Jamie: Rolling with the homies.
Scott: Alright, everybody. Welcome back to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast, the unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents in the trenches.
Jamie: In the trenches. We're getting very
Scott: Episode 42.
Jamie: Fucking 52.
Scott: That's what I said.
Jamie: You did not say. You said 40.
Scott: I was making sure you were paying attention.
Jamie: Well, I'm glad I was to correct it.
Scott: That's right. Episode Well done on you. 52. 52. No doubt.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Closing in on a 100. Yep. Oh, maybe not so soon, but soon.
Scott: I mean, you're always closing in on a 100 as long as you're moving forward.
Jamie: That's it's very true. Very true. So episode 52. And do we have a show for you today?
Scott: Yes. We do.
Jamie: JD himself? Jim Dowd. Himself, the man, the myth, the legend, the New Jersey
Scott: he's a myth. Think he's just, like, the legend.
Jamie: He is definitely a legend, by the way. Yeah. The New Jersey legend.
Scott: He
Jamie: is. The New Jersey legend himself.
Scott: Was like when we To
Jamie: me dad.
Scott: Nowadays, as a parent, knowing about kids that are at the ranks that played wherever we played. They've gone on to play. So you know more people that have gone on to do play high level hockey.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. Sure.
Scott: You go into rinks, they've got the banners. So you know, oh, this kid, that kid. But back in the day when we were young, it's like Jimmy Dads from New Jersey?
Jamie: He was the hometown boy. The hometown boy who wins a high school state title, goes out to Lake Superior State, wins a NCAA titles with our buddy Ken Martel, USA Hockey. Then it comes Seriously, isn't it? Hockey is such a small world in The US. Comes back to well, gets drafted by the Devils while he's out in college.
Yep. Comes back, goes into the minors, makes it to the Devils, wins the Stanley Cup for his home state. I mean, does it get any cooler than that?
Scott: And then he does
Jamie: Played, like, eighteen years in the at the show.
Scott: And and then he ends up with, like, a second second homecoming to the Devils later on in his career.
Jamie: Yes. He did come back. Yes. Oh, yeah. I know.
He's he's
Scott: So he's still locked and loaded in New Jersey. Got two kids playing.
Jamie: Yes. He is. Well, one's, no. One's done. Well, no.
He's not he's not done. He's playing Adirondack Thunder.
Scott: Oh, but I mean, like, I was about
Jim: to say
Jamie: he's finished with college. Oh, yes. He he went to Penn State. Went to went to Penn State. Finished at Penn State.
Yep. Had a nice little career at Penn State. Adirondack Thunder. And then he I think Jimmy was saying on the interview, he's just kinda figuring out what he wants to do.
Scott: That's
Jamie: yeah. Younger one is out of Arizona State
Scott: That's it.
Jamie: Playing.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: You know? But a cool place to play ice hockey in Yeah. College, by the Do you know the so when you think of Mullet Arena, who do you think they named it after?
Scott: Whoever first donned a Mullet. Mullet haircut.
Jamie: Right? That's what I thought too. Do you know there's actually like a mister mullet?
Scott: That's also not surprising.
Jamie: Yeah. Who was in like the like plumbing supply business. And that's where it was actually after.
Scott: Oh, interesting.
Jamie: I had no idea. I thought it was we all thought it was after the haircut.
Scott: I like images of haircuts better for that.
Jamie: Well, I think when it was when we all first heard it was Mullet Arena, we all thought, oh, makes sense. It's not a named stadium. It's just they're doing it after the hockey.
Scott: But it's also like that's like also weird.
Jamie: Yeah. But it is like a hockey haircut,
Scott: especially back in the day. Very, like, you know, like,
Jamie: culture hockey culture. Right? We're all like, oh, it's an unnamed stadium, so they're just gonna call it Mullet Arena. But it's actually named after somebody.
Scott: Mister Mullet.
Jamie: Yes. Yes. Sheesh.
Scott: Yeah. Did he happen to have a mullet?
Jamie: That's a good question. I'm gonna say no?
Scott: Probably not.
Jamie: I'm gonna say no. No. I don't know for fact.
Scott: I had one. Proper.
Jamie: I don't know if I would say that too loud.
Scott: I was in sixth grade. That's still not Okay. Why is it not Okay? Just picture this, ready?
Jamie: Still not Okay.
Scott: It's in sixth grade. Who were like my idols at that time? Eric Lindros.
Jamie: Axl Rose. Axl Rose.
Scott: Andre Agassi.
Jamie: Oh, forgot about that. Andre Agassi. Good call there,
Scott: I Andre would rock like those those those jean tennis shorts with the built in pink spandex.
Jamie: Yeah. You had a very interesting style back then.
Scott: Yo, I didn't fuck around.
Jamie: You had a very interesting style then. Yo.
Scott: Shout out Jamm's shorts that went down past your knees. Right? Jamm's. You remember those?
Jamie: Of course I yes. I mean, we could shout out a bunch of crazy things from that time.
Scott: Those were money.
Jamie: Shout out Z Cabaricci's.
Scott: I never owned a pair of those.
Jamie: That doesn't surprise me.
Scott: Yeah. Not my style.
Jamie: That doesn't
Scott: surprise I need jams. I need spandex. Right. Right. I need mullets.
Jamie: You need like the wigwam socks, like that type of stuff? No. No? No. You were a big jams guy.
Scott: I did have jams.
Jamie: You did? I'm trying to think what else you had back in the day. I'm trying to think of like '80s
Scott: I had a pink mongoose Bike.
Jamie: Bike. Dirt bike.
Scott: Yeah, sure.
Jamie: Mine was black. I had a mongoose black.
Scott: Yeah, well Yeah. Mine was pink, that's awesome.
Jamie: Yeah. If you say so.
Scott: Yes, dude. Come on, man. I had the fucking balls to do that shit.
Jamie: I will say that. Real men do wear pink.
Scott: Yeah. I mean, salmon, whatever you want to call it.
Jamie: Listen. Again, real men wear pink. Back then, it was not so acceptable.
Scott: I didn't fuck around.
Jamie: Clearly not. No. You know? Do you do you remember when you and I used to go used to go play tennis?
Scott: Absolutely.
Jamie: And we had to wear whites. Yes. Only whites. 100%. At the club that we played at.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: And we wanted to be like Andre Agassi and not wear white. Wear anything but white. Like black, red, green, blue, whatever it was, just not white. Was not an option. Didn't work.
Scott: Didn't work.
Jamie: No. To this day, that place is still all white, I'm pretty sure.
Scott: I mean
Jamie: I'm pretty sure. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think I am.
Scott: I was there not too long ago. Maybe two summers ago I was there for
Jamie: Were you?
Scott: An afternoon.
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: Have you been
Jamie: there? Long time. It's been
Scott: a long Dude, were you there when they had the whole pool section?
Jamie: Yeah, I've seen it the back. Yeah. The place has exploded since one
Scott: those. Yeah. Brother, because you know, for the snack bar, you have an account. So my brother
Jamie: You do, you're nice to use your parents' account
Scott: like crazy. Doubt. My brother would offer anyone online fucking Ice cream? I'm buying. Ice cream?
I'm buying.
Jamie: We always got that soft serve ice cream there.
Scott: A 100%.
Jamie: Yeah, man. That was yeah. Our tent screen did not last long, did it?
Scott: No. But I wish I I mean
Jamie: Did not last long.
Scott: That's for sure. I liked it.
Jamie: It was fun, but ice hockey was more fun.
Scott: It was more fun.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Our tennis career did not last long.
Scott: Yeah. Well, look how you're a pickleball guy.
Jamie: Yeah. If I had known I was gonna play pickleball later in life, I would have never stopped playing tennis at, like, 12 or 11 or whatever it was.
Scott: Whatever. Yeah. Listen. It's all good. I don't
Jamie: think I miss much. It's fine. You know? Yeah. Anyway.
But yeah. Yeah, man. So episode 52.
Scott: 52. Not 42. Not 42.
Jamie: 52. Yeah. No, man. We have a good show. JD was was was a lot of fun.
Scott: Yeah. So before we get any further, why don't we, shout out partners?
Jamie: Fire away. Yeah. Howie's hockey? Crazy 10. 10.
Go get your
Scott: discount.
Jamie: Tape, laces, Scott's favorite, the candle. Candle. Scott loves a candle. Do we have a candle here? Where is our candle?
Scott: I I moved things around
Jamie: I see this.
Scott: To set things up.
Jamie: I see this. The candle? We need we need our stuff.
Scott: Oh, it's it's over there.
Jamie: Oh, it is? Yeah. Scott's favorite to send the props. We should have props. Props.
The wax. I got so it's funny. Dominic actually had their sweatshirt on. The the, like, worn the, like, the worn gray, the vintage gray Yeah. With the logo on it.
So cool. Yo. One of the greatest logos in all these hockey. I know I keep saying that, but it is. It's the one of the greatest logos in all these youth hockey.
Scott: I was on the phone at at work this afternoon, like, during lunch, so I didn't and I forgot to ask this woman, but I walked into the lunchroom.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: And I stand on the back of her shirt. How was hockey?
Jamie: Get out.
Scott: I I yeah. No no one more surprised than me. Yeah. We were wearing Howie's Hockey T shirt. Wow.
Very
Jamie: cool. Asked her. I'm surprised you didn't ask her right there.
Scott: I was on the phone. Oh, you
Jamie: said that.
Scott: I was on the phone.
Jamie: Yeah.
Scott: Yeah. And then I forgot. Yeah. Yeah. That was
Jamie: awesome. You should ask her. I'm curious. Yeah. So crazy 10, for your 10% off discount.
Howie's hockey. We love Howie's hockey. Tape, places, gear. Go go go check out their clothing. They have very cool clothing.
And my favorite, Scott's got the candle. My favorite are the yellow handled scissors. Oh. Scissors.
Scott: Those are good.
Jamie: They are good.
Scott: Was Big head. I was working on a stick with them last night.
Jamie: See? Yep. Bro, I'm telling you. They'll Not They'll cut through sheet metal. Don't try to cut through sheet metal with them, but I'm just saying.
Scott: Remember remember the the the the Ginsu knife? How they have the commercial where, like, it would have, like, the kitchen knife and it would, like they would saw it through, like, an aluminum can.
Jamie: Do you think that was real?
Scott: And then slice through a tomato.
Jamie: Do you think that was real?
Scott: Maybe.
Jamie: I think we need to come up with, like, a Crazy Hockey Dads kitchen knife line.
Scott: You think so?
Jamie: No. I don't.
Scott: No. No. Probably wouldn't be.
Jamie: Listen. It would be more up your alley since you used to be the chef.
Scott: You gotta throw down in the kitchen. You gotta you gotta prepare these kids. You gotta fuel them with
Jamie: Listen.
Scott: With homemade nutritious food. By what?
Jamie: You What's laughing? I'm not I think it's a cool idea. I I don't know about you, but I don't have time to do that stuff. Do you have time to do that stuff?
Scott: Listen. If you if you
Jamie: I would love to, but I do not have time
Scott: to do that. Their
Jamie: priorities Crazy in life Hockey Dads portable snack line?
Scott: Not the
Jamie: So I don't have to premake stuff and then, like, put it in, like, Tupperwares.
Scott: Listen. Okay. Well, if that's the way you wanna roll. If that's way you wanna treat your children, fine.
Jamie: Listen. We'll come up with a nice, nutritious, high end Yeah. Protein rich, low caloric snack line for hockey players. And we will and we will distribute as necessary.
Scott: As necessary.
Jamie: So so my our children and whoever wants to buy this stuff that we're gonna come out with Stuff hockey stuff in a bag. Hockey parents are busy people. Right? Right? I don't know about you, but I am waiting for the week the weekends where I don't have a hockey game to go to.
Scott: Not soon, dude.
Jamie: Maybe. It's it's coming.
Scott: Yes. No. It's definitely I mean, sooner than later.
Jamie: Yes. That's true. But, you know, so so for, like, six months out the year, I don't get anything done around my house. Do you?
Scott: I get, less productive during the hockey season.
Jamie: Agreed.
Jim: Yes.
Jamie: Yep. So a a high protein, high end snack line Yeah. For hockey players would be good so they can just take and go so the parents don't have to, you know, premake stuff.
Scott: Or you could actually prepare delicious, nutritious food that you know exactly what's going into it. It can be customized to your child's preferences.
Jamie: That's fine and all. But I don't have so are are are promoting, like, a service? Like, we're gonna provide, like, a service, like a home delivery?
Scott: Like those
Jamie: Are you gonna make all
Scott: these kits? The meal kits.
Jamie: That's what I'm saying. We'll just deliver it to the house. Listen. You got a hockey tournament? The stuff will be there Friday morning before you leave.
Scott: I mean, you you I'm sure you could do that with any of these military services now. But at this point, no. I'm not advocating for that.
Jamie: I'm just I'm just bullshitting. But but it's pretty funny.
Scott: But I would rather cook more for my kids. Yeah. Especially for on the go stuff. We would do that when when Otto was playing down South South, I guess, what do call it? And it doesn't matter.
Jamie: Where were you?
Scott: At Woodbridge.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. Central. Was at practice.
Scott: We would leave at like 04:00. Right. We'd get home like between 08:30 and nine. Right. Three nights a week.
So he was doing like homework and like eating in the car. We had like a it was a great thing. Was like a warming plate that you could put into like a I'm about to call it a cigarette lighter. Whatever utility outlet, what whatever the fuck they're called now.
Jamie: It's a cigarette lighter.
Scott: Yeah. I mean, except there's no cigarette thingy in there.
Jamie: Well, true. Very true.
Scott: So then how is it a cigarette lighter?
Jamie: Can they not come with cigarette lighters anymore? Can you can't order that from the factory?
Scott: I don't know. Maybe.
Jamie: It's not like you're not allowed to smoke in your own car.
Scott: No. I know. I'm just saying that my car didn't come with one. Did yours?
Jamie: Dude, speaking of, like, smoking, can I tell you? So Luca text my wife the other day, and he's like
Scott: Did picture him smoking?
Jamie: He's like, mom. He's like, some kid's got the window open. It's like six degrees outside. Lucas on the way to school, he's like, some dude's got the window open. He's vaping on the bus.
Really? Yeah. And he's like, move your seat.
Scott: Interesting.
Jamie: Yeah. I don't know. Vaping on the bus.
Scott: I mean, Otto comes in and tells me that there's like kids vaping in the bathroom. But like, of course it's gonna happen.
Jamie: Can I tell you how many hockey hotels Yeah? I have been in where, like, my kids move a piece of furniture in the room to, like, to do whatever they're doing. And there's, like, a vape pen in the room.
Scott: Oh, really?
Jamie: Whether it's in the couch cushions or under the couch or under the dresser or under, like, a nightstand or under behind the the drapes.
Scott: Dude.
Jamie: I can't even tell you how many vape pens that we've come across in hockey hotels.
Scott: Do you wanna hear a fucking crazy story?
Jamie: Always.
Scott: And then we'll get back to our partners. And this actually is somewhat related to hockey because I was driving back from Buffalo. Was driving back from Buffalo.
Jamie: Pretty sure I found a vape pen in Buffalo too by way. No. Listen listen to Listen.
Scott: So there was something I think we had one of our cars was like getting serviced. So we borrowed my father in law's car. My father in law lives in the city and they park in the building and there's a parking garage. So every night when he goes home, the attendant parks his car.
Jamie: Oh, boy. I know exactly where
Scott: this is No, I don't think you do.
Jamie: No, think I do. Go ahead. You know
Scott: the story I told
Jamie: you? No. I don't. But I know I think I know where this is going.
Scott: Go ahead. Okay. So so I'm driving back from Buffalo. K. Otto's in the back seat.
Jamie: Right. And You're driving your father in law's His
Scott: father in law's car. Yeah. And so I'm driving and I had my earbuds auto was playing video games, so I just wanted to listen to my podcast.
Jim: So I
Scott: have my earbuds.
Jamie: You were listening to our podcast?
Scott: Joking. No. Was pre podcast. I know. I'm joking.
But in any event, so one of my earbuds fell in between the seat and the center console.
Jamie: And you stuck your hand down there?
Scott: I stuck my hand down there.
Jamie: What'd you pull out?
Scott: Dude, I was like, ah. Dude, a fucking syringe.
Jamie: Oh, I was not gonna say that.
Scott: No. I pulled up
Jamie: and out from in between stuck in your hand?
Scott: And there was a fucking syringe
Jamie: Stuck in your finger?
Scott: Hanging from my finger.
Jamie: Stuck in your finger?
Scott: Stuck in my goddamn finger.
Jamie: Dude, that's pretty fucked up. Syringe. Did you go get tested for, like I
Scott: went everything. Tested. They gave me the fucking medicine.
Jamie: You did you get a tetanus shot?
Scott: I'd already gotten a I didn't need a tetanus shot, but I had gotten
Jamie: I would get it anyway. Dude, that's fucked up.
Scott: Fucked up. And so then I was not gonna say in the backseat.
Jamie: That's a crazy story. Fucking crazy shit,
Scott: So Did you
Jamie: poke yourself with a fucking dirty needle?
Scott: I had
Jim: no idea it
Jamie: was You're so lucky you don't have, like, hepatitis or some shit. Listen.
Scott: I talked to the doctors.
Jamie: Or, like, Ebola or, like Listen. Don't know. Anything.
Scott: I was tested. I took I took whatever fucking medicine they give you if you're, like, exposed to, like, you know Anything? I yeah. I forget what the medicine was.
Jamie: Anything and everything? I mean, I'm surprised you didn't stop at the store and, like, down a thing of, like, penicillin or something like that.
Scott: I just go to, like, a little fucking, like, Exxon. Like, windshield wiper.
Jamie: Chug windshield wiper fluid or something. You know?
Scott: Just give me the biggest bottle of hand sanitizer. That is To start drinking.
Jamie: That's awful, by way. Fucking crazy. Alright. So I didn't think you were gonna go there. I thought I thought you were gonna go with a weed pen.
Scott: No. No.
Jim: No. No.
Jamie: That's what I expected to go. I am
Scott: a thousand percent wrong. Yeah. Were so there
Jamie: Your story's much better than I was
Scott: like I'm thinking to myself. I'm like, so many things are going through my mind right now. Because at first I didn't think That's awful. I didn't think that that was that's what it was. I mean, I understand that.
I thought I thought like maybe my father-in-law is taking medication that like he maybe like how to do an injection and
Jamie: Like us like like he's like a diabetic or something like that?
Scott: Something. Don't know. Was like, why the fuck is there a needle down there? And then I'm thinking like, he's not a
Jamie: drug plunger all the way down?
Scott: Yeah. I think so.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Whatever was in there was gone. But still, the fucking tip
Scott: is Yeah. I mean, but listen. It had been days since that had been who knows? That could've been sitting down there for months.
Jamie: Do ever send it to your father-in-law? Of course. What'd say to you?
Scott: I called to my son with a picture. I said, I've just found this in your seat. It was stuck in my finger.
Jamie: Dude, your father was totally sticking out his fucking arm.
Scott: No. I'm joking.
Jamie: Can you imagine your father
Scott: like No. But then he was like
Jamie: Like at night doing heroin with your mother-in-law? No. No. They're very straight laced.
Scott: So then Can
Jamie: you imagine though?
Scott: I I mean, I tried but it I just it it does not that's not
Jamie: So the what it parking attendant is the culprit, assuming?
Scott: So so what my father-in-law said, he's like, you know, it's it's he didn't say it's funny. I forget what he said, but he's like he's like, sometimes when I get my car back, you know, in the morning, it's like on like, you know, different music stations. And so it's like and this has happened like multiple, multiple
Jamie: parking attendants like hanging out in your father's car and listening to music and fucking shooting them.
Scott: That's that that's those if that that's for sure, the music changes. And so he's like and I never he's like, I I you know, I thought they just sat in my car and listened to music. And I'm like, well, I think they're doing more than listening to music.
Jamie: I'll say.
Scott: Because I'll send you the photo. I'll find the photo. I'll send it to you.
Jamie: Dude, that's nuts.
Scott: I know. Right?
Jamie: That's a crazy story. You never told me that.
Scott: It was crazy when it happened.
Jamie: That is how long ago was that? How many years?
Scott: It must have been, like, two years ago.
Jamie: Bro, I'm not shaking your hand anymore.
Scott: Well, fuck off. They're contagious. I'm not contagious. It's something. I'm not.
Something. I I went through a full
Jamie: Hepatitis q or something like that.
Scott: Dude, I got all my blood work done.
Jamie: I don't blame you. I would have too, bro. That's wild story. Fucking crazy. Oh my god.
Scott: I was fucking surprised. And when I first put my finger down there, you know what I thought? I thought, like, you know, like, you know, there's, like, upholstery or whatever, like, you know,
Jamie: under your like a staple poking.
Scott: Was, like exactly.
Jamie: A staple. A staple coming upholstery.
Scott: Yeah. 100%.
Jamie: Two I the crazy part about it is is not only did you poke yourself Yeah. But you pulled your hand out of there And it was hanging. In your finger.
Scott: Yeah. And I I pulled it up, and I was in the back seat. There's, like, a
Jamie: A syringe hanging from your finger.
Scott: From my finger.
Jamie: Did he see it?
Scott: Yeah. So I goes, what's that? Well, at first, I was like, ow. And so he's like, looking me like, dad, what?
Jamie: That's wild.
Scott: And I didn't know. And then I
Jamie: pulled my hand out and like, there's And there's a syringe Yeah. Fucking hiding out of your finger. Yeah.
Scott: Is that not nuts?
Jamie: How far from home are
Scott: you? Hours.
Jamie: That's wild. Like, you're like, looking at your watch, how much time do I have?
Scott: My last wish is I'm like, pull I pull over the first, like, know, like,
Jamie: like, That's wild, buddy.
Scott: We got off at the first, like, service stop so I could have my last meal.
Jamie: Jesus. Well, fans, let that be a lesson. Do not stick your hand down the if you drop something, do not stick your hand down the side of your car seat.
Scott: Or or yeah. I don't fucking
Jamie: know. Yeah. I don't I don't do that. When I
Scott: You don't do what?
Jamie: I I when I like, I don't have that experience. When I drop something down the side of my car seat to my seat and the center console
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: The carpet is, like, pulled up. So, like, if I drop anything down there, it's gone. Like, it disappears into the chassis of the car somewhere. What? Yeah.
Why? Because the carpet is, like, pulled back.
Scott: Why don't you fix it?
Jamie: Because I can't fit my fucking hand in there, dude. You have young children. Oh, so you want them to stick their hand in there?
Scott: I want them to fix it so you don't have this problem.
Jamie: You you don't even see it.
Scott: But if you drop something, it goes to the fucking chassis.
Jamie: Well, the the moral of the story is don't drop anything.
Scott: Or fix the floor.
Jamie: It's not the floor. It's the side of the it's the side of this of the seat. Yeah. In between the seat and the center console.
Scott: So you're saying that fixing it is not a reasonable idea?
Jamie: I can't I can barely get my hand down there. That's why
Scott: said get your kids.
Jamie: Child labor?
Scott: No. Just ask them for a hand. What the fuck are you talking about? Just say, hey, kid. Help me.
Just like you say help me shovel.
Jamie: I did recently.
Scott: Yeah. I know. That's what I'm saying. Why would you ask them to help you get something in your car?
Jamie: Funny you said that.
Scott: You know, If something goes under the car, think I'm getting on my knees. I'm like, yo, listen, Noah.
Jamie: Is that what you do?
Scott: I don't go, but I'm just like No.
Jamie: No. No. I know.
Scott: You get the point.
Jamie: But it's like,
Scott: if I have to reach out, like, come on. You you're you got smaller.
Jamie: Why? Because she's smaller?
Scott: Yes. Because she's smaller.
Jamie: Well, just get your ass down and get it yourself.
Scott: Okay. Sure. But if I have someone around to fuck
Jamie: off. Anyway,
Scott: folks. Shovel your own fucking driveway. Why do make your kids do it?
Jamie: First of all, I bought a snowblower for them. And then I did the walkways with Dominic.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Must say, though, I I canceled the plow guy because my kids are like, we wanna make money. Okay. Fine. No problem. I'll cancel the plow guy.
You guys do the the driveway and the walkways. They did the driveway a couple times last year when the
Scott: They did a shit job. Right?
Jamie: No. It wasn't bad. Actually, I
Scott: know. Really?
Jamie: I have a very large driveway, as you know. No.
Scott: But fair. I'm just saying, like, children and shoveling are not exactly good matches.
Jamie: No. No. They were they were they were they were actually good. And I have a lot of I have a a long driveway and a lot of walkways.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: Around my house. Right? So it's a it's a lot. It's it's definitely not a small job. So I said to them, they wanna make money.
I said, fine. I'll cancel the plow guy. I'll pay you guys instead.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: This year, when I saw it was gonna snow, like, 12 inches, I was like, my children are have fucking heart attacks, shoving my entire driveway with a foot of snow. So I went out and I bought a snowblower.
Scott: Why why are you making, like, their life so cushy?
Jamie: Making it that's not cushy. A snowblower? I mean, it's easier than shoveling a foot of snow, but I wouldn't say cushy.
Scott: I mean, wish I had a snowblower.
Jamie: Won't go buy one.
Scott: Then that is the solution.
Jamie: Right? I did. I just did, and they used it for the first time. I gotta tell you, it's tremendous.
Scott: I'm sure it is. Yeah. I watched my neighbor across the street fucking
Jamie: He does his?
Scott: Snow blow his old goddamn driveway and I'm on like the third round of shoveling. I was like, I'm gonna beat this dude for a while.
Jamie: Did you shovel that by hand?
Scott: I did the math and then we have to do the sidewalk too. I was curious on about so I did an AI chat GPC thing and I was like, you know, my driveway fits
Jamie: Square footage?
Scott: My driveway fits about like x number of like Cars. Know, like cars. Yeah.
Jamie: What it
Scott: could not. And it snowed like, you know, 12 inches.
Jamie: Yeah. Heart attack city, buddy.
Scott: And it said it said I probably shoveled anywhere from like 20 to 25,000 pounds of snow.
Jamie: That's always fun. It's always fun. Listen. I did the walkways with and Nancy actually came out and did them too.
Scott: Yeah. You know who did
Jamie: It was a family affair. You know
Scott: who didn't come out? Orly. Your
Jamie: wife. Nancy was out there.
Scott: Good for her.
Jamie: Nancy's a tough cookie.
Scott: I'm gonna have to talk to my wife about this.
Jamie: You're gonna do that.
Scott: No. Me. Not you. Oh, I
Jamie: thought you said me.
Jim: Like, no.
Scott: Not me. You could also. You could just be like, yo.
Jamie: I'm gonna say hard no there.
Scott: Hard no?
Jamie: Hard no.
Scott: Okay. Thanks, buddy. Let I'm you have my back.
Jamie: Listen. I have your back. It comes to that shit
Scott: What shit?
Jamie: Talking to your wife for you?
Scott: If you needed me
Jamie: No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. Talk to Nancy. Yeah. You would definitely not.
You'd be like, no fucking way, Jamie.
Scott: No, I would.
Jamie: No, you wouldn't.
Scott: Yeah, I would.
Jamie: You wouldn't. Why not? You're saying you would now, but you wouldn't in
Scott: real life. Don't think I would? No. You don't think I'd say, hey, Nancy. Listen.
Next time Jamie is shoveling, why don't you think about giving him a hand?
Jamie: Yeah. I don't think you'd say that. I thought you wouldn't.
Scott: Why not?
Jamie: Then you'd make the you wouldn't say I'd be serious about it.
Scott: I would be serious at first, and then I'd say,
Jamie: should I ask? He started you'd like, oh, just kidding.
Jim: And then
Scott: I was like, half
Jamie: joking.
Scott: I mean, I think I would say it, but then I would gauge the response.
Jamie: Meanwhile, another so Larry pulled into my driveway when it was snowblowed. Lenny? Yeah. Lenny. Yes.
Scott: Just wanna make sure.
Jamie: Yeah. Larry. So Larry pulled in my driveway, and he's and he said he's like, wow. He's like, driveway looks nice. He's like, did you do it?
I'm like, no. I'm like, my kids did it. I'm like, bought a snowblower. I'm like, I'm paying them. He looks at me.
He goes, that's a really good idea. He goes, I'm gonna get my kid to do that. There you go. I was like, there you go, bud.
Scott: So Otto similarly was like, I wanna make money. Right. And so my brother-in-law was like, you know, tell Otto to come over and shovel.
Jamie: Perfect.
Scott: And Otto was like, but my brother in law's driveway
Jamie: Right.
Scott: Which is funny is like is kind of a steep it's not very big. It's it's short.
Jamie: Yeah yeah.
Scott: Maybe you fit like two cars back to back. Right. But it's like a straight downhill. Right. And so and so Otto's like yeah just like shovel it to the garage.
And I was like, no dude, gotta shovel that shit up and like out. You can't shovel it down to the garage. He's like, oh. He's like, yeah, tell Tom I'm not doing it.
Jamie: What he said?
Scott: More or less.
Jamie: Sorry uncle.
Scott: He's like, I don't need the money.
Jamie: He's like, no, I'm good. He's like, yeah. He's like, I'm good. He's like, I just bought myself a new stick, I'm good.
Scott: Dude, can I Okay? Then we really need to get started. When I was a kid, I wanted to make money so my parents said I could paint the deck. Why
Jamie: do I not know this story?
Scott: So I remember I had rollerblade knee pads that I would put on my knees. I had to paint it like with a white stain. Not that the the color of the stain has
Jamie: anything Do you have a roller machine?
Scott: No. This is the fucking point of
Jamie: the A roller on my job. No. No.
Scott: This is this is the point of the story is that what my parents gave me. There's two there's two there's two layers of stupidity here. Well, first
Jamie: To give you a brush.
Scott: Is my parents. And then second, me for like accepting what was given to me. My parents gave me like buckets of white stain and a fucking brush. Now like the planks of wood that were
Jamie: on deck.
Scott: Yeah. No shit. And so the size of the wood, I'm not like, you know, a lumber guy. But like the width of like the planks that were on there, I think they were bigger than four inches. They might have been six inches.
Jamie: So they gave you like the smallest brush ever?
Scott: Dude, I might as well I probably have like a three or four inch thick Yeah. And I was literally on my hands and knees painting and then at some point It's
Jamie: like a kindergartener's brush.
Scott: Dude, it's like
Jamie: And they give you like a paint can. They're like, have fun.
Scott: I'm not kidding. See you
Jamie: in three months.
Scott: I'm not kidding. And and that was like, they might as well just like, you know, go cut the front lawn and here's a pair of scissors.
Jamie: I was just gonna say that. Like, that's literally what
Scott: this was. That's And and I started doing it and I wanted to, like, earn the money and do a really good job.
Jamie: After an hour and a half, you're like, I'm fucking done. And you've done like 10 square feet?
Scott: Dude, I did a few days.
Jamie: I'm sure you did.
Scott: Listen, was summertime. Wasn't out
Jamie: know, there didn't take you a couple months.
Scott: Dude, I ultimately I I I bailed. I bailed on the project after a certain point. I was like, I can't do this anymore. And then my parents the not not once.
Jamie: Father didn't give you a roller and take a broom handle and unscrew from the broom and
Jim: stick
Jamie: it into the end of the roller and do it with a roller with a
Scott: long handle? No there's
Jamie: I mean, that could have taken you, like, thirty minutes. We're we're it's just like, the stupidity is unbelievable. Yeah. Next level. Next level.
Next level.
Scott: Yeah. On so many accounts. Okay. Anyway, we need to get going.
Jamie: Yes. We just did we just did Hockey. Now we
Scott: How is Hockey?
Jamie: Titan Battle Gear.
Scott: Titan Battle Gear. Yeah. A 100%. So, we wanna give a shout out to Titan Battle Gear.
Jamie: Love you.
Scott: Attractive base layers built for players who refuse to settle. I think that stands, like for sure considering like the style. The level of protection is unreal. Cover system fabric. They got a whole bunch of different like technology woven into it.
Great stuff. Yeah. They really bring innovation, protection and performance to the rink. So, yeah, it's not it's not boring. Just all black stuff.
Jamie: No. It's not
Scott: flimsy, low cut resistant quality material. Nope. It's really like it's the real deal. So that's something that I know that you've got a few base layers in.
Jamie: 100%.
Scott: We ours are on the way.
Jamie: Dom boys. Oh, you guys got? Which what colors do guys get?
Scott: I I wasn't part of the ordering process.
Jamie: Yeah. I gotcha. But They have a bunch of good ones. They have some really cool, really cool colors.
Scott: Gonna be coming out with pants.
Jamie: They are gonna be coming out with pants. Yep. And we're gonna put the link in the show notes for Titan battle gear.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: Titanbattlebattlegear.com backslash Crazy Hockey Dads.
Jim: Yep.
Jamie: Use Crazy Dads 10 for 10% off on your Titan battle gear.
Scott: That's it. Yeah. Yep. Great. And now we're kicking off, a new partnership.
Jamie: A new partnership.
Scott: Yep. With coach Kevin and hockeytraining.com. Yeah. So coach Kevin. If your kid wants quicker hands, faster feet, or even a stronger stride, hockeytrain.com is the place.
Jamie: He's got awesome stuff.
Scott: Yeah. He runs legit virtual stick handling classes, off ice training programs, speed work that like actually translates to on high Yeah. Not just for kids, also for adults. They got men's league domination as the Yeah. Your favorite.
My favorite. And so if you're a beer leaguer trying to get in better shape, if you're a youth athlete, collegiate collegiate
Jamie: Try to improve your skills.
Scott: Skills, you wanna do it at home, off the ice.
Jamie: Awesome workouts.
Scott: Out hockeytraining.com. Coach Kevin.
Jamie: Yep. Hockey Training HQ is his Instagram.
Scott: Yeah. For more information. Yep. Yep.
Jamie: And You guys gonna hear a lot more about coach Kevin on the, on the pod.
Scott: Yeah. And then to round it all out, we got athletic performance insight. Yeah. Our buddy, Eric. Eric.
Yeah. He was just texting with me the other day.
Jamie: Were you?
Scott: Yeah. Nice. And so It's good dude. Platform that has video analytics. Yeah.
He's a good company built he designed to help build the the platform that house houses all the analytics. Impressive software. Video gate your videos to of games to him. They break them down. And then on the back end, you're gonna have broken down footage.
You can review clips by different like game scenarios. You have stats, team stats, individual stats. Yep. Great for youth all the way through college. You can use the whole platform.
You can use bits and pieces of it that are make more sense for different age groups. So reach out to Eric. Use the contact form. I know he would be more than happy to give you a tour and demo of the platform and he'll even tag a game for free.
Jamie: Mention Crazy Hockey Dads.
Scott: You mentioned Crazy Hockey Dads. Right? Yep. And so I know
Jamie: $100 value?
Scott: Yep. Season's coming to an end, but start looking at it now for next season.
Jamie: Yeah. Organizations, coaches, absolutely managers.
Scott: Know, how helpful this tool can be.
Jamie: Yeah. It's good stuff. He's got a really robust platform. It's really good stuff.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Check it out.
Scott: Alright. So listen. Why don't we roll right into
Jamie: We should. We've talked for a long time before. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Here's, Jimmy Dowd, one and only New Jersey's own Jimmy Dowd, bricks only, Lake Superior States only, and New Jersey Devils only, Jim Dowd.
Scott: Yeah. That's it. We're kicking it over.
Jamie: Here we go.
Scott: Alright. Let's go.
Jamie: Here we go. Alright, everybody. We are back with another interview, a man that needs no introduction in this state. The guy wins a high school state title at Brick, New Jersey. He goes on to win an NCAA title with Lake Superior and our buddy Ken Martell, and then he gets drafted by his hometown, New Jersey Devils, and goes on to bring home a Stanley Cup.
Jim, you so much for coming and hanging out with us today, man. Thanks so much.
Jim: Oh, thanks for having me on, guys, and I'm sure this won't be the last time, but, looking forward to some good conversation. Talk about Jersey Hockey, baby. Absolutely.
Jamie: 100%. Love it. So speaking of Jersey Hockey, so, I mean, tell us how you started in this game when you were a kid.
Scott: Yeah. You had a hockey family, like parents were in hockey?
Jim: Yeah. Had and raised in Brick, New Jersey. I come from a big family, one of one of, you know, seven kids. I had a sister that passed away before I was born from spina bifida, seven years old. Oh, jeez.
But my father was a pro boxer, and his family's originally from Livingston, New Jersey. My mom's from Livingston as well. You know, they married, and and he's the youngest of 11. 10 boys, one girl.
Jamie: You guys are
Jim: all he was the youngest, and he was Golden Gloves champ and all that kind of stuff, and and he was still fighting at, like, 44 years old down in Jacksonville, Florida. I wasn't born yet, but Pete, Mike, Kim Wow. You know, E, and then my brother, Brennan. My brother, Brennan, was born down in Florida, and my dad was fighting out of there, and that's how he got my two oldest brothers into hockey, the old Jacksonville Rockets back in the old Atlantic Coast League way back in the day, like the Slap Shot League, and that's where my brothers Pete and Mike started playing. And then he seemed finished fighting down there or whatever, then he came back up here, and they were, you know, living in Upstate New York, Carmel, New York area or whatever.
And then, you know, so my oldest brother, Pete, and my father, they drive down to the shore. This is an amazing story. They drive down to the shore. They get off at the Brick Township exit. They're driving.
They they see the high school on the right side, and they drive up not even a quarter of a mile on the left. There's a hockey rink, and they're like, hey. There's a hockey rink here. Let's move here. And that's why they moved the brick.
Scott: No way.
Jim: Unbelievable story.
Jamie: Did it?
Jim: Yeah. And the Ocean Ice Palace was built in 1962 by Doc Duet, you know, and and that's and then we so born and raised in brick and, you know, the brick hockey club, that's where we started, you know, and it all started with recreation. You know what I mean? I think it was, like, $15. It was, like, you know Yep.
Fifteen weeks, and and they would just throw a puck out, and you'd just scrimmage. You know what I mean? But it was pretty unique back in the day in in Brick. We were fortunate enough for about seven or eight years to have two ranks. You know, Warren Wolf, who used to the legendary football coach from Brick.
Warren Wolf, he's actually the one that started the hockey program back in the day, and he was a politician, so, you know, you know, he he got it started with the Brick High School, and it was free. For in Brick High School I mean, I grew up with a perfect time in Brick when it came to sports. You know what I mean? Back in the day. For 1962, the Ocean Ice House was built, and then for about seven or eight years, they Joe mister McKeon, who owned all sports, he was the main money behind the brick forum, and our dads literally helped him build that rink for free.
The brick forum had listen. It had one surface, and then it had a little rink in the back, and it was unbelievable. And that's when the brick hockey really exploded. Everybody in brick played hockey. And it was great because back then, you had your tryouts in September, but people would come back and bring their old equipment back.
If you needed someone's elbow pads, you know, you took his elbow pads and his shin guards and all You just swap stuff and all that. And then there was a pro shop there still. You know, you can still buy stuff. And it was just a very unique place. I mean and and when I tell you, everybody in Brick played hockey, everybody played.
And then, like I said, Warren Wolf, who's the legendary football coach, started the high school program. And then in 1962, I believe mister coach Oriama, the legendary hockey coach, Bob coach Oriama, took over. But they had it. It was it was free to play. Get this.
And we got every piece of equipment except for skates for for decades and decades and decades. And we practice every day right after school. You know what I mean? During the hockey season, it wasn't like twice a week. It was every day.
And, again, everybody played hockey and brick, and then brick memorial came, so then we had two hockey to high school teams that were really good, and the brick hockey club was killer, you know, back back in the day, and it's still going, you know, strong to this day. Quite changed quite a bit, you know, with all the triple a and this and that and how much hockey's growing, but my mom and my sister are actually the first ones to take me skating in 1971. I was three years old at the Ocean Ice Palace. Wow. You know?
You know? And my mom, my mom, you know, she's 94 years old, still going. God bless you. Actually started a women's hockey team back in the day, you know, when it was taboo for women to do any of that stuff. She started a women's hockey team on the down low, and we got great pictures of that and everything.
Oh, that's So it's pretty crazy story, you know? But that's how we got into hockey, like I said, to my brothers, Pete and Mike, you know, they they ended up obviously going to Brick High School, playing hockey, and then about a group of seven or eight of them from Brick went up to net Nathaniel Hawthorne College and played hockey up there. But, again, Brick was just pumping out hockey players forever, like, you know, good good players, and it was it was great. You know? And we also we had to travel up north because there's no other hockey down there.
Scott: I I played for the Ramaphos Saints growing up Yeah. Where my where our kids are playing now. And I remember going down there and down the shore early mornings. Jeez. So long ago in high school, also played down there.
But so that's so interesting because unlike like you're a little older than me, but even still like Jersey, generally speaking, when I was playing, there weren't like I didn't I was in Northern Jersey. There weren't a ton of clubs to like choose from. Like, I went to the Saints because it was closest. But like for you, like had like, wait, like, on the weekends, the travel was considerable for you.
Jim: Well, know what? Back in the day, you know, you had the Cherry Hole gladiators down Route 70, that's where the Flyers, the Coliseum down there. Yeah. You had the Philadelphia Little Flyers Right. The Rockets up north.
But back in the day, there wasn't any triple a, but there was there was double a, a, and b. And the double a, that was the a y h o, so that was like the triple a now. That was Yep. Rockets up north, the Little Flyers down there, and it was different back then. Now you have to your whole organization has to go triple a.
But back then, if we thought we had a good enough team, say, at the Bannum level, we could just put one team in that highest bracket, the double a, everybody else could play a, you know what I mean? All the teams aren't
Jamie: getting crushed.
Jim: It was different. And then, like I said, you have Ramble Wolf Saints, the Essex County Chiefs. Yep.
Scott: Colonials.
Jim: The the Colonials, you know. I believe so. Yeah. But the two big teams, you know, that had, you know, all the money and all that, like, you know, the the rockets up north who were always good. If we ever beat them, we beat them two one, maybe three two, but they would usually beat us nine one, ten two.
And the little flyers down in right outside of Jersey and Philly, same thing. Those were the two best, and they they if we ever beat them, we'd beat them two one because I've always stood on the head, but we normally lose eight nine nothing or ten one, ten two.
Jamie: Right.
Jim: But, you know, and then it's great too because those teams, once I started going, they always try to recruit me. You know? My dad's like, he's not going anywhere. He's, you know, staying
Jamie: right to
Scott: the brick. Staying his backyard.
Jim: Yeah. Staying But it's amazing how hockey and the Ramaphos Saints were always good. They were always good. One of the top teams. Again, the exes kind of Chiefs, Ramaphos Saints, Brick.
Scott: Yeah.
Jim: And then you had the Toms River Hockey Club down here.
Scott: Sure.
Jim: But they never they never took it to that next level. You know I mean? So a lot of their best players would leave Toms River after a bit and come to Brick. And then once they outgrew that, then they'd either go up to the Rockets or Little Flyers.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: And Red Red Bank wasn't around
Jim: that time. No. Red Bank was around. You had the Monmouth Hawks. The Monmouth Hawks were there for a while.
Okay. And I I played with them for for two or three years. I mean, that's a story I'll get into. You know, when when everything fell apart at home and my parents got divorced, went up and lived in Long Branch for a year and played for the Monmouth Hawks for a year. You know what I mean?
I would say. And that was a great that was a great time too. But, yeah, Hockey Boy has hockey grown. I've been telling people for thirty five years now. Thirty five plus year, there's good hockey players in Jersey.
Even back in the day when I went to Lake State in 1987, '88, you know, there was good players, you know? And they just like I said, back in the day, if you weren't from Minnesota, Massachusetts, Chicago, or Michigan, they didn't even look at you. And I tell kids and parents this, now USA Hockey, they know everybody everywhere, and you just need one coach to like you. That's it. One coach.
One coach. And you don't have to go crazy with the triple a thing, you know, squirts, peewees, not even bad ones, I don't think. You know? It all depends.
Jamie: Really? Interesting. Where you're at.
Scott: Right. So what what so so once you, you know, you had kids and now, you know, you're so you're down in brick still. Right? And that's where your kids were raised. In terms of, like, your approach to hockey with them, like, being a former professional, like, what did you what was it like for you with them?
Did you pour on the gas to push them? Did you take your cues from them? Like, kinda what was that dynamic like?
Jim: No. So I we got married at 28. Didn't have kids till 32. So my oldest son play so I played the NHL till I was 40. So my oldest son, Jimmy Junior, saw me play quite a bit.
Anthony, not as much. Yeah. And then we bought a place in Point Place And Beach, couldn't get too far from brick, you know, when Anthony was, like, six months old, so basically, you know, bought a place over there then, and I was with the Blackholes when Jimmy started playing. Was great because he started Rocky Hockey, it was called, you know what I mean, out in Chicago, just basically, you know, go out there and tool around. And then my last year, my second to last year, the Devils brought me back when I was 39 for a year, and I lived I at saw that.
I saw that. At home, and Lou gave me a hotel whenever I wanted, and then my last year with the Flyers was great. Got to live at home, but I still I got a hotel or or, you know, I'd stay with the young guy, Scotty Upshaw, so I sort of had the best of both worlds my last year with the Flyers there.
Scott: That was awesome.
Jim: Oh, very nice. But, yeah, with my boys, they just started playing, and then when we got back home here, you know, Red Bank, I knew the owner of Red Bank, Doug Brooks, you know what I mean? And and my boys just started playing out of there. You know what I mean? And and they both they didn't play triple a till Midgets.
Jimmy played Red Bank generals, might scores Pee Wee's Bantams, and then he went, you know, AAA, and then Anthony, same thing, might scored Peewee's, and then a second year Peewee, I took him to the Jersey Shore Wildcats at Jersey Shore Arena when Jimmy went AAA, because it was 10 miles from my house as opposed to 22, you know, Red Bank. So and then he played his second year Pee Wee and two years Bantams, then we went triple a with him. So and it was great because, you know, I was their coach, and I was at practice. Never missed or anything. And Yep.
It just it just worked out good. You know what I mean? I sort of shielded them away from all the, you know, craziness of the AAA stuff, and I'm not against it at sports pee wee's. I just you don't really need to do it, you know I mean, if you're with the right people, but, you know
Jamie: That's right.
Jim: And to each his own. Like, we we had a place in Vermont. Used to go snowboarding every week at Christmas for a week, and we'll never forget those memories. You know what mean? Those it was awesome.
Once you go triple a, you're not doing that anymore.
Jamie: Right. Easy.
Scott: That's So was it was that intentional in terms of keeping them on double a for as long as they did?
Jim: To tell you the truth, I I I actually I probably I I don't know. I just they were enjoying it. They were having fun. Yep. I mean, the Red Bank generals, they were the best double organization around.
You know what I mean? It was unbelievable. We used to triple a teams wouldn't play us. You know what I mean? We beat most triple a teams.
You know what I mean? Sure. But then there's a there comes a time you gotta move on. You know what I mean? It's just a fact's a fact.
I probably got away with it an extra year for sure or two, but, you know, I'll never forget. They both went to Bantam AA Nationals, their second Bantam year, and you can't that's that's amazing in itself. Yeah. You know? Right.
I I I I probably did get away with it for that extra year or two maybe, but it still worked out. I mean Yeah.
Jamie: It did.
Jim: Got a full ride to Penn State.
Jamie: Was gonna say ride to
Jim: the issue.
Jamie: Playing NCAA hockey,
Jim: you know? And and So
Jamie: it didn't hold them back at all.
Jim: No. You know?
Jamie: Not even a little bit. No. You know? And it's funny, Jim. A lot a lot of the parents that Scott and I come in contact with, they think that you have to play triple A and you can't play double A, you should never go anywhere.
And everybody that we talk to on this podcast says the exact opposite. Every single person.
Jim: But at a certain point, you definitely have to, but I just talked to a friend of mine today. His son's he's gonna be a second year pee wee, and he's very good. Like, he doesn't need to go triple a yet. You know what I mean? It's okay if you do, whatever, but you don't need to.
Right. You know what I mean? Not, you know, not yet. His best friend's on the team, and, you know, and he's and he's and he's scoring a ton. Yeah.
Go back next year for your second Peele. Scored triple as much and be with your best friend today.
Scott: Right.
Jim: Right. He doesn't have a hair in his armpit yet. You know what I mean? He's a 12 year old.
Jamie: Totally. Right. Right.
Jim: And you never, like, power
Jamie: skated your kids or how you're doing, like, an
Jim: extra roll. They didn't do any spring or summer stuff. See? The only thing we did do, I think two summers in a row, I took them out to the Notre Dame hockey camp because Jeff Jackson, who was my coach at Lake Superior, my freshman, sophomore, junior, he was my assistant coach, and my senior year is my head coach. Right.
And we took him out to that camp because Doug Wade, Jeff Naparela, Rene Sheppel, there was, like, four of us that had kids the same age, and we wanted to go hang out together. Oh.
Jamie: So we So you guys put together
Jim: knew just for, a week. No, they played they they played I mean, listen. They're beach bums too. They love they they love surfing. My boys and my wife would take them to the beach every day.
They played lacrosse. They did soccer in the spring, a little baseball, you know, but sports. Never never did a legit spring or summer hockey stuff, you know? And even my oldest son with lacrosse, he did he did lacrosse one year, and then lacrosse is the same as hockey. You got your season, and then you have your other season.
Right. And then lacrosse seasons while school's still in, and then he did one year of, like, travel lacrosse, and it went till the freaking July, and he's like, my dad, what is this? It's summertime. Like, you know what I mean? He wants to go to the beach, so we mixed lacrosse Doing.
In the summer. Just did a regular season. Like, every sports like that now. You know?
Scott: Yeah. It can be year round. A 100%. Yeah.
Jim: They all and it all started with sock. Remember soccer back in the day? That was, like, the first sport Yep. Years ago that nobody was doing they would twelve months out of the year, soccer's one that started it. Now every sport, you know?
Jamie: Although it's cheaper than ice hockey, I think.
Jim: Yeah. Yeah. They're all expensive now. And again, like, I'm not a guy, so listen, if a kid wants to go to the rink every day or play baseball, go fine. That's fine too.
If the kid wants to do it, so be it. Know? I don't think you need to. I mean, there's listen, we all know for every one Tiger Woods, the way he did it, there's a million out there that can't stand their mom and dad. I mean, that's
Scott: a No doubt.
Jamie: It's a 100%.
Scott: That's a fact.
Jamie: We've talked about that on this podcast.
Jim: Yeah. You know what mean?
Jamie: They're the outliers. You don't hear about the other people. Yeah.
Jim: The ones that can't stand their mom and dad. Exactly.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: Like, you don't just go to Instagram and see all, like, the family fails of kids that were pushed too hard, too fast, too early.
Jim: And the thing is, you just got whatever it is, you just gotta be really good. You just gotta be really good at the end of the day. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Scott: So speaking of, like, a really good I'm jumping around a little bit. Sorry, James.
Jamie: No. No. I was I think you're gonna ask the same question.
Scott: Well, when when you were when you were going through it all, at what point did you realize that you had, like, potential to, like, go to, like, the highest levels? Do was that something you kind you you figured out early on, or was
Jim: it You know what? I I just I just remember, like, it was all sports all the time in our house. You know what I mean? And my oldest brother, Pete, always had a bucket of pucks. We lived in a bunch of different houses in brick.
You know, we lived in brick. We lived in a bunch of different houses, but we always had a bucket of pucks and all that. I would shoot pucks all the time, you know, and and then it really started for me in eighth grade. So seventh grade, my parents split up. I go live in Long Branch with my mom and my little brother.
My dad goes to Toronto for a year, and then I was you know, my dad came back for eighth grade. We came back with my dad back to Brick, and then I'll never forget, was living in Lake Riviera, Wisteria Drive, the people, they all love that, you know? And I used to ride my bike to the ice palace after school, just my gloves, my stick, my gloves, my skates, my stick. And in a helmet on? And the lady who was running the the front desk, she wasn't one of the owners.
There'll be nobody on the ice, and it turns out now her son's my best friend. Right? Missus Patty Cooper. I gotta give a shout out to because I would show up there by myself after school, like three o'clock, and she would let me skate for free, and I would have a bucket of pucks and just get out there skating around, sometimes for an hour, sometimes two hours, sometimes three hours, because it wasn't like it is Yeah, well, this was empty, I would just go every day, every day, and then I'd bring my little brother, next thing you know then I'd tell all the couple kids about it, but I became a rink rat, and that's when it started. But I would literally shoot pucks every day, because I had nothing else to do.
I didn't have any video games, we didn't have any money for that, you know what I mean? I think I got Atari when I was in, like, ninth or tenth grade or something, but, like, that was, like, a stretch. Right. I was I used to shoot pucks all the time, all day, every day, and then just became a rink rat in eighth grade. You know what mean?
Like, I'm talking every day, I would just get my stuff from after school ride over to the ice palace.
Scott: And that's what you did. And so it was kinda like during those years where you, like, you were starting to stand out amongst your peers.
Jim: Yeah. Like, year, and I try to tell people this, like, grew up like, again, back in the day, there was a double a, a, and b. Brick Hockey Club was mostly, you know, a and b. Every once in while, we thought we had a good riffing, but my first year might I played might b, then I played might a. My first year squirt, squirt b, then squirt a.
My peewees, I got cut from the a team. I played peewee b the first year, then peewee a. Then even in Banhams, my first year Banham, got cut, and I went and played Banham b. And then the sec you know? And I but I was still always probably the best one on the team, but, you know, it was just how it worked.
And then it really was my freshman year. Brick High School had a really good year. Then my sophomore year, that's when I broke all the records, you know, and all that. And and then Jim Plunkett, gotta give Jim credit to mister Plunkett. Mister not Jim Plunkett.
I call him mister Plunkett. You know? He's he was our travel coach. You know what I mean? And he was heavy duty in USA hockey, you know, one of the first guys to help kids back in the day from our district, and they used to have those regional camp national camps or regional camps, and we got a couple couple a bunch of us from Brick out to the regional camp in Colorado.
Scott: Oh, very nice.
Jim: You know? And opened our eyes to the hey. There's more hockey out there Right. You know, than New Jersey. And then my junior year of high school, I just you know, after I broke all the records and all that, everyone's all over me to go here and there, prep school and all that, I never left, never went anywhere.
Then my junior year in high school, back in the day, it used to be the Chicago showcase in Chicago in the springtime, and that was, like, the best showcase in the country in the spring. Talent. And New Jersey, for the first year, was putting a team together, so I tried out for that, and I made that, went out there, and dominated, and that's where Lake State first saw me, Bob Mancini. He was at Lake State when he first saw me, but then he left and went to to Ferris.
Jamie: He went to Ferris?
Jim: Yep. Yep. And but they're all like, who's this kid from Brick, New Jersey, whatever. And then so I play in that, and then I'll never forget a kid. Oh, man.
I wish I remembered his name, and I got a great memory, but he went to prep school, but he was a Jersey kid. He calls me up after that, and he said he said, hey, Jim. You should try out for this Hockey Night in Boston. They're putting a Mid Atlantic team together, you know, for the first time ever, and it's, you know, New Jersey, parts of Pennsylvania, parts of New York. I said, what is it?
He goes, it's a tournament up in Boston. It's the whole month. It's like the it's like the Chicago showcase, but on steroids. It's hockey night in Boston. It's the best one where every NHL team pro, college, this and that.
I go, alright. Give me the guy's number. I'll never forget. I called Tim Toomey up. He's the guy that ran it.
I'll never forget this. I call him up. Hey, mister Toomey. It's Jim Dowd. How you doing?
Wanna try out for mid Atlantic team. Alright. What position? I said forward. He goes, oh, there's no more forward spots.
I paused for a second. I was like,
Jamie: I'll play d.
Jim: No. I was like I was like, alright. Alright. I just wanna try out. Yeah.
I'll try out for d. No problem. Whatever. So it it signs I could sign up or whatever, and it was at Total Ice World. That's where the tryouts were.
Yeah. So I go up to Total Ice World. I check-in, and I played forward the whole time.
Jamie: You know
Jim: what I mean? Like, just Yeah. And I made that team. Right. And that tournament, I finished in top 10 scoring.
So that tournament was the whole month of August, and it was every Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Went up there and played games. It was amazing. It was the best one in The US. And I went up there and finished top 10 scoring with Jeremy Rooney, Steve Hines, Sean McKechner, David Emma, Marty McGinnis, all these guys.
Jamie: Big names. Yeah.
Jim: And I finished in top 10 in scoring, but still, still, I got letters from everybody, but no one called me. And then Lake State, they took a
Scott: chance no one called? You're talking about, like, colleges and no one was calling?
Jim: They I got I got letters. I got letters. I got letters in
Jamie: the mail. Yeah.
Jim: But nobody no visits, no I didn't even know how it worked anyway. Yeah. But I got all these letters, but no one called me and no one set for a visit. Right. Frank Anzalone that's why I said one person could change your life forever.
Frank Anzalone was the one who built Lake State into a national powerhouse. So he was the head coach. Jeff Jackson was the assistant, and Jim Armstrong was the other one, and he always wanted a kid from out here, but anybody that was any good would go to, you know, BC, BU, Northeastern, all that. And there wasn't anybody really coming out of New Jersey at the time anyway. Right.
And he freaking took a chance on me. You know what mean? It. He took a chance on me.
Jamie: So when you got there, what was it like your freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year there?
Jim: Oh, my recruiting visit there? I went up.
Jamie: Everything. Yeah. I flew
Jim: I flew from Newark to Detroit, and it was a huge snowstorm, and I get on a I go from then you gotta get on a to fly up from Detroit to the Sioux.
Jamie: Like those puddle jumpers? I get
Jim: up there. There's a huge snowstorm. It's it's huge snowstorm. It's freezing. But I'm this kid out of Brick, New Jersey going on, like and then I I roomed with the captains there, and I'm like, when I found out you got free sticks, I'm like, oh, man.
I'm coming here. But I I loved it, man. It was such a it was it was amazing, man. Like, you know, and I had no you know? I was just a kid from Brick playing hockey and baseball, you know, trying to stay out of trouble.
You know what mean? I know direction. There was no advisers, agents, any of that stuff. You know what I mean? And end up going there.
It was the best thing that ever had me. I loved every second of Lake State, and that's I tell parents all the time, you just need one coach to like you and give you a chance.
Jamie: That's
Jim: it. And the rest is history. And, yeah, I love that place. So then my senior year, I commit to them. I sign my letter of intent, and there's another great story.
You'll love this one. So so the NHL draft's coming around. I'm not even paying attention. I get a call from my college coach, Jim, you know, your coach answer, and he goes, yeah, you're probably gonna get drafted, you know, in the draft. I'm like, what?
Jamie: And you had no idea that was No.
Jim: So you
Scott: weren't even thinking this.
Jamie: You had
Jim: no clue? And there's and there's I'm getting ready to go to a party. Right? So so it's there's 12 rounds back then, and I I never told anybody this till after the fact, so there's 12 rounds, and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, all right, if I do get drafted, the only team I didn't want to get drafted by was the New Devils. No, the New Jersey Devils, because I thought it would have been a charity pick, you know what I mean?
Jamie: Oh, I see what you're saying.
Jim: You know
Jamie: I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jim: So, I'll never forget. 05:00 rolls around. There's no cell phones, nothing. I'm still at my house, and and the devil's called that well, I didn't Marshall Johnson called my at the house. It was a phone call for me.
I get on the call, and it's Marshall Johnson. So, Jim, you know what I mean? Hey, Marshall. It's a Marshall Johnston, a Jersey gentleman who just drafted you. I'm like, bro.
Eighth round. So me, I'm a positive guy right off the bat, so I'm thinking to myself, oh, great. Okay. At least it's not the twelfth round, so maybe it isn't a charity pick. You know what I mean?
So that was my way of thinking.
Jamie: So you got excited now, Jay.
Jim: Drafted in the eighth round, and it was unbelievable. Yeah.
Scott: That must've been, oh my god. You're coming home. You're to play pro hockey.
Jim: No. And then so then I yeah. I end up and then I go to Lake State, and they actually tried to get me to sign after my junior year, signed pro, but it took me less than ten seconds. I'm like, I loved every second of college. I wanted to go back.
I wanted to graduate. I did everything I could, but I wanted to try to win another national championship. So I go back from my senior year. We we look it up. We went 28 straight games without a loss.
We were number one all year, and we got upset in the quarterfinals to go to the final frozen four.
Jamie: I heard that.
Jim: So I end up going back having a great year. We get upset. No big deal. I graduate. Ended up signing for more money anyway, and still started in the minors because, you know, it all worked out, and ended up playing seventeen years still, you know?
Jamie: Who'd lose you to your senior year in the
Jim: We lost to Clarkson, and it was at Lake State, it was best two out of three. They won the first night, we won the second night, and then the third night, we lost four and three, and we were in a box the whole night, and the refs were from out east, and they took them over an hour to get out of the rink.
Scott: Oh, I could only imagine. Set their own safety.
Jim: But, yeah, I I just, I mean, like I said, I I I hit Brick at the perfect time. Hockey was booming growing up when I played there. And, the Brick Hockey Club still still going strong. And then Brick High School, the right time, and Lake State, the perfect timing. You know what I mean?
Couldn't ask for my four years there, we surprised everybody my freshman year, but we were ranked think, well, the worst we were ranked was fourth my four years there. We took the country by storm.
Scott: Unbelievable. So who who else was on that team? Like, you still keep in touch with any of those teammates?
Jim: Well, yeah, the So the first
Jamie: The first
Jim: Kenny Martell. Alright. So I was a freshman. He was a junior. But we were just a bunch of guys, and that's how you do it.
Look what Indiana did for football. Yep. Right? It can be done. So the first blue chip recruit we ever got was my junior year was Doug Waite.
Normally, guys like Doug Waite would go to Michigan or Michigan State. You know I mean? You know?
Jamie: Where was he from? Was he in Michigan? Oh, he's from Michigan. And he went to Lake State, wow.
Jim: Like I'm saying, he was the first blue chip recruit we ever had.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah,
Jim: that left Michigan. Normally, they brought me out there, they didn't know I'd be that good, you know? Mike DeCarl and Ken Martel from California didn't know they'd be that good, but it was like David versus Goliath. We were all second tier players that turned into really, really good players, and as a team, we just Ejelic. It was awesome.
Jamie: Yeah. And it worked.
Jim: Yeah. Yep. Was the mindset they created a culture up there. It was awesome.
Jamie: That the first NCAA championship for Lake State?
Jim: Yeah. That was the first yeah. Yep. They have two NAIA championships back in the seventies, and then they won two after me.
Jamie: Okay.
Jim: They got three. Unbelievable what they did up there.
Jamie: Yeah. Do you ever go back out there? They're still up.
Jim: I've been up there twice. One for a reunion and one when I got inducted into the hall of fame.
Scott: Very cool. That's so cool. That's awesome. Unbelievable.
Jamie: The Rakers.
Scott: Yep. So then your when your hockey journey continues, like, the the transitions going from, you know, obviously high school to college playing d one, winning a national championship, then going pro. Like, were these, like, just, like, massive transitions for you, or did they come pretty pretty
Jim: No. Know what's funny? Like, I I just and I went right from my senior high school to Lake State. Like, people can't believe it. Like, it's it's unheard of.
Like, it's Right.
Scott: You're like a true freshman.
Jim: It hasn't been done since. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I had no problem with the skating, and I had no problem with the physicality, but you know what?
The two things were everybody passed the puck hard, like hard, and the goalies were way better. I'm used to in New Jersey, my senior just coming down, Deacon backhand, sliding it in on the ice, Come down, Deacon backhand, slide it in. And I I think it was my first 12 games. I didn't score a goal, I think, till my twelfth game, but I was getting breakaways and chances. Yeah.
And then I had I had to learn to make your move, you know, a little further out. You know I mean? I was getting into two because the goalies were so much better.
Jamie: Mhmm.
Jim: You know what mean? Interesting. So that and everyone passed the par puck so hard. You know what I mean?
Jamie: Those are the two things that stood out to you?
Jim: Two biggest things. But, again, the skating, the physicality oh, I got another great. So so so my freshman year, you know, I get fitted for skates. We're getting fitted. Right?
You know, first time ever getting professionally fitted. And the Bauer rep's like, what size skate do you have right now? I said, nine and a half. He's like, what?
Jamie: He measured you at like a twelve or something I like
Jim: said I said, yeah, nine and a half. I go, my shoes are ten and a half, so I was always told, I guess, just get a a a one size lower, nine and a half. I was wearing the wrong size skates my whole life. I got measured. He goes, you should be wearing an eight and a quarter C double A.
Jamie: Oh, you're wearing
Jim: the biggest skate. That's too big of a skate, like a size and a half too big my whole life, but people love that story.
Jamie: That's I wonder if you became like a really good skater, kinda like the Hudson's do, with untying all the laces, and you skate with like a loose boot. I wonder if that's what made you you
Jim: But how great, how crazy is this though? I didn't even know what a five hole was till I went to college. No one told me what a five hole was. Listen, so so my freshman year might turns out to be one of my best friends, Tim Breslin, and my roommate, my freshman year was Brandon Reed Reed, our third string goalie. At the end of every practice, we used to stay on and do a a showdown.
You know, we'd get three shots each, and whoever won, if he saved x amount or if we scored, whatever, got to keep the puck for that week or whatever. And then Tim Breslin was from Chicago, played in Dubuque in the USHL. He'd come down as a lefty. He'd come down, make this little move and a little dink thing, and he'd put it right in between his pads. And then I'm like, what is that?
Because what are talking about? I got a little movie dude, man. Like, every time it works, know, you're putting it right between his you know, right here. He goes, that's the five hole move. I'm like, what?
It's a five hole. That's how learned what a five hole was. Like so my boys knew what a five hole was when they were, like, three years old.
Scott: Totally. The first lesson learned.
Jim: I mean, I get I get a full ride to division one college. I get drafted to the NHL. Don't even know what a five hole is yet.
Jamie: That that's unbelievable.
Jim: Well, and these people are all worried about playing triple a at freaking 10 years old.
Jamie: Exactly. Exactly right. Thank you.
Jim: That's Too funny.
Jamie: Then then you get drafted by the Dads, you go play up in Utica? Is that where you guys were
Jim: Yeah, so then I Wacky thing too, like the Olympic team was rolling around, I had a legit chance to make that, I didn't, you know I mean? I didn't do well at their camps in the summer or whatever, you know? And then and I I signed pro. I signed a three year deal with an option, signed a really nice ticket coming out of college, signed pro, go to my first camp, and Lou Lamorell, there was about eight or nine of us that panned out from the eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty nine draft that were from college juniors in Europe. So Right.
Lula Amarillo brings in Herb Brooks to be our coach in Utica, New York. No assistance, no nothing, just Herb Brooks. That's awesome. So I'm thinking, alright, man. I'm getting sent down.
No big deal. I'm gonna play for Herb Brooks. So he was the best, man. He was so he he it was great. So I go down there.
You know, I got one game up my first year. I was leading scorer down in Utica. You know? My second year pro, I had another really good training camp, got sent down. Then Herb Brooks moved up to the NHL, Robert Fittora came in and coached in Utica.
Same thing, I got one game up my second year and leading scorer down there again, but then my third year up, that's when you know when you're you're doing stuff in life and you think you're ready, Yeah. But you're really not. But then when you know you're ready, my third year, I came into camp, and I knew I was ready. I had a great camp, but still, here's another thing, how you just one game, one person, one thing can literally change your life. So my third year pro, I'm in there, and you know how they say don't read into the lines when they put the lines up on the board, and there's freaking eight lines, and you're like on the bottom line.
Don't read into it. You're not on the eighth line. Right? Or don't read into it. You're not on the fourth line.
Right? You know, guys are always reading into it. So I made through some cuts, made through some cuts, and back then, training camp was, like, a month long. They played, like, 10 exhibition games or 11 exhibition games. Okay.
And we're, like, six games into the exhibitions. I still haven't played, but I'm still up in camp. Right. They post the lines. I'm like, oh, man.
Dude, I'm on, like, the eighth line eighth line. There's eight lines left. But then they decided to put me, Ben Hankinson, and Brian Sullivan together, right, on a line against the rangers in an exhibition. It's like the seventh exhibition game of the year, and we're all supposed to get sent down right after that game or the next morning. I had a freaking great game in the garden preseason.
They kept me up the whole rest of camp, and I played great. And then the last day, right before the season started, I was getting sent down. And I'm sitting there. I'm in the office with Jack LaMaire, Larry Robinson, Lou Lamarella, and I was just having my say. I'm like, guys, man.
I know I'm ready to play. Like, I don't think I'm ready. I know I'm ready. You know? But, and they were going back and forth a little bit.
I'm like, listen, you don't have to worry about me going down with a bad attitude, but, man, like, I'm ready. I know I'm ready. You know what mean? We're sort of going back and forth, shock, who I'm like this with, you know what I mean? Like, he coached me for, what, seven or eight years.
He finally says, Jimmy, he had enough of me, like, saying I'm ready. I'm like, this is bullshit, basically. He's like, Jimmy, hold on. He goes, me and Larry, we can play in exhibition games. So the point was, like, it's exhibition.
There's a whole another step up to the regular season NHL, but I think it was pretty funny that he said that to me. He's
Jamie: like, yeah.
Jim: Jimmy, me and Larry, we could play exhibition games right now. Whatever. So I'm like, guys, I get I get it. I'm just letting you know I'm pissed off and I'm ready to go, but I'm not gonna get out with a bad attitude, I get sent down, and that was my third year, so we're in Albany. Right?
And that little trivia question. You know, I score who scored the first ever Albany River at goal? See? So I go
Jamie: yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think that's what said.
Jim: Got it. I I go down. I'm like, okay. I'm gonna go down and just rip it up. Like, that's what you gotta do.
I go down. I tear it up. Have a great start to the season. I get called up. I score in my first game up that year in Quebec against the Nordiques.
You know, it was awesome. Great feeling. And I'm up for a little bit because they had a couple of guys hurt, but then I got sent back down. Sent I'm like, man. Okay.
Just gotta keep going. You know I mean?
Jamie: Just keep going.
Jim: Then and then this is a great story that you guys will appreciate. So it's me, Kevin Dean, Ben Hankinson, and Mike Bonnerchuck living together in Albany. So we're out one night, you know, out all night, obviously, whatever, and there's no cell phones back then, but we had a house phone, and we all had our separate bedrooms in a ranch. Right? Right.
The phone starts ringing at, like, 05:30 in the morning. It rang. It must have rang for almost two straight hours. Nobody was getting it. Nobody was getting it.
Finally, it was closest to my room. I get up And you grab that? And I answer the phone, and it's Robbie Fotorick. He's our head coach. He's like, Jimmy, where the are you?
What are you doing? He goes, you're getting called up. No. So I get I get up I get called up. I fly down to Pittsburgh.
So here's the here's the story about this. Another thing, how you just gotta be ready and at right place at the right time. John Weisbrot was the GM in Albany, and Bernie Nichols' son had passed away. So Bernie had to fly out to California for the funeral, and they needed someone to fly into Pittsburgh with just a body. And Lou Lamarello wanted David Emma.
But John Weisbrot, the GM down there, said, no. Take take Dow. He's playing the best right now. Like, you gotta take he was fighting, arguing with Lou. Lou said, f it.
You know what I mean? He says, okay. Just send Dow. He's not playing anyway. He's just coming down for one day and going back.
That was $93.94. I fly down to Pittsburgh. I have the it's a morning skate. I had the best morning skate. Like, everything just clicked.
Right?
Jamie: Tore it up.
Jim: And and and morning skate I didn't play that night. They lost to the Penguins. And remember that year, the Devils had not lost more than two games in a row once all year. Right. They end up losing that night, and Jockey was so pissed, and they were playing Pittsburgh back to back.
That was in Pittsburgh. The next night they were playing in Jersey, he was so pissed that he told me he kept me up and kept me in, and I had a goal and an assist the next night, and never went down. Unbelievable. Like, he's like, know what I mean? Like, can't you make this stuff up?
Jamie: That's unbelievable. So he he he just said, bring him over because he's
Jim: That gonna go down was their third loss in a row, and that hadn't happened all year, and he's trying to shake something up. So he said, just let's put doubt in. I play that next night in Jersey, have a goal on three assists. And I stepped the whole rest of the year.
Jamie: Was that the year that the Ranger, the Devils lost their Rangers?
Jim: Lost their Rangers in the conference finals.
Jamie: That was '94, right?
Jim: Right. '93, '94. Right. So pretty wild, you know?
Jamie: That's unbelievable. That was your first year up, was that year?
Jim: Yeah, mainly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was my official rookie year.
Jamie: Right, exactly.
Jim: Yep. Jesus.
Scott: Yep. So like during during that time when you're, you know, you're getting sniffs here, you're going to camp, you get a game up here, a game up there, Like, what's what's it like? I mean, you seem like a super positive guy and you're just like, you know, a glass is half full. Like, this whole time, is it is it wearing on you at all? Like, are you thinking like, this might not work out or like, you're just like, I'm gonna make this happen hell or high water?
Jim: Yeah. You know, you're just playing and you just you just and that's when it goes back to you just gotta play hockey because you love it. Because the and I'm trying to educate as many many as many parents as I can. The higher you go up, the more of a business it is, and the more BS that's involved, and there's gonna be stuff that you're not gonna understand. You know I mean?
Know, I don't never forget Marshall Johnson told us when we were first years in Utica, there are guys, there's gonna be things you don't understand. You just focus on playing hockey when your name is called. He used to drill that into our head. Marshall Johnson is our director of player personnel, and he used to tell us, guys, I'm telling you right now, there's gonna be things that you're not gonna understand. Like, you know, like guys getting called up before you that you're playing way better, but you're on a three year deal, he's got two years, they gotta see if he can play before they're gonna use them or get rid of them.
We you don't understand that. Just like, what the f, man? I'm playing better than this kid. You know what I mean? Right.
So and then yeah. And it's just a matter of just playing hockey because you love it. That's all.
Jamie: If your mind if your mindset's not dialed in, and you don't understand that part of the business, that could really wear on you.
Jim: Yeah. Oh, you you kidding me? I've seen guys there's so many guys that are, you know, 22, 23 years old, they're not on the top six anymore, they're top four, and they're freaking done playing. I mean, listen, I was a scorer my whole life. The Devils used to call me up just for the power play, and then I get up, and I had to find my way, and then I had to retool my game.
You know what I mean? But I ended up playing the freaking NHL till I was four years old because I could take face offs and kill penalties, and I could move up and down the lineup. Like, you know what I mean? And I wouldn't bitch or complain if I was on the third or fourth line. I just love playing hockey and wanted to try to win.
That's it.
Jamie: No matter what. How many you're gonna be any way you possibly could.
Jim: Yeah. And people have no idea. They have no idea how good those guys are that are up here. They have no idea how good Eiserman and Joe Sackick and these guys are. They're they're they're they're first the guys that you don't have to think about that are in the Hall of Fame, they're they're no one's even close to them.
And then you have guys that were all stars in their career for three years, five they're not even close to those guys. And then I fit into that third I fit into that third, you know, section in NHL wise. You know what I mean?
Jamie: But, And like you had such a you had a eighteen year career?
Jim: Seventeen years? Seven parts of seventeen seasons.
Jamie: I mean, how many people can say they played seventeen, eighteen years in the NHL? I mean, that's that's I mean, so so what do you think was your the things that kept you in the show? Was it your mindset?
Jim: I didn't I didn't wanna do anything else. Didn't wanna do anything else.
Jamie: Well, then that that that's the answer.
Jim: There you go. I didn't have a I didn't have a plan b.
Jamie: There wasn't a plan b.
Jim: No. There wasn't a plan b. I'm playing hockey.
Jamie: Right. Period.
Jim: Not gonna as long as I can. I mean, and, you know but, no, don't get me wrong. I've been through ups and downs and mentally everything. You know what mean? It's, you know, it's not easy, and then you gotta surround yourself with, you know, good guys down there and all that.
The minors will eat you up. They'll eat you up on the ice. It'll eat you up off the ice. You know I mean? Pro hockey and pro in the mice, it could be very lonely.
You know, if you, you know, if if you don't have a if you're not married down there or whatever, it's you can get into trouble real real quick, real easy. You know? Right. And, again, Robert Fittorock, he used to sit and tell I remember one time we're coming home from Rochester back to Utica, he and calls me up to the front of the bus. This is my second year of pro.
Calls me up to the front. Goes Jimmy. And I arrived at the door. He's like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, what?
You know? Because he knew we like to have our phone or whatever and all that. He goes, you understand that three three good weeks can change your life forever? I'm like, what? He goes, Three good weeks down here can set yourself up forever.
For me. Meaning, meaning, you have three good weeks, because when you're in the minors, every other NHL team is watching you. And, you know, now that I'm done playing, I know how it all works. Every t there's 30, whatever, two teams in the league now. All other 31 teams are watching guys on every team.
He goes, you have three good weeks. The right scout sees you, the right you know what mean? You're gonna get your chance. So, basically, quit messing around and just, you know, take it, you know, a little more serious.
Scott: Was that like was it like in some ways, it sounds like even more stressful. Like, if you're in the minors just trying to make your way up. I mean, listen. Of course, once you're you get there to the top level or whatever it is, you know, like, it's one thing to get there, it's another thing to stay there. But, like, if you if if every night you're like, you feel like you're going out there, like, fighting for maybe that call up against everyone else around you, I mean, is was it a different, like, mindset going to those games and it was playing
Jim: But for me for me personally, how I Yeah. And there were guys that all they cared about was themselves and getting their points and trying to get up that way. For me, I just you know, I grew up in a team environment like brick hockey was all about brick pride and just the team, the team, brick high school was the team, the team, Lake State was all about the team, the team. So I just, I just was like, let's go try to win a championship. You know what I mean?
Like, that's it. You know what I mean? You know? And and I'm a firm believer, and then this is another thing, when you're in the minors, if you start winning, you if your team wins seven, eight, nine, ten games in a row, all the teams are definitely like, hey, what are they doing here? These kids are winning.
Everybody wants a winner too. I mean, listen, the guys on the last place team still get full rides. The colleges, they still make the NHL and all that, but my whole mindset was just like, hey, just love being on a team, and I love winning. You know what I mean? That was it.
Do you
Jamie: think that that's one of the reasons why that '95 Devils team won the Stanley Cup that year? Because the team you played had some legit, that Red Wings team had some legit play, I mean, Coffey was on that team. They had some monsters on
Scott: that team. Right.
Jamie: There were some monsters
Jim: Laid Shrum, Fatties
Jamie: off, Coffey. That's I mean. I mean, you're talking like monsters, and you guys were just a bunch of really good hockey players that probably had more of a team dynamic than they did. Right?
Jim: Yeah. Johnny Mac talked about it the other night, and it was Ring of Honor thing. He he he talked about that. But if you think about that team, listen, we might not have had a Steve Eiserman. We might not have had a Lichtom, but listen, We had Marnie Bergdorf.
Listen. We had Marnie Bergdorf.
Jamie: Yeah. Scott
Jim: Stevens. Of all time. We had Scott Stevens. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Mean, no one gets and we had Scott Niedermeyer. Absolutely. Yep. Listen.
We had Claude Lemieux. We had Stephan Richey. Yep. Yep. Who's unbelievable.
We had Johnny Mac. You know what mean? We had Bill Garner. No, Shanny wasn't on those teams.
Jamie: He was
Jim: gone already. Oh, was gone we had legit players that were, you know, I mean, that was a sick team, and we had the team concept, LaMeric came in, and it was all about team. That's it, you know? Oh, we had a bonus structure there that was insane, and that's another thing. Lou put in he didn't put any individual bonuses, but we we would get
Jamie: They were team bonuses.
Jim: If we if we win the game and we get a shutout, each player gets a thousand dollar bonus. Listen to this. We win a game, we only give up one goal, each player gets a $750 bonus. We win a game and give up two goals, each player gets a $500 bonus, and it was it would add up
Jamie: Isn't that interesting?
Jim: That those couple years, we weren't even spending our freaking our our paychecks. Our bonuses were insane.
Jamie: That's
Jim: awesome. Then and then and then What a good question. Hold on. You win two games in a row. It's a 250 lot of bonus.
Three games in a row, 500, four in a row But it keeps in a row, a thousand, on top of the zero goals, one or two. It was insane. That's very smart.
Jamie: So there's eight
Jim: minutes left in the game, and we're winning two nothing.
Jamie: You guys are cranking cranking because you're the scorned ducks, man. Yeah. Absolutely. That's so let me ask you a question.
Jim: But that's the genius of Lou. That's the genius of Lou.
Jamie: 100%.
Jim: No individual bonuses, team bonuses. And then the NHL, I think that they took that out. The collective bargaining, or the owners took that out.
Jamie: That's too bad. I like that structure more so than the individual crowd.
Jim: Oh, the individual won't think about it. Guys get they got freaking bonuses for 20 goals or whatever. I'm just using that number as an example. 20 assists or plus minus, they're jumping on the ice trying to get the plus and all that crap.
Jamie: Know? Exactly. Crazy.
Jim: No, I literally had a guy that I played with, I'm not gonna say any names, but I was leading the team in plus minus while I was playing out west, one of the teams, and he had bonus for plus minus, and I was, like, two ahead of him. You know? And he's like, yeah, Jimmy. I'm like, man, I got one too.
Scott: That's awesome. So
Jamie: so, Jim, you you now you now you do a lot of stuff with with mindset, right, with with younger players.
Jim: You work with do nutrition and performance mindset coach of youth athletes. My nutrition's for everybody, but my best friend's a founder and chairman. Launched a company this May 1 would be twelve years. Right. It's all done online, you know what I mean?
So if anyone, you know, hit me up on Instagram
Jamie: Tell them where they tell everybody where they can find it.
Jim: Just you might email you know, Jim Dowd well, JimDowd@me.com. Is that what is that? JimDowd@me.com. That's my email address.
Scott: Yeah. I
Jim: know. Know. My my my my ID. I I don't need more about that, but don't Okay. But if they wanna know about the nutrition, you know, just hit me up on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, whatever it's called now, all that, or my email address is jimdowd@me.com.
And then my performance mindset coaching, it's just jimdowd dot com. It's amazing. I got into that a few years ago. You know, Mike Hartman, ex New York Ranger, played nine years in NHL, got me into it a few years ago. It's amazing.
I love it. It's all one on one. I don't do group stuff. I got some NHL teams, colleges want me to do stuff, but I did it for I found a niche. These kids are all so freaking skilled now.
They can all skate, pass shoot like, let's get one thing straight. There's no more Tim Currs. There's no more Dave Antichuks in the NHL, really. Everybody can skate and fly around. Yeah.
But the two biggest things they're missing is the nutrition and the mindset. You know I mean? And that's where I help kids, and I could add some serious value. And I love doing it. I love it.
Scott: As far as, like, with your own kids, was this stuff that you were, like, you know, that that you were doing with them, like, on nutrition and mindset? Was
Jim: that Yeah. My wife, she loves to cook and all that, and she's really into all this stuff. So so, I mean, the whole nutrition thing, how we got into that was it's a whole another story. So when I do my presentations for my nutrition, everybody wants me to hear hockey stories, you know, because I'm Jim Dabba, hockey player, and I'm like, yeah. Well, I have no problem because this is why I'm so passionate about nutrition.
I say to people, listen, you know, the easy part, you know, I grew up in Brick, New Jersey. I was the best player in Brick, best travel player in Brick, high school player. I went to Lake State. I one of the best players in the country. I signed pro.
I was the best in the minor leagues. Like, I kept inching my I I kept progressing. So I got up to the NHL, signed two nice contracts, won a Stanley Cup, was on top of the world. I say the easy part is getting to the was getting to the NHL. The people at Paul's, I'm like, the hard part was staying there.
I mean, would you guys not agree? Anybody can get to the top of their profession for one day. Once you're there, the hard part is staying there. Right. And, again, for me, I had signed two nice contracts, one of Stanley Cup, was on top of the world.
We're 27 years old. My wife and I, we didn't have kids yet. I got sent back to the minors at 27 years old, and we playing in Hamilton, Ontario for about a month, and I was on my last year of my NHL deal, but money didn't matter because I'm, like, I'm out of the league. And when you get sent back to the minors in the NHL, Major League Baseball at 27, you're not getting back. You're done.
NFL. Right? NBA, there is no minor leagues.
Jamie: No.
Jim: So I had all these teams from Europe calling us. We could've went there and made great money, but I said to my wife, I said, Honey, listen, we're only 27. Let's give it one more year. If we don't make it back to the NHL, we'll only be 28, then we'll go to Europe as long as we can and, you know, try to save money or whatever. She had no problem.
And I said to her, I'm like, I don't know how we're getting back to the NHL, but we're getting back. We're about a month and a half into that season. You know, I have a serious problem with my neck. C4, C5. You know, I don't even want to get into socialized medicine in Canada because it's terrible, you know.
They told me I'd never the doctors told me I'd never play hockey again. Finally found a guy in The US, he laughed at that, you know what mean? So that was the first thing, so I'm early in the season, I'm out for over a month and a half, I'm out, and then my wife and I were trying to my wife does all this research, so she wanted to try to get as healthy as could be to start trying to have kids, and long it's it's funny how, you know, my dad got divorced, he lived in Toronto for a year, and a guy that became really close with, you know, he was from the Toronto area, right, where we were playing in Hamilton, and we reconnected with him, my wife and I, and his girlfriend told my wife about this holistic doctor. We're like, what? Doctor James Dads Podcast will eat right for your blood type.
He had an office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but he also had one in Toronto, which was forty five minutes east of us. I said, Lee, let's do it. I'll try anything. I go like I said, I don't know how we're getting back, but we're getting back. Right.
So I call him up, try to make an appointment, like, okay. No problem, mister Dowd. That'll be three month wait. I'm like, what? I go, okay.
Just put my wife and I in, but if there's any cancellations, you know, we're in. You know how God works. Right? Three days later,
Jamie: it's
Jim: a cancellation. Right. We go right down. He does the whole iridology, this and that. I did it cold turkey.
I went in thirty days. I went from a hundred ninety two pounds down to one eighty two. I was quicker, stronger, faster. I cut out all the BS, got into the whole organic on natural ingredients supplements and all that, and this is leading into my boys, you know? But thank God for my wife.
She's one of them basically saved my career because she loved to cook. She was into all this stuff, and then I finished the season out there. It gets better, guys. I finished the season out. Edmonton wants to bring me to camp the next year.
So that summer, I got up at 05:30 every morning. I got a trainer for the first time in my life. I went to the gym from six to 07:30, didn't talk to anybody, five days a week. Right? And then I'm playing I'm going to training camp with Edmonton.
I gotta make the team to get a contract or whatever. It's July 31 of that summer. I'm at my brother's for a barbecue. We're playing freaking pickup basketball. I go up for a shot, I come down and roll my ankle.
This is July 31. Oh, shit. I roll my ankle, it blows up. I can't walk. I go down to temple the next day, the whole month of of of August, couldn't go on the ice once.
I had to sit with my foot up. I couldn't work out. Couldn't do anything. Shit. I go to training camp with the Oilers only skating twice, but I go there, and I just got so mentally ready.
I made the team, had a great year, and then the rest is history. I spent the next twelve straight years without a day in the minors.
Jamie: That's unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Jim: So the and going back, my boys, thank God for my wife, like I said, from day one, she was always into this nutrition stuff and all that, and it definitely helped my boys, you know? But I got so many stories like that, it just doesn't even make sense, like, you know?
Jamie: And the mental side of that being going down and having to battle back, I mean, that's not,
Jim: you know My ankle, I told you, I mean, I couldn't work out once
Jamie: Yeah.
Jim: For five weeks, and going to training camp, and I gotta make the team. How many
Jamie: other people would have just folded the tent and said, you know what, we're done, we played a couple years, thank you very much, and let's go do something else, right?
Jim: I look back I look back at some of the guys that I played with that I when I was in the minors, and they were going through some of the same stuff that turned around to have some great careers. Like, it can be done, man. When you just when you bat whatever, button down the hatches and focus, and you have a vision and you wanna do something that's realistic, you can do it. You just gotta blank out all the noise and try to be in the moment. I had a tough time with that, something to be in the past or thinking too far in the future, and that's a whole other thing I do with my kids that do my program, is try your best to be in box two, which is the present.
Yeah. And that's the hardest thing every day in life that we all go through, I believe. For sure.
Scott: A 100%. So when when you went back down to the minors, was you you had mentioned neck some some neck injuries, was it, like, fit like, overall fitness that was kind of preventing you from being at your
Jim: had, like, a pinched nerve, and and then it turned out to be my c four, c five was crushed, and these doctors in Frank and Canner are telling me I'm never gonna play hockey again. Finally, agent, we found one in Rochester, New York, and he laughed. He goes, Listen, everybody's got it, c four, c five degeneration, you know, in the disc. He goes, hockey players, football players, boxers, like, they get it the most. Like, everybody's sort of got it to an extent.
Jamie: Because he goes, Jimmy intact?
Jim: Yeah. He goes, Jimmy, you're going to be fine. You're going to play hockey again. That's all I needed to hear.
Jamie: Yeah. Right. Right.
Jim: You know? You know?
Jamie: Talk about, like and I mean, so now your Jimmy Junior's out of Penn State, and he's playing with the Adirondack Thunder. Right?
Jim: Yeah. He yeah. He's he played there for a little bit. He thinks he's ready to move on right now. He's got the degree from Penn State, the grad certificate, you know?
Right. Anthony's a junior at ASU, so he's got a year and a half left.
Jamie: Right.
Jim: You know? Not
Jamie: a bad place to play ice hockey.
Jim: No. You know? And it's great. I mean, you know, and Jimmy loved every second at Penn State. You know what I mean?
And he's just trying to figure out right now, you know, if he wants to stay in hockey or whatever. You know? Right. But and like I said, Anthony's got a year and a half left. He's he's great.
He's got a he's got an interim setup for when he comes home in the spring. Like, he's you know? And like I said, I mean, my boys think if they wanted to, they could play hockey in Europe for a long time if they want or whatever. But, yeah, I'm just living here in Point Pleasant Beach, doing my thing, and, you know, thinking about, you know, I said this to you, you know, JT, about starting a podcast up. So people have been wanting me to do a podcast for years, you know?
Jamie: Found that.
Jim: Yeah. Yeah. Listen. Then and then we gotta get Rutgers. We gotta get Rutgers d one hockey.
It's a big 10.
Jamie: Let's go.
Jim: What's up? Men and women's hockey, man.
Jamie: I mean, why it's not there already is beyond that.
Jim: Okay. That's enough. That's for another show.
Jamie: Yes. Yes. That that is that is definitely for another show, but I mean, but
Jim: that's something that has to happen. I'm I'm I'm And you're spearheading that. Oh, yeah. I'm I'm I'm I talked to my wife about it. I I I talked to her today about it.
You know what I mean? I talked to my oldest son about it. You know? Right. Just like I said before, if you focus and have a a a anything that's realistic, you can and will do.
Jamie: Oh, yeah.
Jim: Just gotta focus on it. I don't
Jamie: doubt that at all.
Jim: That would be amazing. Can you imagine it? I mean, just picture. I visualize the turnpike, the billboard, Michigan State, Rutgers, you know.
Jamie: Tonight, Home 70 Depot Arena. Yeah, exactly. December
Jim: Friday, Friday, Saturday, December.
Jamie: Mean, that would
Scott: What be mean?
Jamie: Again, how that's not happening right now is beyond me.
Jim: That's because no one's gone gone for it yet, and that's their that's where I come in.
Jamie: If if Oklahoma State cannot get a program before we do
Jim: I know.
Jamie: There's You know what I mean?
Jim: I mean I've been saying it for a while. There's gonna be an explosion, you know, but it's it's it's you just gotta have a game plan and focus. And I Yeah. I I made a couple calls, guys, so I'll keep you updated on that. We do we do shows every periodically, and I'll keep everything No.
Jamie: We certainly will, by the way. I I like that.
Jim: I mean, there's tons we could talk about, guys. It's it's never ending.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. And, Jim, what does it say behind you? I see there's a a slogan
Jim: behind you. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Every morning. Yep. It's great.
Right?
Scott: There you go. Yes. It is. A 100%.
Jim: No problem. It's a battle every day we wake up. Right? It's and
Jamie: and and and, obviously, you're doing some good work there with the mindset stuff, you know, talking to kids because and we we've said this a couple times, Scott and I. I mean, I I told you about Vinny Maltz, right? Vinny Maltz game.
Jim: Yeah. He's great. I know. Yep. I I researched before I get into it.
I researched a ton of guys. You know, Vinny is great. You know, I I I know him. He knows me, but we really don't know each other, but he does great work.
Jamie: Right.
Jim: You know what I mean?
Jamie: And the thing about this game, we spent so much money on this game of ice hockey, and I can almost guarantee you 99% of us do not have our kids talking to somebody. Yeah. Not the mental side of the game.
Jim: Yep. Yep. And it's easy, like, it's it's and there's stuff that's not I mean, listen, we all know life's not fair. Right? You could do be the the perfect person or as close to be as the perfect person.
There's only one person that's perfect, but as close to be as perfect, and and you're still know you what mean? You never wanna say you got screwed, but there's kids that get screwed for whatever reason, and it's happening. It might squirts, pewies. It's unbelievable, man. What's happened is some of these kids, it makes no sense.
And there's about 20 teams I gotta coach, by the way. I need to go fix 20 at least 20 teams.
Jamie: Only 20?
Jim: Oh, but it's
Jamie: not it's like
Jim: and I coach for I coached for at least fifteen years. I coached my boys growing up, man. I mean, anybody that played for me, I I played two goalies. Everyone learned power play, penalty kill, everything. Right.
You know I mean?
Scott: But, you know, that that's actually I'm I'm glad you brought that up and just just wanted to ask about that. So for for all the parent like, one of the things that comes up often is about, like, their, you know, kids in their development. Right? And going to a program where that's not necessarily chasing a letter, but going to a place where your kid's gonna get, you know, ice time puck touches. But, you know, ultimately, you want to be, you know, with as good of a coach as possible.
From from your perspective, is there any advice that you give to parents because we're at the end of like the current youth season, like families are doing ID skates, they're going, they're looking for the next thing, maybe it's working out for them, maybe they want to try something new. Any advice in terms of really getting to understand the coaching staff that they're you know, or how to approach, you know, evaluating one club versus another?
Jim: You know what? It it's it's hard to it's it's tough, man. I'm telling you because let's get one thing straight. There really is, for the most part, no tryouts anymore.
Scott: Yeah.
Jim: You know I mean? There's no legit tryouts. It's I learned that too even my last couple years with the boys, you know, at at double a level. If you didn't have your team picked by the freaking second night, like, guys, kids were leaving going all over the place. Like, it's it's not just triple a.
It's double a now. It's everywhere, but I you just gotta keep asking questions, talking to people, and find a coach that you're comfortable with, and and, again, I when I first was done playing, you know, 57 now, but when I was 41 years old when I was first done playing, was like, what's going on? You know? I get it's a business, and that's fine. Everybody's got a right to make a living.
You know? I just just don't try to milk people for everything they have. You know? A lot of these teams have too many kids on the teams.
Scott: Yeah.
Jim: You know? And there's a flip side to it. I mean, nobody wants daddy coaches anymore.
Jamie: Agree.
Jim: You know I mean? But, though, so you're paying extra to have a coach. Mean and Yeah. I've seen it before. Like, it's not hard to be a daddy coach.
You know what I mean? But I I I know, and I've seen it firsthand where there's some coaches that are daddies that what they do with their kid is unfair. And then on the flip side, some of the kids are extra over hard on their kid. You know I mean?
Jamie: Yeah. Scott was. Scott was hard on this kid.
Jim: Yeah. But going back to your question, it's like, just keep doing research and try to find someone you're comfortable with, it's all about practice. You get better in practice. Like, I never went to the whiteboard once in fifteen years in practice. I never went to the board.
I just skid
Jamie: because them running
Jim: Jack's in my college coach. He's like Jimmy, you know, and Herb Brooks skating pass and shooters are smaller games. You know, you're only on the ice for an hour. You know I mean? Think about it.
You go on the ice as a coach coaching kids. You have an hour slot. You go on the ice for the first five to seven minutes. You waste
Jamie: time with the whiteboard.
Jim: Or or you or and just just if you go out there and stretch, they don't need to stretch. First of all, stretch is not good for you. That's whole another subject we should get into. Stretching's not good for you. And you you should go right out and and dump the pucks, let them mess around for a little bit.
Right? And then just go right into skating, passing, shooting drill, small area games, keep them moving. Give them, like, two water breaks, maybe three. And at the end of every practice, I would do stops and starts. You can never ever do enough skating.
Herb Brooks, that's all we did. Skating past with Junior, Small Area games. He was so far ahead of everybody else. What he was doing back at the New York Rangers, remember back in the day where Ray Woods aligned on? They were laughing at him, but look at hockey now.
Herb Brooks was so far ahead of his time. Mhmm.
Jamie: Unbelievable, by the way.
Jim: But that's all you need to do, a skating pass, shooting drill, a small area game of you don't need that freaking. You do the x's and o's in the locker room, you know? And then even when you get an hour an hour and a half ice slot, that still flies by. But if you go to that whiteboard four or five times, that's literally could be almost a twenty minutes Absolutely. That you're standing around doing nothing.
That's exactly better off just And and I don't care what anybody says to this day, stops and starts are still the best thing for a kid. That get those legs strong. Herb Brooks, the old legs feed the wolf thing. Legs feed the wolves. Yeah.
That's right. You got no legs, you're not eating.
Scott: Right.
Jim: You got no legs, you're not getting a paycheck in hockey. You're not playing.
Jamie: That's right.
Jim: You know? I mean, I love this kind of stuff, but, you know, it's just going back to your question. The parents just gotta, you know, keep finding the right person and keep talking to people.
Scott: Yep.
Jim: You know? But I I and I don't mind. I don't wanna sit here and bash anybody, but there's there's teams with too many kids on it.
Scott: Yep.
Jim: Too many kids on teams. There's too many kids on teams.
Jamie: Yep. There's organizations that have two triple a teams in the same birth year, Jimmy.
Jim: Yeah. Which is fine. Like, if they're at the right level, the highest from the but, like, you just problem.
Jamie: They're not
Jim: at the right level. And now the one thing listen. USA Hockey does a lot of good stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Some stuff you scratch your head at. The one thing that I'm scratching my head at is that they bumped up the rosters to 22 kids on midget teams.
Jamie: For the new DL for that
Jim: new They've Not that. But but in general, I mean, that doesn't make any sense. There's too many kids to begin with, 20 kids. Yeah. And then on flip side, I get it because you don't want a daddy coach so you gotta charge people more so they can get their budget and the guy can his money or whatever, blah blah blah.
Yeah. But 22 guys
Jamie: That's a lot
Jim: of come on, man. That's 70 at 13 forwards. I mean, seriously. And then you got a coach that doesn't play the fourth line anyway.
Scott: Right.
Jim: Right. Yeah. It's it's just bizarre.
Jamie: That's a lot of forwards. That's that's the
Jim: But, you know what I mean? We've seen
Jamie: that where the bench is just packed out with kids.
Jim: That's one thing I don't understand that they did was move the rosters up to 22. That that's I I that's wrong. My life, that's wrong.
Jamie: It's a lot of tuition.
Jim: Because most coaches how many coaches played on fourth line? You know what mean?
Jamie: Right. Yeah. Or there's
Jim: seven I did because I know how to do it, and you can get everybody their ice time. You know what I mean? Right. You know? Yeah.
But then
Scott: you have people, like you said, paying tuition, and then they're not getting enough ice time. They could have gone to a different program, and then money would have you know?
Jim: And then you get their sour taste. That's that's why I one of the reasons why I started I do what I do with the mindset stuff is, like, everybody loves hockey. You know mean? And it's, like, might squirts, peewies, kids don't have a care in the world, they're just going playing. After the game, they could care less if they lost 10 nothing or one to nothing.
Just want a little Chuck E. Cheese with their friends. Right?
Jamie: Yep. They just want to hang out. Yep.
Jim: And then and then you get into Banhams and AAA and Midgets, and it just gets just And then kids get sour about hockey, and they don't wanna play anymore, and they're really good players. You know, may not go in the NHL, but, like and then they end up hating hockey, and then then they'll get back into it after a few years and be playing men's league. It's just it's just there's you know what I mean? That's why I do what I do because the everybody loves hockey, and I'm a firm believer, and I know that I'm right. I don't think I know that I'm right.
Nowadays, there's a place for every kid to play four more years of competitive hockey, get a great education, and meet friends for life, that's what it should be all about. Like, people have no idea. If you're not researching ACHA hockey
Jamie: Oh, it's great.
Jim: You gotta research ACHA hockey. They brand the teams amazing. They commit kids. Yes. They're packing arenas, and it's really good hockey.
People people just think I had a couple kids that I coached. My son, Anthony, 2,003 birds here. So, like, Mike, know, anything I can help you with that, coach? I'm just gonna go to Rutgers and play club hockey. I said, okay.
Get ready. After tryouts, kid called me back, hey, coach, you're alright. I said, do you mean? He goes, I didn't make the team. I said, I told you, and Rutgers club hockey isn't even at the top.
They're good, but like
Jamie: It's not UNLV,
Jim: or Yeah. Like Yeah. You got it, like, like and again, again, at the end of the day, you guys are doing this for the same thing I am. Like, it's to help kids and to educate people, but there's literally a place and then on the flip side, I know so many kids that just went down to Virginia and played d two club hockey. They loved that they got the jersey.
They're on the team. They got the Instagram page. Like, it's freaking great.
Jamie: Yep. Yep. Down in Alabama, they get 6,000
Jim: people coming in. A
Scott: game. Yeah.
Jim: Georgia, Walmart, the outdoor game, North Carolina, Kentucky, they get 15,000 fans.
Scott: Unreal.
Jamie: Some club hockey teams are just Yes. They beat Denver.
Jim: Yeah. And it's so good. Yeah. Yeah. And there's ACHA d one, d two, through three, like, it's like, again, at the end of the day, there's a place for everyone to go play four more years of competitive hockey, get a great education, meet friends for life, and still really love hockey.
But, you know, again, going back to your original question here, Scott, it's like parents just have to keep asking questions and and just and then always go make a list of the pros and cons of leaving where you're at, going where you're going, and just, at the end of the day, go with your gut because your gut is right. 99.9% of the time, your gut is right.
Scott: Yeah. It's great advice. Great advice, and I'm sure all of our listeners are gonna really take that to heart as they're probably in the thick of it right now thinking about next season.
Jamie: Oh, yes. Very much so.
Scott: All right, well listen, we're at that hour and five mark. This was awesome. Jim, thanks so much, man. This was amazing meeting you. This is unreal for me having a lifelong Devils fan, Brendan Byrne.
Let's go. Ice World in Todoa. Yeah. So so cool.
Jamie: We're gonna have to have you on right before or during the Olympics, Jim.
Jim: Yeah. Definitely. No. We'll we'll do, and I'll update you on the stuff I got going on. Right?
I'll update you. We'll have, like, once once I really get it going, we'll we'll we'll and that'll get the word out there too. Absolutely. I mean, for what I got going on and more of the things, and just inquiring right now about Rutgers men and women's hockey, and women's hockey is is is
Jamie: Oh, yeah.
Jim: Passionate about that too. My mom's the one that took me skating for the first time ever.
Scott: There you go.
Jamie: She started women's
Jim: hockey team back in the day, man. Jesus. You know what I mean? So
Scott: And like
Jim: I mentioned a I've bunch of a few girls. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's awesome.
Jamie: You know? And like like I said to you, if if we can be involved in in the Rutgers D1 hockey at all, you let us know. We wanna be involved. You know? Okay.
Jim: Yeah. Thank you. Alright, guys. Anytime. Looking forward Thank to the next
Jamie: you so much.
Scott: Pleasure. Thanks so much. Thanks, Jim. Alright. Take it easy.
Good night. See you.
Jamie: I'm sculpting my guns. Stop calling them your guns. I need to sculpt my guns.
Scott: Alright, everybody. Welcome back from that
Jamie: amazing sculpting.
Scott: Well, yeah, if you turn out to be like, Jim Dowd, you're definitely some form of a gun. That guy's unreal. Welcome back from that episode. Mean, that interview. Interview.
Jeez.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's he's fantastic.
Scott: You know, and it's just so interesting. The the best part about I don't know what the best part, but like the fact that their family were like, they went before they moved. Yeah. They're, like, driving in Brick, New Jersey. They see a rink, they're basically like, let's move It's
Jamie: unbelievable it's an unbelievable story how they settled there.
Scott: I mean
Jamie: Well, mean, it's it's crazy.
Scott: Ocean Ice Palace. That place, I put there when I was kid. Still exists today. Unbelievable.
Jamie: It's not bad. I don't mind going down there.
Scott: I haven't been there since I was a kid. You haven't played I haven't been back.
Jamie: Dom played brick last year, brick hockey club, who Jimmy played for. Yeah. Dom played brick last year down there. And then I think a couple years before that, like, some three on threes, three on three tournaments, like, the summer
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Or, like, spring. I've been down there a couple times. I remember during COVID, we went down there, and you had to get dressed outside
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: And on on all the benches outside.
Scott: Okay.
Jamie: And you had to, like,
Scott: carry Outside your the facility. Correct. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. And you had to, like so you, like, carried your kid. Dude, speaking of carried in, you wanna hear a crazy story? Yeah. Alright?
So we're skating at
Scott: Wait. Did you carry it in in a Pacific Rink bag?
Jamie: Probably.
Scott: Yeah. Those are great.
Jamie: They are great.
Scott: Yeah. Sorry.
Jamie: Pacific Rink's phenomenal. Shit. Yeah. Yeah. I I said that on a very early podcast.
I had an awesome Pacific Rink bag. Dom loves her bags. And he's we've got, like, a bunch
Scott: of Anyway, I I guess.
Jamie: Yeah. We'll come back to that.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. So this was at a rink in Jersey. It has to do with trees, two trees.
Scott: Okay. You're giving me a look.
Jamie: Well, you're supposed to know what the name of the rink is.
Scott: Oh, yeah. I know. Okay. Oh, okay. Yes.
Follow. Copy.
Jamie: So an ex New Jersey devil owns this rink.
Scott: Copy.
Jamie: Right? So we're talking about Jim Dowd. This is an inappropriate story. So during COVID so you know how they didn't want any parents in there? Right?
Scott: I went down there during COVID. I did too. That was the first time I ever did, like, stick and talk with Otto.
Jamie: So we were doing an Eric Nates down there. It's a it's a great rink.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: It's a very cool rink. I wanna say, like, does I think Morristown Beard plays there.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Right? Something like Yep.
Scott: Yep. Yep.
Jamie: So we were down there. So Dom's doing Eric Neates down there.
Scott: Okay. Okay? Oh, I got a funny story about that.
Jamie: You do? Alright. So Dom's doing the Eric Neates. People in our area know what Eric Neates is. He's like, Eric Eric Neates, you're Played
Scott: with Eric.
Jamie: You did. And shout out Eric. Shout out Tim Turnbull. Yep. Love those guys over at Neates.
So Dominic's doing an Eric Nate's clinic. K? And at the end, I come inside to untie Dominic's skates.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: K? The guy comes over to me. He's like, you have to leave. I was like, okay. I'll just take off his skates.
He's like, no. No. You need to leave now. I'm like, okay. There's, like, a lot of people in the lobby.
Let me just take his skates off. He was like, seven. 78. Right? Not 67, 78.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. So Jeez. Know.
Scott: Apparently, kids in Noah's class get in trouble.
Jamie: Apparently, some people down in Florida named their kids 67.
Scott: That's not real.
Jamie: I hope it's not real. I hope it's not real. Anyway, so the guy's, like, hounding me. He's like, you need to leave. I'm like, okay, buddy.
I'm like, let me just take his fucking skates off. He's seven. He's like, no. No. You don't understand.
You need to leave. I look at him. I go, hey, dude. I go, do you want me to literally carry him with his skates across the fucking parking lot? He looks me straight in the eye.
He goes, yeah. I was like, are you fucking for real? He's like, no. I'm like
Scott: You mean, yes. He was he was saying, yes, he's for real.
Jamie: Like, we whatever.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: Like, you know, I'm like, you for real? He's like, he he's like, yeah. I'm like, okay. So I picked my fucking kid up with all of his gear on, with his fucking blades on, and I carried him across the parking lot to the back of the truck, opened the back of the truck, and changed his skate there.
Scott: There you go.
Jamie: Yeah. How fucking retarded.
Scott: Listen, I've heard stories.
Jamie: Dude, don't even
Scott: think And then that that that's totally in line with what I've heard.
Jamie: Anyway, do you mind I remember Dominic skating up at Chelsea Piers in Connecticut, and he had the bubble. So kids kids had kids had a cage. Yeah. Had to wear the mask under
Scott: the cage. Yes. I still have them in that drawer.
Jamie: I do too, by
Scott: the way.
Jamie: So so I got around it by giving down the bubble that had the vents down the
Scott: bottom. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. And they let us they're like, oh, the bubble with the vents are okay. But if you have a cage, you
Scott: need put a mask on.
Jamie: Thank you. How fucking dumb. And they were like, yeah. He's fine. Like, he is?
They're like, yeah. I'm like, okay.
Scott: Great.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: How ridiculous.
Scott: So many things were ridiculous about that time.
Jamie: But during hockey, it was like so stunade. Although, I must say, I don't think we shut down as badly as other sports.
Scott: I don't know. There was a whole thing with hockey and that, like, I don't know. There at one point, like, COVID was something that, like, thrived in the or no. There was one an article that had come out talking about sports and COVID and how something about hockey and I forget what it was, whether I'm gonna get I'm gonna get it wrong. Right.
It definitely said something about whether it was good environment because it was
Jamie: cold Yeah.
Scott: Or the opposite.
Jamie: I don't
Scott: know. Was ridiculous.
Jamie: All I remember is every time I go back to that rink
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: That sticks in my head how stupid that was. And the guy was like shooing me out of the lobby. I'm like, dude, he's seven. Let me just take
Scott: his skates Yeah. It doesn't care.
Jamie: Like, let me take his skates off. Put his sneakers on. I will walk out.
Scott: Doesn't care.
Jamie: Didn't matter. Yeah. He I'm like, look I'm I'm telling you. I looked him square in the eye. I'm like, do you want me to pick him up and carry him out across the the parking lot?
Scott: Matter of fact, I do.
Jamie: He's like, yeah.
Scott: Yeah. I was like, okay. Roger Roger that.
Jamie: Okay. I've seen we've gone completely nuts, but okay.
Scott: My my, my two tree rink Eric Nate story
Jamie: Two tree.
Scott: Is like this was was
Jamie: Also COVID?
Scott: No. It was after COVID. But so this was the first time I'd signed Otto for a hockey camp over the summer.
Jamie: Okay.
Scott: And I signed him up for Eric Nates.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: And I signed him up at Twin Oaks.
Jamie: The week long one, right?
Scott: The week
Jamie: long one.
Scott: Yeah. And that's why I was driving him and fucking get to get there early. You know, like we have these mini lacrosse sticks. Otto and I are outside just like throwing the ball around. And, alright time to go bud, let's go inside.
And they're like you know checking people in as you walk up the stairs there.
Jamie: Right.
Scott: And, I get to the front line I'm like yep, Otto Levine and they're looking down the list and they're like
Jamie: Don't see him.
Scott: Nope. I was like Not here. Nope. Otto Levine. Definitely signed him up.
Let me let me get that email. And So you pulled
Jamie: up the email?
Scott: Yeah. I was I was one week early for camp. So now I got this kid who's like so psyched. I literally went there a week early. I had nothing for him.
This was like for the whole week. So then I start dude, it's it was, like, the first thing in the morning You tried
Jamie: to, like, replace stuff out?
Scott: Wow. I literally I literally did found openings? I'll show you videos. There was a What'd you find? Over at Ice Vault, there's a strictly defense camp.
Jamie: I know that. It very rarely sells out.
Scott: Don't know exactly what you mean. He was the youngest kid by a goddamn landslide.
Jamie: I was heard that coach is good.
Scott: It it was actually good.
Jamie: I don't think he's from around here either. No. I think he's Canadian or something like that.
Scott: I don't wherever he's from, he definitely drives a lot. He has family that lives in Wayne apparently. And so Makes
Jamie: sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that's very good, but doesn't sell out for
Scott: the I most hauled ass over there. He was the youngest kid by far. They were so good to him.
Jamie: Why did that school?
Jim: And they
Scott: after that week, they invited him to like, you know, for free just to come down to Red Bank for a few extra ice sessions. Oh, it's a dormant.
Jamie: Yeah. Sure.
Scott: Yeah. So I took it there. I'll show you I'll show you the photos. Oh, It's so funny. The kid could barely skate and he's doing like, a strictly defense camp with, like, fucking, like
Jamie: Ice time. Like, squirts through, like, bantams. Yeah. Like, big kids. Hey.
Listen. It worked out. That's very funny, by the way. Crazy. Right?
That is crazy.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: But yeah. So our our interview with Jim Dowd was tremendous. Absolutely. He he's he's he's a total gem, the guy. And I guess we can give people a little bit of an inside baseball.
You know, we're gonna should I be this? Should we tell everybody what's coming every third week? Should we do that now, or should we do another time?
Scott: Either. You kinda said it. So I did, didn't I? Well, listen. We're gonna try it.
So we're we're gonna give it a go. Third week of this month, we're gonna go live with Jim Dowd. Yes. Details to follow, but we're looking to do this on a more regular basis.
Jamie: Yes. We're gonna try to do it once a month. The third the third Wednesday of every month, we're gonna do week, well, week three with JD.
Scott: Yep. Yeah. Well, that's that's the working title.
Jamie: That's the plan. Yeah. But But he's so good. We're gonna come in. We're gonna talk about youth hockey.
But his time.
Scott: Right. I mean, he's he's he's a great person to talk to. Yes, But he's he's been there as a kid. He's been there as a parent. Yeah.
He's been there as a professional. Won a Stanley Cup. He's working on like mental, performance and strength with like youth
Jamie: Nutrition. Actions Mental performance.
Scott: Like this guy has been there, done that in so many levels. So what you know, knows so many people, you know, had a long career in the NHL. So we're gonna continue to talk with him. Yeah. And we're
Jamie: gonna try to go live with him every month. Yep. Once a month, every month.
Jim: So we're
Scott: gonna kick it up.
Jamie: Write in and answer questions. Yep. We're gonna figure that out how to do it.
Scott: We'll start giving it whirl. It. And Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. And we're gonna give it a whirl. That should be that should be a lot of fun because I know we've gotten a we've gotten away from some of our topics
Scott: Yes.
Jamie: With hockey topics because we're having so many guests on.
Scott: Yep.
Jamie: Right? There's only we don't wanna give you guys, like, a four hour podcast to listen to. Right?
Jim: Because I
Jamie: know you guys have other stuff to do. So I think we're gonna start going back to our youth hockey topics once a month with JD himself.
Scott: Yeah. And then obviously, look home naturally in conversations But when we talk with Exactly. Right. But that's
Jamie: plan because he's so good.
Scott: Yeah. And you know, it's like all like one other thing that was interesting is like, when he grew up different time. But like having that rank that was like kind of built by the community within the community. It's different. And like all the, you know, so certainly not comparing like It kind of conjured up the idea of like maybe what, you know, it's like in Minnesota to some extent where you have a community that's
Jamie: It's probably best similar, yeah.
Scott: There was like, it was like a couple of like $15. Equipment was used, recycled. Yeah. They got all they needed except for skates.
Jamie: All I can do down stuff.
Scott: You know? And so it was highly accessible. It wasn't this like white, you know, like, I don't, you know, expensive white collar sport, you know, like in a lot of ways that it's become not everywhere, but in many places.
Jamie: No. You're right.
Scott: Yes. Has, unfortunately. It was you know, he got on the ice after school.
Jamie: Yeah. He said that person would let him skate as long as there was nobody as long as the rink wasn't rented out.
Scott: Yeah. So
Jamie: It's a great story. And that's how he got good, was saying.
Scott: Yeah. It's awesome. And then, like It's awesome. And then he did so interesting, the the five hole story. I think the clip already went up on Instagram.
How's it going?
Jamie: It's so good, by the way. If you guys haven't I'm sure you've seen. Go on our on our you've obviously listened to the interview. You know, you've heard the five hole story, but we put up on our on our our Instagram and he put up on his. Yeah.
His five hole story is tremendous.
Scott: It's like
Jamie: That's a phenomenal story.
Scott: And then he's like, you know, like, all these parents are like, you know, are concerned about chasing like AAAs. Like, I didn't know what the five hole was. Didn't even
Jamie: know what a five hole was drafted
Scott: as he was in college.
Jamie: Is that unbelievable?
Scott: Unreal. What what's that move you do where you, you go
Jamie: He's like, He's like, that's the five hole. He's like, the what? That's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Somebody wrote on our Instagram, somebody commented on that video.
They're like they're like, Jimmy, can you imagine how many more goals you would have scored if you knew the five hole move by then? Totally. He was scoring just on other things. Yeah. Right?
Scott: And he was saying
Jamie: that Unbelievable.
Scott: Lakes, no one had called, right, when he had gotten like after like the hockey night in Boston or whatever it was and like, no calls and then he ends up at Lake State. It's just like the perseverance, he loved the game and it's Yeah. When I first started hearing you know, other pods and, you know, people talk about just developing a passion and love for the game Yeah. I feel like, I kinda glanced over it like really quickly as just being that, you know, like, of course, you know, you need to be passionate about something that you're gonna take Sure. A high level.
But the more and more we talk about it, the more and more I'm connecting with that thought and that idea that ultimately, if you're not in love with it
Jamie: You need to be.
Scott: You're an exception, not the rule. You're going to go far if you don't love it.
Jamie: A lot of people are saying that. Doug Christiansen, I think, was the first one to say that.
Scott: He's the one that when he said the way he said it, it just unlocked something in my brain. Was like, oh, you're right.
Jamie: It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? And a lot of people have said that since. He was great. You know, he he was, you know, he was saying you need to love the game, because it gets hard. I mean, the story about him being out of the NHL at 27 Yeah.
That's crazy, dude.
Scott: Out and then made his way back. He's like, honey, just give it another year. I'm gonna find my way
Jamie: I mean, his stories are so good. They're all so good.
Scott: Dude, how about his mom who started
Jamie: Started her own youth hockey? Oh, not youth. Their own women's hockey. Yeah. Yeah.
Mean, listen,
Scott: it's His dad was a Golden Glove boxer. Yeah. His mom started a hockey program. Clearly, the family dynamic there was ripe for
Jamie: sport. Right. And he said he never wanted to be in the house, so he was always out at a hockey rink, which is how he ended up at the hockey rink getting brick in the first place. He always wanted to be out. But he was out.
Scott: Don't know. Did he talk about playing other sports?
Jamie: I think we touched on it a little bit, I think he always kept coming back to hockey. You know what I mean? Yeah. Then listen, he coached his kids. He's the perfect example of a hockey dad who knows the path, had his kids playing AA until they were like 13, 14, Right.
Scott: Not the first time we've heard that.
Jamie: No, it's not. Exactly right.
Scott: Not the first time we've How many
Jamie: people we spoke to said the exact same thing?
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Right? I mean, when all these people are saying it, maybe some of us should pay attention.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: Right? You don't need AAA at a certain age. No. I mean, it's No, he was great, man. He was I'm very excited to have him on again.
Scott: Yeah.
Jamie: I mean, he's very cool. Yeah. Yeah. You know? I'm a big fan.
Scott: Alright. Well, listen. We got good things to
Jamie: look Yes. Forward
Scott: Why don't we think about wrapping this one up?
Jamie: Sure. So do do us a favor. If you guys like what you're hearing, can you please go give us a review? Subscribe. Subscribe.
You can rate. Like things. Yes. Like, subscribe.
Scott: Follow things.
Jamie: Follow things. Share the show. It definitely helps us with the algorithm. We're trying to take this podcast to number one, and you guys can help us do that. So share, subscribe, rate, review, all that good fun stuff if you like what you hear, and we really appreciate everybody that's listening.
So thank you again.
Scott: Yeah. Thank you, Juan. Thank you all.
Jamie: Yeah. We'll see you with a really, really exciting episode 53.
Scott: Really, really, really, really That really cool.
Jamie: Should be a doozy.
Scott: Super cool.
Jamie: Yes. Wait for episode 53. Should be a doozy.
Scott: Yes. That Here
Jamie: we go.
Scott: Alright, my man.
Jamie: Bye, buddy.
Scott: Talk to you.
Jamie: Good time. See you.