and then how can we, how can we take advantage of those things and then try to eliminate their strengths? What are they really good at? And, and how can we eliminate this? What we have to do to eliminate their strengths.
And then said, we and then we focus on ourselves. Obviously, special teams are big PP and PK, are really important. But then as far as five on five, it's just more of what their tendencies are and what their strengths are and how we can attack both.
Jamie: So who should everybody be paying attention to tomorrow or to what's afternoon, actually, or maybe tomorrow in a couple hours, who should we be paying attention to on the ice today?
Jason: For our team? Well, obviously eighteen and ten get a lot
Jamie: of Yes.
Scott: A lot
Jason: of talk. They're they're pretty special. I think 15 does a lot of lot of the dirty work.
Jamie: Okay.
Jason: For them, he works, he competes. Four and two on the back end are obviously they they carry Sharpie was up for best defensive defenseman in final three this year and see just, you know, all rookie team a couple of years ago and obviously a phenomenal player. So we have a few, but yeah, we're considering, Emmett was obviously second team and confirm and have a good game too. So yeah, we have, we have, we have a bunch of players that do some special things for us. So, but for the most part, it's a collective group.
Like I said, I think our depth is, is really good. And whether it's our, you know, sixth, seventh defenseman or it's our fourth line, they all contribute and, do a lot of good things for us.
Jamie: Right. And since you've been coaching with Dartmouth, you
Jason: guys haven't won this, right? Dartmouth has never won the ACS. They've never won.
Jamie: So there's the answer.
Jason: Yeah. For sure. Yeah.
Scott: We're there.
Jamie: I didn't realize that.
Jason: Yeah. We look up there and we're the only one that doesn't have Next to your banner. Okay. So maybe We're just gonna change that.
Jamie: Gotta get it done
Jason: this year. Hopefully. Yeah. That's the goal for sure. Definitely coming into it.
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's not fun looking up there and not seeing a year.
Jamie: Is Dartmouth the only school in the conference that hasn't won it?
Jason: I believe we're the only other one that doesn't have a year up there.
Jamie: Yeah. Okay. So Alright. Yeah. And you guys think that this is you feel good about this Yeah.
Jason: Like I said, we we like our team and we've had a different mindset all year and obviously Clarkson's very tough. And then you're, you advanced through that. You got Princeton and Cornell who are two great teams too. So like I said, it's not easy. Early is not easy.
Jamie: It's not easy to get to,
Jason: to win it all. So it's going to be a challenge for whoever wins it.
Jamie: Anything special that you guys have for the boys? No. Like said, we keep it keeping it?
Jason: Keep it the same. Yeah.
Jamie: Keep it a business trip.
Jason: Yep. Definitely.
Jamie: So Alright. Listen. I and and and and I guess, you know, no, like, special speeches in the locker room. No. No.
Nothing. Nothing's gonna come down the pipeline. No.
Jason: Same thing as do what we do. So Listen. Alright.
Jamie: And and I guess if you could put, I don't know, like, like aspirations for you down the road. You're like, you know, would you like to be a head coach down the road? Is that the plan you want to? What would you like to do down the road for yourself, Jason?
Jason: Yeah, for sure. I think I always like the challenge of trying to run your own program and try to build it. Like I said, I've been fortunate to work with some really good coaches.
Jamie: Two
Jason: national champions and obviously read one part of a Stanley cup organization and coached in the highest level in the national hockey league and done a phenomenal job here. So I think I've learned from and been mentored by some great people and obviously ideally love to run my own program one day and have your name on the door. But he said, I have a great situation now. I work with really good people. And then, you know, I mean, our administration is great.
So I'm in, I'm in a really good situation, so I'm not looking to jump, but if there's not
Jamie: for sure,
Jason: if there's a situation that that's suitable and I'd certainly be interested in. Yeah. Sure. Like I'm happy where I am.
Jamie: Of course. No, I understand that. And if you had to do anything over again, you know, I guess getting to this point, cause I'm sure it's been a wild ride. Would you do anything different?
Jason: No, I don't think so. Like, no, like maybe I'm like, it's led me to here. So I don't think so. I probably stayed at union. I was there ten years.
If I had to do it over again, I probably stayed there a little long. I probably would have, I could have left a little earlier than that. It was an awesome experience. I loved working there and like same thing. I worked with really good people while I was there, but ten years was a long time.
Probably may should have maybe yeah. And just, and like, and just kind of learn from somebody new too. Like I said, it was a long time there and we'd had a tremendous success, won a national championship and Reed got the job here. He hired me here and it's been an awesome six years. And I, I love looking for me.
He's probably one of the smartest guys I've ever been around. Like the way he's, oh yeah. The way he sees the game is incredible. I always say he could be, he could be a head coach in the national hockey league one day, if he wanted to be, he's that smart.
Scott: Wow.
Jason: He sees the game that well and he communicates so well with our players and our group. He's a tremendous human being. So I feel very fortunate that I'm part of his staff and think the world of him. So I've grown so much of a coach being part of his staff and likes to be had great assistance. Byron and Brian are awesome guys to work with Sharp too, and they're very good.
And Troy and Savi before him. So I've been really, really fortunate that throughout my career, I've worked with some great people. And so I, it kind of leaves you that you don't really want to leave those situations because you are working with great people. I have a great job. I work in a great, at a great school, that supports our program.
And so like it's, it's kind of like, are you, you know what I mean? It's like, I probably should, but you just never know. So yeah.
Scott: So let me ask about, you know, the, the, the players who are maybe coming to the end of their hockey road, potentially some players, this might be like their last weekend for some players. They might want to continue their journey. What's it like for like the coaching staff and how do you participate in setting up the kids for their next steps if they're looking to move on from college?
Jason: Yeah. So we're obviously being, being in the and our, our players are pretty fortunate if they do want to start their career path early. And I think out of our senior class, I only one has aspiration to play after. So we'll help. That's it.
Just one. Yeah. Just one. And so we'll help him when the time comes and we'll reach out to to pro twos. And obviously he has an advisor that will for help as well.
And teams will reach out to us and be like, hey, do you have any players in looking to play after? So do you wanna go to Europe? You know, obviously, Convention's over there. And then if you wanna stay to Stateside and some coaches here and and guys are looking for you. And then for us, our guys that are graduating, we all had jobs waiting for
Scott: Okay.
Jason: They did internships in after the junior year in the city and they are offered jobs going into their senior year. So they've they know what
Scott: So when do you see a transition from the, like, players when they enter the program and they're younger and like, as they get older, does their outlook on what hockey is going to like how far they're going to take hockey change? Like, do you like as everyone that comes in the door, like I'm going to go play pro that's my goal. And then it, you know, a little time passes in like maybe things change, maybe they don't.
Jason: For sure. Definitely. Like part of our goal in recruiting is trying to re players that want to play in the national hockey league. You know, that's their goal is, is, Hey, I want to play as long as I can. Ultimate goal is playing in the national hockey league and that's what we want.
And we want to help development for that path. And then there comes a point in time where it's like, maybe it's in this sophomore year or into your junior year where you figure out, well, that might not be my path. And then they start to transition more into like, okay, I gotta set myself up for life after hockey. And then that's where that competitive and that character comes in piece for us is like, Hey, you have to have that piece because we still need you dialed into our program and what we're doing and making our, and making the group better and not so much focused on kind of like, Oh, yeah. Hockey is not, it's not for me anymore.
I'm going to go do other things. No, no, no. You're still part of this group and this family. And that's, like I said, that's where that character and that competitiveness still comes in is like, oh, I'm still going to compete. I'm still going to make you work to keep your job or stay in that lineup and those things.
So, and I said, if you're a good human being, you have that character piece. So we've been really fortunate that that's been, been great for our guys and we have that in our group. So, but yeah, for sure. You do see that transition for sure.
Jamie: You do throughout their four years. Everybody
Jason: walks in the door and then for sure. And it's like, Hey, and, and that's all, and that's what we want. You know what I mean? And then they start to start to see it and, you know, start to figure out by their junior year kind of where, where they kind of fit in that landscape of right.
Jamie: It becomes a little more clear as they get older and kind of moving along.
Jason: Yeah. And it's not to say like, can't go play, but like maybe somebody doesn't, they're not going to, it's not an NHL contract. It might be the East Coast league. Do you, do you want that? Do you want to go play for a couple of years of minor pro or do you just want to start your career?
And that's
Jamie: a decision we'll go play overseas or something
Jason: like that. Definitely. And that's something we help them navigate with. And like I said, if, okay, you want to go career side, boom, let's start taking advantage of our internships and our mentor program. Pro side.
Okay. Let's, let's, let's figure out what you need in the gym with our strength coach and how can we help that side? So development wise.
Jamie: Yeah. Is hard when you do see a lot of kids that realize halfway through their college career that this is not going to be for me down the road. And like you said, and their mindset turns toward, you know, going to work or something like that, you know, and they kind of, I don't want to say fall by the wayside or kind of start taking their foot off the gas. How do you get them back? What do you do in that instance?
Jason: It's that's the piece where like us, our student athletes, our players have to know that we're invested in them as people.
Jamie: Right.
Jason: And they're still getting the touches from us. They're still getting video touches. They're still getting like, we film every practice. So there's still every one of our players gets a video session every week and it's like, they're still getting touches. Hey, we need you to like, this is what we see.
You're doing this really well. You needed this to move up in our lineup or get back into our lineup. And so they still know that we're invested in them and we care about them. And like I said, if those players still feel it, they'll still be invested. But if you, if you, if they don't feel like you care about them and you're not invested in them, it's easy for them.
Like, oh, I would have my coaches don't really care about me. Like they're not, there's what can I do for you on the ice? It's not, Hey, what am I as a human being? And how do I value those relationships with those guys?
Jamie: Yeah. You guys have a tough job as a staff because you have a lot of kids to, you know, to kind of corral there. It's that that's not easy
Jason: for sure. And not everybody's happy. You know what I mean? Like everybody wants to play. And thankfully for me, I don't have to make those decisions for ice.
And I know what you talk about. He's like, it's the worst part of my life. Like it sucks. It's not fun. You know what I mean?
Like you don't want to do it. You know what I mean? But It's
Jamie: part of the job. Yeah, no, understood. I have another, and I'm so curious to hear what you're gonna say about this. With NIL money coming in to college sports, do you like it, do you not like it, do you I have a feeling where you're gonna go, but and are you seeing other schools that are going to have a hard time competing because of it or lack of it?
Jason: Yeah, I think for sure. I think I'm I'm particularly not a huge fan of it, of where it's gotten to, I think, but like for us in our landscape, Abley doesn't deal with it. And so it, it kind of helps streamline our recruiting a little bit because there's not like somebody's asking for Neil money is like, it's not something we can give you. So it's a new conversation for us for sure. Yeah.
If that's going to be part of their decision process, then it's not like, not a ton, but more and more for sure people, I can get this from X school or more from advisors. Hey, they're offering this, you know, and you can, you start to see it probably more and more prevalent. I think it will start to divide for sure some of the schools that, you know, maybe some blue bloods that traditional blue bloods that you think would have some, some no mind, but actually really don't have a lot of it. It's a little different. So I said, there's some schools that do a really good job with it.
And so, but same thing like, well, I can get you see it. You see it in like football and basketball is like, they're at a good school, but I didn't get two fifty ks at another school. They're leaving. You know what I mean? So that that'll be a challenge when that actually starts to hit hockey a little bit.
Obviously I think it's more in basketball and football, but it could start to trend into hockey. And we'll see if that is as prevalent in our sport. And how many, how many teams can actually get into that world where it's significant enough for them to change.
Scott: Yeah, that makes sense. And as far as, and then you touched upon it earlier, but I would just see, it brought it back to mind in terms of the, with the CHL being an option, now the for players to go between that and NCAA, are you, you have a presence up in Canada? Like, are you, are you like expanding the scouting network? Like how does that process work now that you have so much more ground to cover?
Jason: Yeah, it's definitely more challenging because they haven't raised the number of coaches that can recruit. So, for sure. Yeah. We have a, have, we have presence up in, up in Canada for sure. So, the landscape's definitely changed with the CHL players being, being eligible and said the USHL is still a great league.
You know what I mean? So it's, there's still, it's definitely because of the expansion of the three leagues up up north. It's, it's definitely different. It's nice for us that we have the queue that's two and a half hours from campus to have a league that's close to us. Like primarily it was, there wasn't a league really that was, that was really that close to us.
And so to be able to get up there quickly on a Wednesday or catch a Thursday game is kind of nice. But yeah, it's definitely, definitely changing.
Scott: Yeah. That's amazing how the landscape's changing. All right. So we're going to start to wrap it up soon, but I wanted to, I have a few things, questions and it's what wins the, so the segment is called what wins. And I'm going to give you two options.
And if you could just give me your gut response on what wins it's hockey related. So I'm not going to throw any curve, like real curve balls. Are you ready?
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: All right. Talent versus trust. Trust. Skill versus hockey IQ.
Jason: Hockey IQ.
Scott: Creativity versus simplicity?
Jason: Oh, that's a good one. I would I would go Creativity. Confidence or discipline? Oh, that's another good one. It's a really good one.
I think you need both. I would go with discipline. I would go with yeah. Just Alright. Under your structure to your system and how you want to play.
I think the team that's most disciplined to that will come over on top.
Scott: All right. Top line versus bottom six.
Jason: Best players on the ice.
Scott: All right. And last one chemistry versus structure.
Jason: Oh, chemistry. Chemistry. Like it, Dads.
Jamie: Who's going to win today?
Jason: Who's going to win tonight? Who's playing? In our game. I hope it's the big green, but Clarkson Clarkson Clarkson's a test. So they're obviously what they did last weekend in Hamden.
They're GF's an like their coaching staff's awesome and they do a really good job there. It's a tough, it's a tough matchup. They played, we've played some really close games. Like I said, that's, they're a really good team. They're well coached.
They got some talent. They got some firepower. They compete. So yeah, we'll, we'll definitely, we'll need our a game. But like we always say to our guys, we'll take our best versus our best.
We'll take our best.
Scott: Yeah. That's amazing. All right. Well, listen, thank you so much for joining us. It was such a pleasure talking to you.
Jamie: Thanks so much. This was great and good luck today. We'll be watching. Thank you, Jason. All right, everybody.
Welcome back from our interview with Jason Tapp from Dartmouth. Awesome dude.
Scott: Yeah. And you know, what's great about Awesome dude. Yeah. So obviously, because he is but the fact you know he's also got he's going through it himself and that was one of the things that like caught me off guard just about that interview is like we started diving into like his own like perspective on like youth hockey and
Jamie: And he knows better.
Scott: And yeah, I mean because he's also human and like he's no different than like so many of us that like when you take a big step back you're just like yeah this and that but then when you're in the thick of it and all that stuff. Like, am I doing making the right decision for my kid? Am I not making the right decision? And you play the what ifs and he's got two, he's got, he also has a girl. This is twenty twelve and
Jamie: Yeah, Dom's age. And then his twenty fourteen Zotto's age.
Scott: That was pretty cool. I have to believe the Otto's played against him because he's played the team.
Jamie: Are they East Coast Wizards? Yeah. That's there. Right?
Scott: Yeah. We've definitely he's definitely played them before.
Jamie: Yeah. Dominic might've played her too, by the way. Could've been. We've played East Coast Wizards.
Scott: Yeah. Interesting. I didn't think about that. So in any event.
Jamie: He was great though. Yeah. Really, really like I could see this dude on having his own bench one day. Like being a head coach.
Scott: Yeah. Well, he even alluded or not even alluded. I mean, he said if the right opportunity comes around, but like he's also like so
Jamie: He's so dialed into Dartmouth. Yeah, of course. Listen, but I could see him, just his demeanor and everything. He was fun to talk to man. Yeah.
And like, it was hard not to be a Dartmouth fan after speaking to him.
Scott: Sure.
Jamie: And I'm sure he was ripping pissed at me for, because during the interview I was wearing a Princeton three quarters.
Scott: Yeah. You could have, like you know what? Just thinking about it, you could have worn it
Jamie: like We're from Jersey. Yeah. I I mean, we're fucking Dartmouth.
Scott: What's the accent?
Jamie: New Jersey? Austria. Oh, throw another shrimp on the bobby.
Scott: I'm the limo driver.
Jamie: I'm the limo driver. But, yeah, I I did those interviews with a Princeton three quarter zip on.
Scott: Yeah. But you also could have just put it on for the Princeton one.
Jamie: No. I just not the way you wrote. I was just gonna say,
Scott: I don't hide anything. Well, it's not a matter of hiding it.
Jamie: Well, yeah, kinda. If I'd taken it off, it's really ain't listen.
Scott: Anyway.
Jamie: Tapper didn't mind it. He goes, as long as you didn't have a Golden Knight one when they were playing Clarkson.
Scott: That's true. He did say that.
Jason: Yeah, he definitely did.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. No, but, yeah, no, he was great. He was, I thought he was great.
Scott: Yeah. And the, you know, one of the things that he was talking about with, you know, just like with the recruiting piece and like what they're kind of looking back looking for and like inbounds and and and you know, it's interesting just to hear like coaches talk about like you know, the importance of like, basically the character of like the
Jamie: The player.
Scott: Player. You know, the involvement that the parents may or may not have during like the interviewing process and like the prospecting process. You well, you would even ask, like, what are some red flags? Right? I think that's like, he, he,
Jamie: I asked all three guys the
Scott: same question and they pretty much,
Jason: you know.
Jamie: They had the same answer.
Scott: Yeah. For the parent. For the parents. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah.
So it's just, you know, it's interesting to hear that. The other, the other thing that I was, was interesting to think about as we were talking with him was like how, how the, the staff and the teams help prepare kids that like at some point decide like I'm not going to play hockey at the next level. And what's that off boarding look like in so many words and how does the staff participate in getting kids set up? Like he was saying how they have like the the pro the pro track and then they have the the work track. The work track.
And like the you know, they'll get kids like, you know, set down those roads and
Jamie: Yeah. Set them up with alumni for like job interviews and stuff like that. I mean, it's I mean, you go to one of those schools and you graduate and you play a sport.
Scott: You got a major degree.
Jamie: Major degree.
Scott: Major degree.
Jamie: Major degree.
Scott: And and the like, maybe maybe the last thing I'll say about it, which was also interesting to really think about was at some point, like, let's just say every freshman like, I'm gonna go play at the next level. Right? I'm gonna go play NHL, AHL, whatever it is. Right? East Coast.
And then during their time at university, they're like, oh, shit. Maybe like, maybe this isn't for Or maybe it's not gonna happen.
Jamie: Maybe I'm just not good enough.
Scott: So could you imagine being a sophomore? You're committed playing D1. Yeah. You decide you're not gonna play hockey after college. You know, I would assume that many Yeah, want to be you got to stay motivated.
I'm sure there are some kids that just want to like really dive deep into like their academics and just focus on getting themselves set up for their next. And yet they have this other job as a hockey player. And they have to continue to be bought in, continue to be dialed in and all that stuff. I'm sure it can be really hard for student athletes that know that that's not their next step.
Jamie: Yes.
Scott: Not all, I'm saying, but there's gotta be some where that becomes a difficult thing.
Jamie: Yeah. That was an interesting conversation. And it was pretty cool listening to him, you know, say that they look for character kids that won't shut down. Even though they know that they're maybe they're not getting a lot of playing time and maybe they're not gonna play at the next level. You know, they're looking for kids that are still gonna run through the brick wall for the jersey.
Scott: And what do you say? And I've Which is pretty cool. There's Or
Jamie: the logo on the front of the jersey.
Scott: Right. Right. We interviewed three. So I might be mixing a few up or comments that coaches had said. But was it Tap that said that only one player on the graduating class wants to go play to the next level?
Jamie: Oh, that's a good question. Was it him that said that?
Scott: I think so. If it wasn't him, I think he said there's only one.
Jamie: Because they have a couple studs. Yeah. They have a couple of guys that
Scott: are like So I could be I could be mistaken.
Jamie: Yeah. Maybe that was Princeton?
Scott: Maybe. Maybe. But either way.
Jamie: Yeah. Whatever it is.
Scott: But just think about that. No matter what team it is, of the, like the outbound seniors. Yeah. Right? There's only one.
Jamie: Yeah. Oh, oh, maybe it was outbound seniors. Okay. Right. Right.
Right. Maybe you're right about that. Maybe it was Tapper. Regardless, like you said, yeah, listen, you know,
Scott: I would have thought more.
Jamie: Listen, you know, these kids, you know, they're good. They're obviously good students. Yeah. Right. You know, to be, to stay in a school like that.
Right. Whether it's Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell. Right. I mean, you're obviously, you know, listen, I mean, you know, I think, I think it was Jonesy from Princeton that was saying like, one of the kids were in the locker room and he got a phone call from like a company
Scott: that he
Jamie: really wanted a job from. And Jonesy, and the kid like shot out of the locker room and he was so excited, you know, that he got, you know, offered the job that he wanted, like his dream job. And the coaches were like all jacked up from.
Scott: Yeah. That's cool. That is really cool.
Jamie: Like, it's like a family. Like, it's just a different, I don't know, it's almost like a different world. You know what I mean?
Scott: Well, it's a close knit, closely connected, like community. Yeah, no doubt. Especially when you're just talking about like within like the alumni. Yeah. Yeah.
And yeah, they look out for their own.
Jamie: They do. Yeah. No, it was the three interviews were really good.
Scott: Yeah. It was it was a phenomenal weekend. And, you know, if nothing else would and it's surely not just this but like having gone through this experience I'm super eager to do other things.
Jamie: It again.
Scott: Well, not yes, that too. But like even like going to or being a part of like other like hockey events where we have an opportunity. Yeah. You know, so we should look into that a little bit more. But it was such it was such a cool experience just kind of not only interviewing and like getting to know people that are like so connected and you know to the game, like doing it kind of like in their world and their environment and getting to kind of like be a part of it was just an amazing experience.
Jamie: Yeah. And we're working our way toward that, you know, with the event things. We had a conversation with a major D1 ice hockey program that's probably looks like it's coming to fruition. Yeah. You know, so that we'll have some events there coming moving forward.
We'll, we'll, we'll hold that one aside until it's like set in stone. But that was, I mean, it seemed pretty good.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: You know, which is pretty awesome. So we're, we're, we've opened Pandora's box and it's not closing.
Scott: No, no, no, not even close.
Jamie: No. So you can't put this genie back in the bottle.
Scott: No, it's out.
Jamie: So it's, we, we got some, some really cool things in store. And before we kind of wrap it up here, is Otto doing any ice hockey?
Scott: Yes and no.
Jamie: Okay. Are they what is it? Yes and no mean.
Scott: Meaning, he's he's doing any ice hockey. Yes. He's doing some ice hockey. Gotcha. It hasn't started yet, but he's gonna do some like weekday stuff.
Got it. Now this all this shit's fucking annoying. Like the Like what? And I'm not but like kids, kids schedules. That's what's annoying because like, you know, you sign up for like all you want, your kids wants to do all these things.
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: And then well, first of all, there's only so many hours in like the day and days in a week. True. But like no one gives you the schedule in advance. Like you have to like
Jamie: sign up,
Scott: pay for it. And then you have to hope that there's no conflicts.
Jamie: That's true.
Scott: So of course, here's one ready. So Otto's running track, school track. And so it wasn't and listen, maybe Otto has an email in one of his many unread emails, which he hasn't read. But yeah, we learned pretty much like on day one of track practice that track is every day of the week.
Jamie: I heard this.
Scott: Five days a week.
Jamie: I heard this.
Scott: I was
Jamie: like, who knew? Holy Not
Scott: shit. We just signed them up for track. Then I guess they're serious. And then the other things that he's doing, there's conflicts on like, you know, once the schedules finally get published and it's like, Jesus, so annoying. To But answer your question, Otto's going to do some weekday skills stuff.
And then he's not signed up for any teams. Today he's on a mountain biking team at practice today after track practice.
Jamie: Got it. And so that's
Scott: what he's doing. He's not hockey less, but it's not, you know, it's a whatever spring like multi week thing. How about Dom?
Jamie: So you guys didn't play any of the middle school showcase that this went up?
Scott: No. That's like one like, so it did not touch any of this middle school stuff.
Jamie: Got it. Got it. Got it. We're not I wasn't doing a middle school team. I didn't do the middle school teams at all this Yeah.
This spring. I was kind of, I wanna say roped in. But I I Dom did a couple games with with, the public high school in Northern Highlands. He did one game in Northern Highlands, and he did three with Saint Peter's prep, just kinda how the schedule laid out.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: You know, they Northern Highlands had games early Sunday. We were in Lake Placid, so we didn't we missed those, but we were back late in the evening for the St. Peter's prep games. So we did a couple of those Sunday night, and then we had two Monday night. Dude, I ran into everybody and their sister that I've known from ice hockey for the last, like, ten years, eight years.
I ran into everybody. Like, everybody was there playing for some team. Yeah. Former fashion. Like, I I saw everybody.
Yeah. Like, people I haven't seen in, like, five years.
Scott: No way. I mean, it's not shocking.
Jamie: It was ridiculous. Yeah.
Scott: It was good?
Jamie: Yeah. Was it was fine. You know, the hockey was suspect in some instances, you know, because it's sixth, seventh, eighth, and eighth graders and even, like, some 20 elevens.
Scott: But wait, the sixth graders so but that that's just for the spring? Like, they're not
Jamie: So I'm pretty sure, it's six, seven it says six, seven, and eight. The February call it through February.
Scott: Got it. But is that just for like this like showcase weekend? Or this is like bearing on like No.
Jamie: This is just no. No. This is just a showcase weekend.
Scott: Got
Jamie: it. And it's obviously for coaches to see like what's coming up.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: You know what I mean? Know, it's the hockey is okay. Yeah. You know, you know, you have you have like a little bit of everything, top to bottom. But like you literally, because they have public school teams and private school teams.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: So you have a little bit of everything.
Scott: Right.
Jamie: You know, so, and it's like everybody in their sister puts a team in. Right. So some schools have two teams in, some schools have one. So we did that this over the last couple of days. Interesting.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: You know?
Scott: The dumb how do you show?
Jamie: Sunday night so so, but also just got off a four hour car ride.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Coming home from Lake Placid. So, you know, I didn't think great and he didn't think great either. Monday was much better.
Scott: Good.
Jamie: Monday was was was a whole different kid. Yeah. Isn't it funny how that is?
Scott: That was a sick, like, clip that you showed me, that goal he scored, which was like basically the goal. He was net front, shot on goal, puck pops up in the air and he bats it out like mid air like right
Jamie: to Like the back of with authority too.
Scott: Yeah. It was cool. Was like obviously intentional and obviously It was, with yes.
Jamie: It's funny. You know what's really funny is like, I wanna say like, was it that day or the day before? Like he was shooting hockey pucks, like maybe it was Monday after school. And and like he was in front of the net and I was just messing around and I like winged the puck toward the net. Yeah.
And he batted it down. Yeah. And he goes, dad, give me another one. And he goes, other side of the net? And I winged the puck, and he batted it down.
Yeah. I was like, oh, shit. Like, he's got some pretty good
Scott: So I do that with Otto. Yeah. Like, when I go outside and
Jamie: shoot Yeah. Him You mentioned that.
Scott: Every time, like, the Nets throw pucks, then, like, I just throw them back at him. Yeah. And then he just bats him down.
Jamie: Yeah. It's it's it's Dominic's good at it, shockingly. So Otto's why shockingly, but he's good at it.
Scott: Otto's good at it too. The only what I will say, is, like, in a controlled environment, it's, like, really easy. I actually let me take that back. It's not really easy, but like, I'm not like my I'm not throwing it like a hockey puck is shot.
Jamie: Right. Right. Right.
Scott: You know what I mean? But just like getting in those reps and like the the like the motion and like the muscle memory is it's better than nothing.
Jamie: Yeah. And I think I think we made a decision on Dominic for next year. You know, we always talk on this podcast about like triple a, double a, what are you gonna do? That sort of stuff. Yeah.
I I think we're probably gonna stay at the double a level
Scott: Just for
Jamie: one more year. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I guess a bunch of different factors. Right?
The other rink we were gonna go play a trip by at is far farther.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: You know, so gonna try and stay and train and get, and get, use those hours, those Doug Christensen type hours train and get better, you know, and, and really kind of hone in to
Scott: Be the intentional with your time.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. You know, not like we're not ever intentional with our time, but like really going to focus on, on, on trying to get better. Yeah. And also because I think there's also a chance for the double A team that we, that Dominic plays on to go to nationals. Like that's a very real possibility.
The team that, that our coaches put together looks like a little
Scott: bit of wagon, dude. That's awesome. It's pretty, it looks well, listen, don't jinx it.
Jamie: It looks decent.
Scott: Don't jinx it.
Jamie: I I'm gonna try not to jinx it. But that's our plan. We're gonna try to kinda no. Not gonna go up yet to to the to triple a level yet. And we're just gonna try to develop.
Scott: That's great.
Jamie: And see what happens.
Scott: That's great.
Jamie: Yeah. So that's kind of our plan for next year. So you parents out there, you know, I don't wanna say do what's convenient for you, but it took me a lot lot of years to make the right decision for him. The right one?
Scott: Yeah. Is that really the
Jamie: way you
Scott: put it?
Jamie: Sometimes I think it was the decision that I wanted for him years years ago, you know. My wife always tells me like, she always has like the opposite like idea of what I think you should do. And she's right more times than than I than I am. So this time I listened to her.
Scott: Listen, I I mean, I completely understand what you're saying. I also don't think that, I don't know. I I
Jamie: Dominic also wants to stay.
Scott: You did a lot of traveling. No doubt.
Jamie: We did. And then I mean, we were triple a.
Scott: Yeah. When you were triple a. You did a lot of traveling. Yeah. More than, I think, for sure, more than I did.
Jamie: It was a lot.
Scott: It was a lot.
Jamie: It was a lot.
Scott: And so I can understand at some point like that getting difficult on like the family unit, but like from a hockey playing perspective. Was a lot. I don't know if that you this is what you're alluding to, but certainly for a lot of those years, from what I've gathered, it's certainly look, would he be the player he is today if he didn't do all the things he did before? So like
Jamie: I don't know.
Scott: So all those all those yesterdays, you know, like, you know, today today is the sum of all your yesterdays. Listen, you what I mean? It's easy to point out maybe the flaws and like, know, yeah, sure. Were some of those decisions like, you know, you wanting X, Y, and Z for him? Sure.
But like, that doesn't mean just because two things can be true at the same time. They could have also been good for him from a developmental standpoint. True. Look, and it could be the opposite. You could have like made bad decisions that negatively impacted him.
But listen, not everything's a 100% good or bad.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: So I think, you know, don't, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater on that one.
Jamie: Yeah, no, you're not wrong. I'm not saying that he didn't get stuff out of that. He I'm sure he did. Right. And I have to tell you the AAA coach that we're, I haven't, I haven't called him yet and told him, cause we just decided.
I have to. Yeah. You know, yeah. He listens.
Scott: I don't
Jamie: think he listens to our podcast. I think he listens to our Instagrams, but, Dominic really likes him too.
Scott: The triple
Jamie: A coach. He's, so we're gonna have to go down there and work with him, like on the side, kind of one on ones and something like
Scott: To stay in his good graces.
Jamie: No, no, no, no. Cause Dominic's never gonna play for him again because this particular coach is handing the team off. The teams off to the, another coach next year.
Scott: Well, don't say never. Mean, he might,
Jamie: you know what I mean?
Scott: Yeah, I do.
Jamie: Listen, you never see never, but for the most part, it doesn't look like he's going to go down to the younger birth years, I think after that. Oh yeah. Yeah. So, but, so Dom's going to go work with him because Dominic likes him, but, but like Topher Scott says, you know, we've surrounded ourselves with good parents, good kids. Yep.
Right. A good environment, good coaching staff. All three guys are the, it'd be the same coach for the last three years, same coaching staff,
Scott: all three of them. Yeah. Great. Good consistency.
Jamie: Which is great. And the kids all seem to like them. So listen, on paper, we look frightening.
Scott: That's great.
Jamie: Yeah. Listen, you don't play the games on paper, but we look frightening.
Scott: That's great. Something to look forward to.
Jamie: If what I'm hearing is gonna happen, it's gonna be interesting.
Scott: Well, as one coach told me, I only believe it once the checks clear.
Jamie: Yes. Not wrong about that. Yes. Once you sign on the dotted line, right? I mean, lot can happen in this game.
People don't exactly. Not everybody, but a lot of people don't have good reputation. Don't put
Scott: their money where the mouth is.
Jamie: Exactly. Right. So, this seems like that time of year where every seems like they're just full of shit.
Scott: There's definitely some of that. Some,
Jamie: some, yes, a lot. But yeah, so that's our plan. We're gonna stay AA for one more year and just kind of see what happens. All
Scott: right. So that's kind of the plan. Well, listen. Yeah. That's good.
Yeah. Like everything else in life, there's pros and cons, but this seems like there's a lot of pros here.
Jamie: Listen, trying to take the advice of a lot of smart people that we've had on this podcast.
Scott: There you go. That's a good idea. Trying.
Jamie: See how it goes.
Scott: All right, guy. Yeah. Well, let's wrap this one
Jamie: up. It was fun, dude.
Scott: It was, it is, and it will be.
Jamie: Yes. Yes. I thank you again to everybody who has listened to us, has downloaded, has followed us on Instagram, has shared the show to other people. I mean, one year ago, I don't think Scott and I really ever envisioned any of this. So thank you.
Right. Don't really know what else to say other than thank you. It's awesome. We definitely could not have done this without you guys. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
It's more humbling than you'll ever know.
Scott: Yeah. Well said, sir.
Jamie: Appreciate it.
Scott: Yeah. Appreciate you all.
Jamie: All right. See you on the next episode, everybody.