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A relatable and honest podcast about the highs and lows of being a youth hockey parent. Join us as we share real stories, struggles, and wins from the rink, offering insights and support for parents navigating the world of youth hockey.
Alright, everybody. Welcome back to the Crazy Hockey Dads podcast. We have a really awesome show for you today. We are gonna talk about why youth hockey is the greatest game on the planet. Yeah.
Jamie:And it really is. It's awesome for the parents. It's awesome for the kids. Although there's I guess there's times where you don't think it's so awesome. But most of the time, it's awesome.
Scott:No. Listen, it's an awesome sport.
Jamie:It is awesome.
Scott:No doubt. And I think, you know, there are others that will defend their sports, but ice hockey is our game and Yes. Love it up and
Jamie:It's awesome. So welcome to episode Dude,
Scott:19.
Jamie:I know. I feel like we just started.
Scott:You know what it makes me think about? Because we're doing it weekly. So like nineteen weeks feels like a lot of weeks that we've been doing this but when hear us say it out loud, it doesn't feel like nineteen weeks.
Jamie:No, it doesn't. It doesn't at all.
Scott:In fact, if you had asked me yesterday
Jamie:You say we're on episode four.
Scott:Well, you asked me what nineteen weeks felt like, I'd be like, I got no idea. So I guess I don't know regardless.
Jamie:No, listen, it
Scott:It sounds like more than it feels.
Jamie:It's flying by. And what's cool, you and I were kind of talking before we started this, is I don't understand where all of our downloads are coming from. I just don't get
Scott:it. I mean, we have a map that could actually tell you.
Jamie:I know that we have But a my point is that I'm surprised.
Scott:Yes.
Jamie:Yeah. I'm surprised at the traction that we're getting. So I mean, listen, we might as well just roll right into like what or actually, okay. So all right.
Scott:And just a little thanks to everyone that continues to listen.
Jamie:No question. You so much, Eric. We couldn't do this without you. We have a lot of really cool things planned moving forward, I would say, right, that will kind of drop a little bit later. But what's been going on with you?
Jamie:What have been doing? Since Otto has been away at
Scott:Sleepaway Still Camp, away at Sleepaway Camp, week two of mountain biking.
Jamie:Has not broken anything, knock on wood.
Scott:No, oh, he did go to get an x-ray on his pinky. Did he really? Pinky finger.
Jamie:I bet you the local imaging place by where that camp is gets a lot of business. Yeah, well I would think that that and the local orthopedist. Orthodontist, maybe two, if you're not wearing a mouth guard.
Scott:No, he's all right. It was nothing major. But what's been pretty cool
Jamie:So no broken pinky?
Scott:No, not broken. I think just sprained and gave it a little bit of rest. And then so he kind of took Friday off and then Saturday was when group one got picked up and then Sunday was group two or his second week group cohort, whatever was showing Yeah, so then he got back after it. We've been getting videos of him doing flips off of, I don't know how high it is, but I would be surprised if it was less than 10. Is that the one that you showed me before?
Scott:Like going to the full pit, he's doing front flips, he's doing gainers, he's doing back Pretty awesome. Which is awesome, but I am concerned that this is the beginning of something more. While it's Adrenaline junkie? Well, like I said, he is, but he's not like the most uncautious person. Like he he proceeds, I think, at a relatively cautious pace.
Scott:He builds up his confidence and he makes sure he can do it. Yeah, so no hockey, it's been all mountain biking. And I think he's really enjoying it.
Jamie:It sounds like he is. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I couldn't do a gainer until I was in high school. I was just too nervous to try at any age.
Jamie:Gainers are awesome.
Scott:They're awesome. They're awesome.
Jamie:I could still do them.
Scott:Can you? Yeah. Good for you.
Jamie:It's nuts.
Scott:And dive into a dive. I can do a half or a full. That's awesome, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jamie:But it took me forever to learn to do it. I was
Scott:not doing it at 10 years old, which is what he is. Yeah. So It's pretty cool. So I'll tell you this much. That's awesome.
Scott:Last summer, I of wanted to my money where my mouth is sometimes. Right. And I encourage him and sometimes push him, nudge him more hard or whatever. So we're at pool and they got a pretty It's not the biggest diving board but it's big enough. So I'm like, dude.
Scott:So it's not right on the water. So the year before, this is going two years ago, he started doing flips. Then last summer, for whatever reason, he's like, I'm not doing a flip. I'm like, what do mean you're not doing a flip?
Jamie:Got scared?
Scott:I guess. I'm like, I've never done a flip before.
Jamie:You've never done a flip?
Scott:I've tried a few times. Really? But like, when I was younger, never successful.
Jamie:Just too nervous? I would
Scott:land it on my back and I was like, don't really care enough. Anyway, so Okay. So then I so then I was telling him to do a flip I gotcha. And I was like, dude, watch, I'll do a flip. I've never done a flip.
Scott:I'm 46 years old. And I'll do a flip. So then I get on the fucking dive, I'm like nervous as fuck. Right. And I've gotta keep it together for the little guy, you know?
Scott:Yes. So I just walk up and I just I was like, listen, the worst thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna land on your back. Watch. I've never even tried this once before. Yeah.
Scott:And so I went up and I tried
Jamie:a backflip. You did a backflip.
Scott:Yeah. But I'll tell you, it was like really nerve wracking, you know, to do these things when you've never tried it before, especially as like a 45 year
Jamie:old. Right. Listen, the worst you can get is you smack the water.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:That's the worst that
Scott:could happen.
Jamie:I think And it's water.
Scott:No. And that's why I ultimately was willing to
Jamie:do it. It's not like it's concrete.
Scott:But this is something that was an interesting test, is that like, if you're gonna nudge or push your kid, you know, put put your money where your mouth is, you go ahead and do it.
Jamie:Listen, lead by example.
Scott:Lead by example. You wanna make your kid do power skating? Why don't you go learn how to skate?
Jamie:I definitely can't.
Scott:It's not fun, listen, listen, But you're right. I spoke to a mom who did adult learn to skate, and she was like, I'm never giving my kid a hard time again. Because she sees
Jamie:how It's hard so fucking hard. Yeah, listen, it's not easy. There's no question about it. It's not easy at all.
Scott:What about on your end? What about since last week, anything?
Jamie:So Dom's kind of back. Now that we're back from vacation, he's back. We're training at the gym. He's going to D1. He went to jujitsu today.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:Yeah, he just got back from jujitsu not too long ago. We did not skate today. He skated yesterday. He has a coming up short this weekend, he was asked to play in a three on three down in, like, Tums River.
Scott:This coming weekend?
Jamie:This coming weekend.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:You know, listen And who's this with? Just like
Jamie:have no idea. I actually don't know.
Scott:So who invited you?
Jamie:This was a mom from Dom's team who's like, her nephew plays down in like Red Bank area. Like the generals? I think so. Think he's a Red Bank general down in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Scott:That rink is awesome, by the way, the armory.
Jamie:One of the best rinks in youth hockey. And shockingly, in my opinion, the best pizza in all of youth hockey.
Scott:Okay, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot Somebody told people that that, if you're in our area, somebody told me that and I'm In like, yeah, the rink itself?
Jamie:In the rink itself. And then I had it, I'm like, holy shit.
Scott:It's good.
Jamie:Dude, if you go there, if you have an early morning game there, they make their own muffins. The place is legit. The cafe, whatever you want to call it that they have there in the lobby, the food's good.
Scott:That's sick.
Jamie:Egg and cheeses, Taylor ham, egg and cheese. Yeah, no, the pizza's good.
Scott:So someone from that area invited Dom to play three on three.
Jamie:So a mom on our team, her nephew plays down there and is like, oh, we're running twenty twelve. Do you guys have any kids that wanna play?
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:So she's like, you know so two kids from Dom's team and Dominic will go. Because you know what? Three out threes are fun.
Scott:Yeah. You
Jamie:know? So how can you go on?
Scott:That's awesome.
Jamie:And do
Scott:you have any idea how, like, the level of play? Not that it really matters, just curious.
Jamie:I wanna say it's double a kids, they say. We'll see how it goes. I'll let you know. I'll let you guys know on the next podcast.
Scott:Awesome.
Jamie:We'll see how it goes. But Dominic, so now that he has new skates, he wants to get on them.
Scott:Oh my god, right. So okay, so last week you were talking about
Jamie:I was. I was, yes. I certainly was.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Do tell. Do tell. So I had mentioned on the last episode that I needed new skates and I was, if you guys remember
Scott:When you say you, you mean Dom.
Jamie:Yes, that Dom needs new skates, yes.
Scott:Although you probably need new skates too. To do your power skating, you're about to start.
Jamie:Exactly right. So yeah, so Dominic needs to do skates. On the last episode, we were talking about how Dominic was in a junior three and how juniors And
Scott:they made this bullshit extra level so
Jamie:they could
Scott:make more money. So I don't know how long
Jamie:the intermediate has been there for because I was never in an intermediate for Dominic, so I think it was maybe there longer. I
Scott:think for a long time
Jamie:it's only been
Scott:three, not four of different categories, Right.
Jamie:Again, and we're talking about everything getting more expensive. So I just happened to go on Bauer's website because I was curious. The top end youth skate when Dominic was a might, okay, was one through 13 was $190 Do you know what they are now?
Scott:Up to $300
Jamie:The high end YouthScape is like $265 $285
Scott:So you'll
Jamie:be taxed at $300
Scott:That sounds about right.
Jamie:That was not the case when Dominic was which was not long ago. It was four years ago. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Jamie:So now Dominic skates in this I knew he wasn't gonna be in the junior skates anymore, which he wasn't. So he got four and a halfs, he got intermediate four and a halfs.
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:And he got the Bauer FlyLights, are the And new Vapor FlyLights, they were $1,000 Just
Scott:$1,000 or maybe
Jamie:one No, was more with tax. If you look on Bauer's website, they're like $9.65
Scott:plus pure Plus because then you need a second set of steel.
Jamie:Wasn't even talking about the steel yet.
Scott:So I think that has to
Jamie:I spent 1,400 Okay.
Scott:There we go. Yeah. There we go. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. But I but I but I also bought him a pair of elbow pads.
Scott:You should've fucking given them to
Jamie:me for Seriously, dude. It's like, you know, so so yes. So I yeah. So you're you're at that you're $1,100, not counting this deal.
Scott:For the top end?
Jamie:Correct. The intermediate skate. I think the seniors are a couple $100 more. But is that wild that for a four, an intermediate four, size four, you are at a thousand dollars.
Scott:That's a shit ton of money.
Jamie:That's nuts to me.
Scott:Well, you made the choice to pay it. Didn't have to.
Jamie:You're right. I didn't have to. So I call my buddy up and I'm like so I called my buddy who's actually going to be on the next podcast.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:Yes. Chris will be on the next podcast with us. So I called him up. I go, Dude, I just spent $1,100 on skating. Said, Please tell me that I'm not a fucking lawyer.
Scott:Welcome to the club.
Jamie:I go, Please, please tell me that I'm not a fucking idiot. He goes, dude, I just did it last week.
Scott:So you're both fucking idiots? Yeah. Is that what we're saying?
Jamie:He got the what did he buy? He bought the CCM
Scott:Silver stick jubilee.
Jamie:Whatever it was. So his kid is an intermediate also. He's got a little bit bigger foot than Dominic, but he just did the same thing.
Scott:Same thing. Yeah. Listen, I laugh because I'm not there yet. I'll be crying when I am there. Bro, it was it was listen.
Jamie:I don't know what to say. I honestly don't know what to say. You know, I said to the guy, I'm like, listen, Mike, let me ask
Scott:you a question.
Jamie:I'm like, is the technology that much different between the top end skate and the lower end skate? And he's like, no. Now listen, he's supposed to sell you the boots. You're clearly buying them. I'm buying them anyway, right?
Jamie:And he's like, honestly, he's like, the boot's a little stiffer. I'm like, but is there a difference? He's like,
Scott:how the fuck did he know it's a little stiffer because he read it on the
Jamie:No, been doing for a while.
Scott:Yeah. So he tries on intermediate skates often. I I know. Kidding you are, John.
Jamie:But it's like, you you just like like Chris said, they fuck you and you know they're fucking you and you still do it. Yeah. Which is why can ask those prices because shitheads like me pay
Scott:it. I'm not the only shithead out there that does it. There's a lot of us. You're not the only one.
Jamie:No. It's frightening.
Scott:But this is the thing that I'll say, even though we're talking about the highest like band, there are people let's say are buying in like the middle tier of like in terms of price point, but their prices have also gone up and they're probably also making choices continue to spend more money for the middle brand. Like, you know what I mean? Like I don't know how many people are actually dropping levels in terms of skate quality based I on mean, it could be a lot, it could be not many, but just because you're talking about the higher level, it doesn't mean that there are people that are just as like minded but just at a lower price point.
Jamie:Very true.
Scott:You know what I mean? Very true.
Jamie:No, you're right.
Scott:I mean, and I would probably, yeah.
Jamie:I don't know, but everything. We talked about vacation last week, last episode. Everything's gotten more expensive. Everything. No matter what it is.
Jamie:You
Scott:No, it's true.
Jamie:You know? Go buy like a we bought like an Italian hero the other day.
Scott:It's going from skates to hero.
Jamie:It was like $15. Dude. Was like, dude.
Scott:You know
Jamie:Listen, knock on wood that we can afford it, but shit, it like, makes you irritated.
Scott:Well, you know what's funny, so I finished You know? You dropped off when you came by over the weekend and you brought over those treats from the Italian deli. So I was finishing up that seafood salad and I took the lid off and I left it on the counter and Orly goes, yo, you see how much that stuff costs? And I was like, no. I was like, oh.
Jamie:Did I leave it on?
Scott:Fuck, sorry. No, that's not the point of what I'm saying at all. I would have taken it off either. That's not No, that's not the point. More to the point is that the cost of things are fucking outrageous.
Jamie:What was it, if you don't mind me asking?
Scott:$34? Yeah. Yeah, for like a large, like, yeah, was like For a quart? Yes. For a quart of seafood salad?
Jamie:Yes, Yes.
Scott:Now listen, market price is always a
Jamie:thing with Really good. It was really good though.
Scott:No, was fucking
Jamie:delicious. That's really good.
Scott:It was really fucking delicious. It was really good. And I would treat myself again because it was that good.
Jamie:It had like what, like, scongeal in there and you're the chef. What did have in it?
Scott:Well, I don't I don't know. I'm not the Italian one either. There was like calamari Oh, shrimp. Shrimp.
Jamie:Shrimp. Right?
Scott:Mussels. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. It was good.
Scott:Was Kalamata olives.
Jamie:There was
Scott:Plenty of celery.
Jamie:I thought I saw some clams in
Scott:there. Yes.
Jamie:Yeah, no, it was good.
Scott:Yeah, was delicious.
Jamie:Yeah, that place is pretty legit.
Scott:And I'm like eating it and Orly's like, Are you eating tentacles right now? And I was like, Yeah.
Jamie:I sure am.
Scott:Pretty, pretty good. So I'm glad you guys got it. Glad I destroyed it.
Jamie:It was really good. Yeah, I'm big fan.
Scott:But, oh, you know what we didn't do?
Jamie:What did
Scott:we miss? We did not give shout outs to podcast growth. You talked about downloads, let's just call out, so we've got two, so in Finland and Norway. We added Two new territories. Two new don't if they're called territories.
Jamie:Two territories, new two territories, whatever.
Scott:So expanding there.
Jamie:Expanding there, yeah.
Scott:Which is huge. Shocking. Then Very keeping up with Scandinavia, added Sweden.
Jamie:We added Sweden, that's right. Yes, which is cool. We added Sweden. You were saying, I think, on one of the last podcasts, when are we going to add Sweden and Switzerland?
Scott:And it was like boom.
Jamie:And literally, it like Like boom. Yeah. We should talk about it more because I guess maybe when you talk about it, the universe gives to you.
Scott:Oh, so So we need so we need this episode, this next
Jamie:episode, to do at least 50,000 downloads in the in the first hour and a half. Here we go. We're gonna be bigger than spin chigglets in no time.
Scott:Yeah. Okay, if that worked, I'm gonna keep going. Call Yes, you should. Russia.
Jamie:Would be awesome.
Scott:Would be awesome.
Jamie:Yeah. Would be awesome.
Scott:Okay, fingers crossed.
Jamie:Yes, yes, exactly right. Okay. And then stateside? Stateside, we added Maine and Montana.
Scott:Oh, double M. M and M.
Jamie:We are only a handful of states shy of getting all 50. And like I said in the last podcast, Louisiana is still outstanding. That was my last state to join.
Scott:When did I say mine? Was Arkansas? Because we have Missouri. If I said Missouri, don't we have Missouri?
Jamie:We do have Missouri,
Scott:yes. So I guess if I said that, I was mistaken. So I'm switching to Arkansas.
Jamie:Yeah, you did mention Arkansas, you know, on the last
Scott:one, which is a good one. Or Mississippi.
Jamie:Mississippi also, we do not have.
Scott:One of those three.
Jamie:Do we have Mississippi? No, I don't think we have Mississippi. We don't have like Idaho and like the Dakotas. We don't have the Dakotas. Yeah, either one.
Scott:That's not okay.
Jamie:We have everywhere on the East Coast, don't think can call West Virginia East Coast. Can you call West Virginia East Coast?
Scott:Well, I would say it's not West Coast No, not. Or
Jamie:Right. So, I mean, we do not have West Virginia. We are all, I'm pretty sure we are all up and down the East Coast. We have Georgia, We have both Carolinas. We have Virginia.
Jamie:We have Maryland. We do not have Delaware. That's the one. We don't have Delaware. It's tiny.
Jamie:There's, seven people that live there.
Scott:That's not true. You you Dom played Delaware Ducks in, like, your regionals, like, twice or whatever.
Jamie:We played them did play them in districts in Pennsylvania.
Scott:Was there a full hockey team?
Jamie:Yeah, but they weren't even.
Scott:So there's more than seven. Okay. Sorry, there's 12. You know how fast you were going?
Jamie:Seven. Seven miles an hour.
Scott:Oh, RIP, Chris Farley.
Jamie:Yes, yes. All right, so we are doing very nicely geographically in a bunch of different areas, which is really cool. So we thank and welcome all you new listeners. Thank you very much for this. It's very humbling, I must say.
Jamie:Extremely humbling.
Scott:And fun, exciting.
Jamie:So cool.
Scott:And yes, but humbling.
Jamie:Thank you all. Hopefully, this is hopefully, this is either entertaining or providing value for you guys or both. So, yeah. So we're gonna keep doing it because we really enjoy it. Do you wanna tell them what that is, Scott?
Jamie:Oh my goodness. The stuff in our ear right now is unbelievable. Go ahead.
Scott:No. So to help us keep track of time on the podcast so we don't, like, spend too much time talking about x and test out a y.
Jamie:Yes. Try to stand on So
Scott:I added a timer and it's, like, an interval timer just counting down. It's fucking beeping in our ears. Oh my goodness. Like, really fucking loud.
Jamie:It gave us, a five second countdown before the timer just ended. Woah. Until the next section. My goodness.
Scott:I'm gonna try to turn that off.
Jamie:No. No. It's fine. It's just funny.
Scott:Well, at least I know so the the one that's kinda there's one that happens halfway.
Jamie:Yeah. Yes. I saw that.
Scott:It was a single beat. I heard that. When it gets low, I'm just gonna fucking pause it. No. No.
Scott:I'm just Oh, gonna you are? Fuck that. I'm, like, deaf right now. It's fucking crazy. That was pretty good.
Jamie:Jesus Christ. Like I said, we're making our show better for you guys. We're every episode, We're we try
Scott:definitely the process.
Jamie:That's for sure. But every episode we are trying to make the episodes better. So yeah. So that's the Dom Skates story. That's our geographic update.
Jamie:Thank you everybody. We're doing really nicely and it's all because of you guys. So thank you very much.
Scott:Yep, yep, yep. All right, so diving into this week, I feel like we, well not I feel, I know that we've talked about a lot of the chaos and the crazy that comes with hockey. Oh yes. Often has like, I don't want say it's like a negative topic, but it kinda highlights the things that are not the best or not necessarily celebratory or it's more like pointing out the problems or giving negative feedback as opposed to positive feedback.
Jamie:Agreed.
Scott:And I think we can definitely do, talking about a better job on the podcast, we could probably offer and we will, starting with today specifically, talk about some of the more positive, uplifting, whatever parts of the game. And so as far as today goes, let's talk about the upside of youth sports, specifically hockey and how that's impacted our families, our kids, and kind of keeps things, gives perspective as like why are we even Why are we doing this?
Jamie:Why are we doing what we're doing? Are we spending all this money and all this time?
Scott:Why are we doing it?
Jamie:Yeah. You know, I have to tell you
Scott:What's your why?
Jamie:So, you know, in my opinion, this is the greatest game that's out there. Yep. You know what I mean? Like, it's just I think it's so awesome for kids. And I have to tell you, as a parent, it is so awesome watching your kid do what they love to do.
Jamie:Yeah. Like, that gives me so much joy. I slip? And that sounds ridiculous and it sounds like
Scott:Doesn't sound ridiculous. What do
Jamie:you mean? But it is so much fun to watch my kid, like, do what he likes to do and have a huge smile on his face and try to get better at it and and strive and and fail and get up and move forward. Like, it's awesome.
Scott:Yeah. So can I ask you a Yeah, sure? So just like kind of like going like big step back, right? Like you yourself are not a hockey player. Dom kind of
Jamie:fell Only sport I didn't play.
Scott:Mean, again, we've talked about this because obviously, you know, we played street ball, whatever. Yeah. But what I was going to say was you've also fell in love with the game in a different way than just watching it and playing like NHL and SEGA when we were kids. But I guess what I'm trying to ask is if Dom hadn't gotten introduced, if you didn't have like, you know My neighbor's fault. Right, like if it wasn't Damian and like whatever who said, Hey, we're going to go play some hockey.
Scott:Does Dom want to try it? Would you have ever put him on the ice?
Jamie:No. No. We would have been playing baseball, football or basketball like I did. No. I would have not gravitated toward this sport.
Scott:So because obviously Dom doesn't play those sports with any, I don't know, or seriously or maybe if at all. But comparing your experience with those sports to hockey, and clearly you're looking at Dom's experience with hockey and your experience with the other sports, but do you see something that the game of ice hockey offers that you never got or you don't see kids that are playing those sports now that he's getting?
Jamie:So I do. I think that, and this is just my opinion, right? But I believe that the game of ice hockey produces a different type of kid
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:From a different type of parent. And the reason I think that and, again, this is just my opinion. The level of commitment that a parent, financially and time wise, has to put into this game is again, I'm sure other games have time commitments and stuff like that. But when you're a might, like, you're playing at, like, 06:30 in the morning.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:And you're in, like
Scott:That's true.
Jamie:Holly Dell, or you're in, like, York, Pennsylvania.
Scott:Which is, like, an hour away. Two
Jamie:hours Hours away. Right. So you're waking up when it's 03:30 in the morning or four in the morning to get your kid to X, Y, Z. Now listen, as you get older, your kids start playing later, right? So the time, I don't say constraints, but the time that you have to put into this game and the money you have to put into this game, I think the kids see that at a young age and I think that it builds in them a different value system than if you're just playing local town sports.
Jamie:It's just different because most towns don't have hockey teams, right, especially at young ages.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? Like, have to this game, in my opinion, like, you have to play club. Right? Like, there's there's some rec,
Scott:you know, but like There's, like, house leagues.
Jamie:There's house leagues.
Scott:That's when I say rec. You just show up on the weekend
Jamie:play a It's different.
Scott:Which is more like pick The
Jamie:time commitment is not there for house league.
Scott:No, it's not the
Jamie:When I say rec, mean house league. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time commitment is not there and the monetary commitment is not there for parents. No. You you could play an entire spring of like house league and it's like $300.
Jamie:Yeah. Right? For like 10 games, maybe one or two practices. You know, club, when you have to play club, right, because hockey, you have to play club.
Scott:You choose to.
Jamie:Unless it's different There's probably
Scott:kids that just play house league, dude.
Jamie:No, listen, I'm sure there is. I guarantee you there is, you know, and that's fine. But time commitment from the parent and the time commitment from the kid for House League kids is different than it is from club. No doubt. Right?
Scott:No doubt.
Jamie:So this sport, I feel like it's hard to just play House League in this game. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I think it's hard to just play house league.
Scott:Right, especially if the kid starts to like it because then they want more and house league doesn't offer more, so then what's the next step up?
Jamie:Do the rinks around us offer house league at like five, six, seven, eight, nine? Just house league? I don't know. No club?
Scott:There's like learn to play programs.
Jamie:That's different. That's not a That's house a program of how to learn how to skate and how to learn how to play.
Scott:No, no. There's also rookie league, which is like a thing above learn to play.
Jamie:So it's no travel, just in house?
Scott:I don't know the details. Me neither. Those are limited. And I think especially since ice hockey, I think when we were kids, house league, The first time I played on was a House League team. I think there's less and less only because there's more teams and more kids playing.
Jamie:Don't think there's a lot of
Scott:House Ice League time is less of Yeah. Especially during the regular season. Yeah. And then when high school kicks in too. In spring, I know like
Jamie:So spring, I see House League.
Scott:In spring, you see House League.
Jamie:The Spring League stuff. Right. Because House League
Scott:stuff. Because there's no longer the club team game.
Jamie:Correct. Right. Right. Club is done. Right.
Jamie:And House League kind of fills the void. Right. Right? So that I see. But but right.
Jamie:So that's the only house league I've seen is in the spring. Right. And I'm sure there's people that only do that. Right? In in our area, I don't think there's a large contingent of people that just play
Scott:house league. Right. So so just getting back to the things that you've seen hockey bring to Dom comparative to the things that sports brought you. So let's just circle back to, so what are some of the things, you talked about values, you talked about time commitment, that sounds like it kind of bleeds into discipline. Sure.
Scott:Not that other sports don't, but I think you're right. I was thinking about this the other day just with Otto and like, so he's regularly like once a week, he goes, he skates before school.
Jamie:Right.
Scott:Right? And that's something that he's happy to do most of the time. Sometimes he doesn't want to because who he doesn't
Jamie:He's gay.
Scott:It's not like he has the opportunity and there are, I don't want to put it like this. It's not like that's the only time he can do it, but to fit in other things, it's a nice option to have it before school.
Jamie:And get it done with.
Scott:And get it done with. So I guess part of what I'm saying is that similar to what you're suggesting about the time commitment and the effort, we're getting up early, he's getting up early, this is before school stuff. And my hope, and maybe it's not a hope, think it's real, like at a young age, he's getting used to doing a hard thing first thing in the morning, he's getting used to exercising. It's not every day of the week, it doesn't have to be, but he's starting to get a taste for that. Whereas if he was playing, let's say baseball, and I can't speak to baseball but I am just thinking that there are not as many before school baseball clinics or semi private baseball practice.
Scott:There could
Jamie:I'm sure they exist but I don't think they're as as and, again, maybe I'm wrong. Right. But I I don't I don't hear about them.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:I don't hear about kids going to, you know, a shooting camp or a shooting coach and then going to school. Dominic was the only one that did it in public school. There was nobody else that did that.
Scott:Right, right.
Jamie:He would go to school and he was great because he was like wide eyed. Like his teacher would be like, Wow, Dominic's really tuned in now because he was up So since six
Scott:in the morning he's already got Yeah, so
Jamie:he was awake and everything, right? But I don't hear from other people that play other sports that they're doing this stuff in the morning. And there's the whole skating part of a lot of these sports, kids are running and you learn how to run at a young age. You don't need to learn how to run, right? You need to learn how
Scott:to So
Jamie:there's a whole component to that game that is totally different from every other sport out there. They are not ice sport, I guess.
Scott:So I think the first bucket you were kind of talking about is the structure. And then now we're starting to dive into, let's call it resilience potentially because it's one thing to learn how to shoot a basketball. You already know how to run. Now yes, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking basketball at all. There's plenty of things you need to practice from an agility standpoint, sprinting, just
Jamie:Yeah, you can get better at running, explosion.
Scott:No doubt.
Jamie:Yeah, like there's different, of course.
Scott:But you have the prerequisite ability to run whereas hockey, you're doing a lot of skating, which no one, that's not the next step after crawl, walk, run, skate. You're starting that from jump. Correct. And so there's this resilience part where there's a lot of points where it's very difficult in the beginning, right? And so I think that's also something like resiliency, adversity for younger kids are getting maybe a heavier dose of some of those lessons earlier At a younger age.
Scott:At a younger age just because that's what you need to know how to skate to play the game of hockey.
Jamie:That's right.
Scott:Right? Yeah. You also, and again, I'm making the analogy to basketball, in no way am I knocking it. It's I can't shoot a basketball consistently to save my life but this is what I could tell you, I could tell you that if you gave me a ball, I could throw it at a basketball net probably more quickly than picking up a stick, having to stick handle and like shoot a puck.
Jamie:So that's the other thing is all these games are probably about baseball, basketball, football. You're doing it with your hand.
Scott:It's like there's no intermediary. There's
Jamie:Yeah. No That's exactly right. There's nothing that they're putting other than a glove, but the glove is, you know, like a part of your hand. Right? Yeah.
Jamie:You know, that's different. But you're throwing with your off hand. You know, shoot I mean, they're putting an object in hands that you then have to control a puck with.
Scott:Right. Well, mean, think about
Jamie:It's just a different game.
Scott:People say in baseball, like, or the hardest thing to do in sport is to hit a round ball with a round Listen,
Jamie:it is hard. As a baseball bat kid, it is hard.
Scott:So that's another good example of a dose of reality when you're trying to hit the ball.
Jamie:What about taking a hockey puck out of the air? A slap shot from the point, taking a hockey puck out of the air?
Scott:Yeah, the ball, I mean
Jamie:And these guys are tipping it in front of the net?
Scott:I mean, that's like The puck's
Jamie:coming like 80 miles an hour or It's nuts.
Scott:It's filthy as you It's nuts. If you watch some of the
Jamie:Like Joe Pavelski? Have you seen him in front of the net? There's guys just ripping slab I shots from the blue don't know that I've
Scott:seen him specifically. I know, dude. It's fucking bananas.
Jamie:And he's going back and forth. Left, right.
Scott:Left, right. That's nuts. So that's one thing just as an FYI I do with Otto when he's
Jamie:shooting said that. Good for you guys,
Scott:He'll shoot pucks.
Jamie:That's a nice little skill.
Scott:So I'll pass him the puck and then Mabel will pass it back and forth and
Jamie:then I'll take a shot.
Scott:But then when we're picking up pucks, I don't So sometimes I'm like, Dude, get over here, help me. But sometimes I'm more than happy just to pick up the pucks because he's in the garage.
Jamie:So I throw
Scott:some pucks at him.
Jamie:And let him tip him.
Scott:And I let him tip him.
Jamie:Yeah, it's awesome. That's that's
Scott:such a fun little thing.
Jamie:But again, I did not know this as a kid. You obviously played ice hockey as a kid, but in my opinion now, which was different than my opinion back then, now that I know more about this game, The level of athlete you need to be to play this game now Yes. I know it was different back when you were kids because you could be like a fighter get into the league just because you're tough, but that's not the case anymore. You need to have shitloads of ability and skill. The level of athlete you need to be these days to play ice hockey at a high level is off the charts.
Jamie:Well It's off the charts. But
Scott:but do you not think that that's not true across all sports? I mean, No. It is. It's The level of play and the skill level has risen, I'm sure,
Jamie:in every sport Yep, no question about it.
Scott:In the world.
Jamie:But I think that this game is different. It's just different. I mean, you're on thin blades going how fast they go, 25 miles an hour?
Scott:What level are we talking about? NHL. NHL, yeah, up to 25.
Jamie:Right, up to 25 miles an hour. And you have a stick in your hand and you're stick handling and people are trying to take your head off while you're
Scott:doing it. Oh, speaking of what?
Jamie:It's wild, dude. The level of athlete you need to be is unbelievable in this
Scott:game. I saw an interesting stat and I don't know the source, but it was like an Instagram clip. Well, think I do know the source. It was quoted as like the NHL Edge. Never actually logged on to that or looked at it.
Jamie:I don't know what that is.
Scott:NHL Edge is like an under the hood analytics for like in game data with players, including top speed,
Jamie:like
Scott:shot, all that stuff. So it had like the top players that had 20, I think it was 20 plus mile an hour bursts over the course of the season.
Jamie:Okay. Who was on that list, McDavid?
Scott:McKinnon was number one.
Jamie:No shit.
Scott:With like over 500 speed bursts that Next exceeded
Jamie:20 miles an hour
Scott:was Conor McDavid. Right. But there was a significant difference.
Jamie:Was Dylan Larkin on that list?
Scott:I don't recall. But this is what I was gonna get to next. Then you swipe and you get to the next stat and it had the top speeds reached all season.
Jamie:McDavid?
Scott:No, he wasn't even in like the top 10. What? I swear to God. His top speed Now listen, we're talking about players that are reaching like, let's say the highest, like Quinn Hughes was up there. Whoever was But number one is someone I'm the point is we're talking about 24.87.
Jamie:Right, 24.8 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Difference between the
Scott:two, very minimal. If you ask anyone, they probably would have said he had the fast, he probably was the top.
Jamie:Wow, so he wasn't even on that list.
Scott:For top speed. For top speed. Now, don't know if it was the top 10, the top eight, whatever it was.
Jamie:But he wasn't there.
Scott:But he was number two for the most 20 plus mile an hour bursts throughout the season.
Jamie:Behind McKinnon. So while
Scott:he might not have reached his maximum speed, the number of times that guy is crushing 20 miles an hour is a lot.
Jamie:Listen, he
Scott:But McKinnon was Was number one. But a lot more than More than McDavid. Yeah.
Jamie:No shit. He's pretty filthy
Scott:as well.
Jamie:The guy's an animal.
Scott:So we're just talking about the skill, right? Which speed's one of it, is part of it. Yeah. Else that comes to mind also when we talk about some of the upside and the good habits or the difficult things that kids get exposed to early on and I'm in the middle of it right now, but you got to carry a hockey bag that's pretty heavy and auto does it now, but like, I mentioned to you when I was at the hockey Yes, you did. Hockey, dad carrying hockey bag.
Scott:Dad carrying
Jamie:hockey bag. And you're like, oh, shit.
Scott:I'm like, here you go, dude.
Jamie:Yeah, you're like, take this from me.
Scott:But that's not easy, right? No. Those can be heavy.
Jamie:No, it's heavy.
Scott:And there is but there's rolly bags.
Jamie:You know many times Dominic has toppled over with that thing in his head? No doubt. Because I wouldn't carry it from him.
Scott:Dude, then there's also tying your skates, which is different than No. Tying, like No. No. It's not tying
Jamie:It's like tying your cleats.
Scott:No. No. It's different. Just from like
Jamie:Tying your hockey skates, It's hard for adults. Hurts your fingers when adults do it. It does.
Scott:Dude, Dominic, can I just
Jamie:tell you? So Dominic had a Princeton Ice Hockey summer camp before COVID. And they were all like, I think he was like eight or something like that. He was a might. And I remember we were staying in Princeton for the week at a place called the Nassau Inn, awesome hotel by the way, right on the border of the Princeton campus.
Jamie:So we were at Hobie Baker watching all the ice sessions because it was cool, right? So we'd go watch the ice session, I'd go back and do some work and I'd come back for the afternoon ice session. But when I got there, the counselors were like, Hey, do you mind trying to help us tie skates? So I'm tying skates in the locker room before these skates were going on the ice for the morning and the afternoon. Dude, my fingers were finished after the week, but totally cooked.
Jamie:Tying skates is hard, especially when you're tying, like, 20 of them at a clip.
Scott:Fair. I haven't done 20 skates Crushed in a row. Will my fingers. Give you credit for that.
Jamie:They're hard to tie. It's hard to tie. And especially as they get bigger and the boots get stiffer.
Scott:Yeah. So, okay, so that's another thing that kids have. Those are challenges that
Jamie:kids So
Scott:another thing, and we talked about earlier in the day versus later in the day and the variation in this isn't such a thing probably, well I don't know, I'll just finish my thought, but the variation in the games times versus the practice times versus the days of the week, it can be pretty variable especially when you tack on the longer drives. So just in terms of being game ready and for the younger ages that's not as much of a thing. But I think that kids have to be pretty adaptable because you're gonna have games at different times. Might have a game start at the same time but one's two hours away, one's at your home rink. So that part I think is also an interesting piece that kids need to get used to.
Scott:Probably more so at the older ages when they start getting into diets and stretching and all that other stuff.
Jamie:That's another thing. Do kids play back to back games in other sports? Problem. I mean, how many times have you had a game where your kids don't even take their skates and their pants off because they're going on the
Scott:ice Yeah. Right back on That could be a thing. Right? But no doubt. No doubt.
Jamie:I guess it happens. I guess it happens in lacrosse and stuff like that, but my goodness.
Scott:Could be. So one of the things obviously for hockey, if we had a few double headers just to manage yeah. Travel time better. You're grateful when they do that so you don't just drive
Jamie:like two hours,
Scott:on one hand, but then depending who you're playing, you might rather like, you know, some more time between the games.
Jamie:That is true and the kids are exhausted. Normally that second game doesn't go so well.
Scott:Well, that usually depends who won
Jamie:the Oh, first you're talking about the same team?
Scott:God, I'm not about
Jamie:Oh, okay. You're not talking about playing a different team like in
Scott:a But either way, no, no, not that part. But then you bring up tournaments. Right now, if I'm stealing the mic, feel free to grab it back.
Jamie:No, no, great.
Scott:But I also think about, and I did have this not as much as Otto has as a kid because I certainly remember my dad waking me up early hours to go travel
Jamie:Yeah, because I was sleeping at your house a bunch of those times, I remember it too.
Scott:Remember, and did you ever have to do that for baseball, basketball, Never. Not once, Not once. Yeah, so that's a different beast.
Jamie:Different animal. Different beast. Totally different animal. Yeah.
Scott:But also, going travel to tournaments. Like if you have a basketball tournament when you were a kid, and I'm not talking about now and whatever, I'm sure there's more of it, but Otto's been to more hotels for travel hockey than I ever was. And I'd venture to say any of his friends that play like higher level sports in his school are not traveling as much as he is and then forming those friendships. Yes. Like spending all those hours in hotel rooms or like the after game meal or just dicking around or whatever.
Scott:Like Otto's gonna go to a sleepaway camp with a kid from his old team, you know? And like you're forging friendships with kids that are not in your community.
Jamie:That's
Scott:right. And you're meeting all different walks of life.
Jamie:And they all follow each other on Instagram now.
Scott:Oh, well, we're not there yet.
Jamie:But my point is they do.
Scott:Dom's on Instagram?
Jamie:Yeah, but I control it.
Scott:What does that mean?
Jamie:It means he have access to it.
Scott:So like if he's on a buddy's phone, can he log into his Instagram?
Jamie:No, he doesn't know how.
Scott:He doesn't know how?
Jamie:No, no.
Scott:So it's only when you show him his Instagram? Correct. Okay. Yeah. That works.
Jamie:Now he probably doesn't have a phone.
Scott:No, I know, but like if he's got an
Jamie:account He no idea how to get into it, no clue.
Scott:Okay. Yeah,
Jamie:no clue
Scott:at all. Okay, so but then they follow each other, but kind of the point is that like, as far as like friendships and bonding and along with all those friendships, you might be coming across more dickheads also. No question about it. You know what I mean? So there's navigating that social emotional piece.
Jamie:Listen, which is a thing.
Scott:No, 100%.
Jamie:Which is definitely a thing. Dom had something with a kid from the Worcester Railers, an issue with a kid from a team that he played against and then played on the same team with the Boston Junior Bruins when we were in Nashville, and the kid was a little bit of a problem.
Scott:Your weight didn't change when they were teammates?
Jamie:No. Not at all. Didn't change at all. It actually got worse when they were teammates.
Scott:Oh, did it? Yeah, dude.
Jamie:Oh, But again, so you have to deal with the emotional and social aspect of that. Component. Right. Doubt. Yeah, no, I think all the traveling for this, like Dominic's been to places that his friends have not been to.
Scott:And that's another upside. Like you're seeing different parts of the country. In some cases, hockey took us to Europe.
Jamie:Exactly.
Scott:And I know that we're very fortunate that we had that as an opportunity and not everyone can experience that. But I would have never gone to Bled Slovenia if it wasn't an opportunity with hockey.
Jamie:Right. And you want hear something crazy? You kind of ask what you take away from the youth hockey and how awesome it is as a parent. So I can only speak from my family. So Nancy loves watching play hockey.
Jamie:I love watching Don play hockey. And my older one loves to travel. So we would all get in the car and go to whatever tournament he was in, it's like Buffalo or whether it's Massachusetts or whether it's the Philly area or whether it's going out to Vegas or going out to Chicago. So we all go and we all travel together. So we're spending a ton of time together and it's time that you can't buy that.
Jamie:It's awesome, dude. We've spent so much time together as a family and traveling as a family and we do offshoot things. I remember we were in Buffalo and we got bounced by Don Mills.
Scott:They're a solid program. Shout out Canada.
Jamie:Yeah, dude. It was an awesome hockey game. They went up one-zero, we tied it one-one and I think they scored a power play goal late in the third period. Was such an
Scott:awesome Who took the penalty? They don't have to call that kid out. Just saying. Probably some stick penalty in the o zone.
Jamie:I don't even remember. It was probably a trip or something like that. But I know it was an early game. It was in the semifinals too. Oh, shit.
Jamie:Yeah. Of the cup Buffalo, we're Fucking Buffalo. Buffalo. So we lost and it was a holiday weekend, whatever holiday weekend it was. So we had never been to Lake George.
Jamie:So we lost early and I look at Nancy and I'm like, Nancy, and she had off, I think they tacked on a couple days for my kids. So my kids didn't have school and Nancy didn't have anything and I could work remotely so I'm easy. So I'm like, you know what? So we lost Sunday. We were off Monday and we were off Tuesday.
Scott:So I'm like, you know what, Nance? Let's go for it.
Jamie:Let's just go to Lake George from here. I'm like, it can't be far.
Scott:Right. How far was it?
Jamie:Was like five and half hours. I'm like, it's got to be up here somewhere. I'm like, It's Upstate New York. I'm like, How far could it be? So I called the Sagamore at Lake George, which is an awesome hotel, the way.
Jamie:I called the Sagamore. I'm like, Yeah, do you guys have room? Yeah. I looked online. I booked something.
Jamie:And then I go on Waze and I looked and I'm like, holy shit. We're going be driving all day. So I remember it took us like six plus to get there because my family stops to go to the bathroom and to get food, to drinks, I got to pee. But my point is that we travel a lot as a family, which that time is precious. It
Scott:is. While course, of It's
Jamie:really awesome. And youth hockey has made us do that and now we enjoy it so much that,
Scott:like we I just went up to we
Jamie:just did the East Coast swing last summer. We did Southwest that we just got back from. So that kind of led into that, which is awesome, dude. My parents didn't do that when I was a kid. None of this.
Jamie:Didn't get this when I was a kid.
Scott:No. And we didn't go to that many tournaments. I remember when I was a we went up to like classes as a family, we went to Montreal. I just went with my dad to Sejean Charichelieu or something like that, somewhere in Canada. Canada, in Quebec.
Scott:Think my coach had a mistress and a love child there, so that's how he ended up going there. That was the rumor at least. But look, you end
Jamie:up in
Scott:the car and you're traveling to destinations for better or worse, but you're doing it anyway more so than you would. Even if you were a family that loved to travel, you're probably doing it more regardless.
Jamie:I think it's cool, man. It's forced us to spend time together and we found that we all really enjoy it.
Scott:And hockey forced us to do that. What I'll also throw onto that as family togetherness comes up, now we all know that family togetherness can get difficult. And I'm kind of going with this is more along the lines of from a parent's perspective and parental growth. And this is coming up not necessarily in the lens of being a hockey parent. This just came up like spending time with your family in smaller hotel rooms potentially for longer weekends, navigating family dynamics.
Scott:But just in terms of a growth factor as a parent, I might have been in more situations because of hockey where I need to manage family dynamics that I maybe wouldn't have otherwise. Correct. Maybe. Yeah. Have to
Jamie:do it more often, that's
Scott:for sure. You do it more often. But then kind of like diving a little deeper into the parental growth piece and I think that I've, as we've seen families invest a ton of money and time and their own resources and traveling all over the place for their kids hockey, I do think that there is like parents develop a sense of like, I don't know if entitlement is the right word, but like you want to see a return on your investment. What might start, and I'm not saying this is the mindset that I have right now, but I have had it at different times. And I think there are parents out there that might still have it, but it's like you're pumping in all this time, effort, energy and then you want to see something and maybe you do, maybe you don't.
Scott:But if you don't, that brings up a level of stress because you think it to yourself, I'm pumping in all this money and all this time, getting up before school, paying for the extra lessons, getting $1,200 skid. Was just gonna say And then you see the product on the ice, meaning your child, and you're like, dude, can't fucking back check. You're like, what the fuck? Do you know what I've done for you?
Jamie:See, that's the worst thing to say to your kid.
Scott:No, fair.
Jamie:And I'm
Scott:not saying I do that.
Jamie:I used to, I don't anymore. I was like, that was a mistake. Can't do that. I was stupid when we first started this game. I had to figure this shit out, which is why we I developed this fucking hope this helps all the new dads.
Scott:No doubt. I'll understand.
Jamie:Or if you're still doing it at whatever age your kid is, I hope you stop. Because all it does is crush your kid. Yeah. Yeah. Mean Unless your kid is the few that respond to that shit.
Jamie:There are always exceptions.
Scott:Which is
Jamie:out there. There's no puns. I don't think there's a lot
Scott:of them. No, but I mean, amount of because you're Superman to your kid.
Jamie:You are Superman to your child. And if you keep crushing your kid, that Superman wears off. It's not good. Because you're your child's Superman.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's something that my wife She hasn't said recently, but she would say, like, what you say to your child becomes their inner voice. Yeah, it does, dude. Wherever she got, I'm certainly not crediting No, her over she's right though.
Scott:But she would say that to me and there were times where I'd be like, Well, I don't fucking care.
Jamie:Yeah, well, when you're mad, that's yes, right. But when you sit back and think about it, you're like, Oh, shit. And that's why I think a lot of hockey parents fuck up their kid. Yeah. I really do.
Scott:Especially when you're doing this at such a young age. Was listening to a podcast on the way over here.
Jamie:What were listening to?
Scott:Healthy Sports parenting. Oh, nice. Healthy sports parent, I forget the name. I listened to one episode before or I forget the exact name. But they don't talk about hockey specifically.
Jamie:But the episode I
Scott:listening to, the guy that they had on was like a runner and he doesn't have children. The host does have children playing youth sports, the guest too young for anything. Gotcha. But he was basically saying there's no such thing as an elite athlete at seven years old, at eight years old, at nine years old. And basically the point that he was trying to make is not that there aren't kids that are certainly way better than others, his puberty is a defining point in
Jamie:time or
Scott:a milestone where it's
Jamie:like It's a game changer.
Scott:Get to that point and then see where
Jamie:you're at.
Scott:And then see where you're at.
Jamie:Game
Scott:changer. And then he was all he was going down and maybe for the next show, if I remember, to reference it exactly. But really just saying the younger age groups, you know, it the the they they threw out a stat like something like, you know, 70% of kids that play youth sports stop whatever sport by the age of 13. Now, I don't know where that comes from. I don't know if it's true.
Scott:But like if you let's just say that's
Jamie:true. Yeah.
Scott:Sure. That they were making the case for like, you know, same thing hockey think tank always talks about it, like developing a passion and love for the game. And in this context, if that was to be true, right, you would say that the kid that loves the game is the kid that's gonna play beyond the age of 13.
Jamie:You would think so.
Scott:It's not gonna be the kid that's being made to do it. No. Or maybe loves it, but dad or mom is like So breaking their balls they talked that they were differentiating between the short term versus the long term and ultimately for any parent that has these ideas about their kids going on to do bigger and better it's like you gotta play the long game. No question. And I think that there's part of it where you can't, it's undeniable with whatever Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000
Jamie:Yeah, hours
Scott:made Step Four, yeah. All that stuff.
Jamie:Be perfect at something or become good at something? Or mastery. Yeah, yeah, mastery. Certain number of repetitions you
Scott:need to put in to become great and some quickly, some slowly, but without the love for the game, Or less certainly less likely. Definitely less likely, yeah.
Jamie:Because there's no passion in it It's a job for a kid.
Scott:No doubt. Who the fuck wants that? But as a parent, in the moment, you're thinking to yourself She fired up. You're fired up and you're like, fuck, my kid needs How am I gonna keep him on this path? What can I do to make him so that he does get better consistently?
Scott:And you know that's where it's like there's no one size fits all model. No. But like, because you need to find that balance with your child. And even within your child, what's going to work this year might not work next year, but it might work again the following year.
Jamie:No questions about
Scott:it. Don't get frustrated, just keep. Or if you do get, it's okay to get frustrated.
Jamie:Is okay.
Scott:Like what you do is But don't take
Jamie:down on the kid
Scott:if you can help it. Mean, surely there are times where That's kid does stupid a whole another story, right? Those are not what
Jamie:we're talking about,
Scott:right?
Jamie:No, but what you're saying is very true.
Scott:Yeah, so as a parent, even just today on the way over here, my perspective's changing as I'm investing more time and trying to think critically about the way I behave and reflect on the times where I think I did well and the times I think I didn't do well and I don't want to be too soft, but you don't want to be too hard and it's like this mind fuck And think part of this, if there's nothing else, I'm not going to get it right every time, you're not going to get it right every time. But if your north star, your guiding light in terms of this long term play is one that's founded or centered with sensibility and rationality and you come back to that, you're probably going to make the right choice or say the right thing more than you're not.
Jamie:You would think so. And that's like the hope, right?
Scott:You're not going
Jamie:to get
Scott:it No, right 100% of the nobody does. No. But ultimately this game, and I think we just talked about a lot of things that, yeah, sure, you'll probably get them in other sports, no doubt. And quite frankly, I'd love to hear other people's experiences But about I think
Jamie:This is a different animal, it feels like, though.
Scott:It does. It produces different types of kids in my opinion.
Jamie:It just does. When I look at Dom's hockey buddies and when I look at his friends from the public school from town, just a different animal. He's different and he has said this to me. Before we took him out of public school when he was in fourth grade, he's like, Dad, I'm just different than these kids. He's like, These kids want to play video games.
Jamie:He's like, I just want to go work out.
Scott:So
Jamie:it was just different. And he got that from getting up early to play ice hockey when he was seven and eight, six,
Scott:years old.
Jamie:Right? I mean, don't think that's a mistake. In my opinion, ice hockey players are different than their regular town peers. Most of them, maybe not all. And I also think that it's also a different type of parent.
Jamie:I think they come from a different type of parent and they produce a different type of kid. Sure. I think it's just kind of molded as you go along this journey.
Scott:I think it teaches a lot of tough lessons early on.
Jamie:Yes, it does.
Scott:One thing I did want to call out about another sport, I work with someone whose kid is now a U10.
Jamie:Think he
Scott:just turned nine. He's What still eight, so he's a baseball and a football player.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:And my buddy George, shout out George, whose kid
Jamie:Roommate George from college?
Scott:Yeah, I was talking about
Jamie:two different stories,
Scott:but this is all about
Jamie:Does George listen?
Scott:I don't think he knows about it. Will tell him to fast forward to whatever But minute talking about football and his son is now going to high school, wants to play football and the commitment that's expected of football players over the summer was brand new news to me. When George told me Interesting. And George told me about, so they want him a commitment for freshmen, you have to be there starting a certain date over the summer, have to be there every Saturday. And then as you get into JV or varsity, it's more than just once a week And certainly for varsity
Jamie:And they lift.
Scott:If you're missing more than one Saturday, it's like good luck trying to find
Jamie:So a spot on the
Scott:that I was like, holy shit. My buddy George is like, listen, you like that. But George is like, dude, summertime is family time. So now we're tethered to the fucking town every weekend
Jamie:that Wait,
Scott:is that 10 years old? No, so I am jumping a little bit. George's
Jamie:son Okay, is gonna be a that's different. You're talking high school football.
Scott:No, so let's just focus on George and his freshman son. So the expectation is Saturdays and you can miss one.
Jamie:For a high school kid.
Scott:For a high school kid.
Jamie:For freshman in
Scott:high school. Freshman in high school. And then it'll build up as the summer goes. And I'm probably butchering it somewhat, but George is like, I have a shore house. Tough shit.
Scott:Okay. Yes, but Sorry. Okay, so hold on for a second.
Jamie:You get there when your kid's in college.
Scott:Listen, for the kid that doesn't necessarily want to take it that seriously, like what, they can't play high school football now? Or you be because the family can't go away on the weekends?
Jamie:Or you go play JV instead and
Scott:But I'm saying for the freshman team, it seems like there's a high bar.
Jamie:So my godson who lives across the street here you know, was the starting quarterback for his freshman high school team and it was very similar. Matter of fact, his wife went away a bunch of times with his other two kids
Scott:But they had to stay home.
Jamie:With Young Woods and Damien sit home with Hudson.
Scott:Yeah. So now it kind of serves Does it
Jamie:all the time, all the time. And as you get older, now he's going be a sophomore and that just compounds. I mean, do you remember when we were in high school, my parents went to Florida for Christmas break, I slept at your house because I had basketball practice for high school. Yeah. Varsity basketball doesn't stop.
Jamie:You can't miss it. Matter of fact, I remember our high school coach, our high school basketball coach, if he found out that you went skiing during basketball season, holy shit, dude. He'd fucking rip your head off because God forbid you got hurt skiing and couldn't play basketball, you were finished.
Scott:Dude, don't have a fight or whatever.
Jamie:You were finished.
Scott:So that aside, just lastly, this kid's playing like he just started his first practise for football and the kid's now I'm talking about my coworker whose son has just turned nine he's playing and he was telling me, he's like, My kid likes to play video games like every other kid.
Jamie:I wish
Scott:you'd have said. Sounds pretty normal. But his dad is telling me, he's like, I couldn't, I was counting down the minutes, I'm so excited. He was so pumped that football was starting and his, look, I don't know the whole story but again, here's yet again a parent that is seemingly way more into it than his kid is and I think we all know how that's going to start to play out as the kid gets older.
Jamie:Yeah, man.
Scott:Yeah. Unless they listen to this podcast and learn.
Jamie:Seriously, exactly right. Pay attention.
Scott:Pay attention. Take notes. All right. Triple kit. Matt, big props to the game of ice hockey.
Jamie:It's awesome. It's an awesome game. It produces awesome kids from awesome parents. Not all, but most. Most.
Scott:Okay, so let's switch gears a little bit. You got a weekly rant?
Jamie:You know, it's funny, I didn't come up with a weekly rant. Shit, I totally forgot. Like something to bitch him on about. I mean, I have a story
Scott:from Nashville. You know what? Actually, let's do that because
Jamie:You want do that?
Scott:Last week you wanted to bring up a story at I the did.
Jamie:I did, yes. Right, you know what? Since this is a positive episode, we won't do a rant on this one because a rant's like bitching and moaning. Although I think I bitch and moaned about my kid's skate price at the beginning.
Scott:Yeah, but that was like a carryover from last week's
Jamie:This is true.
Scott:It's another episode that
Jamie:was over. You know what? This is a positive episode. We'll keep this one positive.
Scott:Keep it positive.
Jamie:A rant's not positive. You know what I mean?
Scott:Unless you're ranting about how awesome life is.
Jamie:I think we just did that for fifty minutes. Okay, fair. Yeah. I have tell you, the game of ice hockey is wonderful. I know I bust my neighbor's chops about getting me into it because I'm spending all this money and all this time, but you know what?
Scott:He owes you a check?
Jamie:Well, that's for sure. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It's awesome. Yeah. All right, so my Nashville story.
Jamie:So we were asked to play with the Boston Junior Bruins down in Nashville a couple of years ago for spring hockey. Okay. We talk about costs and stuff like that. I think it was like $400 to play for the jersey and everything else. And you fly down to Nashville and you're playing in a very high end AAA tournament
Scott:in Nashville.
Jamie:Now Nashville is an awesome city to go play hockey in. You stay downtown, the rinks are outside of town, Downtown Nashville's insane. Right?
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:I didn't go when I was there.
Jamie:Yeah, know you didn't. Why?
Scott:Didn't have time. It was like a whirlwind.
Jamie:You could've made time.
Scott:I could've, but I chose not to. I chose to rest. I chose to watch Netflix and eat ice cream.
Jamie:You could've do that at home.
Scott:Not all the time. Yeah, you definitely could've done it at home. Whatever.
Jamie:And you'll be there again, not to worry. Anyway, so playing hockey in Nashville is awesome in my opinion. It's a really cool place to play. It's like an hour and twenty minute flight from where we are in Jersey. When you get to the airport, you literally get your bags and you get in your car.
Jamie:You're literally in Downtown Nashville in ten minutes. It's awesome. So easy to get in and out of, right? But you know, you just did it. So we were there and one of these parents we know from a local team was playing his kid was playing on one of the other teams.
Scott:I
Jamie:forgot which one it was. So we knew them because we were all kind of in the pre brick tournaments together, right? So we knew them and our team, our Rockets team, would play against their really good team and we would have very good games. So we all knew each other very well. So I like this dad very much.
Jamie:So we were all down in Nashville and our kids were playing this tournament. So the parents would meet up at night on the Strip and we would go have a couple of drinks because it's Downtown Nashville.
Scott:That's what you do.
Jamie:There's parties everywhere downtown. Literally every bar you walk into, there's live music on every floor. The place is insane, right? So I remember, it's funny, I remember that night we were at a bar and it was getting very packed, very packed and I like Irish gabaid. I looked at my watch and I'm like, I got
Scott:to pee. I got like
Jamie:9AM. I'm like, know, going get beer. Just kind of like walk out. Yeah. And it's funny.
Jamie:I remember walking home in the pouring rain.
Scott:Loaded.
Jamie:I wasn't loaded but I had a couple in me. So I walked home in the pouring rain, like pouring. I remember stopping in alleyways to to dry off. Yeah, no. So then the next morning, I hear a story about this.
Jamie:We were staying downtown. Okay? These other parents from this other team were staying outside of town. They came into town to have drinks with us, okay? So I remember hearing a story about I wish goodbyeed, they kept going until later in the evening.
Jamie:Apparently this dad got banged up to the point where he was on like a he woke up in a random person's apartment. Not like Who the fuck
Scott:was his kid?
Jamie:Not like in the morning. His kid was in the hotel.
Scott:By himself? Maybe. Definitely.
Jamie:Fuck. So the kid was sleeping in the hotel room or maybe he crashed in somebody else's hotel room. I didn't go there because I almost didn't want to know what happened there, So I just know his wife was not in town.
Scott:Oh, Lord.
Jamie:So I'm hoping he was in a room with another kid. What? I'm hoping he was in with the kid a was. Another kid. Exactly.
Jamie:Not solo. Know what I mean? So apparently he, I guess, came to at three in the morning, four in
Scott:the morning, whatever it was.
Jamie:He did a header off a curb. What? And when I say black eye, I mean like Broken orbital bones? Like shit. Full on black eye.
Jamie:Oh, Now you ask how he got back to his hotel if he was so banged up.
Scott:He walked on his face.
Jamie:From the looks of him, you would think so. He was very banged up and this is just me hearing the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay? What's crazy about
Scott:it is he rented a Tesla. What? So the Tesla drove him back to his hotel room on the autopilot. He fucking rented a Tesla? Why did he fucking call a cab?
Jamie:So he had a Tesla from the airport. Oh. So he rent when he got into town, rented a Tesla And we were staying in town. They were out of town. So they drove to downtown to have drinks, got banged up, fell Autopilot.
Jamie:Smacked his face and autopiloted the Tesla back to the hotel. How fucking nuts is that? So then I remember late Sunday, we were on the Strip just going to have another drink before it was time to I think we were leaving Monday morning. And we ran into him. The shiner he had, holy shit.
Jamie:Like, my goodness gracious.
Scott:Oh, Lord.
Jamie:I want to say he was on the back of a scooter and fell off a curb or he got a header off a curb.
Scott:Was lucky that's
Jamie:all that
Scott:fucking happened. That's what
Jamie:I said. What about waking up in a random person's apartment? Right? And then the Tesla drove this dude home.
Scott:Dude, Elon makes some good shit.
Jamie:Bro, crazy fucking story. Crazy fucking story.
Scott:So the takeaway there is if you ever need to rent a car when you're on a hot
Jamie:seat Make sure at Tesla. Same It's it's like a built in Uber. Fuck.
Scott:Wow,
Jamie:that's Listen, a there's some areas where you can't get Ubers at late night. It's a built in Uber.
Scott:Yo, listen, it does have its advantages. There's no doubt.
Jamie:Certainly does.
Scott:Wow, that's a fucking story,
Jamie:man. Yep, Nashville.
Scott:All right, what do think? Start wrapping it up?
Jamie:We definitely can wrap it up, absolutely. So I guess we need to mention our Howie's hockey, right?
Scott:Yeah. Always mention Howies. Love Howies.
Jamie:If you guys need tape or you need any gear or you need wax or you need I just ordered a bunch of laces for Dominic's new skates.
Scott:Think I said this last time. Didn't get new laces myself.
Jamie:Their laces are very cool.
Scott:I'm gonna
Jamie:get this. All different colors, so I got the wax laces.
Scott:What color should I get?
Jamie:I just got white. Just got a bunch of white.
Scott:Adol likes color.
Jamie:Dominic used to do color, now it's
Scott:just black and white. Now it's just white. He's easy now. Oh. Yeah.
Scott:For whatever reason. Listen, you
Jamie:can't go wrong with colors. They have awesome shit.
Scott:No. It makes it easy to find your child on the ice if for some reason they don't have any other things that stick out.
Jamie:It's funny you say that. You know, last year, I put a white stripe of white hockey tape down Dominic's helmet. Oh, yeah. So I can find
Scott:him. So you said that. I went to pick up Otto from a hockey camp and when we talked about how it was maybe the first couple of times, I mentioned how I don't like the different kinds
Jamie:of You don't like The USA or The camo I or like
Scott:agree with you. Get I get to his hockey camp.
Jamie:Although when they're young, it's
Scott:fine. The team that he's on, they all took flame, like, flame tape and they all had that going down the center of their helmet. And I don't know to go across like it covered up the His chin c tube on the chin. Yeah, 100%. So that was I was like, oh, flame tape.
Scott:Awesome. But whatever. It's fun for kids.
Jamie:It is fun for kids. Yeah. But yeah, so could buy Howie's hockey tape and you could actually put that on your kid's helmet to find him. When you're something fucked up is I did that last year and our head coach said to me after the season, he's like, Jamie's like, I like that so much. I'm gonna have all our kids do it next year.
Jamie:And I'm like, oh, God damn it. So now I'm gonna have trouble finding my kid, which I didn't this entire season.
Scott:Nah, do something different.
Jamie:You're gonna have to do something different. Do something different. I'll figure something out. But yeah, so if you guys need, our 10 discount code from Howie's Hockey is crazy 10.
Scott:Crazy 10.
Jamie:Yep, crazy 10. And we're going to have my buddy Chris on the next episode. Chris is an awesome guest. You guys are going to really enjoy him. He has some really good stories.
Jamie:So we're going to do that. So Chris is coming on next. After that, we might have Kirk from Ontario, possibly. I don't know. Possibly, hopefully.
Scott:We'll see.
Jamie:We'll see. We'll see.
Scott:Either way, not good. We'd love to hear from him though.
Jamie:If not, I spoke to a buddy of mine who I know you know well. So my buddy Angelo Searce, who owns Prostride Elite Skating, who is currently the New Jersey Devil's head skating coach,
Scott:That's no joke.
Jamie:Is going to come on our podcast.
Scott:Not a big deal.
Jamie:Which is awesome.
Scott:That is awesome.
Jamie:He does power skates around the country and in Canada. We actually have so Prostride is the name of his company. He is an awesome, awesome, awesome power skating coach. One of the best in our area by far. Again, you don't become the New Jersey Devils head power skating coach or head skating coach for nothing.
Scott:No. No doubt. Angelo's awesome. And I will tell you, I played men's against him once or twice.
Jamie:He's filthy. Yeah. The dude skates like it's effortless.
Scott:Yeah. That was hard for me to keep up.
Jamie:Angelo's great. Yeah. He's phenomenal. So Angelo is giving us a discount code for his power skating clinics. It's going to be CHD and then the number 10.
Jamie:Yep, CHD-ten. CHD-ten. So look forward to Chris. Next episode, hopefully Kirk in the following and Angelo in the one after that. So I think you guys are really going to get a lot out of these guys.
Jamie:So we're trying to ramp up the content for you guys as the season draws near. So yeah, so we're looking forward to that stuff. It's going to be awesome.
Scott:Yeah. And again, you guys can leave a review. Yes, please. That would be awesome. Subscribe if you're up for it, would really appreciate it.
Jamie:Reviews are so hard to get. Please go on and review us. That would be so helpful, have no idea.
Scott:Write in, share a story. We just want to hear more from the audience and learn from you guys as well.
Jamie:More what you want to hear, that type of stuff and then we'll provide it.
Scott:No doubt, no doubt. All right, my man. It's going be awesome, dude. Yeah, good stuff, great episode.
Jamie:Appreciate it as always, people. Thank you so much. And remember, youth hockey is a lifestyle. Take care, everybody.