InGoal Radio Episode 245 with Ivan Prosvetov

Intro

Now we are marching toward the NHL trade deadline and into minor hockey playoffs. Welcome to the InGoal Radio Podcast. This is Episode 245 presented by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley and thehockeyshop.com, featuring a longtime InGoal listener in Colorado's Ivan Prosvetov. And a look at the Bauer X5 Pro line with some custom colors that The Hockey Shop has for you. Plus, we're gonna get into our second parent specific segment.

Millard is still out with an upper body injury, and the league hasn't given us any salary cap relief, so I'm back in the saddle. I'm David Hutchison sitting here with Kevin Woodley. And together, we bring you InGoal Magazine, the online magazine for goalies, parents, and coaches, and all the fans of the greatest position of the game. Woody, welcome. Are you hanging in there?

Was all this rushing around from NHL rink to Beer League Rink to everything we're doing in the office now?

You know, I was doing really good till right up until the point where you, threw out the dad pun to lead the segment with the marching on March on March first. I was like, woah. It's what I do. It is. It is.

It's Thank you. Thank you for explaining it to I'm glad you got it. And there's probably somebody listening who didn't know what I was stupidly doing there. But

Well, I hate listen. Like, I mean, they probably did. It was a good enough dad joke, but I felt you know what they say about jokes that require explanation. I felt I needed to add the context just to show you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Alright. Well, if you're gonna you're mocking me now, so that makes me think of all the mocking you do of Cam. So what's going on over the hockey shop these days?

I kid because I love, and there's nothing to kid about at The Hockey Shop Source for Sports right now. In addition to our gear segment, we have coming up a little later on the Bauer M5 Pro line with custom colors. I I think it's a great actually sort of touching off point for the value you get from the hockey shop. It's not just and Cam and his knowledge and their power as buyers of equipment. You get custom tweaks.

Yes. They have when a new line comes in, they have it early. They have it at the best price. But usually when they they build out some of their other lines, they have custom options. We've seen it with the CCM in the past, right?

Where they'll have D30 on lower level gloves that wouldn't normally come with D30. And so in addition to the expertise, in addition to the great selection, in addition to the great prices, you often get unique options at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports that you can't get anywhere else. And we'll have one of those coming up in the Gear Segment. But I think it's quite, know, it's something that we see quite a bit. Right?

That member of Henrik Lundqvist sticks with the actual squared off shoulder at the top. Things like that that nobody else gets. Cam and his crew always make sure they have it at the hockeyshop.com and at the Hockey Shop in person. So even if you're not looking for new gear, if you just wanna look around as Daren so often tells us he does, and I know he does, just check out the website. You'll be surprised at some of the unique items you might be able to find that you can't find anywhere else.

Again, the power of the hockey shop and Cam knowing what goalies want and making sure he brings it to them.

I know Daren's way too professional to do this, but I still sort of giggle and imagine during the Vegas Golden Knights games when the play is on, Daren on his phone just flipping through the hockeyshop.com, checking out what he's gonna put on next. But I know he's too professional to do that. Hey, our feature interview this week, Woody, was you with Colorado Avalanche's, Ivan Prosvetov, who is presented to us by NHL Sense Arena, virtual reality training for goaltenders and now for players. And I just wanna give a little shout out to one of our readers and listeners, Tom Buck. Tom has his own YouTube channel, far bigger than ours.

In fact, it's an incredible tech review channel. And he went out and got Sense Arena, thanks to InGoal. And he sent me a note and said, I can't believe it took me so long to get this. And Tom is a little bit like you, Woody. He came to goaltending in his thirties and, fairly new to it and wants to grab every little bit of training he can away from the rink.

And so he's grabbed Sense Arena and he's doing that. And it's just the best off ice training tool for goaltenders. We've got this new parent segment and we're gonna be talking another question later today, Woody. But one of the questions I see popping up all the time in the parent groups, what can I do off the ice for training with my kid? Sense Arena is an awesome thing you can use.

You're heading to the end of the minor hockey season right now. Won't be in the rinks quite as much. Grab Sense Arena and it is just so realistic. You can do drills. You can program where the shots are gonna go.

You can compete. They've got regular competitions going on. And yes, you can even face NHL and PWHL shooters. It's just incredible. Anyway, Sense Arena is a great tool for all of you who want to spend more time on the ice, practice your goaltending anytime, any day, anywhere.

Head over to sensearena.com today. And if you wanna grab it, use the code IGM 50 to save a little bit more.

You know who else got Sense Arena? By the way, I think it's cool. Like, if you're a if you have a tech review, like, that's what you do, you review tech and you're that enamored by it. That's a pretty good sign. Like, if you're normally a critic of

crit you're It's good point.

Taking tech and you love it that much, it's probably a good good feather in the cap for Sense Arena. But you know who else got it?

Our friend our friend Nick the goalie.

Oh boy.

And the only reason I know that Nick the goalie has it is because I was leaving the rink yesterday after covering the Los Angeles Kings morning skate. And I don't know if everybody knows, but Nick actually works for Sports Net behind the scenes. And as I'm walking behind the Zamboni entrance where sort of all the TV trucks and the HD trucks are located and all the TV crews are working. There's Nick with a headset on, paddles in his hand, making saves.

I kid you not making saves behind the Zamboni Tunnel and entrance at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. And I'm like, oh, somebody got Sense Arena. And he took it off and said he could not believe how realistic it was. So add another one to the list. I'm sure Nick's great with all his social media. So sure you'll see some of the footage of him playing with Sense Arena soon. It was kinda neat to just sorta, you know, see it out in the wild like that.

Having been in the ground floor of of sort of bringing this to the goalie world, just sorta neat when you get these stories about how how much other people like it as it builds and builds and builds and more people get involved.

Out out in the wild, you said, Woody. Is that a pun you're trying to make? What's up with, Marc Andre Fleury over in Minnesota?

There was no pun intended. I don't do dad puns, but nice on you to try and turn it into one. He's staying in Minnesota as we sort of look around the league at some of the news heading into the deadline. He was a name that I thought might be of interest. He sort of checked a lot of boxes to me.

He's having a good season.

I'm sure it was.

Yeah. The adjusted numbers are a lot better than the raw numbers. I know know we we talk about the context of of shot quality. You know, he's he's been in that backup role in Minnesota and seen some really tough starts, so the numbers may not look great. But when you adjust it for for what he's seeing, he's been really good, like, top 15 in the league still.

He's been through it before. He's been traded. He knows what it's like. He knows like, I think that makes a difference for a goalie. If you've done it once, it's easier to sort of manage expectations and know how to get comfortable in new environment.

Like, I thought he would have been a goalie that teams would be interested in, but he's committed to sort of sticking with the wild and see if he can get them into the playoffs. And the way he's going right now, he might be a big part of that. So one name off the list in terms of next week's trade deadline, I'm kinda curious to see if, anybody actually moves when it comes to goaltending.

Yeah. Well, I'm happy for Marc Andre Fleury and his family that they get to stay in one place from a family perspective. But I think for the fans of the game, it would have been fun to see him move to one of the big contenders and and go on a run. But good for him. He deserves everything that he wants.

Speaking of big moves around the deadline, there is a retirement of Miikka Kiprusoff's jersey coming up and he was a big move when he established himself going from San Jose, one of three to Calgary and then, suddenly becoming the man in Calgary.

You know what? And we wrote a lot of stories back in the day about this, and actually, it predates you and I and and InGoal Magazine, but I wrote a lot of stories for Goalie News Magazine, Ian Clarks Old Publication, wrote a lot of stories because I worked for Associated Press and and USA Today, and I actually covered Calgary's run to the Stanley Cup final for USA Today. So got to know Mika, like, as much as he like, the stories right now heading into the retirement are all about the character of Miikka Kiprusoff, and he was a character. Like, you talk about ties to Marc Andre Fleury. There's a segue for you.

Famous prankster and Fleury. Kipper was always sort of up to mischief. I remember writing features and being told by Finnish goaltenders about they'd be at, a Finnish national training camp, they'd be sent out for a run-in the woods. And he would basically stop as soon as they got out of sight of the coaches and start eating someone reminded me it was blueberries. So eating berries, waiting for everyone to come back, and then when they came back, he just hopped on the end of the line and and finished the run.

So, and yet, don't take that as laziness or Kipper not being serious about his profession. Like, the guy literally stretched three hours every game day, forty five minutes before pregame skate, forty five minutes after pregame skate or morning skate, forty five minutes before the game, forty five minutes after the game, three hours every day. Like his flexibility was legendary. The other the name I wanted to shout out a little bit, and I did this on Calgary radio the other day too, is as much as Kipper arrived with all that skill in Calgary and look at, like, look at the go look it up, folks. Got, like, 70 plus games for, like, seven straight seasons.

He was Incredible. A the absolute workhorse. He arrived with all that skill, but I think David Marcoux sometimes gets overlooked. The goalie coach in Calgary at the time went on to be a goalie coach with Carolina. After that, still works.

David Marcoux goalie schools in Calgary. I think he gets overlooked for the work he did with Kiper. Don't forget this was a generation, a time when, you know, even as 12 and 13 year olds were starting to be taught the the the fundamentals of proper leg recovery, there were a lot of guys in the National Hockey League that didn't have it, that just got up off the same leg all the time.

It's such a different time.

I I mean, it's just crazy to think of now. Like, it's it's it's inherent. It's innate in every kid, but there were guys in the NHL that didn't have it. And, you know, if I remember correctly, Miikka was one of those guys until he arrived in Calgary. And so you think about all the skill that he had, but there's just another layer of efficiency that a guy like David Marcoux was able to add to it.

I think he worked on his puck handling as well. The mental reset he was famous for. I think there was a five m system that David Marcoux had sort of developed that he that he talked to Kipper. So, fantastic goaltender. So well deserved to see his his his number 34 going up in the rafters.

Cough. Cough. Luongo should be up here in Vancouver. But, you know, just cool that they're celebrating him. Cool that he actually showed up to be celebrated because this is a guy who quite famously would not answer calls from the team during the offseason, like, just ignore them.

I expect it's gonna be a fantastic ceremony led by our friend Jamie McLennan, who's, McLennan, who's a big friend of Kippers when they were together in Calgary and then as the goalie coach. You know, the fact that he's emceeing this will make it even even better. I I I can't wait to watch it. He truly was, you know, one of the best of that era around the National Hockey League and and good on the flames for for getting him back to celebrate it.

Absolutely. That's appointment viewing for all of us. When you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance that ceremony's already happened. But, find it online, check it out, and watch what's going on. I don't think many people in the hockey world expected Kipper to be such a a stud for Calgary when he was moved.

I mean, San Jose had a logjam in the crease, had to move somebody. Is there anybody you're expecting might get moved at this deadline, Woody, that's gonna make a big difference for the team? You mentioned already that, Marc Andre Fleury is one of the few guys that maybe would know how to handle that. And we've talked before about how difficult it is to make that transition for a goaltender especially. What do you think might happen this year?

You know what? I don't know. I just think that ever since, like, the one that sort of started the hesitation to make these moves was Ryan Miller to St. Louis from Buffalo. You know, when we talk about all these all those things I mentioned about Marc Andre Fleury checking the boxes, I do think there are things like whether it's style fitting, having been through it before, enough runway to sort of get comfortable behind a new system. Are you a guy who relies more on reads or more on technique?

Where's your foundation? What type of system does the the team you're going to play? Do they give up the chances that actually, you know, fit your game? Like, Miller didn't check any of those boxes, and this is a conversation that I've had with him since then. Like, the style was different.

It didn't necessarily fit with how he played. He was a goalie that relied heavily on reads at the time. And as he evolved later in his career, he would have been no problem making. But it but it was that was his first time being traded. The expectations like and since then, we just haven't seen as many teams willing to take that risk.

Part of the problem is by the time the trade deadline arrives on March 8, like you're at a runway, you've got a month. And with the importance of rest, what's your guy playing like 10 to 12, maybe 15 games max? Not really enough time. Enough time to learn a system for sure. Not enough time to get used to all the little sort of nuances of how each guy plays in front of you, what their habits, what their tendencies are.

And so, you know, with that in mind, obviously, Jacob Markstrom is the big name out there. I think he would have been a great fit. You know, maybe we hear a lot about New Jersey. Not a great defensive team, but neither has Calgary being their bottom five in the NHL and all the underlying numbers in terms of the quality of shots they give up in Calgary. New Jersey's in the twenties.

So, again, Markstrom, a goalie who we've seen at times be at his best when he's busy. Well, guess what? You're gonna be busy in New Jersey. They ask a lot of their goaltenders, and that's why Markstrom, you know, probably should win the best in the trophy this year. His goal saved above expected, so he's outperformed his environment.

The shot quality he's facing, 10 better than the next best guy on the list or nine better than the next best guy on the list. Like, he is almost lapping the field. He's been so good in Calgary.

That's a lot. Can you put into context what 10 is, like, relative to the person below him?

He's at 26, and the next guy's around 17. Like, 26. And, again, it's environment. Right? Like It's 50%

better.

Yeah. If you're playing well behind a team that gives up a ton, you're going to that's that's how you excel. It's harder to do behind a great defensive team because there aren't a lot of expected goals every night. There's not a great opportunity to outperform it. But I just think from a fit in terms of what he does well, and what they tend to give up, that would have been one that made a lot of sense.

But now as we approach, like, is there enough runway to even make that deal and have it pay off for them? I don't even know that they get into the playoffs. So, you know, a lot of fascinating conversations around the league. And I I honestly just don't have a clue where any of this is gonna shake out. You know, Juuse Saros name is out there.

Yep. Having a bit of a

And Nashville's on a heater. Right? So Well, but he's had he's

having an average season by his standards, and and that's because his standards are so lofty. He's he's one of those guys that over the past two and a half years has played himself into the elite conversation, and he's not having an elite season. They just there's just there you know, we see the musical chairs every summer with goalies moving all around the league. And the irony is we don't see it at the trade deadline, so I I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see much at all.

Well, one team that has kind of acquired a goaltender at the trade deadline here without going anywhere is the Toronto Maple Leafs having just gotten Joseph Woll back, longtime friend of the show. What are you what are you thinking and what are you seeing about Joseph Woll returning?

Well, nice to see him go to the American League, gets one start on the conditioning, starts stops 36 to seven back in the NHL a few days later, post a win. Listen, this is no disrespect to the other guys there. Obviously, we're big fans of Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov. We feel you feel good about Samsonov finding his game after really struggling early. I just think when I look at Joseph Woll, that's the future for them, the number one goaltender of the future and not to pack too much pressure on him, but he's such an impressive young man like

he really is.

You know? And and we see it in the ProReads, right? So the beauty of him being back is we're able to sort of launch the ProReads video session that we did with him. There's one live right now and another one coming soon. We went back to back with him in consecutive weeks, and you'll see that shine through all the reasons that I believe he's the future of the Maple Leafs, the way he sees the game, the way he approaches, the way he takes the way he takes breaks, the way he gets himself away from the game off the ice and and is able to sort of focus on other things.

There's just so much to like about his game, and and he shares a lot of those insights in our pro read. So make sure you check it out if you haven't already at ingoalmag.com. The the first pro reads of our latest session is up. The second one is coming. And of course, can always go back to the archives because we did a a five five video review with Joseph two years ago when he was first breaking in and and on episode, well, I think one fifty eight of the podcast, he was a featured guest.

So if you wanna get to know the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs, we've got you covered here at InGoal Magazine, the InGoal Radio Podcast.

Hey. Those, those ProReads, I know we both believe are a great way for young goaltenders to learn the game. If you're a goaltender or a parent listening to this, I'd just like to ask you a question. Does your goalie coach give you a subscription to InGoal Magazine when you register for a camp? Do they send you homework asking you to check out the ProReads and maybe chat with you about those ProReads each week?

Pretty tough to do if not all their students have a membership, but we know some goalie schools like GTI in Toronto have been providing memberships for all of their goalies and we just launched a program everybody for goalie coaches. If you're a coach listening and you wanna get involved in this, send us a note info at InGoal mag dot com and we're gonna try and help as many coaches as possible provide InGoal to their students and also help you get your name out there for people who are looking for a goalie coach to work with. So, I'm pretty excited about what's going on there, Woody.

Yeah. And we're, like I said, we just launched the program. So because it's the first full year, we did that test run with GTI. It went really well last summer because this is gonna be the first full year. We're we are gonna limit this.

We've had quite a few inquiries already. So if your coach is hearing this for the first time, make sure you reach out to us at info@InGoalmag.com. We did send an email out to a lot of schools and spaces, you know, quite literally are filling fast here. So we want to make this as much as it would be easy to say, hey, we know the value based on the, you know, the the test run we did, the value it brings to goaltenders, the value it brings to schools to engage goaltenders to make sure they come back the following summer and the following years, that that retention for the schools, the education, for the goalies themselves. We know this works, but it also is a lot of work.

And so we wanted to make sure that we kept the number so it didn't become overwhelming for us to the point where we couldn't do a good job of it. So we'll probably open it up to an even broader audience next summer. We just wanted to make sure we give ourselves a chance to to get our feet under us as we expand it to 10 full schools this year. So make sure you get on that list soon. The spaces are filling quickly.

Yeah. And that's not Woody doing some artificial sort of sales pitch there. The reality is every time we take on a new project, it ends up being a lot more work than we thought it would be. And we will deliver for these goalie schools, but it's probably gonna end up meaning, a lot more work in the background for us. So we're just gonna cap that number to make sure that all our systems are in place and and we're able to handle it all for you.

Parent Playbook

Okay, Woody. Parent segment time.

That's right. What are the parents asking this? This is a new one for us. The parents that you talk to because I I am a parent, but I don't like to talk to other parents.

You're a goalie uncle.

Yes. What's what's the question this week?

Well, what I wanted to chitchat about was I see increasing number of parents, and I think it's because we're hitting minor hockey playoff time and things kinda change. But a lot of parents are putting up the question, how do your teams split time and the crease between the goaltenders? I think it's coming up now because some associations mandate that the two goalies on the team split evenly, but sometimes they give them a little bit of leeway in the playoffs to play the quote unquote better goaltender, and maybe the wins matter a little bit more. So I don't think I could chime in on Facebook well enough to explain what I think. I probably have a couple of times tried.

But for me, Woody, especially looking back now that my son is playing junior hockey, I think it's crazy if you are not splitting evenly. And I know there are coaches out there that will say, and their parents are out there that will say, oh, it's triple a hockey. You just have to suck it up and realize that's the way it is. No. It's development for your kids.

If you are not splitting time evenly, you are shortening the development for one of those two goaltenders, and you don't know which one's gonna turn out to be the better of the two down the road. I promise you. And that to me, this is just one symptom of what is wrong with goaltending development in this country. I can tell you for sure that all the top goalies that my son saw around him playing hockey on the way up are not playing now or they're playing at a much lower level than they expected. The guy that you think is number one, you are probably not doing the other guy a service.

One of the guys that was behind my son a few times growing up just was made named MVP of his junior a team the other day. These kids all deserve to develop. They all deserve to play the same amount. I have seen a couple of parents say, yeah, but little Johnny is just not even close, and he doesn't belong at this level. That's another thing that really drives me crazy.

I've heard some associations mandate two goalies per team. I don't care how experienced the second goalie is or how ready the second goalie is. I've seen that too, and that's also doing a disservice to a kid, forcing somebody into a level. So if you tell me that you can't evenly split because one goalie is not ready, He shouldn't be playing at that level. He should be down a level where he can play a ton, love the game, and develop.

Because again, you just don't know who's gonna come out on top one day, would he?

Well, I gotta be honest with you. I don't think I can handle the commitment of taking my kid to all those games and watch him sit on the bench for half of them. So I'd go I'd go with the Alex Auld program, and they did this here in Vancouver when Alex was coaching his son's team. His son's not a goalie, but he was on the bench. And, hey, listen, having an ex NHL or on the bench makes this a little more workable.

But if we had more sort of educated minor hockey goalie coaches or parents that were educated enough on the position that they could do this, I think it makes perfect sense. They both played every game. They split it not even one period to the next. They would move them within the game during breaks in action. One kid would come to the bench and the other kid would go in the net.

You're constantly engaged. You're watching the game more closely because you know it's going to be your turn. You're not just sitting there twiddling your thumbs or sneaking M and M's into the, you know, into into your glove and pulling them out of your pads or whatever. You get feedback in real time. You come to the bench and there's a coach to talk to you about what you did or didn't do, what's going on around you, what you're seeing, how you're reading, how you're processing, maybe something technical.

And they had tons of success with it. I was just the one year where he was coaching. And, again, I get it. It's easier to get buy in when that kid's coming off the ice to the bench and having, you know, a longtime NHL goalie give him advice, and not everybody has that benefit. But the ability to have in game feedback rather than have the kid out there for sixty minutes and not know what he's doing or doing right, especially at the lower levels And the benefit of keeping them both engaged far overshadowed the uniqueness or oddness or the perceived oddness of playing both goalies every single night.

And at the end of the end of the year, every year, everybody was happy. And, yeah, like, there are times where one kid's playing better than the other, and it would be tempting not to do it. But if you're truly committed to developing the goaltenders, they stuck with it, and and that was the payoff.

I absolutely love that system and just underline what what you said there, Woody. Every other player on the team gets coaching between shifts or at least should. And I'm not saying every shift. Goaltenders deserve that as well. Just being left out there on island, especially at a young age, is crazy.

So I love that solution. My son played on a team one year where he split every single game right down the middle with the other goaltender. They learned the ability to come into a game cold. They get to be involved in every single game. It's a lot of driving to to watch your kid not play.

And, and a member Brian Daccord talked to us about the same thing. Joey Daccord, Brian insisted that they split all the games. Love that. Okay. That is our parent segment.

Well, hey, listen. Before we before we move on, I think we should remind the people listening that last week's parent segment, which focused on,

what what mask should I buy for my son or daughter?

Is now has been written up. Hutch has transcribed it and put it on ingoalmag.com. So as these questions come in from parents and we think we can help them or at least Hutch does because I know nothing.

You know lots.

We're gonna put it on ingoalmag.com. So we sort of build an archive out of this. So, if you missed last week's first one, make sure you go over to ingoalmag.com and you can check it out.

Yep. You can hear just that segment. I know what I was gonna say. We talked a ton about development, Woody, but also it's about having fun. Like every kid is paying to be on that team.

Every kid is committed to being on that team. They're young kids. They should be out there having fun. So I would love to do the Alex AHL system and have the courage to change the kids on the fly too because that would be fun.

Yeah. That would be fun. It might cost you a few goals, but

Who cares?

Well, hey. You know what? You know what? I I wish that was the mentality that more people had. We'd be better for it when it comes to goalie development.

Do you know how many scores I remember from what I played? Zero. Don't remember a single score. Do you know how many scores I remember from my son's games growing up? Just one.

So at the end of the day, guys, it doesn't matter. Get out there, have fun.

I I I guarantee you there are parents listening right now.

Oh, they're dying now. They're

kidding Winning is fun.

Yeah. There's a lot of parents who hate me for saying what I'm saying, but that's how I feel.

Gear

Speaking of fun, Cam has some fun new colors at the Hockey Shop. Oh, yeah. Cam's always got know, like I said, what did I say earlier in the podcast? Exclusive. He's got some exclusives, and we have a little fun with Cam and his, his fun colors at the hockey shop right now.

I'll just turn it over to him. He can explain it all.

Welcome back to The Hockey Shop Source for Sports. I'm here. Goal Utopia. That's also here.

I'm Kevin. He's Cameron. That's me. And Cam, why do I have Bauer x five Pro here? Because we've done a review of Bauer x five Pro.

These ones look nicer, but like, what's going on?

Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of the point. Special custom colors only available. Yeah.

Hockey Shop only. Hockey Shop only. Wow. So couple different color ways. Nice chance to match your team stock right off the wall.

Not having to order customer or any jazz like that. Ready to rock them all. We got a couple of cool, neat, neat colorways here specific hopefully to what would be, you know, your association and your look. Your beer league team? Potentially.

I I really I really like these. Sorry. I look like Minnesota North Stars, green.

It's a

good look. Four gold.

This one though, this one you like little you said jazz, all that jazz, a little

St Louis Blues theme going here. All of

that jazz. So let's preface this a little bit. What's going on here? So all of these are still a stock X5 pad. You're gonna find this both in senior and intermediate.

Again, these specific colors are specific to our store only. Nobody else has. Nobody else finds it. So you'll only find it here at the hockey shop, www.thehockeyshop.com or just thehockeyshop.com is, you know, you guys like to remind me that the www. Is not a.

Somewhat redundant at this point. Yeah.

I guess you don't need that anymore. Anyway, so what's cool about an x five pro? And walk us through it's

been a while, so just

walk quick us through the refresher. So Bauer X5 Pro designed to take over from the three x series of pads still designed like a vapor pad. So you got some good flex to the pad overall. You do feature their Stabila Flex knee block. Nice and integrated, but you still get a little bit of flex here.

That's definitely a wonderful upgrade. You're still getting their special slide service. So their Cortex slide service all the way throughout along the side front face of the pad is not that is just a standard gen pro. So that one's what's changing there as well. Overall, feel wise, again, you get a lot of that like Hyperlite fit and feel, but you get it in a much more economical package.

Glove break. Glove break is based off of, if you wanna call it 590. So six figure glove leg, bringing your index finger into the base of your thumb as you're closing it. Quite a common glove break. Great feel right off the shelf.

As you can see, Kevin could close that right off the shelf. Oh, he does.

Yeah and I really weak hands.

He does. Really weak. So as I said That's a good look too, You do? Little Rangers. Rangers.

Ah. Yeah. Nice.

So Which one's which one's your personal? Like I heard, you know, rumors that

I mean, one of them might have been, you know, modeled after a certain Je Ne Se Croix, but, you know okay. I won't say who. Doesn't matter. So if you have any questions about these, you give me a call (604) 589-8299 or 1-800-567-7790 or check it out at the hockeyshop.com. Have a look at them.

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I used to love to doodle when I was a kid. Draw masks, draw gear. I think I should have aspired to be Cam. Because Cam gets those order forms from Bauer, CCM, and all the other gear companies. And he actually gets to pull out the old magic markers and design himself some sets and order exclusive colors like that.

How lucky is Cam to put those together?

Speaking of doodling on your equipment, do you know that Miikka Kiprusoff used to draw a picture of his dog and he wasn't a very good artist on his equipment when he was sitting on the bench. And he didn't sit on the bench very much, but he would draw it on his pads just to drive the equipment manager in Calgary crazy because he'd have to get rid of it.

Oh, that's a great Kipper story. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Arts and

crafts with Cam, arts and crafts with Kipper.

I have mischievous telling you the mischievous stuff. You know, like, let's go back to Kipper. Remember the glove hand? Remember how he he Sure do. The unique glove motion, whereas the puck was being shot, he would turn the hand over almost like he was priming the pump, turn the hand over to face the shooter, and then square it back up and make the catch.

I was told, man, I remember writing the story, and I'm trying to remember all the specifics now. He actually it was a coach in Finland that used to line pucks up and shoot at him, but he would line them up on end sitting up on end, then they would come in all crazy. And so you've

seen that before.

It was like a knuckleball, almost like a flinch, like a protective mechanism to protect his head. Because I don't know if I remember the story correctly or not, but I seem to recall him shooting high or shooting at the head. And so Kipper sort of developed this little. Frankly, it's a hitch, but he was so damn good that he got away with it. Imagine today with 100%.

This is going to give Marcu credit for this, too. Didn't try and get rid of it. Recognize that it was something of whether it's a timing mechanism or whatever. Why are you gonna change a glove hand as good as Kippers? I think nowadays, coaches would probably try and drill that hitch right out of them.

Probably long before the NHL.

True. Fair.

Yeah. Yeah. Remember that, that glove very well. The first time I got to officially go into an NHL rink, I was photographing Miikka Kiprusoff. It's actually there to interview Kevin Weekes in Calgary, but still have the photos on the, on the computer because I just loved that day.

Great memories for me. That was pre Woody as well. Okay. So that was a cool segment with Cam. And now NHL Sense Arena, our good friends in virtual reality training for goaltenders, is bringing us our feature interview with Ivan Prosvetov, who I understand, Woody, recognized your voice.

Yeah. That was kinda that was kind of a cool I wasn't having the best day. Went out to Abbotsford to watch him. Abbotsford Canucks against Colorado. And the PR guy introduced me, but not by name.

So Ivan was doing his postgame workout. He didn't play that night, but he's going through a full routine. Weight, stretching, making sure that he did all the work he needed to do. And he's like, he said, hey, I'll like as soon as I'm done, I'll come talk to you. And then when I introduced myself and he he said he heard the voice and he recognized the voice from the podcast.

So I knew we had a listener there. The second time that's happened to me where somebody didn't recognize me, but recognize the voice, which means, you know, that we actually have listeners to this podcast, which is kind of encouraging, but it it brought a massive smile to my face to hear that. And and at the end of a long day, I could I really needed it. And I'm telling you, you're all gonna be smiling by the time you get to this the end of this interview. Ivan is very passionate about the position.

He's got a unique sort of backstory and background in terms of how he got into it and a unique path to the pros. First year with the Colorado Avalanche this year, we get into that a little bit, not playing a ton, which is always tough for a goaltender. Some great advice on how to manage that, and just the evolution of his game. You know, you're gonna hear some names that you recognize from past InGoal Radio Podcast that he's worked with, And it's just, you know, the energy. At the end of the day, you'll hear it.

I'll just let you listen. The energy he brings to it, the passion he has for it. Like I said, smile on my face. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have smiles on their face once they're done listening.

NHL Sense Arena presents Ivan Prosvetov of the Colorado Avalanche.

Feature Interview - Ivan Prosvetov

Really excited to welcome to the InGoal Radio Podcast. First time guest. I had a chance to meet this young man the other night after a game in Abbotsford. Now catching him up with him from Calgary. Ivan Prosvetov of the Colorado Avalanche, currently down with their AHL team, the hottest goalie in the American Hockey League right now, by the way.

Hey. I Russian goaltender with ties to a lot of people we've had on the podcast before. Just thank you very much for making the time today, Ivan.

Oh, thank you so much. It's good to be on this podcast, and what a what a introduction.

Now how has been the the adjustment? Right? Because I know you know, I mean, up at the NHL level, I we you hear us talk about this on the podcast all the time. I have access to some analytics that painted a very nice picture of the season you were having relative to the environment, outperforming it by a pretty decent margin. And you end up in the American Hockey League because you weren't playing as much as everyone would have liked.

What's the mindset? How do you how do you approach that?

You know what? I kind of approach it is it is what it is, you know. I ended up in this situation, you know, not been playing much, you know, once a month or twice a month, whatever. You know, it's it's not an easy spot to be in as a, you know, kind of a guy who's in his first full year in the NHL, you know. So good thing I got the opportunity to play here right now, you know, in the American League and played, like, five games in a row right now, you know, eight overall games in this month.

So, yeah, it's been good good experience so far.

What's the adjustment like coming from the NHL to the American League in terms of you know, we hear a lot of people talk about it, being at times a league of mistakes, where you're reacting off of things going wrong in front of you. The NHL, as much as it's a harder league, can at times be more predictable as a goaltender in terms of guys being where they're supposed to be.

Yeah. You know what? I think, the more games you play in NHL, it slows down slows down to you. Because to be honest, I didn't notice much differences between, you know, NHL and AHL. Maybe just in NHL, sometimes you see the play come in, you know, let's say, some stretch pass, and it goes through.

You know? It's like it's more to perfection. You know? Like, the game is more to perfection in NHL. You know?

Like, all the passes, you know, like, maybe sometimes you know for sure there's gonna be no seam, and boom. Seam happens in the NHL. You know? Which is in the American League, I guess, it's maybe a little bit less skill, I would say. But still, you know, the game is the same.

The system of the team's team play, you know, like, let's say we played the Canucks just yesterday. We played two games against them, Abbotsford, and the Vancouver Canucks, they played against them last year. To be honest, the system was the same. They were running a lot of, like, behind the net plays. You know?

So it helps to when you get get to know the systems, the team play, you know, and get to know the players, other players and other teams, how they play. So that's it helps for sure.

Is that a biggest part of the experience of being in the NHL, getting to sort of know what to expect from from other teams and other players? And as much as you would have liked to have been playing more in Colorado, can you still build like, can you build that sort of knowledge from the bench, or do you need to be in the in the crease seeing it from that perspective to really understand it?

You know what? I feel like in the bench is tough. Okay. I never noticed in myself, you know, picking on any players in a in a bench. You know?

But when you play the team, let's say, once in NHL and you don't really it's what I noticed at this year, to be honest. Like, when you play the team once and maybe, like, you don't know how the how the guys play because you played in other league. You know? In an American league, in my division, I basically knew, like, what's every guy is like, you know, in the other team. Like, because you just have so much games against them.

Right? So in the shell, it's the same. I feel like the more years you play, the more games you play, you get to know those guys, what are they gonna do? Like, are they a shooter or, like, you know, stuff like that. Like, are they looking for a pass option or something like that, you know?

So it gets usually with the experience.

I get real it sounds like experience really is important. Short of having it before you get it, can you learn any of that on video, or is it really, like you said, you gotta be in the crease experiencing it firsthand, seeing it from that perspective?

Well, I'm sure, like, even maybe you're in a PK, right, meeting or something like that, your coach can tell you, like, okay. This guy is a shooter. This guy is a passer. It was couple times, to be honest, Phil Housley, he was our D man coach in Arizona, and I remember I played we were playing against Colorado, and he was talking about Gerard, Samuel Gerard. He's my who's my teammate now.

And he was saying that he's a. Passer. You know? And at that point, I believed him so much. And, you know, there are a lot of guys, they coming down and selling shots so well in the power play and then passing in less time.

So with this guy, I I I trusted that Samuel is a passer. And, like, you know, I was kind of still a little bit, like, cheating, you know, for a pass. And he never shot at once. You know? So that's kind of you know?

You can get some stuff like that, you know, from the guys, but it's obviously better when you actually face them more often.

K. You mentioned going from Arizona last year and Cory Schwab and working with him to Colorado this year and Yusi Partilla, a goaltending coach that that we know well here at InGoal Magazine and first first European goaltending coach to win a Stanley Cup. What's been the adjustment going from one guy to the other? Are there things in particular that you focused on? It's a new voice.

Sometimes it's new ideas That can be difficult at times. How's that been getting used

to a new goalie coach?

You know, it's the first thing, like, with the Cory Schwab, I started when I was really young. Right? I got drafted, and I was really, really raw at that time coming into the league, like, to the pro hockey, you know, and I kind of, you know, was just relying on my instincts, you know, just I just kind of had a thought in my head, just stop a puck, you know? And he was probably at first, he was like, okay, woah. Because, like, I was fully splits and, you know, just straight athleticism, you know, not my structure or anything.

So but after that, with the I kind of picked it up, you know, working with the goalie coach back home, with Oleg Romashko, you know, I in my last two years, I really started to play a system, you know, and now kind of I wanna say that I have my foundation of my game, you know, the like, in everyday basis, I play the same now, not like I when I was coming into the league. You know? So, Corey, he he saw me in both periods of that. Right? He saw when I was already, you know, really system goalie, you know, working in my fundamental stuff.

And at the same time, he saw me just, you know, jumping around the crease and trying to stop a puck. You know?

So, Oleg, in your work with him, walk me through that because, like you said, it sounds like, you know, your words are a little more raw, little less sort of foundation underneath you, quote unquote system goalie. Like, what type of things the audience is all goalies. So give us some examples of some of the things that you've integrated into your foundation and part of that system.

Okay. Like I I I was talking to you yesterday. Right? So I told you how how I, got to know Oleg and, so my goalie coach Zach Furyk, who was my you know, I'm so grateful to him too. And, he was my goalie coach for a couple years in Tucson.

And he basically was development coach for Coyotes at that time. And he was trying to find ways for me to train in Russia during the summers, and, you know, he obviously didn't know anyone from Russia. And, well, he text Clark Ian Clark because he knew that he works, you know, he goes to Russia for camps, you know, and basically, Clarky said, okay, Oleg is the guy, you know, and that's how I started working with him. And you know what? It's been awesome awesome experience with Oleg.

Like, it's already for, like, last four years. I've been getting ready for seasons with him. And you know what? I feel like last couple years, I really got into the the system, you know, the Netplay system, the traffic, you know, and stance management and stuff like that. You know, that's something would definitely makes me successful so far, you know, in my, you know, four further steps, I feel like, you know, that's something what really got me comfortable playing in an NHL level and in the AHL level right now.

Like, I feel like in every game I I go, you know, doesn't matter who we face and how we how the team plays in front of me. I know that I'm gonna do my things, you know, and so I can just kinda focus on the play.

Having a plan like that, does it did you feel like it gives you, like, security almost like a like a, you know, like a home base, so to speak?

It definitely does. It definitely does. Like, let's say, behind the net play. Like, when soon spot goes behind the net, I knew already what I'm gonna do. You know?

Like, I literally have my, you know, lines when I transition from a reverse to reverse track, when I, you know, my Quick Eyes from behind the net, you know, and stuff like that, that I have to go in a 30 degree alignment when I get to my reverse, you know, stuff like that. So if you do that all the time, like, that's, let's say, something behind the net happens. When puck moves up top, you know, it goes high, and then do you have the puck up top? There the I'm in a high stance and looking on short side. You know, all this stuff going on, and it's just so I'm doing it over and over, you know, it just come in easily and easily, and it's just, you know, I already have to think less about that.

It just happens automatically.

And as we said, as we're talking the other night too, as much as you add that and you have that consistency that comes with a foundation like that, you still gotta remember that all those things you used to do can help too. It's just a matter of picking when to do them. Right?

Exactly. To be honest, I got caught in a moment of just focusing on my system, you know? To be honest, I had that, you know? And I was never trying to be like a robotic goalie, you know, by any means, but I kind of got stuck a little bit on locking my athleticism and stuff, you know? But I feel like you you always have to be a player.

Like, you always have to play the game. You can't just, you know, play the technique or, you know, some or incredible saves. You have to play the game. And so you have to like, I feel like when you can do the structural things, you definitely wanna have your structure. You know?

But when things are breaking down in front of you, you have to be able to quickly change and just, you know, find a way to stop a puck sometimes. You know? And I feel like there's so many goalies in the league who's really good at at it. You know? And, like, let's say, example, like, my friend, you know, Kotchetkov you watch him play.

You know, that's he's been like that all the time. He was always a player. You know? Like, he was always, like, he plays soccer. He's good at soccer.

You know? He plays every he's a player. So in the the way he plays in net, you can tell that, you know, the guy the guy really enjoys and he plays. You know? So which is, that's something what I still trying to work on as well, you know, to kind of, still have this, like, you know, the playful mindset when I when I actually play.

Can that be tough a little bit? Especially when you're if a lot of the system stuff was new to you, that means you have to work so hard at it. And so you rep it out and you rep it out. Sometimes when we rep something out so much, it become our new, you know, automatic habit, and it can be hard to sort of get away from it. How'd you or how are you in the process of finding that balance back between both worlds?

You know what? I think the balance is important one of the important things in life, right? And in hockey specifically, like, have to balance the way you practice things, you know, like, sometimes even like, you know, used to when I would have a bad game, you know, and I would make some mistakes in the eyes, I would just next practice focus on those mistakes, you know, like, that I was, you know, that I made. And I wouldn't focus on other things. Let's say, maybe I got caught, like, you know, looking at other side, just let's say in the example, I would only work, you know, managing traffic and short side and, you know, like doing some screen stuff.

You know, you always have to manage your, you know, work when you go, when you go out and practice, you still have to work on all the things. Because only when you start working on only one thing, like, the whole other things might not gonna go well for you. So you have to find a way to always work on whole game as a whole picture, you know?

But then I wasn't working and, let's say, beating the pass, and next game it would cost me, you know? So I think it's important to find the balance and working on stuff. You know, you always have to manage your, you know, work when you go, when you go out and practice, you still have to work on all the things. Because only when you start working on only one thing, like, the whole other things might not gonna go well for you. So you have to find a way to always work on whole game as a whole picture, you know?

So I think there was a that's kind of a big thing for me right now, that even if I'm doing some mistakes, you know, I'm I'm acknowledge them, I work on them, but I still really work on all other stuff as well. I did I'm already good at it.

When, when you get to Colorado, what's the conversation like with with UC in terms of both expectations, but what he sees in your game and and where he wants to help you go? Because there's a lot of time well, I was gonna say, usually, there's a lot of time to practice early, but as the season goes on, it's hard to find that time. So you're not get when you're not getting a chance to play, how do you make sure you get the most out of that time, and what were your focal points with UC?

You know, Juuse, he was always trying to do a good job with finding guys like players to have more of a game like situations for me when I wasn't playing as much. You know? And the good thing he was doing that he was trying to cover all the plays that could've happened, you know, like high plays, low plays, you know, and jams, all this kind of stuff, you know? So moving screens and stuff like that, you know? So he was trying to amplify that into practice, which is tough to do sometimes because, you know, with the NHL schedule, the guys are getting tired too, you know, and it's tough to get a lot of players in the eyes for a goalie skate, you know?

But we're lucky we had a lot of guys who was coming in and, yeah, Juuse was doing a a really good job with that.

Anything you anything you took away? Like, every relationship is different, but are there any any takeaways from working with Georgie? He's another guy that we've gotten to know a little bit in the past and big fans of sort of a unique path that he went from, you know, from Belarussia to Russia to a lot of work in Finland and brings a lot of unique characteristics to how he plays too.

You know what? I don't know about his playing style if it fits me because, you know, he's a little different goalie, but definitely the one thing that I think every goalie can take away from George is his ability to focus. You know? And the way he focus the day during a game is just incredible. You know, I played with many goalies and great goalies.

And, you know, I've never seen anybody focus like him. And I know I know it's not easy to him to stay in this focus, you know, and because I try it myself. I try to do it myself, but it I know it's not easy, but you have to accept that it's not easy and go in go in this battle with the within, you know, within yourself that you have to be focused in during the game day. And, you know, he's so locked in and during the whole game, you know, and I think it's his biggest biggest strength, to be honest.

Now I'm gonna have to ask him where that comes from the next time I talk to him because I can think when he when he started with the rangers, there was another guy there that was pretty famous for his intensity and focus on game days in Henrik Lundqvist.

Okay. There we go. Well, that's maybe that's maybe part of it for sure in his game, but I I that that's tough. I think it's really tough tough to do, but it's it's really helps. I mean, when you focus on the game, I mean, might as well.

We can we can take a chance on that. So

Now, I'm curious. Where did where did this all start for you? Just to rewind it a little bit. Like, where did this like, when I talked to you last night, the passion you had for for goaltending came through, like, right away. It was, like, just love to talk about the position.

How how did it all start for you? Where'd you get started in the in in goalie?

You know what? I started really young. I started playing outside in my little city, Stupina Stupina, Moscow, close to Moscow. And we didn't have a rink built at that time in that city. Now there's a junior team team there, Capitan Stupina, play there too, actually, in the juniors, you know.

And, yeah, they have a lot of prospects who play there, you know. So and so, yeah, I started playing outside. I was just a player without gear, but I was always trying to go into the net. I don't know why I was always trying to be in the last line. You know?

It wasn't a it wasn't we wasn't supposed to have goalies. You know? We were just playing, but I was still going in. And one day, I showed up, and, basically, coach had a gear laying in for me, you know, the old old old pads. I think it was iTech.

I don't know what is

the Yeah. ITech. Yeah. ITech. Yeah.

They yep. It used to be Bauer. They Bauer bought iTech. Yep.

There we go. So now I'm a I'm a Bauer guy. So I'm let's let's call it M. It was always with Bauer.

Perfect. So so, I mean, we've heard so much. Obviously, there's been a lot of focus on Russian goaltending because, you know, you look at the at the top of the game, there's a lot of great Russian goaltenders. Obviously, Sergei and and Vassi, and you you mentioned, like, in a whole another generation come with yourself and and Piotr. What was your experience?

Like you said, that's how you started. Like, in terms of coaching and growing up, I was I was a little surprised to hear you talk about having being more athletic when you arrived with Arizona and not having the foundation yet because I think a lot of the stuff we heard was that that was coming more in the teaching at a younger age. So I'm just curious what your experience is in terms of goalie coaching and developing at a young age.

You know what? I spoke to a lot of goalie coaches here, and they all think that Russian goalies be, like, so athletic because we never been teach in early age, you know, which is I think it's a it's a good thing to do, to not give the goal, you know, to, you know, a lot of structural things right away when he's really young. I think it's a really good thing, and it's actually what Oleg recommends to his younger goalies. I know I had a conversation with him about it, that, you know, that some would some parents would text Oleg and be like, okay, we wanna come for a camp, and our our kid is like five years old, or is like six, you know? Like, we want him to new like, learn, you know, RVH or, you know, whatever, reverse track, you know?

And Alex says, hey. For now, you just have to able to have find the ability to stop a puck, you know? And I think it's a really important thing. But in my case, I always had goalie coaches. You know?

I always so I was in my city plan for a couple years. Maybe then it wasn't much goalie coaching, but I don't think you get anything from that age, to be honest. But when I was, like, seven or eight years old, I went to TSK, and I had the goalie coaches there. But I had a big thing when I was younger. I I had bad ability to listen.

So I wouldn't I wouldn't pick up much stuff, to be honest. And I was I was pretty lazy guy when I was when I was growing up. You know? I wanna say that. I was always tall, was always flexible.

I wouldn't say that I worked on my flexibility ever. I'm just, you know, natural. I don't know. Whatever. So I was always able to do the splits and stuff.

So that kind of carried me into junior hockey, you know? And I feel like from junior hockey, that's when when I already started kind of thinking about techniques, you know, and skill. So that was that was my case. But I think there is a lot of lot of coaching right now in Russia. There's, you know, so many schools and stuff like that.

Well, and that's you're right. The theory. I've heard that theory too. And I was curious at the age of 25 where you fit into that window because, you know, I can think of talking like Anton Khudobin a few years ago about how he agreed. But when he goes home now, he sees a ton of goalie schools, and he wonders if maybe, you know, as a country, they might lose that a little bit.

So I was I was very curious to see sort of where you fit in to that window on your but Georgie, same way. Georgie had old school coaching. He told me, lot of skating, lot of skating, no pucks, and then he added some of the technique by going to Finland. So it's it is fascinating to sort of hear some of the different routes and the different sort of pass through that system that goalies have had in Russia.

For sure. You know, I don't know if it's a bad thing that, you know, some things you have to you you can tell the kids right away. Like, you can if you can get it into their head that you have to use the high stance, you know, when puck is high, or like, you know, you or you have to beat the pass, you know, like, that's that's something where you're gonna have to might as well to do it in every age, you know? Like, that's something where every goalie, like, you cannot be late in every pass and be a good goalie. Like, you know, like, that's just unrealistic, it's never gonna happen.

So like, this kind of stuff you can tell kids right away. But I feel like I was always thinking like, because when kids are smaller, this point with the VH, right? Like the, with the reverse, like when do you teach kids to, you know, go into this reverse? Because now they're so small, you know, like, so you can cannot really tell them to, okay, now you have to be on your feet, but in the future, you're gonna grow maybe, and then you go into the reverse, you know? Like, that's this kinda stuff That's the only thing that was tricking me with, like, to working with the kids.

I was always thinking how you manage that when you're like a kid's goalie coach. You know? But stuff like I said, you know, the beat in the pass, you know, the depth and stuff like that, I feel like you can go for it in every age. You know?

Well, when we were talking about reading the game in the NHL in the American League level, there's something to be said for letting them figure it out on their own at a young age too because they figure right? Their kids are so creative. Right? They there are things you can learn and sort of just develop some of those instincts at a

young age if you're not overcoached, I would suppose.

Yeah. For sure. For sure. And, you know, like, some kids, I guess, they, you know, they picking it up stuff right away. You know?

I wasn't like that. You you had to tell me thousand times. You know? Now it's changed, thankfully, you know? And maybe it's it's a good thing that I had it late, you know, in my, you know, in my in my junior career because I was able to develop those, you know, just the natural abilities.

But, you know, so you never, you know, you you never can guess on that.

I wanted to ask you about that. Going the decision to come over to North America to play junior over here, first in the NAHL and then in the USHL leads to you getting drafted a year in the CHL. You know, what led to that? What was I mean, it's not a decision we see everyone make.

You know what? They kind of got screwed by I didn't have a MHL team. And, like, I didn't have a junior team in Russia. I just literally had no place to play. I I could've go to, like, a Russian junior, like, U18 league, you know, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't ever my goal.

I got drafted by Sochi in KHL, and they had some older guys there, Barulin. I don't know if you know Constantin Barulin. He was a big time Russian goalie, one of my, like, pretty big idols growing up when I was younger, you know. He was there. And I was only 17 going no.

I was, yeah, 16 or 17 going into this camp in KHL, imagine. And obviously, I didn't made a team, you know, and they said that we don't have an MHL team, we're not sure what you're gonna do, you know. And they said there's option to go in U18 and play there. And my agent and my parents, they kind of, you know, helped me out to move to United States to play play junior, you know, and I went undrafted to USHL. I went to the Waterloo Blackhawks and got got cut.

I got caught and, you know, and I got sent down to the North American Hockey League in Minnesota.

What was that like, did your parents come with you, or are you on your own at that point? Because that I mean, like, culturally, language, like, that's not an easy thing to do.

I feel like it was nice because I was still a little, like, kid, you know, like, 17. It's still really young, you know, so I wasn't really worrying about any stuff too much at that point, you know. So I was maybe at a, played a good role in that, that I came so early, you know. Because obviously my parents didn't came with me, I was by myself, you know. I go in I still remember, my god, I got into the billet family, no English, nothing.

And then my phone got broken or, like, I lost my phone and I didn't had a phone for a month. You imagine? So I couldn't contact my parents my first, like, month in the in The US. You know? That's And yeah.

It was it was it was hell of a hell of a time for sure.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, they say. I guess you learned lessons through that. What about on the ice? How'd your game develop?

You know what? A ton. A ton since then. I feel like in North American League, was still you know, I was just I started watching a lot of other goalies, you know, in NHL. You know, was Pekka Rinne, Bobrovsky at the time, Carey Price.

You know, all those big goalies, I was watching them, you know, and trying to do like, you know, find some drills that they are doing, you know, and doing myself because it wasn't goalie coaches or anything in North American Hockey League. And so it kinda I had a pretty good year there. You know, got drafted to OHL. You know, got some coaching from Shane Clifford, you know, the goalie coach in Youngstown. You know, he was awesome.

He was kind of my first really North American coach. You know? And from there, working going to OHL, AJ Wolchak, you know, he helped me out a lot there. You know? That's when it where I already started, you know, really going into skills and technique and, you know, building my system because then Oleg came, you know, in Cory Schwab, Zadberg.

All those goalie coaches, they all had an impact on me, you know, over my course of my early career.

When you get all those different voices and you're learning all those new things, is it hard to sorta not pick and choose? You're you're you're probably trying to learn something from everyone, but is it sort of hard to find where your foundation is when everybody's probably trying to add a piece or not pull you in different directions, but they're trying to show you new thing?

Yes. You know what? I feel like you that that's something what's really tough at at points, you know, that you feel like you have to do that every phone everything what your goalie coach says. Then you go to different goalie coach, or they just change, you know, and this goalie coach wants to do different things, you know? Now I'm more of, you know, like, I have my own system.

Like, I play my own game, you know? And it doesn't matter who built that system, you know? We can we can call it that Clark built it, you know, and taught to Oleg, and Oleg obviously give that to me, you know, and I'm working with Oleg and Ed all the time. But, you know, I, my goalie coaches now, like Peter Budaj, he knows that I play this system, you know, He know that I have a net play, you know, like traffic and all this stuff. You know?

He he knows what I'm doing. And I feel like now for me, that's you know? Let's say, my hands get locked up sometimes. You know, and Budaj comes in and says, okay, like, relax your hands, they have to be loose, you know. Stuff like this, like, that's more like, you know, it's like a goal coach for me now.

It's like a navigation like navigator, you know, like, tells me, you know, and breathes me where to go when I, you know, kind of going in the wrong way, you know? Sometimes you get caught in the moment, and you do go in the wrong way. So I feel like the goalie coach job in a pro level, it's it's really huge, and it's it's really big. Like, I feel like I I need a I always wanna have a goalie coach with me because I know what to do. I I'm sure I can do it myself, but, like, I'm not gonna be good at doing it myself because I always need the guy who's gonna be watching me from the side and telling me, okay, Ivan.

You were late in the pass here. You dropped from the high stance here, you know, like, right away to the safe. Or, you know, you stuff stuff like that. Or, like, you didn't read the play well here. You know, so I always wanna have a guy like that.

And Budaj, doing a really good job right now with me with watching a video. You know, there's some things, you know, let's say, you could've just pushed here and slide, but I'm going right away into the split. Like, you know, sometimes I feel like those things, it's hardest things to recognize yourself sometimes, you know? So that's why when when in those moments you need a goalie coach who tells you, okay, you actually need to push here, you know, not just go into the split. So that's, yeah, that's where I'm at right now.

So I help you learn little nuances. You still stick with your foundation and your system, but, you know, there's always execution above and beyond that and decisions to be made. So it sounds like just reads and and sort of some of those recognizing some of the moments where you could do something different. Sounds like video is a big part of it.

Big part of it. I think, like, in video, you can you know, I don't really big fan of watching my goals or something like that, you know, because I wouldn't say, like, I have a really only one weak spot that I'm giving up goals at, you know? So I'm, you know, I'm we we more watching, you know, I'm much watching video always with my goalie coach, and I love it. I had a to be honest, all the coaches I had, which is they supposed to be really good at the pro level. Right?

And that's what I had. All of them, they were so good at video, so it's always nice to have this conversation with them, you know, how they see things, you know, and stuff like that. So it's it's big part of it for sure. I still always in touch with Oleg, you know, I he still watches my clips, and we still you know, because I feel like the system that Oleg knows that, you know, it really sometimes I still have to get dig into it with him as well. So

So you said you're Bauer guy now. Yeah. You mentioned the old high-tech gear. How'd you are you an equipment guy as much as that first set was just was there one day and showed up? Did you become a guy who because some guys know every little detail.

Some guys just send me what I've had before. Where do you where where do you fit in the gear side of things?

You know what I'm like, you can ask Tim, the Bauer rep, you know.

Tim B. Yeah.

He's he's awesome guy. He's he's my guy. He opened my messages with him. It's like, maybe every week, I'm trying to get something in my gear, you know. I'm just I don't know.

I don't know if you wanna call me, like, a gear nerd, you know, but I think I am, you know, That's a

That's a compliment.

Yeah, well, it could be, but used to, I wasn't like that. I feel like it just comes with age, you know? That now I have a, like, I have a foundation also of my gear. Like, I know what I want, I know what I do. Like, my gear is always the same.

Like, my chest protectors, always by one brand. Pants, you know, my my pads, I always like them as stiff as I can, the stiffest boot, you know. Everything is so stiff. And even now, you know, I probably gonna stick only with white collars, you know? And I always need to get hockey laces right now in my glove, because I feel like it's Pacquel, you know?

All those, like, I have a we build it a special holder for my stick, you know, and stuff like that. It's so I'm really, really, really picky on my gear, you know. But but yeah. But I have my foundation. I know what I want for sure.

Okay. So stiffest pad, so you're a supreme guy then on the two on the two lines? You're probably more

I on the think it's a I think it's a Hyperlite, but, like, mine is, like, full custom. Like, if you ask Tim, like, it's, like, totally custom inside. It's like I I think it's a max stiffness for sure. You know? That's just what I like because they're getting wear out is quick, you know, and it's just nice.

I mean, might as well if you wanna have stiff pads, and I that's what I like. I like stiff boot as well. But I think mice are hyper light right now. I'm not so good at, like, the names of it. You know?

I just just ordered whatever is newest.

But that's the beauty of Bauer. Right? That's where they've come as a company. You can you can take the newest line and and custom out the specs to have parts from the other line or from a stiffer line and a it's that's what I love about it. They started with such a unique new pad, and they've consistently evolved the options, which has just given goalies more options that they can select within the range.

I think that's a positive.

For sure. And you know what? I don't think I knew any brand who develops that much in trying to improve their gear, like, every year. Like, there's every year I called him before the season to order new gear. He's like, okay.

We coming out with the grip inside the glove, or we're doing a the same block, knee, like a knee block, you know, the same with the pad. Or we're now they're doing the same, like a calf is a one piece with the whole pad, you know? So all this stuff is like something new every year. And it's always been well for me. You know?

Like, that's like $5.09, like, they're they probably want me to say that, but what is it? 90 glove, you know? Like, it's what they call it.

That's okay. We we

we all know that nomenclature. It's okay to use the nomenclature from the other one. It it applies. Five ninety. We know what we know what you mean.

Don't they don't want to bring that. But Yeah.

It's okay. But did you

like the did you like the finger grips when they put those in?

Yes. I I I

We did too.

I used a I used a game pump no. Pro pump, I called it, for games. Yep. And for practice, I'm a practice glove guy because I just don't like to get hurt. You know?

So He's a good guy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Vessi.

Vessi. Vessi, I know he's he's just like, I asked him what goals he used. He says he only uses the game Ready Glow, like, Softest Swans, which is, like, for practice, which is I don't know how to how can can I do that, you know, because it's just I don't know. It's just painful, I feel like.

Yeah. They every time I I get one in the palm, they tell me to use the pocket, but guys shoot too hard.

Yes. Exactly. I wish I can always use my pocket.

My head's by Vassi's Vassi. I now I'm gonna need to see that custom stick grip one of these days. So I'll hold you to it the next time I see it when next time you're in town. Hopefully, it's here in Vancouver. I look forward to catching up.

Ivan, I've really enjoyed this conversation. I know our fans will as well. So thank you so much for taking the time today to fill us in on everything from your evolution, your roots in the position, to the gear you love.

Thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate it. It was good to be on.

Outro

Thank you to Ivan for joining us this week. That was such a good interview, Woody. I absolutely loved it. You know, sort of peeling the curtain back a bit on development as a young pro. I still love all the interviews with the young guys because they haven't spent a ton of time with the media.

They they aren't just pulling out those standard answers to questions. They really love to dive deep into their craft. I would love to sit down with Ivan and pull out my notepad and just ask him to walk me through his system. He got little hints of it throughout the interview, his his approach to the game. I actually felt like I was getting more very specific notes from Ivan on this interview than I have in in many.

Yeah. I know he was great. He was great.

And, you know, I love that I love

it when goalies aren't aren't afraid to sort of share some of the details with us. Right? And so, he did a great job of it. It was really fun to sort of listen in on that. And, you know, it's funny because I saw an interview heading into it where he where he used the phrase system goalie, and I think a lot of people that don't understand what that means, that you can almost from the outside confuse that with blocking.

Robotic.

Yeah. He I thought was the phrase he used, right?

Robotic. But I think you guys teased it out really well in the interview. I think you did a great job of it and explaining the fact that, no, you just have this foundation so that you can then go and play your game and be an athlete.

And and finding that balance is something as he said he's still working on. Right? So it's a, you know, no stone unturned guys are my favorite, the ones that are always looking for new ways to get better. And so it seems like that evolution continues for him. Like I said, tearing it up in the American Hockey League right now.

And and as I said, I wasn't blowing smoke. Like, the adjusted numbers again, he got some tough starts in Colorado. That's part of the gig of being a when you're a backup. You get the you get the tough nights, and so the raw numbers might not look very flattering, but his adjusted numbers were actually well above expected. And, you know, frankly, I think reflect a lot better performance than maybe a lot of people looking at just the quote unquote nhl.com numbers might recognize in terms of how well he did there in a tough spot.

Yeah. Great job. And, speaking of robotic, I won't completely get on my high horse and start talking about it, but I loved that yet again, he mentioned that there actually are goalie coaches in Russia, that kids actually are trained how to be goaltenders. And what I think is a bit of a myth that you don't just go draft a Russian because he's never been trained and he'll come over here all raw and you can mold him. Yes.

I know he learned a lot of his game here, but he learned a lot of it back in Russia too. And I think it's okay to teach skills to young goaltenders.

Yeah. No. And he talked about he talked about that skill versus technique at too young an age. I do think a lot of, you know, his playing partner in in Alexandar Georgiev did all the skating like crazy when he was in Russia as a young kid, but went to Finland to add the technical element in his teens. So there is I know it's maybe over oversold at this point, but the generation that's here now that's leading this rush in charge was certainly a part of it where they got coaching, but it was very old school skating and skill based, and they didn't add the modern elements of the game till they were in their teens or in some cases even later.

And that's kind of maybe a bit of a narrative, but there is absolutely some the narrative comes from some elements of truth for a lot of the guys that we see at the top of the league right now.

Yeah. I know that that stuff definitely comes from an element of truth all the time. I'm just not sure that it matters as much, but we won't go into that right now.

What else can do? An argument?

Are you and me gonna have an argument over this one?

Well, I think at this point in the show, when we're down to the three people when we're down to the three people who've recognized our voices, there just wouldn't be a point in having the argument. But maybe off the top of the show, we can have a whole lot of fun one day.

Bring Daren back. You won't know what's happening. He'll just be, why am I a referee and they both got their gloves off?

I've been gone too long. The children are fighting. Dad, we need you back. Woody, it was awesome hanging out with you again today. I love you buddy even if we disagree sometimes.

It's okay. That's how we make the world better. We come to understandings.

Thank you, Woody. Our thanks to The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley, to NHL Sense Arena VR Training for Goalies, to Ivan Prosvetov for joining us, and, of course, our thanks to you wherever you're listening. He's Kevin Woodley. I'm David Hutchison. We wish Daren a speedy recovery as we wish all of you another great week in InGoal.