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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.
This is for the sled dogs in the trenches. Real hockey parents, real stories. The Good and the Gong Show. No filters, no sugarcoating, no politics, just straight hockey talk, and the best guests around the barn. Welcome to the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast.
Intro:Alright, boys. Grind them corners, chirp responsibly, and bring that savage fire.
Jamie:Alright, everybody. Welcome back to a different type of episode here on the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast Episode seventy six
Scott:Seven six.
Jamie:Powered by Pacific Rink.
Scott:That's right.
Jamie:It's unfiltered podcast for hockey parents. Unfiltered. No politics. None. Zero politics.
Jamie:Zero. Zero sugarcoating. Zero.
Scott:Zero. Like zero, like Coke Zero.
Jamie:Not a fan, but yes.
Scott:Oh, it's not bad.
Jamie:No politics, no sugarcoating, just real talk for hockey parents that are in the trenches. In them. And as you can see behind us, like Scott said, we are on location at Longwood. I mean, just look over our shoulders. Pretty insane.
Scott:Yeah. This is like what dreams are made of. I mean, I don't even know if my dreams got this big when I was a child.
Jamie:This is pretty impressive.
Scott:But nonetheless, so we are super excited to be here on location. We are getting ready for the Moe's Smile event that we've been talking about. And putting up on on social, etc. And we are just getting a lay of the land, decided to do some recording over here to make sure we're all set up come the event itself. Yeah.
Scott:So just taking this opportunity to record a little bit here while we have a chance. Pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. And yeah, and so for anyone that is not well, I guess by the time this comes out, the event will have passed. Yes.
Scott:So, so with that said, I want to thank everyone that's donated.
Jamie:Yes. Thank you very much.
Scott:Thank you so much.
Jamie:Unbelievable. Very generous people.
Scott:Yeah. To raise money for such a good cause. So thank you everyone. And obviously this event is going to
Jamie:My mother.
Scott:You know, I still have like PTSD. I think I've told you this like a few times over. Yeah. Like when I have the donut shop.
Dan:Jamie?
Scott:No. No. Nothing to do with your mom. Oh. But when I had the donut shop, that sound, your phone ring is like stargazer.
Rob:That's the name It's of that
Jamie:an awful ring by the way.
Scott:Well, it's an even worse alarm at like 01:30 in the morning to wake you up to my go to God. There's some iPhone Time
Jamie:to make the donuts.
Scott:I I still when I hear those sounds, it just makes me uncomfortable.
Jamie:Can I just tell you, like, the the the the time to make the donuts commercial from, back in the day? Is that Dunkin' Donuts commercial?
Scott:It was.
Dan:Wasn't it?
Scott:Yeah. The guy's name was Fred.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. They are with the the mustache. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Little world war two ish. No?
Jamie:How do you figure?
Scott:No. His mustache?
Jamie:Oh, oh, I see what you're saying. It was a little short on the side.
Scott:A little short on the sides. Right?
Jamie:I've never heard that world war two ish. I see what you're saying right there.
Scott:I don't know. Anyway
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. No. But but yeah. So oh, so you had that as your ringtone?
Scott:For my alarm.
Jamie:That's a rough one.
Scott:That one. I had a few. Dude, that one's not the only one. I would set, like, six.
Jamie:If I was getting up at 01:30 you got up at 01:30 in the morning?
Scott:Sometimes earlier.
Jamie:Wow. What time do go to bed? Like eight?
Scott:I would go to sleep ideally by 07:30. That's rough. But that's like after getting home at like six. That's rough. And then waking up at like one in the morning.
Jamie:And what time would you walk into the donut shop?
Scott:Well, it's at at its worst, I was getting there like 12:30 in the morning.
Jamie:Were you really? Yeah. And you worked until six the next the following evening?
Scott:For for a while.
Jamie:Yeah. That's a rough go, buddy.
Scott:It was yeah. Yeah. Was it was horrible.
Jamie:How long did you do
Maurice:that for?
Scott:Like three months.
Jamie:That's it?
Scott:Well, my body was, insisting that something changed. Otherwise, I was going to something was gonna fail.
Jamie:You were going to, like, fall apart.
Scott:Either physically, mentally, emotionally, of it.
Jamie:All of it, yeah.
Scott:Yeah. We had to make some changes there.
Jamie:Interesting. Got it. So note to self, change ringtone.
Scott:Yeah. But that was also for, like, seven days a week.
Jamie:That's rough, buddy. Yeah. This is probably a better idea.
Scott:Way better. But anyway, enough about that stuff. Yeah. So I hate that sound. Understood.
Scott:If you were to change thank you in advance for changing it to Yeah. Something
Jamie:Yeah. I definitely will. I'm not a fan of it myself, by the way.
Scott:Okay. Well, good. Good then. That's a win win, dude.
Jamie:I think so. That's what I'm talking about.
Scott:Yeah. But any event, yeah. Hockey. Hockey hockey has been it's been a lot. The, you know, the the event itself.
Jamie:Yeah. This event? Yeah. Is that what you're talking about?
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:So this event, so for for those of you that that didn't that don't know, there were there's a mite game. There's a mite, squirt, peewee, bantam pro. I don't think there's a midget game. Right? Mite, squirt, peewee, Yeah.
Jamie:Because because because Otto's in the in the peewee game, Dom's in the bantam game, and I think the the pro is after that.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? So there were games going on all weekend, there will be games going on all weekend, so people are gonna kinda be bouncing around the property. It's I mean, we kinda see what they're setting up already. It's I mean, this third is annual of the Moe's Smile. Moe's Smile.
Jamie:If you could see behind us, don't know if could tell.
Dan:I don't
Scott:think they can see
Jamie:it on Yeah, I think
Scott:they tell. The But they
Jamie:set the scoreboard up, so it shows Moe's number which was number 76. The event is on July 16, so the time is set to 07:16, and it's period three, which is the third annual Moe's Smile event.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:So, again, thank you very much to Larry Robbins and everybody for letting us be involved in this. We are honored. If you guys, you know, and for those of you like Scott Support who donated, thank you very much for the generosity. Really appreciate it.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%. A 100%. So yeah. So, you know, when my child's away, I'm not far from a rink.
Jamie:No, you're not. No, you're not.
Scott:But he's he's on his he's on his way back. He's coming back from Woodward Camp tomorrow. Right. And currently, is sitting out apparently.
Jamie:He
Scott:is. Yes. He tried to do a backflip on a scooter. Yes. Landing into foam, a foam pit.
Scott:That was the idea. And somewhere along the way between him starting the backflip and exiting the foam pit, he suffered what seems to be a concussion.
Jamie:Right.
Scott:So we are going to see
Jamie:When he comes home tomorrow? Yes. What that looks like? My guess is he's fine.
Scott:Yeah. No. I think so too. Right? But just the the whole thing, you know, it's just
Jamie:He absolutely fell asleep last night, so he's fine.
Scott:He fell asleep. Yeah. He just, you know, had some some classic symptoms but none of was out of control and it's getting better so hopefully he should be fine. He's supposed to get on the ice next week for this event as
Dan:well
Jamie:as Oh, for this event. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Scott:So hopefully he should be fine.
Jamie:Is he skating before this event?
Scott:Yes, he is.
Jamie:Oh, is. Okay.
Scott:Yeah. He's gonna he's skating, I think.
Jamie:Because he's been off the ice for a couple weeks now.
Scott:Tuesday, Wednesday. Tuesday, Wednesday. Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday. I think he's skating.
Scott:Three days.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:So he'll be on the ice for a little bit. Yeah. And then we got, you know, as far as hockey, I just, you know, we got all my phone blew up with, like, I don't even know how many, 60 different invitations to games. Like, we got a game schedule. So that's the thing.
Scott:There's a bunch of we got a bunch of double headers.
Jamie:Oh, you're talking about for the season?
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. The season. Sorry. I didn't I wasn't clear.
Jamie:So I guess everybody's, their Team Snaps or whatever app you guys use to for the manager to load your teams into. I'm assuming those are starting to get filled.
Scott:Yeah. That definitely started getting filled. And we have a bunch of like double headers. Like we have a doubleheader in Utica,
Dan:which is
Scott:fine that we have a doubleheader at a place that's far away but the fact we're playing a league game in Utica is annoying.
Jamie:Yes.
Scott:Because that's not close.
Jamie:It's not. I highly recommend the Utica Hotel. Is that downtown? It is. So I high I have said this on this podcast before.
Jamie:Probably the most awful hotel in Yutaki that I have been around Yeah. Is in right outside Downtown Utica.
Scott:So don't go there? No. What's that place called? Oh, you don't have to say it online or on air or whatever.
Jamie:I say it. Don't think it's big deal. I'm trying it was so it was an old motel that was, you know, know, those where the doors are on the outside?
Scott:Yeah.
Dan:Yeah.
Jamie:Like, you park in front of your door and you walk in the door. Right. They they glassed it in.
Scott:Yeah. I know exactly what you're saying. They made, like, a hallway.
Jamie:Have two. But but this one was this one Is no bueno. So alright. So let me I'll tell a quick story for few seconds.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:So this was when Dominic first joined, we we left the Rockets and joined this current team that he's on two years ago. The first weekend or the first yeah. The first travel weekend was at was in Utica. Yeah. We did a tournament.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Okay? Now Utica used to be a really nice city. Okay. And now
Scott:That was like back, like, during industrial booms? Correct.
Jamie:Yes. Now it's obviously a little depressed because, you know, a lot of people lot of things have moved away, it's a little the downtown's little downtown's not bad, but outside, it's a little depressed.
Scott:Right? Okay.
Jamie:It's not awful, but it's a little it's not what it used to be.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Right? So, so the manager, does a, tournament in Utica or whoever or the coached a tournament in Utica. Manager comes up with a, with a hotel. I don't remember if it was like a Days Inn or like a I wanna say super eight. That's not right.
Jamie:It's not a super eight. Okay. It's not a red roof. Which is the Tombo Dad, we'll leave the light on for you? Which one is that?
Jamie:What? I'm Tombo Dad, we'll leave the light on for you.
Scott:I have no idea.
Jamie:I don't know. It's one of those those cheapy hotels.
Scott:Alright. Anyway, so this is in Utica.
Jamie:So it's in Utica and so the team and we were brand new to this team two years ago, alright? And they the manager picks this hotel and they're like, Alright, here's the booking link for me to book. And I look at Nancy and I go
Scott:Uh-uh. Nuh-uh.
Jamie:And then she looks at like the reviews and she looks at the hotel, she's like, Jamie, there's no way I'm staying here.
Scott:Not a chance.
Jamie:She's like, I there's no way I'm staying here.
Scott:Was it the bed bug comment that turned you off? Might as well have been.
Jamie:I don't know if there were bed bugs, but moral of the story, or kind of at the end of the tunnel I'm not sure I'm trying to figure out the right verbiage and it's not coming to me. At the end of the day, we were the only family that didn't wind up staying there, like a jackass. Why? Whole team stayed there except us.
Scott:Okay. But you were never gonna stay there.
Jamie:Correct.
Scott:But you thought more people were not gonna stay there?
Jamie:No. No. I didn't. I didn't and I didn't even care if if more people if more people didn't they all I know is that we weren't staying there.
Scott:Right. Okay. Okay? So like a jackass, why do
Jamie:you say you could jackass? Because I felt bad because because when you it wasn't with his team, you know, and it was like the first tournament on his new team, so I I felt like a schmuck doing it. I'm not gonna lie to you. I 100% did.
Scott:No. You couldn't have felt that bad. No.
Jamie:I did. I I I felt bad.
Scott:Then you should've just done it for your kid.
Jamie:So I felt bad going up there.
Scott:And then once you got there, you realized
Jamie:Once I got there
Scott:Right move.
Jamie:And I saw the hotel
Scott:You were like, a 100%.
Jamie:Buddy. When I saw this place, and then I heard the parents all talking about it, was like, Psh, Nancy, thank God. Scott, you walk into this place and like I'm telling you, the kids were like the kids were playing in a room like knee hockey.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And I guess there was a vending machine there. It was downstairs like kind of ran off the lobby. There was a vending machine there
Scott:and the vending was leaking
Jamie:all over the place. The floor was like wet Damn. Mildewy. Oh.
Dan:Like
Scott:Wait, why was the vent it was the soda vending machine?
Jamie:Yeah. It was it was the ice machine or the vending machine. Something was leaking and like disgusting. And like like let's put it this way. One of our moms literally slept fully clothed.
Jamie:Yeah. Like fully clothed with like something over the door.
Scott:Are you kidding me? No. What do you mean something over the door?
Jamie:Like something was like in front of the door.
Maurice:So no one could come in?
Scott:Yeah. Mean, like, barricade?
Jamie:Something like that. Yeah. Scott, this place was alright. So this place would have been so appropriate, like, from, coming to America When they walk into the apartment in in Harlem and they saw the chalk outline of the guy and the dog Yeah.
Rob:In the apartment.
Jamie:Damn shrimps. Did that dog. You know? But, yeah, man. It was Scott was brutal.
Jamie:This place was like, if there was, a a chalk outline
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Like, somewhere in the hotel, like, you'd be like, yeah. That that
Dan:that fits.
Scott:That that right.
Jamie:Yeah. Sounds
Scott:right. That's unbelievable.
Jamie:Yeah. So that's my experience in Utica. Not gonna lie. The rink is spectacular. The rink the rink that you guys are gonna play at is wonderful.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:It's a sick facility. Yeah. There's a great, brewery in there.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:A great restaurant. It's got some really good beers on tap and stuff like that. The it's attached to where the devil's age age out there, minor league team plays. So what so obviously, you guys aren't gonna play there, but you walk in and the Utica Comets, the first rink on your right when you walk in Yeah. Is the Utica Comets.
Jamie:The the, you know, the Minor league team? I don't know if it's minor. Right? Or juniors? Yeah.
Jamie:I think it's juniors. Right? So so so that they have a pretty nice like stadium seating.
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:And then you walk past that and there's and there's two other rinks. And what's neat is there's catwalks around those ring.
Scott:Oh, nice.
Jamie:So you could watch them above.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Which is really awesome. And then oh, Larry's here, think. Yeah. Yeah. You see that?
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. I didn't see you when he walked in. Yeah. And then and then you kind of, and then and then the the devil's rink's kind of attached in the back.
Jamie:You you probably won't play there, but you'll probably play on the Utica Comets ring is my
Scott:guess. Okay.
Jamie:Hopefully, you do.
Scott:Well, yeah. I hope
Jamie:so too. Because that's all three of us playing.
Scott:We're playing the Comets. Yes. I know it's not like the upper level team.
Jamie:If it's not if it's not available, they Right. Obviously, they'll put you on those electric rings, which is still sick. You know what mean? So it's it's it's awesome. You know?
Jamie:But, but yeah, man. So you you're gonna enjoy that. Yeah. But like I said, stay in the Utica hotel.
Scott:Copy that.
Jamie:Right across from the rink. Literally, you take a bag, you walk across the street. Literally, you walk across I the
Scott:heard you, dude. I heard you.
Jamie:Yeah. Do not let them stay that super eight Red Roof Inn, whatever the fuck that was that we
Scott:stayed with. Don't do that. Do not let do not.
Maurice:Don't do that.
Jamie:You know?
Scott:But now you say hi?
Jamie:You didn't see me. Oh. Yeah. Anyway,
Scott:so but part of what I was saying was now that we're, you know, the schedules come out, we're starting to a feel for what travel is gonna be like. Were so many things that came through or like notifications. You know, it's gonna, you know, the travel
Jamie:Are you guys traveling more than you did last year?
Scott:A 100%, which is fine. And like that's part of like what the deal is.
Jamie:Jump from AA AAA.
Scott:Yeah, we'll see. I don't know how excited I am about that.
Jamie:Well, listen, hopefully Otto flourishes in whatever capacity he's gonna flourish in.
Scott:Yeah. No, of course. The goal for every season. Yes. Right?
Scott:Yes.
Jamie:That's the idea.
Scott:But all I'm saying is that like, you know, That's
Dan:the idea.
Scott:We're going there like with excitement that, you know, we're gonna be paying playing better Oh, yeah. Competition. There's excitement about just having
Jamie:I think it's great.
Scott:Higher caliber kids generally speaking
Jamie:Yeah. Teams. Think it's great.
Scott:That's all good. But you know, also it gets challenging if like the team doesn't end up being that great and that's a possibility or you know, whatever. Right. Then you're traveling a lot and it's you know, they're you know, it's it can be exhausting. But hey, listen, that's the journey.
Scott:That's part of it. And there's always stuff to learn. So either way, it'll all be good. But yeah, man, it just started to sink in about the the travel that we do not do as much of this
Jamie:They past did not do. Are there other awful travel spots on your schedule?
Scott:Probably.
Jamie:Are there? I have to pull it up. Yeah. It's bad, though? You obviously want hold I'm
Scott:saying it's worse than last year.
Jamie:Okay. Well, makes sense because you're going from AA to AAA.
Scott:Yeah. No. I'm not surprised about it. I'm just saying it was something that, like, kind of reawoken those, you know, my what am I saying? It just reminded me, you know, that In this is on the
Jamie:a good way or in a bad way?
Scott:No. Wasn't excited about it.
Jamie:You weren't excited
Scott:about it? No.
Jamie:Yeah, I know. It's Well,
Scott:what's why Is he there?
Jamie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, I would love to bring him up here for an interview. Can he sit here and I'll stand behind you if he comes
Scott:don't know if that's the right thing to do right now.
Jamie:No. Don't wanna bother him?
Scott:No. Not really. I totally want him to come up here. I love hanging out with him. Yeah.
Scott:Listen. Likewise.
Jamie:Great interview, by the way.
Scott:Dude, we'll talk to him again. Gonna we'll talk to him on the the the the the the
Jamie:Who's got the keys the to my baby?
Scott:Yeah, well that's true too. But no, wasn't that what's his face from Coming to America?
Jamie:Night A. Murphy? Or S. N. O.
Scott:Hall? No, what was the name of the character?
Jamie:In in Coming to America? Yeah. Who's Eddie Murphy's character? Who's character?
Scott:Was any of them sound like Sima?
Jamie:Yes. Eddie, Arsenio Hall was Simi.
Scott:Simi. That's what I'm Simi. Said Simi before you just talked about coming
Jamie:to America. No. You're right. I did. I 100% did.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah. Can I just tell you something? Please do. Just going back to the story about coming to America.
Jamie:Mhmm.
Scott:Right? So years ago, I'd gone over to England and me and my buddy Ron, we took maybe there's like three years in a row we went out to UK and we went to see you know soccer matches, football matches.
Jamie:Manchester United?
Scott:We saw we saw a lot. You know, we saw Champions League matches. We saw Premier League matches. We saw Oh,
Jamie:you saw Champions League? That's legit.
Scott:Yeah. We saw
Jamie:Early early round Champions League?
Scott:Early round Champions
Jamie:Expensive, by the way? It's funny you mentioned because the World Cup, obviously, is still going on here in the I
Scott:had actually I've seen two champions league matches Okay. At Old Trafford.
Jamie:Oh, okay.
Scott:One was I was there by myself, like, even longer ago.
Jamie:You went to a soccer game by yourself?
Scott:Yeah. Why? Because I wanted to see I wanted to go to Old Trafford.
Jamie:By yourself?
Scott:Why? Yeah. I was there no. I wouldn't mean I was there by my I was there visiting Daniel. Mhmm.
Scott:I went
Jamie:Daniel didn't wanna go with you?
Scott:No. I bought the tickets like so far in advance. Was hard to get the ticket. Like it wasn't like
Jamie:So bought a solo ticket to go to Man U?
Scott:Yeah. That's not the first time I've gone to a match by myself. Went to Really? When United came over here, this is in 02/2000 early two thousands.
Jamie:I would feel awkward going to a sporting event solo.
Scott:Why? I don't know. I went to All Star game. It was Man United came over and played the MLS All Stars.
Jamie:Okay. It was
Scott:an All Star game.
Jamie:Could anybody to go with you?
Scott:I didn't even know that I wanted to. I was happy to go by myself.
Jamie:It's funny. I I've never been to a sporting event solo. And if I do go to a sporting event solo, I'm meeting somebody there.
Scott:Have you gone to the movies by yourself? Never. Would you go to it by yourself? No. Really?
Scott:No. Oh, I would totally go by myself. Really? A 100%. I've done it before.
Jamie:Have you?
Scott:I've gone on vacation by myself.
Jamie:Do we need to start, like, taking up, like, a charity for, like, friends for you? Do you have people to go with? Is that is that what we need to do?
Scott:Do go we like, GoFundMe?
Jamie:Exactly. Do we need, GoFundMe? We just
Scott:need willing
Scott:participants
Jamie:Right. To be my Exactly. Just go we're gonna put up a thing on Instagram. Who wants to go to, like who wants to meet Scott for a game if he's going solo? So he doesn't have to go by himself.
Scott:Listen. It's not bad going by the way. I don't mind it.
Jamie:I mean, really? No. But there's nobody to, like, celebrate with. You have
Scott:a whole stadium full of people. Fair. What do you mean?
Jamie:Fair. But it's different. Like, when you go to games, you wanna, like I don't know.
Scott:Watch the game.
Jamie:I mean, yes. Yes.
Scott:I know what you do at games.
Jamie:No. No. Of course. You know what I do at games, to be honest with you?
Scott:Like Yeah. Let's go. You while you're social hour and you walk around the concourse, select sampling all the finest hot dogs.
Jamie:So I'm not not necessarily hot dogs, but when I go to, like, baseball stadiums and and and stuff like that and, like, and and hockey rinks.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:I do like to check out like, I like to walk around the building.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Right? To see kinda like where where everything's at. Especially some of the the baseball stadiums are are pretty impressive. Like not not No two are alike. They're all different, all have their own different types of foods there, so it's cool.
Jamie:So you gotta look around, you gotta sample the local cuisine, you have to. Right? You
Scott:really okay. Yeah.
Jamie:You gotta sample the local cuisine, so you gotta try they all have the things that they're famous for, and you gotta sample it.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:Okay? So you gotta do that. And then you go to your seats, you know, and
Scott:then you move, you go to
Jamie:a different spot, and you go to a different location, you kinda find you keep watching from different spots.
Scott:Baseball.
Jamie:Any anything. Baseball, hockey, football, doesn't matter. College football I don't do that. College hockey.
Scott:I stay in my seat.
Jamie:And you just sit there and watch the entire
Rob:I watch.
Jamie:And will you stay at the the final buzzer?
Scott:It depends.
Jamie:Got it. Got it. Okay.
Scott:Sometimes. I gotcha. Yeah. It all depends.
Jamie:Oh, I got listen, don't have problem with that. But but I I have never been to a sporting event solo. Never a movie solo.
Scott:I mean, no judgment. Just saying it's not maybe not as bad as you think.
Jamie:Maybe. Those are
Scott:so I've also gone to concerts by myself.
Jamie:See, I would not do that either.
Scott:I most recently, I went to see Slipknot by myself.
Jamie:Well, that's because nobody that's because nobody else wants to go see Slipknot other than you. You're the only person that wants to go see that shit. You probably asked everybody you knew. You probably even threw something out on Instagram. You're like, hey.
Jamie:Anybody wanna go to Slipknot with me?
Scott:No. I actually Like,
Jamie:I'll pay for your ticket, and you just have to show up.
Dan:And they're like, yeah.
Scott:No. No. No. I invited zero people.
Jamie:They're like,
Scott:you know what? I invited zero people. I didn't I
Jamie:That's because nobody would wanna go.
Scott:Well, that's fine. But I've also gone to other concerts by myself.
Jamie:Like what?
Scott:The concert I went to by myself before that. I have to
Jamie:Metallica? I went Metallica breath?
Scott:No. Went Metallica. I don't know. Maybe maybe I was it Chevelle? Chevelle, I saw at Irving Plaza years ago by myself.
Jamie:Got it. So you do a lot of things solo,
Scott:I don't mind it.
Jamie:The wife doesn't wanna go with you?
Scott:Not always. Gotcha. If she wants to go, she's welcome to.
Jamie:Sure. Sure. I I understand.
Scott:I'm not I'm not saying don't come with me people. I'm just saying if there's something I wanna go do do or see and not everyone's into it, I'm
Jamie:I'm not surprised that she didn't wanna go to Slipknot.
Scott:No. That that wasn't surprising. Yeah. I, in fact, didn't even ask her. I just said I was going.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:I get it. I definitely
Scott:get it. Anyhow. Yeah.
Jamie:Alright. So you're not thrilled with your travel for the upcoming season?
Scott:No. I'm not saying I'm not thrilled.
Jamie:But it's just it's
Scott:just ultimately, it's just it's just a reminder because we didn't have to do as much of it last season. And and that was that was fine. But now there's more of it. And, you know, it's just look at that. It adds up.
Scott:It adds up. And I have to say, like It does
Jamie:add up.
Scott:I will say that
Jamie:I mean, that's a thousand dollar weekend for you right there.
Scott:Yeah. But, okay. But let's put the money aside, is always, you know, it's always part of like Sure. Thinking. But No.
Scott:Just even No, I lost my I totally lost my train of thought.
Jamie:We were talking about the season and traveling.
Scott:Yeah. I know. I don't know.
Jamie:That's right.
Scott:Oh, this is what
Jamie:I
Scott:was That gonna I I've all like in the beginning, you know, when mites, early squirts. Right. It's like, you know, it's I don't wanna say it's like a badge of honor. Like you're playing on a high level and you're doing all this traveling and it's like, you know, maybe there's some bragging rights there or you know, whatever. For whatever reason, I don't know.
Scott:But I do not I'm happy not to do as much traveling. Like I don't I don't
Jamie:get it. Look forward to
Scott:Like I'm not I'm not like Right. You know what I mean? Like I'm so happy to not have to drive far. And even last season, was like, there was weekends where it's like, listen, I need a break. Like, Orly, I need you to drive.
Scott:You you know? It's like, I'm not I'm not doing this one.
Jamie:Did you not go at all or you she just drove?
Scott:No. Sometimes I wouldn't even go.
Jamie:Oh, you wouldn't even go? I wouldn't even go.
Scott:You know,
Jamie:it's funny.
Scott:Because we also have kids that are doing different things. So, we all can't be in the same place at the same time. Like in times past when I was coaching Yep. I was like, I had to be there. So, I did absolutely everything for for a couple years.
Scott:Understand. And then I didn't need to. But we were still traveling down to like Woodbridge and I was doing a lot of that driving. Or they did plenty but I think I did, you know, the majority of it. And
Jamie:Got it.
Scott:In any event, it's just
Jamie:The dad normally does. Unless the dad's got like a crazy work schedule. Well, I
Scott:mean that that changed for me this year's oh, this past season. So I did a lot less driving.
Jamie:Yeah. Because moms moms take a lot of their responsibility too.
Scott:Yeah. There's no doubt.
Jamie:Hockey moms are legit, dude.
Scott:It's a lot of travel, man. Yeah. And it's like
Jamie:The hockey moms are very agile.
Scott:Aside. It like, you know, it takes it takes up a lot of your time.
Jamie:It does.
Scott:Takes up
Scott:a lot of your time.
Jamie:Yeah. So we don't have a crazy I saw our schedule. The manager's husband showed me the schedule when I saw him recently. And it's not the travel's not crazy.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:We're going to Notre Dame early on.
Scott:Yeah. But that's like yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:So that should be fun. Right? Yeah. I think we're going back to Boston or something like that. Then there's some showcases kinda sprinkled in there.
Jamie:But, what's crazy is that like our schedule
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:For for AA, we're only playing like like we're playing almost like the same teams over and over and over.
Scott:How
Jamie:many? There's not a lot of variety.
Scott:Oh, so you're gonna see like the same team like Over and over six times?
Jamie:There's a lot of a lot of repeats. There's a lot of fours, fives, and sixes there. Like, you're there's if he showed it to me, he's like, James, there's not a lot of, like there's not a lot of change here. And he he kinda starts scrolling through.
Scott:What about non league games?
Jamie:I suppose we can add non league games in there, you know, but it was a strange, like like, they have us playing the same teams over and over.
Scott:The is there just few teams in the league?
Jamie:I don't know, buddy. That's a good question.
Scott:Because, like, in theory, if you only
Jamie:have four teams in
Scott:your league, you'd play them
Scott:a lot for your league schedule.
Jamie:But there's not just four teams. There's a lot of teams.
Scott:No. I understand that. So it's just interesting. I think it was, 15 teams
Jamie:in the league or something like that. And we're playing, like, the same, like
Scott:Are there any that you're not playing? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that that's that's
Jamie:because We don't go to Red Bank once.
Scott:How that doesn't make sense.
Jamie:That's what I said. And they're not even
Scott:that far from us. They can't be right.
Jamie:I'm telling you. We're not going we're not not only we're not going to Is it a parody They're not
Scott:coming to us. Is that a parody thing? Like, they're not having it.
Jamie:That's a good question, bud. I don't know the answer to that.
Scott:That's sounds ridiculous.
Jamie:I don't know the answer. I thought it was strange too.
Scott:Because sometimes, like, with, like, Black Bear and the AHF and the THF Yes. There are teams that are part of the league that are are, like, in remote. Like, they're not around other Black Bear teams.
Jamie:And it just doesn't And that I get.
Scott:So if you're down in, like, Virginia or Delaware or or Illinois, like, you're not seeing a team from, you know, Upstate New York much, if at all.
Jamie:And I get that. Right?
Scott:But you would expect not to play those teams. And rightfully so. But a team that's in the same state.
Jamie:Not in the same state. It's like an hour away.
Scott:Right. Like, in New Jersey.
Jamie:And it's a nice and it's a nice ring to go watch a game in.
Scott:Which still the pizza's not good. So just don't don't try to pull the hoodwink hoodwink anyone with that again. You're the best pizza in all of youth hockey guy. I gotta tell you.
Jamie:The pizza
Scott:is correct. Is this is this right? It's like, Scott? Scott? I I I gotta tell you.
Scott:The best pizza in all of youth hockey. No, seriously. In all of youth hockey.
Jamie:Red I did say that when we first started this podcast a year and five four months ago, whatever it
Scott:is.
Jamie:Were So I was right when I said it. It has definitely changed.
Scott:I mean
Jamie:Something has changed down there. Even asked I even asked a bunch of people that I knew. It has definitely changed. The pizza is not good anymore down there. No.
Jamie:It's a tremendous rink, though.
Scott:Still a tremendous rink.
Jamie:Yeah. But just don't don't don't try the pizza. The muffins are good now.
Scott:I'm not even gonna believe what. No. There's no way they're
Jamie:good. No. No.
Dan:They are. No.
Jamie:No. The muffins are legit because I think they bring them in.
Scott:You just messed it up.
Jamie:No. No. They I think they bring them in.
Scott:But I'm just saying whatever you're you're messing up, don't talk about this cafe anymore, this concession stand because you're gonna ruin it all.
Jamie:It has changed. I'm not gonna lie to you. I tried the pizza after you were there and said it was awful and I tried it and you were not wrong.
Scott:Yeah. When I It's rough. The first bite that I took, was excited. And then I I chewed. And you're like, oh my god.
Scott:And I said, nope. And there wasn't know, like sometimes if like, even if you feel like confident in your ability in something Yes. There's sometimes where like, you just might even like second guess yourself Yes. Or take like
Jamie:Wait a minute.
Scott:Let me get in my palate. Am I am I missing
Jamie:You're something chef, so you have a palate.
Scott:Dude, I didn't even like zero hesitation
Jamie:on that.
Scott:Zero. It wasn't like, oh, is that like,
Scott:you know, my my the halls I just finished chewing like plus pizza. No.
Jamie:Do not eat the free pistachio ice cream. It has turned.
Dan:What the
Jamie:hell is that from? You know what that's from? No. It's from the movie Cars two.
Maurice:Oh, no. Think it's Cars two.
Jamie:Yeah. No. Where Mader goes into, because for those of you that have children, you probably know this movie front to back and, you know, and top to bottom. Although you have children and you don't know it.
Scott:I'm I
Maurice:remember it.
Scott:I've seen it.
Jamie:Alright. Alright. So, like, my children watched Cars one and two, like Religiously? Oh my god. I could I could seriously repeat lines left and right.
Scott:Oh, wait. That's with Lightning McQueen. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:So I've seen them.
Jamie:Yeah. Right. Exactly. So so so in the second one, Mater Lightning McQueen takes Mater overseas to go to like they were somewhere. They were somewhere in they were in like I think it was Japan?
Jamie:They were somewhere in the Far East.
Scott:Yeah. Right?
Jamie:So Mater's a little stunned.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Right? As you remember. Yeah. So he brings Mater with him and he never if and if you remember in the first movie, he never brought Mater anywhere and then he finally decides to bring Mater with him on the road. Okay.
Jamie:So he brings Mater and Mater's again, a little stunade, and Mater walks up, they're in like a dinner for like a big race that they're gonna do, right? And Mater walks up to the sushi bar
Maurice:Mhmm.
Jamie:And he's looking and he goes and he and he looks and he looks he's looking at the wasabi.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:And he's like he and he's like he he's like he's like is that is that that is is that like, no, wasabi. He's like, Oh, no. He's like, No, sir. What's up with you? Usaymo, say mo.
Jamie:Right? He's like he thought he said, What's up? And he said, Call the was and he said, Wasabi. So Mater's like, he's like, It's free, isn't it? And he's like, It's like, Pozamon.
Jamie:He's like, Little more. And then in in Japanese, like, he sees that he's gonna eat it. And in Japanese, he says, so sorry, tomato. Because Mater had no idea what was coming. So he eats it, not knowing anything he eats pistachio ice cream, and he's eating wasabi.
Jamie:Yeah. Like a lot of wasabi. Uh-huh. Right? And for those of you who have gotten if you eat sushi, for those of you that have gotten, like, a a big mouthful of wasabi and you're not versed on having a big mouthful wasabi Yeah.
Jamie:It's a very unpleasant experience.
Scott:Dude, so it's funny you bring this up.
Jamie:So that's what he says. It has turned.
Scott:It has turned.
Jamie:He thought it
Dan:just went bad. Right.
Scott:So the so when my daughter was like one Right. We were in the city and we went to a sushi spot and and we're just sitting down. She's in her high chair or whatever. Right.
Jamie:You know Oh, I see where this is going.
Scott:So the the waitress was putting the food down and we were watching watching the waitress putting the food down and no one was like paying attention to Noah who who the waitress saw this happen. So she saw Noah take the like the little pile of wasabi and put it in her mouth.
Dan:Oh my.
Scott:The wait the look on the waitress' face, I was like, what the? Was it sheer panic? She put all the food down quickly. Didn't even ask. Just picked up my daughter and ran her to the bathroom.
Scott:And I was like, follow her. She's like holding her Did you
Jamie:think she was being kidnapped?
Scott:No. I was
Jamie:When did you finally figure out what was happening? That she actually had the wasabi in her mouth?
Scott:Well, when I saw Noah, you know, her tongue and she was like kind of like like spitting out whatever was in her mouth.
Jamie:Oh, you saw like green
Scott:Oh, man. So we went to the bathroom and this woman, the the waitress She
Jamie:was like She just hooking?
Scott:Hooking, like just scraping wasabi out of her mouth And I'm just like with the faucet on, I'm like smacking water in Noah's face. Like, it was a disaster.
Jamie:I'm so sorry. You didn't have a camera on you guys.
Dan:It must've a big scene.
Scott:But like I give this woman so
Jamie:much credit to, by the way.
Scott:She didn't give two
Jamie:shits. No. She's like, here we go.
Scott:Didn't matter. She's like, no.
Scott:I know it's about to go down.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. And and we need to fix this now.
Scott:Straight hero mode.
Jamie:Hero mode. Mom herself?
Scott:I I don't I don't know.
Jamie:Sure feels like it. No?
Scott:Yeah. But she just yeah. Sure.
Jamie:I mean, was she young?
Scott:No. She wasn't the youngest.
Jamie:Middle aged?
Scott:Sure. Sure. We can go with that.
Jamie:Got it. That's impressive. Again, that's a mom move right there,
Scott:though. Total mom move.
Jamie:You know, that you don't see that from, like, a lot of, like, teenagers, kids in their twenties. Know what I mean? No. No. But, like, that's a that's like a mom move.
Jamie:Yeah.
Scott:That's a parent move. Right.
Jamie:You know what mean? Right. Listen. I give her a lot of credit for doing that.
Scott:No. It's great. And it probably definitely minimized. The outcome.
Dan:Yeah.
Jamie:I think.
Scott:It could have been worse. I think so.
Jamie:If she swallowed that, it could have a lot worse.
Scott:Yeah. No. No doubt.
Jamie:Because I have a feeling you swallowed that as a she's like, obviously, a toddler.
Scott:Yes. That's coming up. It was hysterical in retrospect.
Jamie:Now it's funny.
Scott:But at the time, was like, oh man, that's gotta suck for like such a small child to be just like slushing around wasabi in their mouth like, blech.
Jamie:I don't mind a lit a little. Like, mean a little Wasabi? Sabi. I mean, when I say But a little
Scott:you get down with you said you get down with spicy.
Jamie:I do. But wasabi is a different type of spice.
Scott:That's Why is it a different type of spice?
Jamie:Don't know.
Scott:I think there's definitely spicier things in wasabi. Yes. We gotta do our wing eating challenge. Hot ones? Yeah.
Scott:Now I'm starting to think
Jamie:that Have you watched Hot Ones by the way?
Scott:No. Oh, it's such a good show. Listen, but I we have to do this.
Jamie:I'm down. And we'll film it.
Scott:Yeah. Do We'll
Jamie:have a film crew. Film it.
Scott:Yeah. Why do we need a film crew?
Jamie:Because it's cooler that
Scott:way. Font?
Jamie:We should actually we should actually write Hot Wings and be like, crazy hockey dads wanna be on your show.
Scott:You wanna do a pilot? We could figure something out.
Jamie:Just I'd be down to I'd be down to do like a a wing challenge. Think you'd good at it?
Scott:I think I would know how to approach it. I don't know how long I would You'd last. Would last. I think I I so I like spicy food. Same.
Scott:But there's like a spectrum there on how spicy is spicy. So I
Jamie:will This stuff gets pretty spicy.
Scott:Know. Know. So like if I go to a Thai restaurant Not a fan. Okay. That's fine.
Scott:But what I'm saying is Thai spice so Yeah. Medium spice Thai food is generally spicier than what you would expect medium, let's say, like Mexican.
Jamie:So is that like your lane, medium Thai?
Scott:Well, I would say that I would never go anything I I I would not order and expect to enjoy anything more than medium spice.
Jamie:See, don't eat Thai food. So I Well,
Scott:that's a mistake.
Jamie:I can't I can't relate to what you're saying.
Scott:Why not? Why wouldn't you why don't you eat Thai food? You don't like it? Or you just really haven't had it?
Jamie:I actually haven't had it, to be honest
Scott:with you. No. There's some really good dishes.
Jamie:Are there?
Scott:A 100%. Yeah. For sure. Like what? That's some of the best food.
Scott:Like bimbap? No. That's Korean.
Jamie:It is Korean. That is Korean. I had it when I was on Korea air.
Scott:Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Put you on Thai air.
Jamie:It was awful.
Scott:You didn't like? No. No likey.
Jamie:Sorry for you Korean listeners. We do have listeners in in in Japan. So Japan and Korea.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Well, not Korea. I don't know why I said Japan and Korea.
Scott:Korea.
Jamie:We do have listeners in I don't think North Korea.
Scott:No. I
Jamie:don't think state radio is don't think that's popped up on our map yet. South Korea has.
Scott:Yeah. Yes. So
Jamie:Not a fan. Go ahead.
Scott:No. But like so Some medium spice Thai. Medium spice like is yeah. For whatever that's worth. No.
Scott:But curries, I like the their curries, Thai curries.
Jamie:You do?
Scott:Yeah. And I also like Pad Si Yu is a good noodle dish.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:So yeah. They've got they've got whatchamacallit? Oh no, I'm blanking. Blanking, blanking, but yeah. Good flavours, a lot of lemongrass, kefir lime.
Scott:Hello, earth to
Jamie:No, no. I'm watching I'm looking at Josh and Josh has a Josh has a like a baby carrier on the front of his, like, I'm not sure what he came in and just left, last time we saw Josh, which was like two hours ago, he did not have a baby carrier on
Scott:his front.
Jamie:Is he the little guys?
Scott:I guess so.
Jamie:Josh is the one who runs this place.
Scott:Yes. Guess you can
Jamie:call it that, right?
Scott:He definitely seems to be the operations manager.
Jamie:Yes. Yes. Very nice guy. Yeah. Thank you to him for actually setting this up because thank you to Larry for allowing it.
Jamie:Josh is the one that actually kinda helped us put this together. Yeah. Which was great. Yeah. Got it.
Jamie:So I need to try spicy Thai for your talent.
Scott:I'm just saying if you you that's like a that's a new level of spice than probably what you're used to getting in in restaurants.
Jamie:Okay.
Scott:In my opinion.
Jamie:Good to know.
Scott:That would be my guess. Okay. But that said, I think if we're to you do a wing challenge, it doesn't take long for it to be unenjoyable for me. Even if I can tolerate the heat just like the you know, then I just feel like I'm eating something to like to like endure discomfort. There's there's no pleasure in like the actual food that I'm eating.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:I see what you're saying. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.
Jamie:By the way, should we do our partners?
Scott:Oh my god.
Jamie:We told we started talking about about Moe's smile, and we totally forgot our partners.
Scott:Yeah. Go for it.
Jamie:So check out Howie's Hockey, Crazy Ten.
Scott:Crazy Ten.
Jamie:Go check out their tape, laces, gear. We actually reached out to them this morning. You and I were talking about it. We were trying to get them to send us a bunch of tape and stickers and candles and wax and scissors to hopefully they can get it here for for Moe's event. Yeah.
Jamie:We'll see. That would be tremendous.
Scott:We will see.
Jamie:So hopefully they they can do that. A bunch of giveaways to everybody that's gonna be walking around. So go check them out. Use the code crazy 10 for 10% off your Howie's hockey gear.
Scott:Yep. That's it. And hockeytraining.com. Off season is in full swing. Getting anyone that's looking to get some reps off the ice at their home, at their local school, high school, whatever it might be, check out hockeytraining.com.
Scott:Massive library of drills that you can do off ice for your stick handling, speed, strength and agility. He's got an excellent Instagram presence, hockey training HQ on Instagram. But go check out coach Kevin at hockeytraining.com.
Jamie:And then Titan Battle Gear, Dominic just ordered a bunch of stuff the other day.
Scott:Yeah, you do.
Jamie:Because we need to get here before we leave for Penn State.
Scott:Yeah, you do.
Jamie:Because Dominic all of a sudden is growing out of everything. Yeah. So we grew out of his Titan Battle Gear stuff. So we just ordered a bunch more.
Scott:Nice. So use
Jamie:the code crazy dads 10 for your Titan battle gear. Scott and I think it's the best stuff on the market as far as protection goes. We love the styles. I think Dominic got the black with the Titan logo kinda starting in the middle and going down to the bottom. He got the USA one, the new USA one for the July 4, which should have arrived today.
Jamie:So we just got we just bought three new ones.
Scott:No shit.
Jamie:We bought two black and The USA one. Because again, we needed him because he's growing out of everything, like a weed.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:So we just bought a bunch of stuff from Titan Battle Gear. We use the code crazydads10, for 10% off. We save ourselves a bunch of money. You should too. The styles are awesome.
Jamie:Go check it out. Titanbattlegear.com backslash crazy hockey dads is in our show notes. Check that out. We're gonna to Titan battle gear dot com. Use the code crazy dads 10 for 10% off your Titan battle gear.
Scott:That's it. And for any of you coaches, managers out there that are looking into video review and analytics for your team this season, go check out athleticperformanceinsight.com. Go to the contact form, fill it out, reach out to Eric and he would be more than happy to do a demo of the software for you as well as break down a game for free. And it's a great teaching tool for kids as young as mites, all the way through the college ranks and above are all using some form of video review with their teams. So, check out athleticperformanceinsight.com and mention Crazy Hockey Dads.
Scott:And you're looking at how much, Jayme?
Jamie:$100 value.
Scott:10% off your season subscription.
Jamie:Hard to go wrong with that.
Scott:That's what it is. Check out
Jamie:Third of a hockey stick.
Scott:Third of a hockey stick. That's right. That's crazy. Hockey sticks are crazy.
Jamie:Tell me
Scott:about them. So anyway, yeah. And don't forget intro intro BJD. Big John Dangles.
Jamie:Yes. Thank you so much. Yes.
Scott:Love the intro. Everyone, if you don't know BJD, go check him out on Instagram. Big John Dangles is the account. Correct, sir?
Jamie:Oh, yes. He's a very talented guy. Yep. Thank you to BJD for our awesome intro as always. That's what's up.
Jamie:So you know, I hear something funny. You know, so we put up a clip the other day of Max from our last episode, 2026
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:The Bake Awards. If you guys haven't checked it out, go check out episode 74 with Max Plant, UMD Bulldog Yeah. And 2026. And 2026, not the WMD, UMD Bulldog.
Scott:That's fine.
Jamie:Max Plant. He he's the 2026 Hockey Baker award winner. So we we put up a clip of him the other day from his interview with us, and he was saying how awesome Minnesota was. Yeah. Right?
Jamie:Minnesota hockey and how there's kinda rinks everywhere. So I had mentioned on on the episode, I think you and I were talking, I said a buddy of mine just moved out there. Sold his house in Connecticut and moved out there, and he was texting me this morning. Okay? He's been there a week, he loves it.
Jamie:Really? He says it's a hockey heaven.
Dan:That's what
Jamie:he wrote that multiple times. He's like, Jamie, he's like, there's rinks everywhere. He's like, rinks are spectacular. He's like, they're all clean. He's like, they're all beautiful.
Jamie:He's like, there's ODRs everywhere in every town. He's like, there's rinks minutes from your house no matter where you live. He said, they're everywhere. He's like, you cannot go wrong with hockey here.
Scott:I mentioned that to Orly. I said, what do you think about moving out to Minnesota for high school? I'm like, it's kind of a cheat code.
Jamie:Speaking of high school, he said that, this high school, I think it's called Idina or Dina.
Scott:Yeah. Idina. Idina? That they just had that crazy story this past season.
Jamie:Oh, yes.
Scott:With a quarterback that is drafted. I forgot about that. He went back to high school to win a championship with
Jamie:With his hockey buddy.
Scott:Yes. That's where your buddy's going?
Jamie:So I'm not sure if his no. His son's going to Shattuck.
Scott:Oh, right. Right.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Yes. But his daughter might I'm not sure. I'm not really sure how the situation went, but his daughter's also playing. But he was saying that Edina has three sheets of ice
Scott:No way.
Jamie:In a high school, dude. How nuts is that?
Scott:That's crazy.
Jamie:Can you imagine
Scott:They they they their high school
Jamie:Has three sheets of ice.
Scott:So with the, like, the freshman JV and varsity team all get their own full sheet whenever they want?
Jamie:I don't know the answer to that. I'm assuming there's a main rink that all the games going in
Dan:Yeah.
Jamie:And a practice rink and almost like an overflow. I don't I do not know. Well, I I'm just I'm just reporting what he told me.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:But he said they have three sheets of ice. The high school.
Scott:Just for the
Jamie:high school. Just for the high school. Is that not nuts?
Scott:That's insane.
Jamie:So, again, clearly Minnesota just does it differently than we do. Yes. Or than the rest of the country does. Although, I think because Max was talking about how, like, you know, like, families chip in to help out because it's kind of a community feel. Right?
Jamie:Because you're you're playing in your community. Somebody kinda knows each other. And then somebody actually chimed in on Instagram for us, and they said something to the effect of that it was similar in Wisconsin.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:I don't know that to be true, we need to have somebody on from Wisconsin, but but from what I understand and what what Johnny's telling me is the Minnesota scene is pretty insane.
Scott:I thought we were If you're a hockey guy. Wisconsin or the Dakotas?
Jamie:So I know this one listener wrote in Wisconsin. That she said that Wisconsin hockey is cheaper than baseball, baseball, which is hard to believe. Wow. But yeah. So I guess maybe it's not just Minnesota.
Jamie:Minnesota's I thought I think Minnesota's its own animal, but I guess there's some of it that aren't awful.
Scott:I have to look it up.
Jamie:Like, price wise.
Scott:I thought I would Does this sound familiar if you go to my hockey rankings? I I literally haven't gone in like over a year.
Jamie:Mhmm.
Scott:If you go to my hockey rankings and then they have like the separate out Minnesota. But doesn't it say like Minnikota? It looks like Minnesota and Dakota put together?
Jamie:Are you are you thinking Mankato?
Scott:No. I don't know what
Jamie:I'm thinking. I have to check it out.
Maurice:I forgot you. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. But so so apparently, like, Minnesota is hot again. Just like we all thought it was. We all thought it was that, and apparently, it it lives up to it.
Scott:Yeah. Okay. Well, that's that's good to know. That's real deal.
Jamie:Because like I said,
Scott:a friend of mine Surprise.
Jamie:Just moved out from Connecticut. Just sold his house in Connecticut, and he's out in he says he's out in the horse country, in like farmland. Wow. But apparently, he's only like thirty minutes from Downtown Minneapolis.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:He said he's like five minutes from this city, ten minutes from that city, ten minutes from that city. Yep. I mean, so because I was curious, was out in the sticks.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:You know? And it sounds lovely.
Scott:Okay. Yeah. Well, maybe you guys should go take a visit. That'd be cool to see.
Jamie:Listen, I I've always well, you and I have talked about going to Minnesota.
Scott:Should go. I'd love to go.
Jamie:We should. We should go we should go check out hang out with Sadie Lundquist and go check out a couple of Did
Scott:you did you you reach out to? Did you reach out to Sadie?
Jamie:I didn't. I have to.
Scott:You have to.
Jamie:Yeah. I I have to I have to send her actually the clip of of Max
Scott:Oh, I'm giving a about it Yeah.
Jamie:On on episode 74. She was what? She was episode like 42, 46, something like that? I don't remember. 45?
Jamie:Mhmm. Sadie was great. Yeah. We've we've interviewed a couple of from Minnesota now.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%.
Jamie:And they all say the same thing. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's a pretty impressive scene.
Scott:What, what do you got, hockey wise?
Jamie:Hockey wise, Dominic skated yesterday. He was supposed to go down with our buddy Ryan Murphy, New Jersey Devil skills, skills coach this morning, but he woke up with, like, strep, Dominic.
Scott:That's not good.
Jamie:I had to I had to move that.
Scott:So you're about urgent care or something?
Jamie:Nancy took him to the CVS Clinic Yeah. This morning Yeah. At, like, 08:45.
Maurice:Yeah.
Jamie:He was up all night. It's funny. I woke up in the middle of the night. I woke up at like 12:30.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Because I thought I heard something upstairs.
Maurice:Yeah.
Jamie:And it was like a it was I felt like the couch, you know, so I heard like a thud.
Scott:I was gonna say, I didn't realize.
Jamie:No. I I happened I I was like I was watching I was watching how it's a Yankee game, I fell asleep like in front of my computer.
Dan:Right.
Jamie:You know, on the couch. And and I heard like a thud upstairs at like 12:31.
Scott:Wait, he's a lot of bed.
Scott:I was
Jamie:like, the fuck is that? He was awake.
Scott:What was he doing?
Jamie:I was like, dude, you alright? And he's normally not not awake at that time and he's like, I can't sleep. So clearly, in retrospect, looking back, clearly you knew something was wrong.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? So he got up this morning, he's like a raging sore throat. Like, he's like, he's like, this is awful. He's like, I feel something in the back of my throat. And he he's not really a big complainer.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right? You know, so Nancy looked at back of his throat, it's like bright red.
Scott:Really?
Jamie:And then she took his temperature, he had a one zero one and a half or one zero one seven, something like that. Yeah. So I unfortunately text Ryan at like 05:30 in the morning, I'm like, Ryan, we reschedule?
Scott:Right.
Jamie:You know? Right. So unfortunately, he didn't get to go down to Red Bank to see Ryan, but we're gonna try to reschedule for next week. Hopefully because we're only here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Right.
Jamie:And then we have the Moe Smiles event. Right? Our Moe Smile event. Yeah. And then and then we leave for Penn State that night.
Jamie:Right. So for hockey camp for couple
Scott:days. So by the time this comes out, you will already be in Penn State?
Jamie:By the time this comes out, I will be yes. Yeah.
Scott:I know. I'll be back. Princeton. You'll be in Princeton. Oh, maybe you'd will
Jamie:be in Princeton. We will be
Scott:in Princeton. We should record from down there also. 100% we should.
Dan:Yeah.
Scott:Absolutely. Alright. Great.
Jamie:We can we can probably set up something in the, in the Nassau Inn like that in one of the in one of the conference rooms.
Scott:Well, why don't we just do it at the rink?
Jamie:Oh, we can do it too. In Hobie Baker? Yeah. A 100%. Great idea.
Scott:Let's do it.
Jamie:It's even better idea than mine.
Scott:Okay. Great.
Jamie:I like that.
Scott:Okay.
Jamie:I'll reach out to you, we'll actually make that happen. I'll reach out to Chaz, who who's the, yeah, like, PR guy for hockey Yep. For men's and women's hockey in Princeton. And, yeah. That's a great idea.
Scott:Perfect. Yeah. I love it, buddy. We're doing it.
Jamie:Yeah. So that's kinda what we're doing hockey wise.
Scott:Yep.
Jamie:Looking forward. The season will be here before you know
Scott:it. Absolutely.
Jamie:You know, July is gonna fly by, you know, and then first couple weeks in August, then hockey starts, like, midway through August.
Scott:Yeah. Well, this is this is the moment. This is the out of season moment that we should all kind of soak up, do other things. I wanna go lay out in the sun and just veg for a That's little
Jamie:the idea?
Scott:Yeah. On the weekends as opposed to being in the car and, you know, driving places.
Jamie:Yeah. I I feel you're gonna be driving a lot this this fall.
Scott:Yeah. Listen. It's it's always a lot of driving, but it's gonna be more than, you know, fine. Whatever. We signed up
Scott:for it.
Scott:Yes. We did. Better win.
Jamie:You bought the ticket. Now you're gonna ride the train.
Scott:That's it, my guy.
Scott:That's it.
Jamie:Whether you like it or not Yeah. You're gonna ride the train.
Scott:I know. I know. It's okay. Listen, as long as it's like what did we say before? It's either winning or learning.
Scott:Well said. Except I don't know how much I really believe that.
Jamie:Well, you'll definitely learn something from it. No, know. I'm joking. You
Scott:know? No,
Jamie:I'm sure.
Scott:What was the, there was that funny Instagram clip of the dad. And it like the setting is like a baseball field. Yeah. And like he's just talking to the kids who are like sitting on the grass and like he's like talking to them and he's like, now, fuck I'm gonna mess this up. Now you know what I'm not even gonna bother trying to hemming my haul my way through it but the bottom line was like you know, if any of your parents tell you that it's okay to come in second place
Jamie:Oh, they're losers.
Scott:They're losers. Something like that.
Jamie:I've seen that.
Scott:You know what I'm talking about?
Jamie:That's so
Scott:funny. Listen.
Jamie:No. If they said something like winning doesn't matter
Evan:Oh, right.
Jamie:Or if it doesn't matter if you win or lose Right. That's what it was. He goes, listen. That was a great video, by the way.
Scott:Really funny.
Jamie:For those of you who have not seen it, and I don't know how you haven't seen it because it's it's been everywhere.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:It's the dad talking to young baseball players. You're a 100% right. Yeah. And he goes, now listen guys. He goes, if your parents tell you that it doesn't matter whether you win and lose, it's if you have fun or not.
Jamie:He's like, your parents are
Scott:losers. Totally.
Jamie:He's like, we play to win.
Scott:Exactly. Which
Jamie:isn't the worst it's not the worst thing to tell your kid. Right. Because you want your kids to always strive to win. Life to compete. Is a competition.
Jamie:Right. But it's
Scott:not about it's not about the outcome. It's about the process.
Jamie:Yes. But I think the idea is is you always have to try your hardest to win.
Scott:Right.
Jamie:Right. Because because in life, you have to win. You do. Well, you have to you have to. Yeah.
Jamie:If you don't win, you have to try to win. You know? Because when you try, generally, good things will come from whether you're in business, whether you're in sports. Right? So I I see I see what the gentleman is saying.
Jamie:He probably shouldn't have called those kids' parents losers.
Scott:No. But that's what makes it funny.
Jamie:It does. And and and yes. It is very funny. Yeah. But yeah.
Jamie:But you dev I tell my kids all the time, like, you have to try your hardest to
Scott:win. Yeah.
Jamie:Derek Cheetos says those kids too.
Scott:Yeah. I just wish kids would listen better sometimes.
Jamie:Yeah. They don't do that so well.
Scott:Not all the time. Unfortunately. No. Anyway. Yeah.
Scott:Alright. What else you got for this, for this this bit?
Jamie:What do I have? I'm very excited for some interviews that we're gonna have. You know, we're not sure who we're gonna have on yet because we're doing this ahead of time.
Scott:That's right.
Jamie:Right? But I am pretty excited for the potential list of people that are gonna be here Yep. To support Mo Smiles. I keep saying it wrong. To support Moe's.
Jamie:Moe's smile. Yes. Yep. Apparently his smile was infectious. I would love to I hope he gets to talk to his dad and his mom.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:I think that'd be great. So the I don't know who we're gonna have for an interview, but I'm sure it's gonna be awesome.
Scott:Yeah, no. There's gonna be a lot of people in and out of the grounds all day, playing a whole bunch of different games. We should have a whole bunch of stuff that we can, you know, we'll share with everyone on social, on on Facebook, obviously social and, you know Yes.
Jamie:But at the moment, we're not sure who is gonna be our interviewer. No. So so Yeah. It's gonna be awesome whoever it is. It's gonna be awesome Yeah.
Jamie:Whoever it Because, again, the potential list of people that we heard about is pretty insane.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. So, again, thank you very much, to Larry Robbins and his family for inviting us to this. He has done a it is very impressive what they've put together to raise money for Mo.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:And the Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Scott:Yeah. And the more people that are able to be involved or able to get the word out and help raise money for a good cause. So we're just happy to be a part of that.
Jamie:I can't imagine losing, you know, any of my kids to do something like that. No. You know, so at such a young age. So, I mean, it's a very good cause, so please go to our socials, you'll see the socials that says Moe's smile. I keep saying it wrong.
Jamie:Moe know you said it. I did say it. Smile. See, now I'm like second guessing myself. So go check it out.
Jamie:Link in bio.
Scott:Yeah. But by the time this comes out, it might already be finished up.
Jamie:Oh, good point. Yeah. Didn't think about that.
Scott:But if, you know, it's worth it.
Jamie:But you could they could still give, think, Gavin. Think the link Yeah. Is still a little
Scott:it out. See if there's still the link in bio. If if you're listening to this now and after you either listen to the episode or watch some of the video on YouTube and wanna, you know, donate, you know, go check
Scott:it out.
Jamie:Just go to Memorial Sloan Kettering. I think it all goes to the same place too.
Scott:Yeah. But to check it, check out, you know, for a link in bio.
Jamie:Hopefully, it's still IG. Hopefully, we'll stop there.
Scott:I'm sure we'll
Dan:leave it up.
Jamie:Yeah. No. But is it still gonna be still be active?
Scott:Oh, we'll find out.
Jamie:I would think so. Yeah. Right? Alright. Good.
Jamie:Yeah. Alright. I'm I'm excited, buddy. It's gonna be fun.
Scott:Yeah, man.
Jamie:Yeah. Good
Scott:point too. Alright. That's a wrap.
Jamie:Alright. Sounds good, buddy.
Scott:Alright, dude.
Jamie:We'll see you guys in the, in the closing.
Scott:Yeah. We will.
Jamie:See you soon.
Scott:Alright, dude. See you later.
Scott:Alright, everyone. Welcome back to another interview here at
Scott:the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast, and
Scott:we have the absolute honor of having Maurice Campbell join us today. It's a big day for their family, obviously, celebrating, Moe's Moe's life and and everything that he went through. And I just wanna say thank you so much for taking some time to talk to us. Really appreciate it. And, you know, just to kinda kick things off, if you could kinda share with us just, you know, a bit about Moe's hockey journey.
Scott:You know? Like, where did the love for the game come from? Like, how did it all start? How did you get involved, and and what was that like for him?
Scott:It's all about his sister.
Scott:His sister, of course.
Scott:Okay. Actually, Moe's sole purpose in life was to kick his sister's ass at the academics, skating, whatever it is. Right. And he always wanted to be like his sister. So she was a figure skater.
Scott:Okay? And he started figure skating at, like, three years old. From three to, like, seven. And then he got a lot better than him. A lot better than him.
Scott:And then one day, she's also pretty competitive. She looked at him and listen. You know, don't misinterpret this the wrong way. She looked at him and she said, look around. You put boys around.
Scott:Why don't you go play hockey? And he was so crushed. So he went upstairs. My wife and I are sitting down watching him in the fishbowl. Yeah.
Scott:And he had this look in his face, and he said, Grace doesn't like to escape anything. He said, what? He said, man, he's playing. Okay. Why don't you play him?
Scott:And that was it. Ow. That was it. And as you know, if you spend a lot of time, you put a lot of work to a figure skating, it's transferrable in these skates and it was pretty big. Yes.
Scott:Sure. Yes. It is.
Scott:That's a so so before before that conversation with his sister, I mean, was how was there a hockey walk in the house at all? Or this was like when he started playing,
Scott:it just introduced a whole level, a whole new new experience to the family.
Scott:Like, eight? So there is there is no hockey in the house. I never laced up. Yep. The only skates that he had on his feet was figure skates.
Scott:Okay. And just Herb merely just telling him just to go away. He found love and camaraderie. And you know the hockey team. Oh, yeah.
Scott:You know how they like to all be around each other. Special. Yeah. Very, very special. I mean, when you live it, right, you understand it.
Scott:Yep. And we got the bug, and it just took off.
Scott:And so and so once you started getting to see what youth hockey was was like and, like, at the podcast Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast isn't named that for no reason because we've seen plenty of crazy.
Scott:You know? But just, what was kind
Scott:of, like, your experience as a parent, like, getting introduced to, youth hockey and kinda, like, the culture? I mean, obviously, like, you've come to learn, like, how tight knit and supportive it could be, but there you know, like everything else, there's a yin to the yang, and we've all seen some crazy stuff. Did you have any experiences of just, like, over the top families or parents or anything that was kind of, like, eye opening when you started getting into the sport?
Scott:I believe that every single family ever moved to the place in this kingdom.
Jamie:You know? Yeah.
Scott:And I've seen a lot. And when I say a lot, it's a lot. I don't think you have enough time for me to sit here. It's a great experience that I've seen. But it was all good.
Scott:Yeah. Right? Everybody you know, your kids just laced up. They skate. And Yeah.
Scott:My kid is going to love each other. Right? And it's all about trying to get your kid exposure, time on the ice. Kids have to put in work. But the thing is, it has to be a like an ambition gene.
Scott:That's come naturally. Yeah. And you see some parents try to teach ambition gene. You can't you can't do that. And when you shove it down a kid's throat, it doesn't work.
Scott:It does not work. And we've seen a lot of the bad behavior or some of the craziness when the kid doesn't have the nutrition team, and the parents are, like, saying Yeah. This is what you wanna do. Right? This is what you're gonna do.
Scott:It's you're going to do. What to
Jamie:do. You're right. That's exactly where it goes off the rails. Yeah. And and that's where parents start becoming nuts.
Scott:No. When I say nuts, I think they has to come up with a new word to describe it.
Maurice:We gotta go to the Brits and try to find something that's gonna take that word nuts and be like
Jamie:To another level?
Maurice:Something. They was like, that's it. That's it.
Jamie:Yeah. It's it's so can can you share, like, your favorite your favorite, play, your favorite moment with with Moe on the ice, whether it was him first time on the ice with hockey skates or the little cap story that Bruce come out. What's your favorite moment?
Maurice:My favorite moment is when they figured out how to toe drag.
Scott:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Maurice:Big ones. Yes. And they try to do everything is a toe drag.
Jamie:Everywhere. And
Maurice:everybody wants to be on ESPN. Top 10 plays. And and and one particular game when he just had it. Right? He was a defensive player, but he was good with the stick, and he could play a little offense.
Maurice:And you could hear me screaming like one of those crazy hockey dad. Don't pole drag. Don't pole drag. Don't pole. And he toe drag messed it up.
Maurice:Uh-huh.
Scott:I've seen that once or twice.
Jamie:More than once or twice. My kid comes on the ice. I and I always tell him, like, hey, buddy. I'm like, let me shit punch the mic. Instead of trying the toe drag, which always seems to get poked away, just go around him.
Maurice:Go around him. You had the speed, dude. There's just yes. He has the speed. Just just go around him and just touch it in there.
Maurice:No. It has to get fancy with
Scott:the toe drag.
Dan:That's right.
Maurice:And 99% of the time, it doesn't work. That's right. At that level.
Jamie:Yeah. No. You're right here. It's my kid has very few toe drags that have actually worked. You know?
Jamie:It's, yeah. No. That's a good one, Reese.
Maurice:Absolutely. I mean, there's there are others, but that one that, like, stood out.
Scott:Six sticks out?
Maurice:Yeah. No no toe drag because I'm I try to contain myself when he plays, but it started, like, you know, annoying the hell out of me when you have so much natural talent, and you could just easily score without it being on ESPN. Right.
Jamie:Right. At the end of day, the puck just has to go in the back of the net.
Scott:That's right.
Jamie:That's it. It doesn't need to look fancy.
Maurice:It's not gonna show up in a stat sheet that you told dragged and you make the goalie of other players look silly.
Jamie:100%. But in this in the Instagram world, the
Maurice:Oh my god. Everybody everybody wants to be in a video. Everybody.
Jamie:That's right. Nobody wants to do, like, the hard things or the or the it's always the toe drag or the fancy stuff.
Maurice:Right. But but one thing about him, though, I just shared this with you guys real quickly. I didn't have to have to wake him up at 05:00 in the morning for him to go and practice with it with his one on one or
Scott:on my breath. But, you know, when a when a kid has a passion for something, you guys are bad, when a kid have a passion for something, you gotta you gotta feed the beast. Yeah. And I had to get up, His clothes were packed for school, and he goes and he practice with his coach. And he takes a shower, put his school uniform on, drive the Dunkin' Donuts, get him his Dunkin' Donuts, drop him off at school, and then after they sound really good.
Scott:If that happens, like, maybe three foot. Wow. That's yep. How far away from the grid? It wasn't far.
Scott:It was probably about twenty five minute drive, but I asked to drive another thirty five minutes to get him to screw. And then I have to figure out how to park the car and then get to there. Then they do stuff to that. Yep. And then get up and start it all over.
Jamie:I know those I know those days well. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. So so obviously, you know, everyone's here to celebrate Moe and and contribute to cancer research. But in terms of, like, for you personally, just, you know, seeing how this event has, like, you know, come to be and now we're at the third year, like, what what, like, what does it mean to your family?
Scott:We get a lot of satisfaction from her. K. Listen. We all know Larry Roberts. Yeah.
Scott:And one thing I like to share about him and Sarah Mae, It is the compassion. Mhmm. And they they they they're not doing it for the limelight. Larry was there in the hospital just like I was sharing with you about my buddy Wayne. He was there in the hospital a lot.
Scott:Larry was there. He showed up. No cameras. Nobody looked him. Right?
Scott:Right. He was just there.
Jamie:He's a bear.
Scott:Just because he cared. He cared. At a celebration of life, probably like paying 150 people showed up. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Scott:Yeah. And to continue his legacy and, you know, for people who truly appreciate what this is all about and recognize how many people he has touched, you know, from from Ione, from the vipers that he played all the way up to Avalanche, his high school, his college. Right? And to see how people continue to show up, send the elevator back down, and do their part. Because I think they truly appreciate and understand that a pharmaceutical company is not gonna invest $5,000,000,000 to come up with a cure for 25 patients.
Scott:No. It doesn't make economic sense. Is that what the numbers are? The number is terrible.
Jamie:I didn't realize I didn't
Scott:That's how rare the cancer is.
Jamie:Like It's so rare.
Scott:Very, very rare. So you had some, you know, committed folks at MSK that's looking to try to come up with that solution because that one kid, my kid. Right? Just think about it. That was your kid.
Scott:Of course. They do whatever you can. And I think that's where the Larry and the Saramac comes out because they kind of they're like an extension of us in terms of their feeling. Mhmm. And they could bring more exposure and do their little part.
Scott:Right? And collectively, this is what you see. Everybody's doing a little part to send the elevator back down. The $5 $25, $50,000, whatever it is. Yeah.
Scott:Every penny counts. Every penny goes to the rewards. Understood. So you asked that question. The mega suite is real.
Scott:You know, obviously, it's really tough on us, because, you know, there's a lot of what ifs, especially seeing the springs that he stayed with, seeing folks doing some internship and folks getting drafted and so on. It's a lot of what ifs. Right? Because this kid, athletically, academically, he he was it. Right?
Scott:And he was gonna add value to society. And to see that just gets snuffed away and you can't really question it, all you can do is just put your energy and get around his satisfaction by trying to set an elevator down. Do you
Jamie:have any idea? I know you have other foundations. We're talking to Megan from MSK. Do you do you have any idea how much you've raised in total? It's probably a serious number, mama.
Scott:Well, listen. I we we get involved also with cycle survival. We get involved Right.
Jamie:That's what she mentioned, darling.
Scott:We get involved with anything MSK. Right. Okay. And I I don't wanna put a number on it. And because I know it's a lot.
Scott:Right. Right. And and to to hear you say that, you know, it just it just makes me think about how challenging, you know, it can be or, you know, like my father's going through some cancer touches many people's life, unfortunately. Yeah. And My mother's Yeah.
Scott:You're yeah. His mother as well. So so, you know, no no one's no one's far from a relationship where, you know, cancer's been part of the conversation. And, you know, for any any of the families that are listening that are going through a tough time, is, you know, is there any advice that you might wanna share with them that might have helped you and your family, like, get through the tough times? Anything to really lean into?
Scott:Because it's like we said, like, you know, so many people unfortunately are affected by cancer, but, you know, it's like for you and your family, this is, you know, obviously devastating, but on the other side of it, like, there's, you know, all of this that's happening. So any advice that you might, you know, give to families that are having a tough time with
Scott:that now?
Maurice:Wouldn't call this an advice, but our experience, and I think our son helped out a lot, because first and foremost, he said, listen, don't treat me like I'm a cancer patient. And and we didn't. And, you know, you have to live your life. You have to commit to trust in a process. You really, really do.
Maurice:So if you're that patient and you're having doubts, trust the process. Follow through on what the doctors are saying. You know? Take the medication. Make sure you have the support.
Maurice:Make sure your mental health is very, very important. Yes. Time's gonna be gonna get down, but you need that picker upper. Whatever it is, find that picker upper and and and and just always, always think positive. My son actually fought until the very end.
Maurice:He was academically driven. And, you know
Jamie:Larry said he he refused to miss homeworks from you, Ben.
Maurice:To meet PK Suban in you know, when when when coach Muse was working with the predators, and he passed on it simply because
Scott:he he he had he
Maurice:had to study for his physics. Wow. And he he he literally passed on it.
Jamie:Dedication, by the way, to turn down a meeting with PK Subay.
Maurice:Oh my god. His idol, he still wears number 76. PK was PK was one of the guys that sent them a video. But, seriously, he was sitting there, you know, a few hours before he passed away. He was concerned about his homework.
Maurice:Wow. Literally concerned about his homework. But you asked the question, what advice? Listen. You have to work hard.
Maurice:It it requires emotional strength. You gotta persevere. Surround yourself with people that understand that, a, that person also needs encouragement, and encouragement in the form of love, encouragement in the form of, you know, not saying all the cliche stuff. Right? Encouragement comes in different forms, And whatever that encouragement is, please provide that encouragement, and it that person needs to take full ownership and recognize that, hey.
Maurice:They gotta fight and fight like hell.
Scott:Yeah. It's gonna require commitment. Right? Time commitment and financial commitment. Right?
Scott:You're gonna get mad at your kid when a kid takes that $304,100 dollar stick and bang it on the ice.
Dan:Yeah.
Scott:Right? I mean, every time I bang the stick on the ice, it's like, oop. It's three
Jamie:and and he he wanted to shoot an outside in the driveway. I'm like, buddy, I'm like, I don't think that's a good idea. He's like, why not? Because you tend your driveway stick. I'm like, I'm like, even though you shoot it off like fake ice.
Jamie:Right? When he goes and grabs pucks from the day, he tends to, like, put the stick on driving, flick the pucks. I'm gonna say, every every time you touch your stick on the pavement, like, it's like, it's degrading the stick. He's like, no. It's not.
Jamie:I'm like, buddy. I'm telling you. Like, every single time you mess that stick, it it gets weaker and weaker. Right?
Scott:And and that's just a stick.
Jamie:And that's and that's just a stick. Right. That's just a stick. That's right.
Scott:And the tape adds up. The the the the cleaner, the shining it, the, you know, sharpen it, the blades add up. So it's a big commitment, financial as well as, you know, time commitment. And and if you kid has the ambition gene, listen. It's not all about to kick in with the NHL.
Scott:It's about making them into a player off the ice too. Yeah. That is so transparent the real world. Yes. We see it.
Scott:We lived it Yeah. In terms of the academic performance, in terms of the drive, in terms of the commitment, in terms of just doing high quality work. So if we invest the time and the energy and come up with the financial, you know, support and put that kid in a position to really strive on no matter what the obstacle may be, that is so transferable to the real world. Yeah.
Jamie:You're making good people. Right? You're giving
Scott:yeah. Absolutely. And those lessons learned just from just everything. There's the the locker room. We're we're shaking our hands, know, the respect for the game.
Scott:That is so, so transferable. Teammates, Yeah. They come to stay, come to library, you know, to travel. You know? The the the community itself.
Scott:You know? Some parents can't make it, you know, to a certain trip. And, you know, the kid when your parents when when you're having a tournament and you're there, it's like, okay. You're supposed to be there. When you're not there, that's when they're really, really mischieved.
Scott:Right. And and sometimes the parent can't make it. Sure. They can't. And they need, a surrogate.
Scott:They need somebody who just put put the throw me somebody's In your hotel room. Right? In in Yeah. Hotel room. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. The community you know, it's a ecosystem where we kinda really, really take care of each other. So trust the system. Literally, if you have any reservations, especially if you enter you get into a little pinch, just trust the system. The hockey community will support you and support them.
Jamie:Hockey the hockey community is unbelievable in that respect, isn't it? It wants to everybody everybody we've met wants to give back. It's unbelievable. It's like it's unbelievable. It's like nothing I've seen before.
Scott:Alright. So as far as do you have a favorite, like, hockey parent, hockey son story with you and Moe that when you think back on his playing days, like, these these these were some moments that were just, you know, really great father son father son moments.
Scott:Oh, there's a lot. I mean, there there's there's there's quite a few. And I I remember and let's use telephone magnificent. What was that? Yeah.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:Can go for it. So you had this one hockey dad, and, dude, he was he was this day, he was special. And you could tell him giving his kid coaching a kid Yeah. From his every time he was told, you could just tell him the kid was told to look at him every single time he get off the ice and hit the bunnies. And they have these hand signals.
Scott:And he was giving the kid hand signals in terms of what he should do and should agree. Right? So one day, the kid's father wasn't there. The kid fell free, and he was he was saying a lot of mother jokes after he gets up. I said, my son's getting tired of it.
Scott:And he kept saying, hey. Here's a mother joke, and he said the mother joke. And then finally, my son said, I got a mother joke. And the coach is right there listening to it. And the kid said, what?
Scott:Said, you know, they just told me to tell you to shut the fuck up.
Jamie:Well done. Was just gonna say, that's
Scott:like done.
Scott:And the coach came off the ice, and he pulled me aside and said, I'm gonna tell you this, but I don't want you to please don't ever repeat. He was just laughing. I'm like
Dan:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:And and he and he repeated it to me, and he said, please don't turn them. And I shook my head. Should we be show this up?
Jamie:Good. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great.
Scott:That is amazing. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. So so so alright. So I'm curious. Do you have a advice for parents on what they shouldn't do? Well, like, hand signals from the stands.
Jamie:Any advice for new hockey parents on what things they shouldn't do? Things to stay away from?
Scott:The the parents have to concentrate on the kid's emotional intelligence. Mhmm. Because if if they're developing emotions I'm not saying for you not to be tough on the kids, but you have to know your kid and carefully select your words. Don't embarrass your kids in public. Right?
Scott:Don't let, you know, other parents feel that, oh my god. What's gonna happen behind post stories when you don't? Oh. Yeah. Think about your brand.
Scott:Yep. Right? Yeah. Because we all have a family brand. And you really don't wanna show your ass and and let folks know, like, oh my god.
Scott:You know, I'm coming across abusive. And if you do that in public, what do you think you're doing in private? Totally. Alright. She sounds like side.
Scott:Straight. Parents beating badly. Right. So, you know, concentrate on just looking at yourself, you know, honest assessment of yourself and figure out if you're that parent. And you know what that parent is all about.
Scott:We all know what that parent is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. That with big letters.
Scott:Don't be that parent. Definitely. No. Not at all. And we all know it.
Scott:Oh, you know exactly what they look like. Oh. And behave
Jamie:They stick out like a sore thumb.
Scott:Yeah. And it's bad behavior. Yeah. And it's bad behavior. And if you think that, you know, you're coming into this hockey community with superiority complex where you think your kid is better or, you know, you don't wanna be part of the team or you're not gonna win without my kid, it's a team sport.
Scott:Mhmm. Right? It really is. And if you start teaching your kids and telling your kids how, you know, good you are and to the point where the kids start thinking that he's better than the team, that's a problem. And sadly, you have some parents do that.
Scott:They encourage the kid, and and then they give their kids cognitive reinforcement. But you gotta be careful not to give the cognitive reinforcement where your kid is looking around with his chest. Yeah. Right? Thinking that'd be don't need be fun.
Scott:Gotta keep Oh, you go. You go. It's a team. Go ahead. Go play by yourself then.
Scott:Right. Right. Good luck playing one on one. Right? One on one on five.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Good luck.
Scott:Can you get laid out? Yeah. Right. Right? So so that's my advice to those parents.
Scott:Alright.
Scott:Well, so one question that we've been finishing up our interviews with, and it's less of a question, but is for you to to complete the sentence. Alright? So
Evan:one
Scott:thing every oh, no. Sorry. That was a different question. Let me back up. Rewind.
Scott:Rewind. Okay. This is it. The best hockey parents are the ones who fill in the blank.
Scott:Committed to the sport. You have you have to be you gotta be you're not saying commit to the sport. You gotta commit to the sport. Yeah. You know, the economic commitment, the time commitment, doing a lot of things that people are not looking.
Scott:I I I I think that add tremendous value to your to your to your kids' development. Yeah. That truly believe both. Breathman is real. No.
Scott:No. And and that's like that's a reoccurring theme that, like, we were just talking with Evan Rodriguez and just the like, commitment is, like, is might as well be that guy's first name because all throughout his career, he just remained committed. And, you know, it wasn't about it wasn't about the results,
Scott:it was about the process.
Scott:It was about the process, sticking to it, put one foot in front of the other every day. You know, you have a bad day, water off a duck's back, you keep going forward March, and yeah, commitment's a big part of of success in whatever you decide to do. Right?
Scott:And there were commitment reasons. It notes different in comparing from victim interpretation too because commitment means you gotta go where the competition is. And if you you have to live out in Minnesota or wherever because, you know, that's the opportunity that presents itself. You still gotta be committed to it. Right?
Scott:So, again, it it comes in different form. And if the kid has the ambition gene, if he wants to do it, and that's key. Yeah. You have to have the ambition gene. He has to want it, or she has to want it.
Scott:And then we just gotta be committed to provide him the necessary support for them to keep it.
Scott:Listen. That was that was that was great. And if, you know, I just wanna say thank you again for taking time to sit with us, to talk with us, to share a bit about Moe's life and your experience. And and and this has just been such a such a tremendous day and we're so happy to be a part of it and be able to raise money for cancer research. So thank you for having us at this event.
Scott:We really appreciate it.
Scott:Thanks for coming. Seriously. No.
Scott:It's our pleasure.
Scott:Thank you guys for the great pleasure. Truly, tremendous success. Thank you. Thank you. To you guys.
Scott:Just wanna
Scott:go forward.
Scott:Promise you. Appreciate
Scott:it. Thank you. Really appreciate it.
Jamie:Hope to raise a lot more money in the future, man.
Scott:I appreciate that.
Scott:Thank you. A 100%. Alright, everyone. We're here with another interview at Longwood at the Moe's Smile event, and we couldn't be happier to have Rob LaFerriere join us. He's the president of Longwood Hockey, and he's put in a lot of, you know, effort in making this day happen along with the rest of the Longwood program.
Scott:So we couldn't be happier to have you on the pod. Thanks for joining us.
Rob:Just the fact that we can have the, Crazy Hockey Dad Podcast guys
Jamie:here is pretty
Rob:pretty awesome.
Jamie:Thank you.
Dan:Appreciate the shout out.
Rob:But but but honestly, like, just the community you guys know the hockey community is a special a special group. And for the community to come together for such a great cause, obviously, Moe had an impact in in Larry a significant impact in Larry's life as well as the rest of the the North Jersey avalanche, the rest of the AYHL, and really the youth hockey community. So it's, you know, it's it's it's great to see the community come together for an unbelievable cause. We're we're honored to to host the, you know, not only the the Campbell family, but all the, you know, the athletes and and other families that wanna come and be a part of this. It's it's truly a special event.
Jamie:The Campbells are special people too, aren't they? Lovely people.
Rob:Yeah. For sure. For sure.
Scott:Yeah. So as far as, you know, being a hockey dad yourself and raising, you know, athletes not just in the sport of hockey, but other sports as well, like, what are some of the things that, like, you would wanna share with parents that have young athletes, aspiring athletes that wanna play division one or play triple a or play in the NHL. What what are some some tips, advice, experience they might wanna share with them to to help them navigate the whole the whole journey?
Rob:No. That's a that's a really good question. I the the main thing I would say is that the kids have to have fun. Right? They have to be enjoying what they're doing or else it's everything's for naught.
Rob:Right? It takes up a lot of time. It takes up a lot of money. Right? It's a it's a major commitment for the family for their kids to be involved in in youth sports.
Rob:And if the kids aren't enjoying it, then it it's it's not worth it. But if but it that being said, if they are enjoying it, then I think, you know, just to in order to provide opportunities for them, just you know, you you really have to be in into it as a family. Right? Like, I had five kids. And if I'm
Jamie:All playing major sports too.
Rob:Oh, yeah. One was swimming, three playing hockey growing up, and one playing field hockey. It really took, you know, it took not only my wife and I to be fully committed to it, whether one of us was taking two of them in one direction, one in the other direction, but, you know, my wife's parents helping out, friends helping It really takes a village. So, you know, I I think to to to really like, everyone has to buy in. Right?
Rob:So you gotta have you gotta have a full commitment from the family in order to, you know, accomplish the kids' dreams really.
Scott:Right. And and and you played hockey yourself. You played at Boston College. So you knew a thing or two about the game as your kids were getting into it. As far as like, you know, we're we're here on the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast because we've been crazy in our own ways, like, you know, just trying to navigate the whole space.
Scott:But in terms of, like, you know, hockey specifically, you know, like, what were, like, what were the car rides home like with your kids whether you know, and and and how did you help foster their their their, you know, their appetite for for hockey?
Rob:Yeah. So I would I would say that peep people would probably call me a crazy hockey dad in in in the sense that, like, everything I did was for my kids. Right? Like, I was completely my wife and I completely selfless. Like, we would do whatever we could for our kids.
Jamie:To give them whatever opportunity that they wanted
Rob:me crazy for doing that?
Jamie:I don't think that's
Rob:crazy. Call me crazy all day long.
Jamie:That's not crazy.
Rob:Like, I'm I would I'd do anything for my kids. So I think a lot of, like, a lot of good that can come out of, like, crazy whatever youth sport parents is that, yeah, those people, they might be crazy, but, like, everything they do is for their kids. So, I'm super respectful when when you that, like, that word gets thrown out there. Like, I'm a little, like, hesitant to go there. But like I said, if it if that's what's crazy, then call me crazy.
Jamie:So were you doing a lot of, like, power skating with your kids and stuff like that? Were you doing all that stuff?
Rob:Honestly, like And
Jamie:some lessons and I
Scott:would
Jamie:build on some lessons.
Rob:Would go to, like, stick and puck. And, you know, I would we might do a couple, like,
Jamie:drills. Because you played. So you got on place with them. I I
Rob:would do things with the kids that they didn't think they were, like, actually working on things when they actually were.
Dan:They were
Jamie:having fun and not
Rob:knowing They're being creative.
Jamie:That's the best coaches.
Rob:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:And do that.
Rob:But we were just having fun.
Jamie:And he had no idea he was working.
Rob:They didn't even realize they were working on, like, inside edges or something because we just like, oh, spin this way and then take a shot. And, like, oh, okay. I'll do that. Not even realizing what they're doing at the time. But I I like, as far as the car rides home and things like that, like, I I always made it a point to tell my kids, like, I just love watching you do your sport.
Rob:Yeah. Like, I just look them in the eye. Like, it wasn't you know, the outcome of the game didn't matter. You know, the but, like, how their dad treated them after a game, they're gonna remember that for a long time. I would just look at them and say, you know what?
Rob:I love watching you play. I love I love, you know, seeing you out there having fun. You know? And whether that was for all my kids, you know, the same thing.
Jamie:That's gonna be an Instagram clip, by the way. That's gonna be that's gonna go viral on Instagram when you just add because because because because more more dad and moms should say that to their kids. A lot of them, you know, break their kids' chops when they get in the car. They yell at them. You know?
Jamie:We've heard stories from all the above. Right? The entire spectrum.
Rob:Well, it's good having, like, the the perspective and the history, you know, having played myself and have, you know, have those car rides with my own parents and family and how, you know, how I wanted them to treat me. Right? Like, you have that in the back of your head. So when you think about, like, oh, how can I be a good parent or how can I be a supportive parent? Well, the best thing you can say is, like, I just love watching you play.
Rob:And
Scott:so as far as and then I because, you know, you have you have kids that played other sports as well, doesn't have to be limited to hockey. But in terms of being a competitive athlete as a child, as a teenager, then when you get into the college, etcetera, like, what are some of the the things that that, in your opinion, like, sport has done for your kids, whether it's like life lessons? Or is there anything in particular that you would say that sport has blessed our family with certain things?
Rob:Yeah. No, that's a good question. But while you were asking that question, I thought of something.
Scott:So
Rob:my kids never had video games.
Jamie:Oh, I like this. Hear
Scott:that, parents?
Jamie:Let's go a little further into that.
Scott:Let's go no video games.
Rob:No video games.
Jamie:I like that.
Rob:No like, they they they all got, like, cell phones at a fairly young age, so they had, like, screen time. But, like, as, like, adolescents, there were no video games in it. And we I mean, obviously, we're fortunate that we had five kids. Our first four kids were all born within five years of one another.
Dan:Oh, wow.
Rob:We had like an instant playgroup just in our own house. Right? So when it came time for the kids to to create, like, create an act
Jamie:Just go figure it out. Grab a ball.
Rob:Yeah. Like, grab a stick. Go Yeah. Go in the Yeah.
Jamie:Go in
Rob:the basement and play a game. Or so I it actually not only do I think it made them better athletes.
Jamie:Isn't that interesting what you're saying
Rob:right now? It helped them bond as siblings
Scott:As family.
Rob:Because they spent time together and figured out how to play a game together. Or so I I honestly, I credit like, my wife and I were really strict about the video game thing and adamant about, like, no video games in our house. And I really think that contributed to their athleticism, to their competitiveness, to their because they would find a game, and they'd wanna win. Yeah.
Scott:For sure.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Rob:Yeah. Right? And it got contentious.
Scott:I'm
Jamie:sure. As it does with all seasons.
Rob:Right? As it does with anyone who who wants
Jamie:to compete.
Rob:Yeah. But I really think that helped
Scott:That's that's unbelievable.
Rob:In their in their lives.
Scott:That makes sense. Good for you for holding true to no video games. That's that's that's a good one. Very rare. Very rare.
Jamie:That is very rare. And I know you wanna go we don't wanna keep you you know, because I know you wanna go and do it, but we appreciate you sitting down with us. Absolutely. You wanna do rapid fire or something like that?
Scott:No. Well, just one last question. It's not even a question. We're ask you to finish the sentence. Okay?
Scott:Okay. Yeah. Finish the sentence. The best hockey parents are those who
Rob:Love their children the most.
Scott:Oh. Okay.
Jamie:I've gotten a different answer from everybody. Everyone.
Scott:Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:That's great.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Love it. Perfect.
Rob:Because it because it a good hockey parent isn't like, oh, your kid's successful. Right? Or successful at that sport. Right? A good hockey a good hockey parent is someone who loves their kids and they're gonna be happy with them being successful in whatever they
Scott:Whatever it is. Right. No. That's perfect. Rob, thank you so much for joining
Scott:us today. Really appreciate it. Absolutely.
Rob:Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Yeah. You got it.
Scott:Alright, everyone. We're here with our next guest for the Crazy Hockey Dads Podcast at the Mo Smile fundraising event. We've got the one and only Evan Rodriguez, NHL. There we go. Former BU Terrier.
Scott:Go Terriers.
Evan:Hell, yeah.
Jamie:There we go. Newest New Jersey Devil.
Scott:That's also true. Go Devils.
Evan:Yes. I do.
Scott:Fun fact. So I got into hockey. I know this pod this interview is probably about you, but I'll say a few things. So when my my dad is so not an athlete, but when he was when I was younger, he
Scott:got split season tickets to
Scott:the Devils when we were kids. I'm, like, talking, like, the mid eighties. Right? So I started going to games when, like, Rod Langway was still playing, and, like, there was no advertisements on the boards. There was still two line passing.
Evan:Oh, yeah.
Scott:It was, like, crazy going back in the day. Just go
Scott:it's it's evolved so much, but that's
Scott:how I got into the game of ice hockey for everyone that's curious about me. But let's let's shift off of that,
Scott:and let's go over to
Scott:the real reason why we're here. So so, Evan, so now you're you're you're up here in New Jersey. You're starting the transition. What's what's it been like so far? Busy off season for you?
Evan:Yeah. It's been, a little bit hectic since since the trade went down. Tried to get down here a couple times and find a place to live and start to get the family settled, but, it's a great spot there for myself and and for our family, and we're really looking forward to
Jamie:it.
Scott:That's amazing. So obviously we're all here for the MODE Smile event and raising money for cancer research. Just what does it mean to you to participate in things, know, this event and similar things?
Evan:Yeah. It it means a ton. Whenever, you know, we can kinda give back and, you know, do things in the community that that can help out. You know, this worked out perfectly for me now being a devil and and having this kinda on the radar, it's, you know, it was kind of a no brainer for me. And, yeah, just happy to be a part of it.
Scott:Yeah. So the the other part of this is obviously the youth hockey aspect, and this is like a tremendous event, but you're a you're a hockey dad, and you're seeing the game through a
Scott:different lens than your day job. So so what's it
Scott:been like for you as your kids have gotten into the game of ice hockey and, like, navigating it as a parent as opposed to, like, a player for that? You know?
Evan:Yeah. It's different. I think it's been a ton of fun for me to see how much they love it. I think that's the biggest thing. And, you know, there's there's four words I tell them before they go on the ice every time, and it's work hard and have fun.
Evan:And and that's that's all I really care about. If they're having fun, then that's what it's for. You you want them to be around other kids and and interact with other kids and learn how to be a good teammate and and a good team player and be able to work in a a group and and environment that, you know, involves other people. And so so for me, it's it's it's becoming extremely enjoyable. I love going on the ice with them and and messing around with them, and I've loved every minute of them.
Jamie:Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. I'm just curious. Well, you know, you obviously started playing at a young age, I'm assuming, right, like most kids.
Jamie:You know, can you our listeners like to hear everybody's path because everybody's a different path in this game. So I'm just curious. What what's your path look like? Were you triple a, double a, start late, start early?
Evan:Yeah. I I have two older brothers, so I started as early as I can remember. We had a outdoor rink down the street from us that we would go to, and and then I played at the local, you know, local our youth team or whatever played house league. And then when I got into, you know, minor Adam or nine u, whatever it was, I started playing on the Marlies, and they were the close team to the house. And that's where I played for for seven years before going to junior a.
Evan:And then, yeah, and then college and worked my way up in the pros. But for me, it was always school was always a big deal in my family, and and the goal was to get a scholarship. That was always kind of the end goal. It was always fun, and I played hockey because I love to do it, and I was fortunate to be, you know, good at it. But once I got a little older, you know, into high school, it was it ended up being, you know, let's just try to get a scholarship out of this.
Evan:That was so that was the end goal, and that was if that happened, then great. And it wasn't really until my sophomore year of college, you know, I had a pretty good year and, yeah, maybe I can sign something out of this, maybe play a couple years in the HL or whatever. And started thinking about it. Didn't have a good junior year and then senior year had another good year. And I remember talking to my wife, you know, once I signed, I was like, oh, we'll give this two, three years.
Evan:And if not, I always
Jamie:See what happens.
Evan:I was gonna I was always good at math and I was gonna be an accountant or go into finance. I graduated from business school and the concentrations in finance and law. But that's kinda that was that was the next step. Couple of years, pro, see if it works, but most likely it won't.
Jamie:And going to finance.
Evan:Going to finance.
Jamie:Something like that. Yeah.
Evan:It was gonna move on. And it wasn't until my first camp in Buffalo where I had a really good camp and I kinda was like, oh, this
Jamie:Maybe this thing here.
Dan:Maybe this
Evan:then I've just kind of worked my way up and just always loved being on the ice. Loved messing around, working on things, and and trying to get better. And it's just they told me they'd pay me to play a game, and I was
Jamie:Sounds good to me. Yeah.
Evan:This is
Jamie:Don't have to be good.
Evan:For me. I'll do this, and now here we are. And, yeah, I've been very fortunate.
Scott:You know, as as far as, like, your runway, you know, a lot of kids nowadays, I can certainly speak for my own, but, like,
Scott:you know, they're they're just like, it's such a highlight world and, like, Instagram clips and, like, you know, they they don't see, like,
Scott:the bigger picture in a lot
Scott:of this stuff. And, like, you know, I think people get concerned, like, if my kid's not well, if my kid doesn't make brick, if my kid doesn't play Pee Wee Quebec, if my kid doesn't get, like,
Scott:you know, an offer from
Scott:a d one school the day he's eligible. But, like, in all seriousness, like, those those players, while, yes,
Scott:they exist where they're just, like, you know, a top a top 1%, like, wherever they go, that's not true for everyone. And, like, they're the the journey and the path can be a lot longer than what, you know, everyone gets obsessed about. Like, in terms of, like, your own path, like, could you just talk a little bit about, like, you know, your
Scott:because it sounds like there's a lot of, like, perseverance and, like, you know, you just you kept on going. Right?
Evan:Yeah. I it's like I said, the thing I tell my kids are work hard and have fun. And if they're having fun, that's all that matters. I think all these, you know, being part of every showcase and tournament and, like you said, break tournament, peewee tournament, It's all great. The kids are having fun and they love it.
Evan:Sure. Go ahead. It it's I'm sure they're gonna have memories from it. I was fortunate enough to go to the brick tournament when I was younger, and and it's it's not the hockey. It's off the ice that I remember.
Evan:It's not. I couldn't tell you really what happened in games and stuff like that, but I can tell you about the water park, tell you about the bumper cars, the laser tag, and tell you whatever Exactly. I
Jamie:Yeah. With your
Evan:buddies. Fantasy hotel in the West Side. Like Yep. I can tell you about that stuff. I I couldn't tell you about
Rob:If you wanna scores or
Evan:goals or the you know, that sort of thing. And so I think it's great from a hockey perspective. Like you said, there are kids that are elite of an of elite, but even then, like, you really don't know. Like, there there was kids I played with who were elite who are now in the NHL, and there was kids who I played with who were the next, you know, Conor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, who never played a game in the NHL. Right.
Evan:Yeah. Never really know at least until after puberty per se. Right? Like, everyone grows at a different rate. Some kids were the smallest kids, that'd be the tallest.
Evan:Some are the tallest early.
Scott:And everybody catches Right? Everyone catches up.
Evan:You never know. Right? You can't as much as you want to predict a kid, you can't, in my opinion. So for me, if they're having fun and they're enjoying it, let them enjoy it. Let them do the things if they wanna go again.
Evan:If they wanna go to the Pee Wee Brick Tournament or Pee Wee Tournament and they get invited, you know what? It's a memory for your kid. Right? But to to worry about their trajectory in hockey because they're either going or not going is silly.
Scott:Right. Right. Yeah.
Jamie:Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. It's it's and and we we see it all the time, Evan. You know?
Jamie:We have parents, you know, that are looking for d one scholarships when the kid's six, eight. It's crazy, which is why we started this podcast because I think a lot of people don't know what they don't know until they know it. You know? And and, you know, we see it with all everybody we speak to, whether it's Glenn Heffern in the USHL, you know, Doug Christensen, you know, of the ECAC. You know, they all say the same thing.
Jamie:It's just let your kid enjoy it. Let them have fun. Support them. And if they if they have a passion for it and they go, they go and see where the chips fall. Right?
Evan:Yeah. And I I I can't remember. I think it was, like, Brian Boyle, Corey Schneider. They were talking about it once, and and it's rung through with me. But you never hear anyone who's been in the NHL and been like, oh, I'd like if my parents didn't push me to go here, like, that the only reason why I'm here is because my parents pushed me.
Evan:Like, there has to be an inner drive with a kid to make it because at some point, the parent's not gonna be there. And at that point, then the work ethic won't be there. Right? So, yeah, parents can push them and say, hey. Like, you made a commitment.
Evan:Go you're going. But to to say that they are gonna pushing your kid and telling him what to do and trying to be the external force and forcing him to do all these things, I would my opinion rail rarely works. So, yeah, I I again, it goes back to, is the kid having fun? Alright. Keep going.
Evan:Is he working hard? Just because you they if you're gonna do something, you might believe you do it to the best of your ability. And to doing those two things, like, I I think you're putting your kid in a position to be successful, not in hockey, but in life. Yeah. And that's that's hockey is you you want your kid to be successful in life and and going through youth hockey, that's, in my opinion, more beneficial for everything away from them.
Jamie:Right. Yeah. And everybody says that. Everybody says exactly that.
Scott:Well, as as far as, just like, this is a roller coaster, like, as is life. You know? And I'm sure that there's been up and downs throughout your career. Can you maybe just, you know, give us an example, of any times where, like, things got tough. Right?
Scott:Things got tough and, like, you just kinda had to, like, you you know, really kinda dig in to kinda get through, like, a hurdle or something along your your hockey career and, like, kind of, like, what were the things that
Scott:you kinda leaned into to kinda help you through that?
Evan:Yeah. I don't wanna sound like I've had a difficult path because by from the outside, I mean, I'm I'm I'm about as blessed as you they I can be. But little things like I was lucky enough when I was younger. I played on the same team from when I was it was actually we played a year before I played on the Marley's, but we had a group that was together for eight years straight. Wow.
Evan:Are awesome. To 15 years old.
Jamie:That's awesome.
Evan:And there was four or five of us that stayed on the team the whole time. And that that in my opinion was the biggest blessing in hockey that I was fortunate enough to have. Especially now, you can see
Jamie:kids. Don't hear that much anymore. Yeah.
Evan:Every yeah.
Jamie:It's crazy.
Evan:Was it was great. I played with Ryan Strohlm that whole time and and that looking back now, I'm very lucky to have. Then I got into junior and, you know, I didn't have any connection or anything here or there. I went to my first two junior camps, got cut. Third one actually went to Georgetown.
Evan:And in my opinion, that was the one that was like, there was no chance. They were always good in in the OJHL. And so I kinda just went to go and, and then made the team and couldn't really believe it. Was very happy about it. Obviously, it worked out for me.
Evan:So that was, like, as not a big, you know, down, but and then was never drafted. Didn't get drafted to the NHL. But in my head, again, the goal always for me was to get the scholarship. Right? So it wasn't that big of a it didn't hurt me per se because I that wasn't the goal, wasn't the NHL.
Evan:It didn't really matter to me. Went to college for four years and then was lucky to sign out of college and just kinda worked my way up. And I've gone through stretches of of not playing when I was in Buffalo. The year I got traded to Pittsburgh, didn't play the first seven, eight games. Got traded to Pittsburgh right before the bubble.
Evan:Didn't play in the bubble. So I've had ups and downs. I I, you know, thought before when I was in Buffalo going into my third year, thought I was gonna make the team out of camp, broke my hand, got sent down, and had a rough start when I was in the a. And I I I actually had a coach. We played a game played a game right before Thanksgiving.
Evan:This is probably for me the biggest if you're gonna say like up and down in my career, this is probably the biggest roller coaster ride I had. But I got sent down, didn't do anything, and we played in Syracuse on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We lost six five in overtime and I went dash five, zero points. And I was like, it's like, this is it. Like, I thought I was making the team.
Evan:I'm done. I've now got sent down. I had, like, zero points in in five games. Say, just went dash five in a game. Like, I was distraught, and the coach called assistant coach at the time called me or or head coach actually at the time called me.
Evan:And he Thursday morning, Thanksgiving morning, he's like, listen. It's Thanksgiving. Don't worry about past five games. Don't worry about yesterday. Enjoy your family.
Evan:Have a great day Thanksgiving. Like, put everything behind you and come back to work Friday. And came back to work Friday, had 10 points
Jamie:in my next five games. No shit. I played
Evan:in the HLC. Wow. So like that phone call and I've told them and I've told this story before, that phone call changed my career. And I've thanked them before and the coach and and that was you talk about, like, ups and downs, and it it maybe I'm it was probably again, as a player, you ride the roller coaster a little bit too much, and as you learn, you get better at it. But that was early in my career and Yeah.
Evan:But that one phone call went from me sulking all day, showing up the next day, pissed off to me having a good day and coming back ready to work the next day and really kind of been uphill ever since. I've had some bumps lately, everybody does. Mine aren't bigger than the next guys. But, yeah, that that phone call, I'll I'll remember.
Jamie:So just the mentality, your mentality. Going from being pissed off in better shape, and nobody plays well when they're pissed off in better shape. Well, most people don't.
Evan:And just like like negative thoughts. Yeah. Right. Yes. It's the game is so mental, and it's just negativity spinning through your head.
Evan:And when when you get into that spiral, you it's hard. The more you go, the harder it is to get out.
Jamie:I said, you just met same way.
Evan:Yeah. Same way. And so it it was could just completely change me, get all the negative out. I said, alright. We're going back to work.
Evan:Here here we go. And and yeah.
Scott:That's like, it's and Crazy story.
Scott:Yeah. But, like, it it also just makes me think about, like, coaches in general or educators or teachers or people that, like, are, like,
Scott:you know, are are responsible for, like, you know, guiding you, whether it's kids or adults through these moments. And it just sound
Scott:you know, we talk about, like, you know, that parents should pay attention to who's coaching their kids. Right? Like, to the best that you can because that's that's a big part of, like, you know, your kids' experience. Right? And so it
Scott:just sounds like, you know, coach, when
Scott:he said that to you, just was the right words, right time to help you through it.
Evan:Yeah. That's pretty much exactly what was. And I think this day and age with how, I don't know, life in general has changed, coaches are getting better at it. But I feel like it used to be kinda just like, are you doing for me now? And right?
Evan:And and if you're not giving it to me, I'll find the next guy to do it. Where now I think coaches are doing a better job of how can I get the best version of this guy? And and obviously, it's a business and and Yeah. When you get to at least, you know, the the pros, but and you talk you're finding better coaches that are trying to do that. How can I maximize this kid?
Evan:What's he good at? How do I get him to
Jamie:To give me his best.
Evan:Best. Exactly. Right. And and it's it's coaches are getting better at it from youth all the way up. And it's it that's what you want.
Evan:Right? That that's those are life lessons. Those are, hey. This kid's down. How do I pick him up?
Evan:How can that kid like me. Right? I I still remember the phone call. Right? So when things are bad, it's like, that phone call is and maybe it's not every time.
Evan:I'm not saying I'm perfect. But that phone call is now if I have a bad game, bad Just
Jamie:think about it.
Evan:Alright. Don't don't spin. That's right. Tomorrow, reset.
Jamie:Come out
Dan:of it.
Evan:Go to bed and just go to practice and work. Like, put it pretend practice is a game. Right? And go to work and you'll find that when you do that, the results come in the game. Right?
Evan:It becomes muscle memory. It becomes for me, when you when you put in the work like that, it's rewarding. Right? And then you enjoy it. And then the next day you get into a game and then you enjoy yourself out there.
Evan:And, yeah, so little things like that. They it's it's funny how some things can stick with somebody and travel with them. Right? And some things don't. And and every kid, every athlete finds their thing.
Jamie:And confidence is huge too, isn't it? It's every almost everything.
Evan:Almost Right? Honestly, like, if you're not, like, the best player in the world. Right? Yeah. The your mentality is the most important thing.
Evan:And sometimes it's not even confidence. Sometimes it's it's just belief and just sometimes the result you gotta get the results out of the way. Like, the results are not. If you're results based, that's when you're in trouble, in my opinion.
Jamie:Yeah. If they def if you let them define you.
Evan:Yes. If if you let like, hey, I I shot a 100 pucks a day for the past week. This weekend, I've gotta score five goals. Yeah. Yes.
Evan:And it doesn't come, it's like, no. It's like the week after you'll score 10. You know what mean? Like, it's it's the constant work and and that's if you can find a reward in putting in the work, that's where I the results will
Dan:come.
Scott:Right. It's the process.
Evan:Yeah. The process. And know, my wife actually says this all the time even with our kids. Right? It's not the like, you go on a walk.
Evan:Right? It's not the destination. It's It's
Jamie:a journey. Yes.
Evan:The kid wants to sit and play with a rock for ten minutes, sit and play with a rock. Like, what you're just going home to sit on a
Dan:coach later or whatever. Right.
Jamie:I know you're saying
Evan:like, hey. I promise the my son I play baseball in half an hour. It's like he can wait fifty minutes. Like, let him play with the rock. Like, you you gotta enjoy the car rides.
Evan:You gotta enjoy the walk. You gotta don't be in a rush to get somewhere. Like, you're in it. Like, enjoy where you are, and, you'll find that with that with hockey as well.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny to mention mentality and stuff like that. So and and we're you also touch on coaches and how coaches have now changed maybe from the yeller screamer to how can I get the bet how can I talk to this kid to get the most out of him?
Jamie:So, I'm I'm curious. So with with the change kind of in in coaching, and, also, I feel like there's a change in all sports, not just the NHL. But how important of it now is it to have, like, a mental performance coach? You see them everywhere. You know?
Jamie:Do you think that's an important thing, and do see more people with them these days than, say, when you started?
Evan:Yes. But I also find that that's another, like, external motivator. Right? Like, if you have to rely on him to get you to you know, if you play your best game, say you check-in with him once every two weeks, right? And your best games are after you talk to them.
Evan:It's like, well, you gotta find your yeah. It might help. Right? But you gotta find a way to to do yourself.
Jamie:Without I understand what you're saying.
Evan:So so yes, I think they're good to an extent. You you have to be able to take either what you learn or what he tells you and and be able to figure out a way to do it yourself. Yeah. And I think that's the middle ground, right, of of these different types of, you know, coaches and stuff. And and again, sometimes it's you don't wanna be overcoached.
Evan:Right? And even with the coaching, like you said, like, they try to find how to get the best out of you. Like, sometimes you still need a a kick, you know? Like sometimes yelling is the answer. Yeah.
Evan:And and you don't wanna be, you know, babied or or or even with my son, like you don't want someone cuddling him the whole time. Like sometimes he needs to
Jamie:A little tougher.
Scott:Learn a hard Yeah.
Scott:Needs tough
Evan:love. Like, hey, like you can't
Jamie:do that. Yeah. And that's okay.
Evan:Know what? Either being benched or being sad or yelled at. Like it's okay to be yelled at. Yeah. And it's it's okay.
Evan:It's can you can you learn from your mistakes? Can you learn from experiences? Can you learn from different things? And so, yeah, with a with a mental performance coach, right, can you take what he says and be able to internalize it where you can do it yourself?
Dan:Because Right.
Evan:You don't wanna
Jamie:You don't wanna rely on him.
Evan:Every exactly. Every time you have a down game, it's like, I gotta
Jamie:call him. Right? But, like, that's
Evan:a problem. Yeah. Then it becomes you have another problem.
Jamie:Yes. You do. Yeah. Yeah.
Evan:So yes and no to yours.
Dan:Got
Scott:it. So at the end of
Scott:the day, it's an inside job. Right? Like, it's
Evan:You in my opinion, you're gonna get the best results Right. If it becomes
Scott:Inside job. Right. Right. That makes a lot of sense. So let so let me ask
Scott:you this. Along your along your journey, along the way, is there anything that, like, you know, before you made it to whatever the next level was from youth to college to junior to college, etcetera, were there any things that you, before making that jump, thought were, like, really important only to find when you got there, it wasn't as maybe as important as you thought it was?
Evan:Oh, that's a good question. Don't have one on top of my head right now, and I don't wanna make one
Jamie:up to try to
Scott:give you Yeah. No. No. No. That's
Jamie:all good.
Evan:And for me, I've always been a work ethic guy. Like, that's always been my thing. And and this sounds silly, but for me, I'm not a guy who goes on the ice early. I I like to do my stuff in the gym and get warmed up and go from warm up to getting dressed to almost immediately into practice. But for me, staying on late is, like, my thing.
Evan:Like, I love to have everyone off the ice where I can do what I want. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Not have like, hey, can I join the drill or like, can we do this? So like, I like to be one of the later guys on the ice and be like, hey, this is what I wanna do.
Evan:I need to work on this shot from this person. Hey, coach. Can you pass me 25 pucks, bang it out in two, three minutes, and I go to the next thing. That's, like, that's my thing. So for me, that's always been in my head, like, okay.
Evan:You're getting better. This is, you that that was my thing. Some guys at the gym, some guys some guys like to get away from the rink and then come back. Like, everyone has a different thing. That's always been my thing.
Evan:So when I get down or I feel like I'm not playing up to my abilities, that's my fallback. It's like, oh, yeah. I'm last guy off the ice today. I'm just gonna find things to do and, like, put in the work, sweat it out. Right.
Evan:I will get back to work tomorrow. It's almost like a reset for me. That's my reset. Even though it's like doesn't have to I'm not like at work in the next day. I'm not saying like I'm
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Evan:On the ice, but but it's almost like my mental okay. You put in the work, like, the results are gonna come. You're you're gonna do this, and I don't do it every practice.
Jamie:Yeah. But you do when you think it's necessary.
Evan:When I feel like I need to get back to my game or my game's not where I'm at, that's my fallback. And it came from my senior year at BU, my second I did summer school every year. So my second semester, I didn't have a class. I had, like, one little nothing nothing class. And so I did two days.
Evan:The my second semester at BU, I'd go in. I'd at we few of us would go on the ice at, nine. I'd work out after. I'd go eat lunch. Then we had our team little workout warm up, and then I go on the ice practice at three.
Evan:And that was kinda my twice a week I would do that. And then I got my first couple years pro and my wife was traveling to see me at the time. Were living together. So I had nothing to do after practice. Like, I just it was like go home and and look at bank statements.
Evan:Like, I used to do that.
Dan:Like, I
Evan:used to go home and like check bank statement, bank statement investment, like and then play video games. Yeah. Yeah. Call my wife. There's nothing to do.
Evan:So I I just stayed on the ice, and I'd be out there for an hour, hour and a half and not again, not because I'm saying I'm working harder than you, but I I didn't have anything else to do. Yeah.
Jamie:So drafted your job.
Evan:I was like, what?
Dan:Like Why does that
Evan:not? I'll just shoot some pucks, and I'll take my time, and I'll sit on the bench for ten minutes.
Jamie:Back out?
Evan:Catch my breath, and I'll go back out there. And honestly, couple times, the trainer was like, dude, like, I we wanna go to avoid that. And I wasn't Same boat. I was and I was at the time. Sorry.
Evan:It's bugs. Not really. I was naive at the time because now in hindsight, like, I probably, like, was making I feel bad about it. But, like, but I didn't know any better. Like it would college, like, the people were always just like there.
Evan:It wasn't obvious like and and in the pros, I just like it's like, I don't know. I'm just on the I I I don't have class. I'm not going to
Jamie:study anymore. Like,
Evan:I'm gonna either play video games or, like like, I have nothing to do. Yeah. I'm like, alright. I might as well, like, shoot a few 100 pucks, like, just because it it making me better. Guess.
Evan:Right. It's a long winded answer. That's kind of my fallback of how I I reset. That's my mental reset.
Jamie:That's how you do it. Yeah. Yeah. No. No.
Scott:It's all all this stuff is really helpful. Yeah. Good to hear. Hearing you talk about your process. Right?
Scott:Because I
Jamie:think that's Good for parents to hear.
Scott:What a lot of people, like, are eager to learn. And everyone's got their own path, and everyone's got their own things. But, like,
Scott:to to listen to and hear what successful successful people have done to
Scott:help them through you never know, you
Scott:know, who's listening that might stay
Scott:on the ice a little longer, and, like, that's gonna be their thing. You know?
Scott:And it's just it's helpful. But let let me ask you this. In terms of, like, making the jump to the NHL, right, was were there any, like and this is kinda similar to my my previous question, but were
Scott:there are there, like, any misconceptions that you think people that aren't in the know have about what it means to be an NHL player?
Evan:Maybe not a misconception, but what I will what I believe is that there's an elite group of hockey players that no matter what are gonna make the NHL because they're just wired differently. Like, they're just their talent is they're naturally gifted. Right? And and you probably have two, three of those a team maybe are on forwards, let's say. So team twelve, thirteen forwards, two or three of them.
Evan:Right? Maybe four. And then you have role guy that, like, maybe a a face off guy. Right? Yep.
Evan:So you have maybe one or two or or four star fighter. So half your forwards are set. I think the middle portion of that, there is a group, an exact same talent level group in the AHL that can do all the things, you know, maybe I can or or that middle six can do or or whatever can do, but it just comes down to almost sticking to it. Like, not letting anyone get you down, not letting you know, if a guy beats you out the next year coming back and and and consistently, like, pushing yourself and or just going into the corner, being able to do what's asked of you. Right?
Evan:Like, if the coach says, need a guy to PK, like, you gotta go PK. Like, that's sometimes how you stick. Right? And I'm not overly big, strong, great shot. Like, I I just I try to make myself useful by I'll do what you need Yeah.
Evan:To And and over the years, you gain the trust of a coach and then eventually you're just you're you're not a vet, but you've established it. Yeah. Right? And some guys will do it and some guys won't. Some guys who are perennial goal scorers their whole life as kids, junior, college, wherever they play, get into, you know, the AHL and they're still goal scorers.
Evan:They're like, well, we have, you know, like we have goal scores in the NHL.
Jamie:Yeah. We need you to do this instead.
Evan:Yeah. We have the Tage Thompson, the guys with booming shots. Like, we have that. We don't need that. Like, we need you to do this.
Evan:And are you willing to do that? And I think that's that's maybe a misconception of, like, goal scores get paid. Yeah. They do. And but you gotta be the point o 1% to be the goal.
Evan:Right? There's only so many dozen. Yeah. Or Or
Jamie:the the the you know what mean?
Evan:Whatever goal score I mean, yeah. Like, whatever. I'm just being kind of harp launch there. But whatever that is, are you able to do the things that you need to do? Right?
Evan:Like, can you defend? I need when you're on the ice, I need the other team not to score. And if you scored great, but I need them not to score. And some guys are like, yeah. And then some guys, right, you're taking the lead score.
Evan:It's like, I'm a goal scorer.
Scott:Right. Like, just give
Evan:me the puck. And it's like, hey. Well, if you're not gonna do that, I can't get you the puck. Right? Like, so that's maybe a misconception of of, yes, there are elite people that get paid to do what they do, but but they're almost the anomaly.
Scott:They're they're
Jamie:Like the you said, the the the point o one They are the unique. The uncommon them. The McPheev is the mechanics
Evan:of world. Will you do everything else? Yeah. Exactly. Right?
Evan:Will you do everything else that that it takes to make it?
Jamie:Most of the NHL's
Dan:not broke.
Evan:Because that guy I have a guy sitting right next to me. He's maybe even more talented than me, right, or something, but doesn't wanna do Right? And so that's may and I don't know if that's a misconception, but that's, I believe, is is a big, that's the main difference in my head between a guy who maybe doesn't make
Jamie:Eric Cole said that to us the other day. We we interviewed Eric Cole. Yeah. And he said that sometimes the most talented guys are not in the NHL. And I think we also interviewed we interviewed Topher Scott, and I forgot what he said.
Jamie:He he was talking to some player personnel person from from the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they're like, what's the most important thing? And the guy's like, you know, can you change the guys that stick in the NHL are the guys that can change from being a goal scorer to maybe not scoring goals, maybe being a PK guy or like a face locker. Like you said, it's the adaptability, not so much the guy that's gonna score, you know, a 120 points.
Evan:Right. And if you're a goal scorer, right, and you're not say you're a goal scorer, but you're not in the first power play. Right? There's only so many roster spots. Right?
Evan:You need four to six PKers. Right? So, hey, goal scorer. Can I make you into a penalty kill guy where I can get you four three, four more minutes a game? Right.
Evan:But then I could throw you on a third line, and then all of a sudden, I got a third liner who could put twenty twenty five in for me, like, then you'd be shocked.
Dan:Super valuable. Super valuable. Right?
Evan:Then you're
Dan:Yeah. Then you're You're
Evan:a major major star. Woah. I got a penalty kill guy who's actually a qualified goal like, who is a natural
Scott:score score.
Evan:Right? Now I can get him four on the PK. I can get him on power play two for maybe a couple minutes a game, but then I can play him twelve, thirteen, 14, even strength. And now he's looking at eighteen, nineteen experience, right, as a third line or what Whatever the numbers are.
Jamie:But that's a lot of ice for a third line then. Yeah.
Evan:There you go. Right? So so now I had this guy who I had to play maybe as a goal scorer in my top six. And then now okay. Woah.
Evan:Now I could do put them in three different scenarios, get them a ton of minutes, and then he all of a sudden and that's in your first two, three years. Right? And then it's like every team is like, woah. I want
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. Now you become a valuable commodity in everything.
Evan:Like yeah. Then all of a sudden, work your way up, and then all of a sudden, you are that top six guy and you're doing everything you wanna do. But to get you through the door
Jamie:You had to change.
Scott:Had change.
Evan:And and I think that's a very good spot for I forgot who you mentioned said it, but it's it's can you do what it takes to get in the door? Right? And there's I might be screwing the stat up huge, but I I've heard it somewhere. It's something like if you get to a 100 or 200 NHL games, your probability of getting to, like, 500 is
Jamie:Probably pretty good.
Evan:Significantly more yeah. I don't know what the numbers are, and I I don't wanna butcher it, so I'm not gonna
Jamie:make it. I know what you mean. The constant
Evan:But there is. It's like there's like tipping point. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like once you're at a 100, you're gonna get to 500 or or say 200 to 500.
Jamie:What you need to do to stay in
Evan:the Yes. Exactly. And so I don't know what the number is.
Dan:Yeah. Yeah.
Evan:Yeah. There is something
Scott:makes sense.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah.
Scott:But, like, as you were talking just now, it just got me thinking, like, you know, for all the for all, like,
Scott:the youth hockey and, like, college players, whatever, but, like, you you know, you talk to my dream is the NHL. My dream is the NHL. And to hear you say that there are
Scott:people that are, like, on the cusp of or in the NHL that maybe don't have the willingness to adapt and change. Like, for me, that sounds like that sounds crazy, but yet that's, like, that's a truth that that's that's that's real life in
Scott:the NHL. Like so could you
Scott:could you maybe, like, talk like, so you have firsthand experience, like, witnessing people that just don't have a willingness to do what, like, is being asked of them?
Evan:Am I Yeah. To a certain extent, yes. And I don't think it's just hockey.
Jamie:No. It's gonna be every sport. It's every sport. It's be every professional. Yes.
Jamie:Every professional. Like
Evan:hey. Like, if you're working this, hey. I need you to put in ten more hours, but I'm gonna do this. And it's like, ten hours worth it? Like, ten hours a week worth it?
Evan:No. Right? So to somebody, it's like, hey. Is the extra this or is
Scott:that Is the juice worth the squeeze?
Evan:Yeah. Like, can I mentally be like because scoring goals is fun? Right? Yes. The rest of it sometimes isn't as fun.
Evan:Eating one in the ankle isn't as fun. Right? Like, no. It but, like and I'm not saying I'm always like this isn't about me. Right?
Evan:I'm not saying No.
Jamie:Not actually. Yeah.
Evan:Shop walking, like do everything. Totally get it. I'm not I'm not. My shop blocking numbers are like, really right. I'm not talking.
Jamie:You're not a
Dan:sponge you're telling us?
Evan:No. But like but but yeah. Some and it's it now that like, I've been through I've had experience. Right? It's crazy.
Evan:But if you're 21, right, not even. Like, tell a 19 year old who just went first round. Right? That he's got a chain. It's like, what do you mean?
Jamie:Yeah. They don't get me.
Evan:Like, I went first round. Like, I'm like, no. Like don't change me now. It's like, it it's can you be coachable? Right?
Evan:Coachable. Huge work. Can you be coachable? Right? So can you you don't wanna deviate from what makes you successful and gets you there.
Evan:Right? But but can you can you do at least a little bit? Right? Can you can you help can you change a little bit? Can you can you add to yourself?
Evan:Right? That's what you're doing. You're you're if I'm a goal scorer, right, you're adding to your
Jamie:You're value. You're
Evan:hey. I am a goal scorer, but now I'm a goal scorer and this and that and this. And and I think for younger kids, right, sometimes it's hard to see that. It's it's it's easier to just be like, no. This is what I am.
Evan:Like, I'm it's and I keep saying first rounder, but I'm just being kinda dramatic. Like Yeah. Yeah. You're a first rounder. You're a really good talented 18 year old.
Evan:And and sometimes they go right into the NHL and sometimes you gotta change. And can you? Like, if you can coaches love that too. Right? Coaches like Oh, yeah.
Evan:Like anyone in life, it makes their job easier. Right? Totally. If I tell you like, hey, kid, can you do this? And the kid doesn't, you're
Scott:like Thank you.
Evan:I owe you one. Yeah. Right? I Yes. Yes.
Evan:Okay. So like, hey, you screw up next to him. I'm gonna throw you were trying at
Scott:least. Right.
Evan:Right? So so, yeah, you gotta you gotta play the game a little bit. Right? And and if he tells you to go do something, you don't do it. He's like, well, like
Jamie:What am I Alright.
Dan:I'll see you.
Evan:I'm gonna ask the next question.
Jamie:Of course they will. Yeah.
Evan:So yeah. I mean, it you're just adding to your value. But but again, it's hard. Like, kids are kids. Right?
Evan:People think like you're going in 18. 18 is young. Very young. Like, you're still
Jamie:If I
Evan:could go back to 18, I like, I would there's so much I know now that I wish I knew
Scott:at 18.
Jamie:I was just gonna say. What would you tell? I was just gonna say that.
Evan:I don't I think the the big one for me is the roller coaster. Right? Like, you gotta get off
Jamie:of it.
Evan:Like, just go to work the next day. If you have a bad game, get up and go to work. If you have a great game, nobody cares. Get up and go to work the next day. Like, that is one of the most important mindsets I think you can have and it's way easier said than done, obviously.
Evan:And and everyone loves to be told they're awesome and everyone hates being told they stink. But but if you can get up the next day and I'm not saying don't enjoy it or, like, be the stoic, like, whatever. Like, have fun. Do the whole works. Gotta have fun.
Evan:But just get to work the next day. Like, don't don't worry about the bad games. Don't worry about the good games. The bounce backs are sometimes, like, the most eye catching for coaches. Right?
Evan:Like, those are like, hey. Let's see how he responds. Right? And if he comes back the next day, it's like, okay. He cares.
Evan:Right? Like, if I'm watching a kid and he has a bad game and the next game comes in and sulks, he's like, he doesn't care. Right? That's right. And my like, he just like
Jamie:You see the kid's character.
Evan:Yeah. Yeah. But if he comes back and he's this spicy little like even though he's not doesn't play great,
Scott:but he's into it. An actor. Okay.
Jamie:Lot of energy that
Evan:That bothered him. Right? Like it's like, okay, so I can work with him. I can I
Jamie:can There's something there?
Evan:And this is youth hockey. Right? Like, the nine year olds. A little different. But the end of '18, 19, 20, right, I think the mentality start to show a little bit more.
Scott:Yeah.
Jamie:Is that the age you think it is? You think it's at the at those older ages, the 18, 19, 20 year olds where you really start to see, like
Evan:I yeah. Like I just said, right, I've changed so much in past ten years. You never It's so hard to tell what a person's gonna be like because there are things in their life like that phone call for me that changed everything.
Dan:Yeah.
Evan:That's unbelievable. Changed who I was.
Jamie:Literally. Changed trajectory.
Evan:That changed not but not only my hockey check, it changed who I was as a person.
Scott:It's amazing. It's it's Exactly.
Evan:Right? So, like, you don't know what things like, how kids respond, how if they are coachable, like, what if there is a kid who is elite his whole life, right, from eight till 18, and you never get to see if he's coachable because he's always a first line center. Right. What happens when, like what happens when something bad goes wrong? You don't know until he experiences it.
Evan:Right? And and you see this, in my opinion, with president's trophy teams. Right? The president's trophy team hasn't won it forever. Because the president's trophy team usually goes sixty and twenty during the year.
Evan:Whatever. And maybe that's 50 and whatever. They they they don't really go through a lot. They don't go through a lot of adversity during the season.
Scott:Alright, everyone. Here at Longwood, Moe's Smile event, and we have a special guest on.
Jamie:Yes. We do.
Scott:Head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins,
Scott:Dan Muse. Dan, thanks so much for joining us today.
Dan:Oh, thanks for having me on.
Scott:Oh, it is our pleasure. So we're all here for
Scott:the Most Smile event. But can
Scott:you just, like, share a little bit about, like, what, you know, you see all these people here and, like, what it says kind of about the hockey community and, like, you know, giving back?
Dan:Yeah. No. I think it's, you know, I think the the hockey community, it's a special one. And I think, you know, you've seen it, and I've seen it now for the last for this this event, which is obviously a really important one and important to me. You know, the the number of people that have come out the last three years and, you know, the continued growth and, you know, it's a huge credit there to Larry Robbins for, you know, hosting this.
Dan:And it's but, you know, I think every year too, it's also gotten a little bit bigger, and you wanna see it continue to grow. And, you know, I think the hockey community when they're they see that there's, you know, somebody a person, a family, you know, a foundation, a cause, you know, that needs the the the help of the community, you know, you see that everybody come together for it and come together for for all the right reasons.
Jamie:It's a pretty special community in that respect. It's it's almost like no other sport I've seen before.
Scott:Yeah. So, you know, obviously, we're surrounded by, you know, like, young hockey players here, kids that are playing youth hockey. Like, you know, from your perspective, also being a hockey dad yourself, like, you know you know, for me and my family, like, you know, we talk about, like, you know, giving back and doing, know, you charitable things, like, you know, during Thanksgiving, like,
Scott:you know, we'll go to, like,
Scott:you know, food pantries and stuff like that. But is there anything in particular that, you know, you would hope that these kids kinda take away from the event?
Dan:Oh, I think it's what I hope they take away from the event is, you know, it's it's an opportunity to come together, you know, as a, you know, members of this community to be able to to raise money, for a very important foundation and to also in the memory, they are very special young man. And so I think there's a lot that they can they can take away from that, a lot of lessons from that. But I think the biggest thing is is coming together for those reasons and making it a day here that's, you know, beneficial in terms of the money that's raised. But, also, I think, you know, when you look at, you know, the young man that this foundation is for, Morris Campbell and his family, just you know, he was an amazing young man. You know, I think there's a lot of lessons too that the these guys can can take and and learn from him and who he was and what he did and and his family as well.
Dan:A 100%. People.
Scott:Yeah. No doubt about that.
Jamie:Is this your first is this your third time here, coach? Have you been Yep.
Scott:Third time.
Jamie:You are.
Rob:Oh, it
Jamie:was our
Scott:first time. Amazing.
Jamie:Like, honored to be here. I mean, this place what Larry does is above and beyond. I mean, talk about a generous man. He he's fantastic. So I'm curious, coach.
Jamie:You know, talk about, like, your your kids love it if you don't mind. Obviously, have you have two playing. You have one playing. How many kids you have playing right now?
Dan:For hockey, I got three. So, yeah, I have my 14 year old daughter. So she plays, and so she played for a state line
Jamie:Okay.
Dan:Hockey this past year. She's twenty twelve? Yeah. She's twenty twelve.
Jamie:Oh, nice. She's gonna be on the ice with with with my son, Tyler?
Dan:So she's not she's not playing here. She's not here for this, but she, yeah. She plays and then my son who's twenty seventeen. He plays as well. He played for Mid Fairfield this past year and we're moving families moving up to Pittsburgh because they stayed in New York this past year.
Dan:And so then they'll come out and he'll be with the Penns Elite. Awesome. Then and then my youngest, she's in her second, third year of kind of playing that in house, learn to play. She's a twenty twenty. Oh, wow.
Dan:Wow. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. Know I mean?
Dan:Yeah. Oh, I do. Yeah.
Scott:And then you all do.
Dan:My 11 year old daughter, she only she just does gymnastics. So I tried to I've tried very hard to get her to play other sports, and she just she she loves it. So it's hard to hard to fight that battle. She does. But she's actually you know what?
Dan:She it's funny because she's she she refuses to put on hockey skates. And I don't know why. Like, like, when she skates, it's only it's only figure skates. She refuses to is refused to play hockey. Does it wants no
Jamie:part of it. Right.
Dan:And yet she's the biggest fan. Oh, that's amazing. There, and she'll actually watch a game, and I feel like understand the game. And, like, she'll be able to after one of our games are over, if we watch a game together, she'll be able to, like, walk through it, like, more than the other three that
Scott:No way.
Dan:That's amazing. That's impressive. Won't touch a stick, won't put on skates, but she actually, like, watches
Jamie:the And basic features.
Scott:Wow. She's like
Scott:an ex as a nose person.
Dan:She's Future coach, coach. I'm just coach's
Jamie:daughter. If
Dan:I brought that up to her, she would say not a chance.
Jamie:I I I kind of wouldn't expect anything else, right, from from your daughter like that. That's very impressive, though.
Scott:Alright. So so clearly,
Scott:you've been around, like, plenty of youth hockey up to this point, and you've seen, like, the professional side,
Scott:of course, and everything in between. Is it you you feel like there's anything that hockey parents of today are like, that any like, I don't wanna say a mistake necessarily,
Scott:but things that they might, like, take too seriously or things that, like, they're they stress over too much at
Scott:the younger ages that in
Scott:the the grand scheme of thing or in the long run is just not worth, like, you know, the
Scott:energy at the when the kids are younger ages.
Dan:Yeah. They're smart. Yeah. Do what do how long have you
Jamie:been working out?
Scott:I think the event ends at eight, so all day. Oh, I
Dan:mean, it it oh, it's not you know? Yeah. I I think I have the unique benefit of seeing things from a different perspective. I think the way I kind of the way I came up with the game, I didn't start playing hockey till I was 11 years old, and that was in Alabama. And, like, all I wanted to do as a kid was play hockey, like, we lived in Northern California for a while.
Dan:There's no rinks. I started playing hockey. The first time putting on equipment was 11 in Alabama where there's only two rings, and there's the hockey is not the highest level there. I moved to Massachusetts going into high school. And so, like, I mean, I was way behind, you know, the Oh, sure.
Dan:Way behind everybody else who was there. I started late. I'm a very average athlete to begin with, and so I get the things. So I had to, like, work for I had to work just to play, you know, high school hockey.
Jamie:Just to catch up? High school. Yeah. Sure.
Dan:Work even really hard just to be able to, you know, play division three college. So it didn't be a bad division three college player, but, like, I had to work for that. So the game taught me all these lessons, though, right, along the way that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Like like, it taught me about work ethic. It taught me what it means to be a part of a team.
Dan:Even if that being part of a team, you know, isn't the one, you know, like, it's getting in the accolades, which I never was. I was gonna be being a part of a team who would, you know, be doing the the hard work and, like, taking pride in that and being third, fourth line player and, like, you know, those things that that I became proud to be able to do because I felt like, okay. I can still make contributions in these ways. Right. And so I think a lot of, you know, the the lessons that I learned that, you know, and the drive that I had, you know, came from this game.
Dan:I think it just gets missed though that that those lessons, you know, that that are there, that are sitting right in front of us every single day. Every time you get an opportunity to be a part of the team and get an opportunity to play this incredible game are being totally missed because we're just we're not thinking about where we are right now. We're thinking about, you know what? You know, the Brick Tournament's two years away, and, like, how am I
Jamie:gonna wanna get up like two
Dan:years to to be on the Brick. It's, like, it's wild to me. And, like, it's it's it is. It's, like, all these things that we're looking so far down the road. And I don't think it's the kids necessarily that are looking so far down the road.
Dan:I don't think they know. Like, they they they can't even think about, like, an hour from now. Like, never mind anything else. And, like, you know, it's those are what every kid should be looking to get out. And then, you know, if you do that and you can just focus in on where you are now and being a great teammate and learning about what true work ethic is and and these things that are gonna make us, you know, not just not the not the the kids, not just better hockey players, but better people down the road.
Scott:You know?
Dan:Then the rest of it will start to take care of itself. But, like and I'm not saying this is everybody. I think there are there's a lot of people too that I think, you know, do see those and see those benefits. Yeah. But I also think that a lot of it I don't think it's I'm not sure it's just our sport.
Dan:I think this trend this is across other sports as well.
Jamie:It's a societal thing.
Dan:Talked to. Yeah. It seems
Jamie:like a societal thing.
Dan:You know? But it's too bad. And and I I more look at it as, like, what a shame. What a shame if you were gonna go through and, like, these kids are gonna get get an opportunity to you know? And I love this I love this game.
Dan:This is the game that I'm passionate about. But, like, whatever it is, like, my my 11 year old daughter, like, you know, she loves gymnastics. She's passionate about that. I'm like, great. They like, I I don't care if they're passionate about hockey, gymnastics, playing the piano.
Dan:Like, it doesn't matter. If you can find something that you're truly passionate with that can be a driver for these types of lessons that are gonna make us better people
Jamie:That's right.
Dan:Yep. Then that's what we want.
Scott:That's what strive
Dan:for for our kids. And it gets missed because we're looking at, you know, maybe they're gonna get a scholarship. Maybe they're gonna get I'm like like they're like eight. Like Yeah. Isn't it ridiculous?
Dan:It's ridiculous. Oh, I mean, was in I remember even my my oldest daughter was I think she was trying we were in Michigan trying out for, like, I think she was trying out at the time she played in, the forget what level it is. She was trying for, like, a level up. And I'm sitting there in this in this watching it, and mom next to me is like she's like, I don't know who's more nervous, me or her. And I'm like, I know who's not nervous right now.
Dan:Was like, me. That's right. I'm You're really nervous. That'll happen. Like, at all.
Dan:Go out there, do your best, you know, enjoy the skate and see where things go. And we'll go from there.
Jamie:That's right.
Dan:You know? It's like, but nervous. Like, it's and it's and again, I have listen. I'm very, very blessed and fortunate to be able to, you know, work in hockey. Like, I felt I am very with the job I have now of not a day goes by or a second goes by that I don't recognize how fortunate I am for the great people along the way that have helped me and for the opportunities that have been presented to me.
Dan:But I I also felt like when I was first my first full time my first time job as a d three assistant coach, I was coaching full time. I was like, I also felt just as blessed because I'm like, okay. I get to do this all the time.
Jamie:Don't really need much at all. Yeah. For a living.
Dan:Bear barely. At that point, barely.
Jamie:Mean, how that's changed now.
Dan:But but at the same time, felt like it's great. It's like, I love this game. I love coaching. Like, I love both. I love the game itself, and I love the love the coaching aspect of it.
Dan:And so and now now I I do. I love seeing my kids play, and, like, I honestly, like, because of the, you know, I think the the job that I have and, like, what I get to do in this game, like, I just tell them, listen. If you wanna if you want more, if you want some advice, like, come see me, and I'll I'll give it to you.
Jamie:Yeah. Not gonna lie.
Dan:I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I'll tell you what I see.
Jamie:Right.
Dan:I'll tell you how I can help.
Jamie:Right.
Dan:But if you don't, then you don't. Because, like, it's for me, it's it's it's about you. It's not about it's not about me. Like, I don't need that. And I also you know, I I think when things are kinda hard and kids can figure it out on their own a little bit too, like, again, it's those lessons
Jamie:Good life skill.
Dan:That's gonna make them better down the road.
Jamie:Real good life skill. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan:So
Jamie:Yeah. No. It's it's funny what you say that, coach. So I'm curious. When when you were standing on the glass, did you see anything that, like, shocked you from parents?
Jamie:And you're like, woah. Like, that's not okay.
Dan:Today? No. But no.
Scott:No. Not today. No. No. Like, at all.
Scott:Like, parent behavior. It's important. Parent behavior.
Jamie:Right. I think I think parents forget that it's the child's journey, not theirs. And maybe they, you know, didn't accomplish whatever they want to accomplish when they were kids, and they're trying to live vicariously through theirs. Right? You know?
Jamie:And I think they lose sight that it's not their journey. It's their kid's journey. You know?
Dan:Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. It's all you gotta like, I can't I mean, again, I I recognize too that, like, I've I don't know. Like, I I've been I have a different perspective probably.
Dan:Sure. Yeah. I hear I mean, they when they're anytime I think a parent is yelling at
Jamie:their kids Or the ref.
Dan:Or or that's I mean, the refs, Like, they it's both. It's everybody. Or the other coaches or You have to. Everybody.
Jamie:Yeah. Yeah. And it's
Dan:It's like, one, like, you know, like, it's there there's everything like, yelling at your kid while they're on their eyes goes against everything I I believe you should be doing. Like, it's I mean, it's it's a game. Like, they're supposed to be if they're walking out of there and they to I'm pretty sure they can't hear you. So now it's just the other parents that are next to you that are looking over. Like, who is this?
Dan:Hear you. But, like, like, they can't hear you. It's like like the so it's just it it makes no sense. And even if they can hear you, it goes against everything that they should be they don't need somebody telling them what to do. They're supposed be figuring out the game on their own.
Dan:So you wanna have that conversation afterwards, maybe. But even there, that's probably not a good idea, and it goes against everything that's out there in terms of how people actually learn and develop and get better. So for so many reasons, I think it's just absolute craziness, whatever I hear. And it's yeah. It's a lot.
Dan:It's it's it's too bad because, I mean, for me, that's not gonna lead to anything positive for the player, the
Jamie:The parent.
Dan:Team, the parent themselves, anybody that's in the building is nothing other than maybe some people getting a a laugh out of it because they realize how much nonsense there is to to that. The yelling at the refs is just for me. I like and I mean, you know, I didn't get to I didn't this past year, I was in Pittsburgh, and the family stayed in in New York because, honestly, just school, and it's it becomes we almost need a year now to get everything lined up for kids. I can imagine. Need a year to line it all up.
Dan:So I didn't get to see too much until the end of the year, but even there, it's like, you know, I'm looking at these kids that are going out there, and maybe, like, they maybe they're really passionate about being a ref. You know? Maybe it's something that's gonna keep them in the game for a time, especially some of these younger kids. Like, that's how they can be involved in, like, that's a really hard drop. It's a it's a hard drop at, the the highest level of the game.
Dan:It's and it's really hard, I think, when you're young, you're trying to get into it. And so to to have that, I mean, that's just for me, it's it shouldn't ever happen. Like, they're gonna be wrong. It's that's also a part of the game. It's gonna happen.
Dan:Like, you know, it's the the biggest game of mistakes for the players on the ice for the and for the refs as well. It's it's our it's the fastest game in the world. It's like Happens
Jamie:at very high speed.
Dan:It's you know, to see that, that's just for me, that's more disappointing that, you know, like, you'd have that, and I wouldn't wanna be associated with anything of that such because all those especially those younger kids that are trying to trying to get into it, it's like they're doing their best, and it's something that they might be excited about. So Yeah. And you don't wanna environment where they're gonna continue that excitement. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie:Does that mean you're gonna take it easy on the NHL vest this year?
Dan:I am. For our first year first year head coach, I thought I was Yeah. So Smart man. Yeah.
Scott:Yeah. You know, obviously, all these kids are teams and and and being a part of
Scott:a team for is, like, such a life skill. Right? And I think that's one of
Scott:the main reasons why a
Scott:lot of families have their kids in team sports is because they can take so much away from being a team. But yet, there's such an emphasis on individual skill and individual, like, progression. Like, from from your experience, is there something that you see that separates, like, great players from great teammates?
Dan:No. I mean, I think a lot of the I mean, for me, great, they they line up together. The the the great players, and I've had I've been very, very fortunate to be able to, you know, work together with, you know, some great ones at NHL level, including, you know, one of the the greatest that's ever played our game played this game ever, you know, and Sydney Crosby and then also, you know, even to just go off of this past year being able to to work together with New Crosby and and and and Carlson. I mean, these are you had, you know, multiple future hall of famers right there. And then, some other, you know, just great, great veteran players.
Dan:And then the experience that I had working with, you know, some great players and teammates in the New York Rangers organization when I was there as an assistant coach and with the Nashville Predators and then also, you know, the the junior level Chicago Steel where I was working with and and then for Larry Robinson. But then and the USA Hockey NTDP. And so, you know, I think it's these so there's some I mean, obviously, amazing players there, but these guys are are incredible teammates as well. And, you know, I think if you don't have very rare to have success where it's just in this in this sport where it's not about team and team game.
Scott:Right. If it does it does go hand in hand. Yeah. Like, it it goes hand in hand because if you only have, like, the skill and you're
Scott:not a good teammate, you you got a ceiling there.
Dan:Oh, you need individual greatness to have team success. You need to build that find that individual like, each individual needs to find their level of greatness and raise their level of greatness while you're doing it together, though. And so I think over the course of a season, and I think it's one of the beautiful things about our sport is, you know, you see that where different people everybody's individual greatness is gonna look different, but they'll find new levels of it while at the same time, the group is coming together. And, you know, I think you go into any hockey season, it's like you start off. It's you you gotta work your way to, like, to truly being a team.
Dan:You know? You know, I mean, even you know, I when I coach at the NTDP at the beginning of the year, it's, you know, I think it's a lot of the the the my beliefs in how I coach haven't changed from much level to level the way I word things in the delivery. Right. It just definitely does change. You are gonna change those a little bit from level to level, but, you know, it's like you gotta earn to talk about, like, you gotta earn team.
Dan:Like like, you're not gonna right now, it's it's individuals that are coming into a room, especially in that setting because it is all new. The group is coming in. It's like, they're all super talented. Like, you're the so, like, crazy talented. And and that's there.
Dan:But, like, you know what? If if we're gonna become a team, like, we gotta you gotta earn that. And that's not something that just because you show up and you all put on the same uniform and you all sit in the same locker room, like, that doesn't make automatic team. You gotta start to come together. Like, the way we push each other, the way we push each other, the way we pull each other up, the way we work for each other, where the way you play for that person next to you.
Dan:And I think it's a lot of those things sometimes get said at the beginning of a season, and it's like, it's not just gonna happen overnight.
Jamie:Right. Takes some time.
Dan:It takes some time. And so but I think that's the exciting part of every new hockey season is the way how things are gonna be able to come together as you go.
Jamie:So I'm I'm curious. If you could take one trait from Sydney Crosby and put it into, like, a youth hockey player, that what would it be? Because, like, I mean, the guy's got tremendous on the traits. Right? But if you could pick Sydney's best trait, you're like, that would be the one thing to inject into a youth hockey kid.
Dan:Into a youth hockey kid? I mean, he's just it's such a the the competitiveness and and the daily the daily drive, it's incredible. I mean, it's one of those things you hear stories about, like, from other guys in the league, other players that I prior to me being in you hear about this from other people. I'm like, the way they just speak about it, like, in awe. And then you actually see
Scott:it on a daily basis. Yeah.
Dan:Yeah. That that that competitors that just daily drive for excellence and finding another level Right. And to, you know, be doing it for that as long as he has at such a high level is incredible. So
Scott:So so as a coach, and and we've got coaches that that listen to the pod and, your journey, you know, from the different ranks, is there any advice that you'd give to either coaches that are in the thick of it right now or aspiring coaches? Think that, you know, any words of wisdom that you might pass down to to up and coming coaches?
Dan:Yeah. I mean, I think it's just it's continuing to just, you know, just work at it. And it's and it's not for me, it was never you know? Like, I love I love the game. Like, and I love and I love teaching and coaching.
Dan:Like, I think those two were kinda one and the same. And so, like, I and I honestly, I feel like I love those things equally, and so you kinda mesh it all together. I love being I love what I get to do every day. I love going to the rink and being a part of the game. You know?
Dan:And so, you know, I think it's you just keep, like if you have that passion and you just keep working at it, I think it's I think it's really important too, especially for, like, you know, younger coaches that are coming up, like, not getting too far ahead of themselves. It's kinda like we talk about the youth parent like, the youth parents getting too far ahead of themselves. Like, you know, three years still break or, like, you know, whatever. Like, eight years till college. What are we doing next?
Dan:It's like, can't think that way. Like, you gotta it's just that, you know, that day to day. Okay. It's it's I think it's very similar to what we ask the players. Like, can I get a little bit better today?
Dan:Can I find a way to look get a little bit better today? Whether it's through conversation or whether it's through continued learning. And there's there's I mean, now it's like there's too much stuff out there where it's almost like I don't think it's not about, like, finding things to get yourself better. It's actually in terms of organizing and being purposeful in terms of how you approach things to get better because it's like I mean, when I first started, you know, when I was first started coaching, which yeah. It's 02/1956 season, I guess it was.
Dan:Right. Makes me feel old when I say that.
Jamie:People always say it
Dan:makes sense. But, like, you know, it was like, you know, you didn't have the even the access to as much stuff as you have now. It it definitely wasn't as easy. And now there's so much that's out there that if you wanna get better, like, it's it's there for you. Right?
Dan:I mean, like, it's it's there on the Internet. It's there at a library. It's there with you know, I think our game is very open in terms of, like, people look to help each other out through conversations, through finding just different ways to to be involved in the game and around the game. And the more you're doing it, the the better you're gonna get. And so, yeah, I think it's just that working at it and and really being where your feet are and just trying to make sure that you're you're making the the best impact that you can on the players that you're currently working with and just try to be the best person that you can be.
Dan:And yeah.
Scott:Alright. Well, we we've taken up
Scott:enough time already because I
Scott:know you're you know, we got a
Scott:lot going on here today. I wanna
Dan:make sure you're keeping an eye on my kids. They're fine. Oh, yeah.
Jamie:Perfect. Well,
Scott:that's good.
Scott:I think I
Dan:see you wonderful. Let's say you're a six year old. As long as I come home, as long as I as long as I have her when I come home, I'll be alright.
Scott:Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. But I just wanted
Scott:to wrap this up with one one final question, and if you could finish this sentence. And the best hockey parents are the ones who fill in
Scott:the blank, best hockey parents are the ones who
Dan:let their kids discover the their passion for the game.
Scott:Great answer.
Scott:Yeah. And that that's something that, you know, we we see, and it's pretty obvious, like, at the ranks. Right? You know, like, the the player on the ice is always seeking approval from their parent, like, that's up in the stands or the Upstairs. The parent that's making sure that a kid goes to, like, lessons before school, before practice, and, like, all the extra extra.
Scott:You know what I mean?
Dan:Another awesome one that I love that. The kids that don't even go to school so they get the private lessons.
Scott:Yeah. A 100%. Happens everywhere. I hear that. Everywhere.
Scott:Listen, guilty is charged.
Scott:I've taken my son before school to go
Scott:get a scam. So, you know, there's look, it's if some things are easier to say, harder to do, There's always that, at least
Scott:for me, the FOMO piece when you're around people that are, like, super competitive and doing all these things
Scott:for the competitive advantage and competitive edge, you're like, crap.
Scott:I don't want my kids to fall that far behind. Take a step back, and it's like,
Scott:you you know, at least for my son's age, and like I said, he's he's 11 right now at 2,014, and, you know, it's it's just like it's it's about fun. Right? Staying fun, being connected, and just enjoying enjoying his time, you know, with his friends and his teammates and him being on the ice. Yeah.
Dan:No. And I and I and I and I do. I have seen it from both sides, and, like, I'm laughing about it. But I I we have too. Like, we've done the you know, I don't think we've done the before school yet.
Dan:We haven't quite
Jamie:I know.
Dan:Maybe part of that's because my also, my wife was raising our four kids by herself this past week. Maybe that's why. Maybe it's just Easy easy. Yeah. We just weren't able to.
Dan:Yeah. No. But we've done we, you know, we've done that with not just in hockey, but we've done well, we have done it with hockey and then doing the extra skates and the and, you know, gymnastics getting the Yeah. And they're already you know, the the hours for that sport are crazy, and we've Absolutely. They my daughter wants to work on something.
Dan:So it's alright. We'll just tack on a tack on a private. And so you're doing those things, and then afterwards, you're like, so I'm doing it. Really doing everything that I never thought I'd do. But but it's a you just I think you yeah.
Dan:You wanna also I think sometimes you're doing it for the you know? I think when the kid it comes from the kids and they're the ones coming and saying, hey. I wanna that's I feel like that's a little different than the hey. You're doing this.
Scott:Right.
Dan:You know, especially at the really young ages. You're doing this. You signed up for it, and they're like, really? I have to.
Evan:It's like, oh, no.
Jamie:And they don't wanna go. Right. They're crying on the ice or on
Dan:the wind air. And so it's and it's nice because human nature kicks in. I and I agree enough. We felt that too. It's like, alright.
Dan:Are we not doing enough? Do we need to do more? You see, you know, a little Johnny down the street's doing this and that and the other thing, and, like, and we're not doing that for our son or our daughter.
Scott:It's
Jamie:like You start to feel it.
Dan:Yeah. And it's Yeah. But I don't know if that's necessarily the best if the the reason that it should be the driver. Agreed. It should also be from the kids, and it's and sometimes too when they're, you know, when they're when they're really hungry for it and they're wanting.
Dan:Yeah. Think that's I mean, I get I think that's if I could give, you know, for all four of my kids, if all of them could find something that they're, you know, as passionate about as I am for this game, and I don't care what it is, I would be thrilled. Sure. You know? Like, not everybody always has that.
Dan:But I don't think it's something that can also be forced on somebody. I think it's for us as parents, it's about trying to guide them and provide that support in that environment where they're gonna be able to discover things that they're passionate about. And when once they find those, for us as parents, you know, when we foster it. To be able to foster it. Yeah.
Dan:And that's kind of I think it's it's more like we need to do that. We need to help and guide and and help try to point them in that right direction. And if they latch on to something, great. Maybe we can build it a little bit more and help them develop that passion. And and if not, we can be okay with that too because, you know, if they're they're working hard and they're good kids, at the end of the day, like, those are the things that are that are
Jamie:Right. At the end of the it's all about developing life skills, it's gonna help them be good people, good adults, good business, you know, community
Scott:Good citizens. Right?
Dan:I think Yeah. I mean, this game has taught me, like, so much. And, like, I'm wait. I'm I'm far far from perfect or anything near it, but, like, I do think it's, I think I'm a I think I'm a better father because of the game. I think I'm a better husband because of the game.
Dan:I think I'm a better brother, son. Like, you go through the list, these things that I, I'm far far from perfect, but I do think I'm better than I would have been had the game never been in my life and the things that it taught.
Jamie:Isn't it funny how's amazing this game and I obviously, we're all in in hockey, but I'm sure other sports do it too. But this game seems to create really good people at the end of the day. That's what I've noticed from everyone we've spoke to. Right? Good parents that create good kids that go on to be good adults.
Jamie:But that's what it seems to.
Dan:I think the the game weeds out bad people. Don't I think bad people can really last in our game. Think we like we the game itself and I think the people I mean, there's listen. There's There's always gonna be that you might say, like, you know, they're not my favorite person in the world, but, like, it's not, like, in terms of actually, like, bad people, the people that, you know, are malicious. They're they're doing things for the wrong reasons.
Dan:I think 99% of the time, the game takes care
Rob:of it for us.
Jamie:They just
Dan:we just weed them out. Yeah.
Scott:That's well said. Alright, coach. Thank you so much for
Scott:your time. Really appreciate it, and, good luck to your kids today.
Jamie:I like next season too.
Scott:And next season. Yeah.
Dan:Thanks for having me. I
Jamie:appreciate it.
Scott:Thanks for
Dan:helping me out, guys.
Scott:Yeah. You got it.