InGoal Radio Episode 303 with Colin Zulianello

Intro

It happened again. I said three, and then he started talking. It happens. Three out of four episodes. Millard begins the intro, and there goes David Hutchison, who's, like, the most mature out of all of us, but always has to get one last thought in.

Welcome to InGoal Radio Podcast, The Hockey Shop, thehockeyshop.com. Source for Sports Langley, our major sponsor, and, boy, do they have something cool on the floor. A brand new product from a manufacturer that I don't think has ever made this product before. That's part of our Gear Segment this week, Woody.

Yeah. Absolutely. We're gonna we're gonna leave that as a tease, folks, and a reminder to check our YouTube page because you can find it there as well to get visuals on it. Brand new product that, frankly, we didn't see coming until we walked into the hockey shop and they had it for us. So exciting times, and there's lots of exciting things happening over at The Hockey Shop Source for Sports right now, The Hockey Shop in Langley, hockeyshop.com.

It's new gear time. You've heard us over the past several weeks launch the new Warrior line. Well, we've got new stuff coming in the following weeks from CCM, from Bauer. We've got new gear basically lined up to talk about on the InGoal Radio Podcast from here through August already. And that means we can only do one a week, but a lot of this stuff launches immediately at the hockey shop and the hockeyshop.com.

So be like Daren. Be over there checking it out, looking for the new gear every weekend. As we tell you all the time, new launches means old stuff goes on sale. So Cam has got discounts marked on previous lines from all the major manufacturers as he tries to clear space on the shelves for the new gear that's arriving. Make sure you check it out.

Chance to save on the old, chance to be ahead of the curve on the new, all over at the hockey shop source for sports in Langley or the hockeyshop.com.

We asked for some feedback, and we told everybody how much we love hearing from our listeners. And, boy, did they respond, Hutch.

Sure did. We got a whole pile of emails coming this week, which we share around the group and we talk about. Thank you to everybody who sends them in. We did say we do a bit of a roundup episode at some point where we bring some of them in. Won't be this week, folks, because busy busy playoff time.

Lots going on. I just wanted to mention really quickly though, a big thank you to Mike Baker. Mike is a beer league goalie. He's a businessman, and he is an artist, both visual and musical from Idaho. He sent us a link to his music.

And while it's very diverse in theme, it does include a full album of 16 tracks dedicated to goaltending and everything around it, even being a Zamboni driver, which Mike also was. Look, I'll be honest, when somebody sends me a track of their music or anything to click on these days, I get a little bit nervous, but, I did. I clicked. I opened it. I thought, oh no, here we go.

Here's some music about goaltending. This is gonna be corny. It was anything but wow is what I said the second that track started playing. I've shared it with a pile of people. I'm so excited about it.

Mike, thank you for being a great artist. Thank you for being a great member of the goalie community. We'll maybe talk about this a little bit later down the down the line boys, but just to let you know, loved Mike's music. We will share a link to his Spotify page with this episode and we will take you out of this episode with the first song I listened to on his album called Behind the Mask, and it's the thing that got me hooked on his music. Still listen to it while I work now.

Wow. Behind the Mask. What what genre are we talking? Country?

Metal? Sorry. Yeah. Country. Yeah.

It's country. If you're a if you're a country fan, you're really gonna enjoy this, I think. So

So my he definitely picked the right guy to send it to. If he'd send it to me, we might not we might not have gotten very far down that listening pleasure part.

Yes. If you've got some old school rap or something like that, that's what you Woody's the guy you wanna send it to.

Definitely. I'll I'll take that. Hutch can have the country.

I'll I'll throw the the old school stuff into the current theme of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We got the the guys that were on the bubble coming into the playoffs have really stepped up in the sense of Stuart Skinner's been in, out, in, and Frederik Andersen is just owning it right now. Two great stories.

Yeah. And I think let's start with Skinner because he's off to the conference final for the second straight time. In a Canadian market, and I do radio weekly in that market and the amount of pointed questions that he has to answer that I have to answer as part of my job there and answer honestly about his performance early in the playoffs. And we talked about it here, like, in an expected, say, percentage of eight seventy two. Like, the team did not play well at the beginning of that first round series against LA.

They gave up more high danger chances in the first game than they did in any single game on their run to the cup final last year. But at the same time, you know, Stuart was, I think, nine of 19 on the high danger stuff. So, you know, you need to make some tough saves too. And so he loses the net. And with all the focus and spotlight that comes with that in a market like that at a time of year like this in the Stanley Cup, expectations, aspirations that that team has after getting to game seven last year.

I can't imagine what that was like to lose the net, still be supportive of Calvin Pickard who was fully deserving. He did really good on the high danger stuff as the Oilers also tightened up their game in front of him. And then to have to come back and to do what he did, two straight shout outs, I thought, in game four especially, where there were more chances to face. He was really good. His game looks tight.

It looks clean. He's not on his stomach as often. He's sort of holding his knees and staying over top of them. Like, you know, forget the physical and the technical, the mental side of it for Stuart Skinner who I've always loved his approach and his growth mindset. Like, kudos to him.

Great job by him for and and to Dustin Schwartz, the goalie coach who takes a lot of heat in that market for getting him ready to come back and sort of have those aspects of his game dialed in. So credit to everyone all around as well as to Calvin Pickard for being six and o. And interesting decisions ahead for the Edmonton Oilers in terms terms of who starts when he Calvin is healthy, but a decision that you make from a positive light as opposed to the conversations around the position early in the playoffs.

And what about Frederik Andersen and his performance through two almost two rounds?

Best goal in the playoffs so far by the numbers at least. Adjusted save percentage, goal saved above expected. For sure, Carolina, much like Edmonton since the goaltending change, has become a better defensive team. But on a, you know, expected save percentage performance relative to environment, so how he's playing relative to the quality of shots he's faced. No starter has been better in the postseason and by a significant margin than Frederik Andersen so far.

I think the big thing to me, and we'll see after we record this, is how much longer that series lasts because you worry about wear and tear and games played as the postseason goes on for him. Right. In some ways, getting injured in round one, while not ideal, gave him a break that I don't know he otherwise gets. They get through round one with Pyotr Kochetkov, and he comes back. Frederik Andersen comes back in the second round.

Having a break between the conference finals, I think, would be beneficial just because this is not a guy who has played every second night for a considerable stretch over the past several years.

So Freddie got his net back. Do you think Calvin Pickard returns?

I don't know how you take a guy out who's six and o, hasn't lost in the playoffs, the team play, and yet How do take guy

out who's got two shutouts in a row? Yeah.

Back to back shutouts. Like, at the end of the day, you might need both anyways. Right? Like and they've kind of been open about that. You might

need That's the best point. Yeah.

And and the difference would be Pickard's lost his net to injury. Right? So at the end of the day, this may also come down to matchups, styles, strengths. Right? The one thing that I didn't think Vegas generated much of after Skinner came back, especially in the last two games, was stuff off the rush, and they're normally a good rush team.

They didn't generate much, if anything, off the rush. And that's an area where if you can get out in the open ice, I mean, obviously, it's harder on any goaltender, but, you know, strengths and weaknesses being relative, I'm taking Pickard in more of a skating situation than I am Stuart Skinner, at least on the body of work. Although, Stu's, like I said, been really good in the last two.

I would be willing to bet hockey coaches being hockey coaches, it will turn into a win and you're in situation. They won't pull out the guy that's got two shutouts in a row whether Pickard's healthy or not, but as soon as there's a loss picker, he'll be back in. That's my guess.

Might depend on how those losses look. And, hey, listen. Multiple goalies in different in different situations. Yeah. Multiple goalies in different situations, Toronto too. Is Anthony Stolarz's ready to come back as they face elimination in game six?

Well, that's yeah. That's probably a little easier one, isn't it? Just be based on how the last game went, and I'm not judging Joseph Woll on that one. I'm just like I said, winning your end seems to be a culture in hockey. If there's a question, Connor Hellebuyck, obviously, league MVP candidate is a is a different situation.

Well, and the the Toronto one to me would have been really interesting if Stolarz had been ready for game five. That's where because you're right. You're coming off a loss, but it was a close loss in which Joseph Woll was your best player. If he had been ready for game five back in Toronto, you're right. It's an easier decision because they got whacked in game five with Woll and net.

If that's I I wish we had the opportunity to sort of know which way they lean. Did they just switch because of a loss in game four or the fact that Woll was your best player in that loss give him a chance to get game five? Again, we we'll never know, but I'm with Hutch. That's probably just the, the old school mandate would have taken over.

Well, if you're not playing right now and you're waiting to get back in, we've got, some methods to keep everybody sharp. Let's start with the Vizual Edge who supply our ProReads.

Yeah. And ProReads this week. Speaking of Joseph Woll, we've caught a great one as we wind down the extended sit down video session from last week. What's it like to face Alexander Ovechkin on a breakaway? Joseph Woll explains.

Watch his video with us. Walks us through it. Not just Ovechkin in particular, but his keys to managing a breakaway in terms of stance, in terms of depth, in terms of what you're looking for, playing in your eyes, not your body. It's all part of a nearly four minute video breakdown with Joseph Woll that is exclusive at ingoalmag.com right now and brought to you by our friends over at Vizual Edge. So Woll does a great job, and we've got, I think what is this, Hutch?

Our thirteenth or fourteenth video session with Joseph?

I believe it is 14 with Joseph, and we're sitting at just over 280 in the entire library of ProReads.

So there is no better way, and NHL goalie coaches have told us, for young goalies, actually, we know other pros that watch it, to learn to read the game than through our ProReads segments, including guys like Joseph Woll, who is also a Visual Edge past Vizual Edge user has used the program. No better way to learn to read the game than through ProReads. No better way to see the game better, Whether it's tracking a puck coming at you, convergence, or being able to pull off of things in tight and see the entire zone, divergence, those are just two of the many visual skills that Vizual Edge will help you dial in and improve with their online based visual and cognitive training tools. InGoal readers, even if you're just listening to this, you get a discount. If you're a subscriber to premium, you get double the discount on a monthly subscription to Visual Edge.

Yes. They've started monthly subscriptions here in the past couple of months. You don't have to commit for the whole year. You can get in, try it for a couple of months. Watch your eyes get better.

Watch your visual attachment. Watch your visual skills All get better using Vizual Edge. As Cam Talbot told us, finding pucks through screens. Make sure you check it out in our ProReads segment each week, your special code to get the double discount as an InGoal premium member. Start using Visual Edge and start seeing the game and reading the game better.

Wanna play a game? Love to.

Love to.

No. I watched that that I watched that that that movie called drop with my wife this week, and that's how it starts

Oh my god. Like, chance I'm I'm seeing that. Okay. This is this is pick your poison. And remember, when you play pick your poison, you're you're headed for something uncomfortable, but you're just picking the maybe the the least painful.

Alexander Ovechkin on a breakaway or Alexander Ovechkin off his one timer in his power play. Which do you which do you think you would have a better chance of stopping?

The breakaway in a heartbeat. Not to mention you just said pick your poison, the one that might be the least painful. I'm probably not getting drilled in the melon on a breakaway, but that one t, yeah, I I would love to see the one t, but maybe if I could be behind a little bit of protective plexiglass or something. I'd love to know what that's like.

I had this conversation with a a person in the hockey world maybe five weeks ago. And the idea of experiencing that shot, which Woody's talked about in curves and dips and dews, a a breakaway is just a breakaway to me with Ovi. I wanna experience that one timer just to see it. If that's the way I'm going out, that's why I'm going out.

Yeah. But you asked me to pick my poison and which one maybe I thought I could stop. Yeah. But if we're just which one would you like to experience? Yeah.

The one t all day long.

I'm, yeah. I'm I'm the same way. My my default went to which one do I have a chance to not stop, but survive. And I'm taking the breakaway because the worst I'm doing there is pulling a groin, not not picking teeth out of my mask after. But from an experience standpoint, now I'll switch over to Daren's side.

I just want just once, I would love to be in there making a push to my right as he winds up full board just to see what it's like. And when I say see what it's like, that's thanks to having started to work a little more with Vizual Edge. Maybe I would actually have a chance to see it. The reality is most times, I would just be closing my eyes.

Player media tour comes through here in Vegas every fall right before the season, and Ovi has been part of that. And the conversation was, would you go in there for a couple of shots if he was willing to tee it up on you? I'm like, damn right.

Oh, it's hard to see him. Daren, invite us down. Like, I think we should have the the all three InGoal guys get to face a one timer from OV session at the at the NHL media tour. I would I would

I might put on that rugby scum scrum cap though, just that little extra layer or the guardian cap from football.

The concussion lid.

Yeah. Two chesties, Inner glove padded. We'd definitely

be breaking out the pro palms that day. Not that I have a chest.

I'd be looking like a sumo wrestler and I'm not a big man.

Okay. What did you guys just run down? You you you got the guardian cap, two chesties, a pro palm glove. What else?

With an inner glove. With an inner glove like that With inner glove. Skin or something.

There's there's there's four different add ons for protection.

I'm definitely Triple cup No question. Or even I might even get one of those giant boxers cups and put that over top of everything.

I'm wearing the, I'm definitely wearing the bulletproof cup underneath my goalie cup. That's for sure. And then I'm probably definitely got the CCM pro knee pads on just in case I get caught moving across in a narrow butterfly and expose some knee. I'm gonna need some extra beef there. That's what I wear anyways, but I might go Eddie Lack on that.

Right? Eddie Lack with the double

Two sets.

Two sets of knee pads back when he played. I might have to double up my knee pads for that day.

Listeners, listeners, just take a step back. This is not to meant be meant to be mean. Okay? Hutch and Woody, you're morons.

No. We're just soft.

No. No. True?

No. You're morons. You just mentioned seven different pieces of equipment. Yeah. And didn't didn't mentioned dangler.

Thank you. Like, protect your neck and you guys

Yes. Yes.

Triple tapping and double knee pads, everything. Not one mention of a dangler. You're morons.

I'm so used to being called a Dangler. Know where you were going.

Dangler, giant neck guard as well. Absolutely, Daren. No worries, buddy.

It's okay. I'd have so much extra padding underneath my chest protector that it would come up to my ears like a turtle, and there's no chance of getting hit in the neck.

Parent Playbook

Let's slide over to, Stop It Goaltending, the app, Stop It Goaltending U, bringing us our parent segment.

Well and and this is just complete coincidence. This was not planned Hutch told me as we started to record this, told Daren and I what the parent segment was on this week, and I had already looked up the weekly updates for the Stop It Goaltending U app. And guess what? They're similar. The daily Great minds minute.

Like. Great minds think think alike. Simple seldom differ. We'll go we'll go with great minds this time. Learn to juggle the quick hits every week at Stop It Goal Tending U, the app, you get five Monday to Friday quick videos.

Simple, doesn't take too much time, things that will make you better as a goaltender. And this week's are five quick lessons that will help you learn how to juggle. It can be a great thing to do in the off season, and I know Hutch is gonna talk about that as well in the parent segment. As usual, that is just one part of several different elements you get fresh each week combining the twenty five years of goalie coaching experience from of Stop It Goaltending, the school led by Brian Daccord, son Joey Daccord with the Seattle Kraken. Brian, of course, has has coached, played professionally, coached in the National Hockey League as a goalie coach, goalie director, goalie scout, done it all, and he wraps that all into a weekly app for you to help you get better as a goaltender.

Stop It Goaltending U, the app, gives you the five quick hits, gives you one quick video, and now a drill of the week. Adam Mercer voicing over a drill that you can take on the ice this summer with your goalie coach. This week is a three shot with breakaway overspeed drill that Adam walks through. Great way to sort of look for different tools if you're a goaltender or if you're a goalie parent or a goalie coach. When you get on the ice this summer, different ways for you to get better.

It's all part of the weekly drop at the Stop It Goaltending U app. And, of course, best of both worlds. When you get a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U, the app, you also get a subscription to InGoal Magazine Premium, our premium product behind the paywall. I don't know why all of you aren't already subscribers if you're listening to this, but this is the way to get it rolled in. Best of both worlds.

Stop It Goaltending U, the app, and InGoal Premium all in one stop.

I like that breakaway drill. That sounded cool.

Yeah. And and Adam does a great job. They've added a voice over this week, just to sort of make it a more of an explanation as you walk through the drill and the drill simulation roles. So just make it that that much simpler, that much easier for peep easier for people to connect with the key points of it. Hutch.

Daren. Hutch. Daren.

This is the one The parent segment.

What what he stayed out of this? This is good.

I yeah. It's fun that, this week's parent segment was all planned out, and it turns out that it's over on Stop It Goaltending U, the app. We'll see whether we had some similar things to talk about. Of course, Stop It Goaltending U is there for all goaltenders. I tend to address the parents, but I do think this is a good one, maybe for everybody as well.

Quick little segment today. As I said, mostly for the parents of the young goalies, but maybe a few beer leaguers could use some of this as well. Us goalies are famous for our pregame routines. And, by the way, how about your prepractice routines too? Maybe we'll talk about that another day down the road.

I hope you have one. A big part of this, of course, is ball drills for so many goaltenders. Some of us is just bouncing a ball off the wall and catching it with or without our glove. It could be wall juggling. It could be good old fashioned three ball juggling.

But in this age of, screens, and I mean the electronic kind, endless digital entertainment and so on, these kinds of hand eye drills, I think they risk getting lost especially with the youngest kids. So I thought I would mention five quick tips for parents who are looking to encourage their kids or even join in on the fun. And that is the number one tip is make time to do it together, especially if you have younger children. One of my best childhood memories, guys, and Woody will tell you, I don't have much of a memory, so this is a powerful one. If it's stuck with me since age six is juggling oranges in the kitchen with my mother.

Partner juggling. They'd fall on the floor. She laughed. We both had a great time, and I developed my hand eye skills from about age six with my mother. Number two, it's easier to learn than you think.

Many of you know we have a video over at ingoalmag.com. We will link it up again this week featuring Braden Holtby's former coach and sports psychologist, John Stevenson, walking people through how to juggle the basics step by step. You too can learn very quickly using John's method. I encourage people to check it out and try it if you are not a juggler yet. Three, you are never too young, or boys, you're never too old.

If the balls are too tough to start with, I encourage parents to grab some scarves or some bits of light material. The key is that it's very light because it floats longer in the air and you can work through those patterns that John is teaching, with a lot more time to catch those scarves as they're moving around. And even at a very young age, the ages that we all start to learn how to skate, you can learn how to juggle working with light scarves. Number four, keep it challenging. When I was in teacher's college, one of our professors said to us, what level do kids want to play their favorite video game on?

The answer was one higher than the level they're doing right now. Everybody wants to be challenged. Same thing goes here. So find some ways to add some different progressions into that juggling, whether it's working off a wall with a partner, two balls in one hand, you can find a million progressions on YouTube. Challenge your kids to try those different ones and encourage them when it's going well.

And then the fifth one is add a physical twist into this. Try juggling while you're standing on one leg. Try it while you're on a balance board, doing a squat, kneeling on an exercise ball. Get creative, but it's all about coordination and control. Juggling isn't gonna instantly make you an elite goalie.

That repetitive pattern thing isn't necessarily conducive to being a great goaltender, but it will build your kids' focus. It will build their control and their confidence. And you know what? It's kind of a way to feel like you're connected to that wider goalie community. It's something most people learn doing at some point.

If you're doing something fun or creative with your young goaltender, as always, we would love to hear about it. Please email us and let us know. Send me a video. parents@ingoalmag.com showing me what your kid's doing with their juggling or post it on social and tag InGoal there. We'd love to hear from you.

That's it for me, boys. Off to try some juggling.

Love that Hutch.

The idea of parents doing it, and it reminds me of the video that you're gonna link to with John Stevenson when we initially put it out. It wasn't just kids that learn. Remember Corey Cooper? Who, of course, some of you will know is a former longtime goaltending coach, in the American Hockey League with Belleville, in the OHL, with Kingston, and is now currently actually with a bunch of different teams in the OHL, but is now actually the general manager of the Kingston front and acts in the OHL. I'll never forget him showing us the video that he had learned how to juggle.

After all those years as a goaltending coach, it was that video that he had used to learn how to juggle. So parents, it is possible. Maybe I'll have to try juggling to prove it. Because if anybody would not be able to juggle, it is ultra uncoordinated me, but you don't have to be this 16 year old goaltender to figure it out. Hutch give you great ways to sort of get involved and and stay involved with your kid doing this, and we have proof from other older goalies like ourselves that you can do

it. How long can you go?

Who are we talking to?

Pretty long time. Yeah. You mean just keep keep three balls up in the air, you mean?

Yeah. I am not I like it. It's I've I've I've really worked out at the times, and I can't really get I can't really progress.

If you get to the point where you can do it a long time, it's probably not doing you a whole lot of good, and it's time to try something else. Oh.

Add a ball.

Yep. There you go. I I do do stuff off

the wall.

I throw tape off the wall, two things of tape, and and try that because it's more real.

Ball like probably.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But but the juggling, just I lack those skills.

Can you watch that video this week, Daren, and try for five minutes for us?

Gear

Absolutely. Right on. We tee this off the top, the gear segment brought to you by the hockey Shop, thehockeyshop.com, Source for Sports Langley, featuring a product that I've never seen before. It it we we know the the equipment line, true, and we know the equipment, it's pants, but we remember seeing those two together.

It's true. It's true. They make pants, and there are some very unique aspects to these pants. And there are also some things from other manufacturers features that they have done a really nice job of combining. Some of the best of other worlds brought to you together brought together by True in this new pant line.

Enough with the teases. Let's get to it with Cam at the Hockey Shop.

It's True. They make pants and wait till you find out the other company that's involved in making them and maybe a little secret about how they were inspired at the end of the video. Let's see.

Well, let's kick this catalyst into high gear with a truly good segment about True Pants. Ladies and gentlemen, we are here and live in Goal Utopia. Isn't that your line? It's my line now. Look at that.

I'm so shocked by the bad dad jokes.

I mean, I kick it off with True making pants and you're wasting our time with the dad jokes. Tell us what's new.

I know. I know. I'm just so excited. Nine x.

Nine x five pants. First ever pant model from True. Yes. We've also got a 7x five lower price point, but let's start with the high end. Cam, I wanna look at the internals, removable inner belt.

Yeah. There's a lot of Like, there's a ton here.

There's a lot of, like, almost mashing together of some pants that we've covered in the past and definitely worth kinda calling out. So let's start because I'm holding it here. We'll go thigh top and then we'll get on to the inside. So starting off with the thigh barrels. Nine inch NHL legal thighs to the pants.

So great call out point on that. There are, you know, obviously wider ones on the shelf. However, that can aid a little bit in your mobility and might actually make it a little bit easier to bring your legs together because you don't have as much bulk to be able to seal off that 5 hole. Removable inner thigh pads as well. Come in and out.

If you happen to have bigger knee pads inside your pants and you need a little more room inside the barrel of a smallish nine inch barrel of a pant that allows

you to Potentially offering a little bit more mobility as well. I find once these are out, they tend to sit in a butterfly a little bit better. I get hung up on less things as well. So great call out that way. Moving up the pant itself, double segmented hip protection.

Very Vaughn esque? Vaughn esque? Vaughn esque. Is that a word?

Vaughn I

don't know. I just meant it made it up.

It looks like the SLR3.

It does. It does. But this is an extremely popular thing at the NHL level being brought heavily inspired clearly onto the True pant as well, but it offers great flexibility. It's one thing that you called out immediately when you picked up this pant. It's how movable and flexible the pant is right off of the shelf.

Normally, a lot, you have to kind of break in a pant, sweat into it a little bit more, kind of get that feel for it. But think right off the bat, you just have that level of flexibility. I think it's getting close to the, you know, unmatched territory.

And yet still a lot of protection as well. Yeah. We're not sacrificing any double flaps, with the thickness, with the protection

of front. Yes. Absolutely. Okay.

So moving on now into the hip portion of the pant and into onto the inside. Nice flared out, a bit more of a barrel style cut. So now we can see again the mishmashing of a couple of pants. Very easy CCM.

CCM ish at the top?

Yes. Yeah. We'll call it that. So tuck, untuck, able to potentially do both depending on your personal preference. I would say a little bit more rigid at the waist, so it might benefit that tucking guy a little bit more.

It's not too rigid at the waist. No, it's just a bit, but actual stiff waist plates themselves. Okay. Yeah. In terms of fur, we'll call it, yeah, upper hip padding.

Okay.

Inner belt?

We have a removable internal belt.

Because obviously you can't have an internal belt in the NHL. Nope. So you can slide this For those of us not in the NHL, we like our belts.

Yes. And there's there's quite a few of us that are on. So.

Yes.

There are. Yes.

And as we turn it inside out, we see the company we were talking Oh, we have we have it.

Tecla and True have combined on the Catalyst pants. Nine x five, seven x five. Have we got any other features we need to go over? How about this thing? IBP on the back.

What was our what was our acronym? There we were we were calling it again. Even I have to double check. Oh. I gotta read it on the screen.

We're both

into it. Intelligent body protection.

Unlike us, is intelligent. Yeah. Your spine protection is more intelligent than both of us.

True has built a spine protector that is actually smarter than Cam. Again, relatively low bar. Yes. Now, this protection, this customized foam seems like a really good idea. It does appear to, however, just be on the frame and on the spine.

Correct.

So I guess if you're getting hit from behind as a goalie,

maybe you're You're intelligently protected. You're intelligently protected.

Okay. What else? Seven x five. What's the difference?

Yes. What we Show us the

price point. Into now the lower price point.

Senior Only single flaps.

Yeah. Only single flaps. Senior, intermediate, and junior available for this pant. Okay. We still, again, get the nine inch wide barrel removable, inner thigh pad as well.

We didn't mention it on the Pro, but it's available on both. You do have the option to tie in your knee pads. It's got a tab in there for tying and integrating your knee pads directly to the pad.

Almost missed that, but yes, you do have that option. So something that's become available now on three brands now. Okay. Again, single hip flaps in the front. We need to separate those price points somehow in terms of overall protection.

Looks a little softer, a little less again, you're just gonna get lesser materials, a little less protection.

A lot of high quality nylon as you go up throughout the pant. Overall, inside of the pant though, we still see that removable belt.

Still got the IBP?

On your spine. Intelligent protection. Again, it feels a little bit lighter weight, but that will be, I think, the separation of the materials and also the thickness of the padding between the two. However, that said, still quite a beefy pant for a mid level pant. So I would still say comparable to everything else that is on the market at that mid range level in terms of protection value wise.

And again, one of the big differences is only the single layer flap. We'll take you back to the double layer flap, which we talked about on that Vaughn pant, and we revealed at the time that there was a Vezina Trophy winning goaltender that switched based off our video about the double flap and the extra protection you get around the hips. A little birdie told me that video may have also helped inspire this being an addition to these pants. Don't know if it's true, but it makes for a good story. The kind of things you get here only on the Gear Segment at the Hockey Shop Source for Sport. Cam, if they got any questions about the new True Pants, how they integrate, this feels like something you could tuck or untuck, especially with the inner belts, goes both ways.

Questions?

Yeah. 589-8299 or 1-800-567-7790 or check them out at thehockeyshop.com.

True. Tackle pants available now.

So what was your reaction when you first saw these pants?

I wanna get on the ice. Oh,

just go right there. Right?

It's honest because True doesn't send us gear to review here. We haven't got that working relationship with them that we have with so many other companies. And yet I was excited by this product that I wanted to get them on the ice. That's just the short way of saying it.

Well, I think my first reaction was actually probably more like, Do you make sense? And then once we got into it a little bit, I I I I too was excited. They've done a nice job with this product. Again, let's see how it performs. We haven't had that chance.

Let's see what the durability is like, but everything about it, holding it, the mobility, the protection. Again, the combination, you know, of things we've seen in other brands, the the double flaps over the thighs that make the Vaughn pants so popular. They're they included those. The inner belt system reminds me of CCM's product. They've they've got that dialed in up.

Again, haven't worn on the ice, but it looks really nice the way they put this together. It looks well thought out and hey, like, you know, flattery, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, like borrowing elements that other goalies like right up to the National Hockey League from other products and combining them in yours is never a bad idea. If you're gonna come out of the gates, you might as well come out of the gates with the best features. And True has added a lot of features that we know are very popular right up to the National Hockey League in this pair of pants.

So it's it's poked the market a little bit, this this area. It's got people's attention.

I think it will get people's attention, but the fact nobody knew it was coming and I haven't heard much about it. I mean, it poked the market maybe, but there's not much marketing behind it that I've seen yet. And maybe we're just a little bit ahead of the curve here, and maybe it's all coming. But I think this is a product that people will be excited by. And if you're excited hearing us talk about it, I think you should really go over to our YouTube page and see us talk about it as well.

This is one where I think having no one having seen this product before, this is a can't miss over on our YouTube channel. So a reminder, each one of these on the InGoal Radio Podcast is sort of quote unquote simulcast. We have a video version that you can watch over on YouTube on the InGoal Media channel.

And leave a comment there and let us know what you think of these pants or any of the other videos you're watching. We do see all of those comments. We don't always have time to jump in there and answer all of them. And some of them are more directed towards Cam, I think. So Woody and I don't hop in on all of them.

But but we'd love to hear from you. Do share us what you're thinking. Is this something you'd like to try? Daren, I we've we've made the comment before a blocker's a blocker. And I think a lot of people think that about pants as well.

You know? It's just a pair of pants. But is there something that's I think they're integral to your comfort out on the ice. I think they actually matter a lot more than people realize.

I do think the difference from one line to another can sometimes be how they break in too. And that's Mhmm. Again, hard to tell. We haven't worn these on the ice. We haven't had that opportunity, but it feels the way the segments come together, like it's gonna be a very mobile pant out of the like, sometimes you put it on even in the hockey shop and you're like, this is gonna take some break in.

I I it was one of the ones one of the things that impressed me the most about the current CCM pro pant that I'm wearing was there was zero break in. I have the feeling that it's gonna be similar with this product.

Feature Interview - Colin Zulianello

Sense Arena feature interview this week. We have a lot going on over at Sense Arena before we tee up, our conversation.

Oh, yeah. Big, big time at Sense Arena. You've heard me say before, one of the things I love about Sense Arena, Daren, is how they're constantly updating it and just announced Sense Arena's new goalie advancement program. It is a fully guided training experience for goaltenders of all ages, all skill levels. Even Kevin Woodley can do this.

It is designed to help you improve in three key areas. Number one, angles. Number two, traffic, huge part of the game today. And number three, you've heard us talk many times about the benefits of Sense Arena for this, reading the release. And it's got a number of courses, the well, three courses, three different difficulty levels so you can tailor it to your age and to the shot speed that's appropriate for you.

There's three training days for each level and each of those training days has between six and eight different drills, that you can execute in each session. Eight different skill levels that take you from beginner all the way up to elite. So they've got a huge progression in there, and every one of them is guided to the beginning with an expert insight from Brian Daccord, who's also our friend from Stop It Goaltending. In addition to all those great training programs they already have built into Sense Arena where you can work with all sorts of different goaltending coaches, this new goalie advancement program will help guide you this summer in your training. It is expensive to get on the ice as a goaltender in the summer.

Sense Arena is an incredible opportunity because you can get out there as many times as you want. And now they've got this great goalie advancement program to guide you in your training. So this summer, Sense Arena guide you in your off ice development with this structured expert led training. Just visit sensearena.com and use the code IGM 50 at checkout to get started today.

Who are you talking with this week, Woody?

Colin Zulianello. And I would like to say this one is dedicated to David Hutchison because Colin has a teaching background and he very much brings that into his coaching. For those who might not be familiar with Colin Zulianello, we first came across him while he was with the Calgary Flames organization. As he explains at the start of this interview, he walked away from goalie coaching at least at the professional level because of a growing family and the need to spend more time with them. Now he's back, has been for a couple years with the Seattle Kraken and the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

We've seen the success that the goalies have had coming out of there. They happen to be in town playing the Abbotsford Canucks as part of the American Hockey League playoffs, and it was a great chance for me to reconnect with him and be reminded of the passion and the dedication and the unique aspects of having been a teacher that Collin brings to the position. This is for several different reasons going on my can't miss list of interviews from the coaching side of things. There is so much here. There will be takeaways for goalies, takeaways for goalie parents, and takeaways for goalie coaches, whether it's tactical, technical, or maybe overall just mindset and approach to working with goalies of all ages because Collin still does camps with former NHLer Carter Hutton back in his native Thunder Bay.

And a lot of the drills that I watched him use with his American League guys, and we'll have some coming up at ingoalmag.com as well for premium members, a lot of those drills are the same ones that he uses just at different speeds and different progressions with young kids back home to both build and evaluate where some of their skating and skills are. So tons of different aspects and angles on this one. There are so many different takeaways. I hope you enjoy. Can't tell you how excited I am to welcome for the first time, much overdue to the InGoal Radio Podcast, Colin, Zulian, and Ellen now with the Coachella Valley Firebirds and the Seattle Kraken system.

When we first met at a conference in Nashville, I believe, and we'll leave the after conference parts out of this conversation. He was with the Calgary Flames organization in Stockton, worked with Lakehead University out of Thunder Bay, good friends with a good friend of the program, Carter Hutton. Colin, thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Yeah. No. Thanks for having me.

How are I mean, we're catching you in the playoffs, so we're catching you at a busy time of year. There's so many different things I wanna get. You stepped away from the game for a little bit. Maybe just catch people up with because I think sometimes when people disappear and then they come back, not everybody knows what their circumstances were. But but for you it was family and and getting back into Canada and then now back into coaching.

Yeah. Yeah. So for so for me it was obviously a hard and an easy decision if you can put it that way. So hard from a professional standpoint, love my job. Calgary Flames are an amazing organization, met a lot of good people who I'm still friends with today and you know, learned a lot and grew a lot as know, as a coach and as a person and but in that same time span, we had a 20 month old boy, Sawyer and then we had when he when Sawyer's about 20 month old, we had twin boys, Oliver and Finley.

So so our our family of, you know, three became a family of five really quickly. And I just, you know, been reflecting with it, you know, with with my wife and just knowing what the job is and and what it takes and what it entails and learning a little bit, you know, all that being a parent entails and I just didn't think I could do both well if I was if I was coaching. So, I mean, obviously, it's an easy choice to, you know, to choose, you know, being a parent, you know, a good parent over being a good coach and so, you know, that was, you know, with, you know, a lot of conversations with my my wife and family, it's just kind of we we decided that it it was the best thing for us as a unit of five and but it was hard. I mean, I love coaching, I love being at the arena and, you know, but it was easy in the sense that, you know, I went home, took a year off of basically everything, became daddy daycare and my wife who's a physician back home in Thunder Bay went back to work and and and we, you know, we just we were all in on on on making our family our priority and and we, you know, we don't we don't regret a bit of that.

I was gonna say family first and foremost always It's tough too when you go from playing like man to, well, zone defense. Like the twins on the second end, I know a lot of friends that have gone through that and that that's a lot, especially with a 20 month old on top of it. So seems like a pretty good decision getting back into it. I knew like, you kept coaching a little bit after that first year in Thunder Bay and at Lakehead. Was it always a plan to get back in or the hope?

Yeah. Somewhere. Like like, deep down, I think I, like, I never I didn't really feel like I I totally stepped away from the game. I was really fortunate to get an opportunity to coach back in my hometown with Lakehead University. Eventually after that year, got back into teaching which is my profession back home.

So did the teaching thing was working with Lakehead and the nice thing about being in Thunder Bay in the summer is is there's a bunch of really good goalies that are home in the summer to work with. So that kinda trains your more kind of like fuels your your want to continue to grow and learn and, you know, with Mackenzie Blackwood and Matt Murray and Carter Hutton being around, like it's you know, those are three unbelievable goaltenders and people to have an opportunity to like work with and continue to learn from. You know, those sessions are always amazing where a lot of times I just listen to whoever's on the ice with me talk or whether it's the Carter and you know, Matt or Carter and whichever, you know, two of them are kinda out there and man, can you learn a lot from listening to those conversations. And so I didn't ever feel like I was totally out of the game. And I think that was really important because I feel like had I not had, you know, the opportunity with Lakehead and the summer work and then my own little kind of goalie academy back home in Thunder Bay, I think that it'd be really easy to just, you know, stick with teaching and, know, around family and, you know, Thunder Bay is an easy place to live and so, but it seemed like there were things in the game that kept pulling me back as a professional, I like get a call from someone and you know, a job potential job and then have a conversation with, you know, my wife and then, okay, now's not a good time.

We did it a few times and then an opportunity came up with the Marlies, I was interviewing for that position and got to kind of the end of the interview process and we were like, man, like how do we do this? Like we're the timing actually wasn't good. I had to call them then head coach Greg Moore and just say like, listen, I don't think I'm ready to do this or we're not at the right spot to do this. And at that point, I thought that that was gonna be it. Like you say no enough times.

[crosstalk] You worry about getting asked again. Yeah. Like people are just gonna be like, this guy's not, it's not, he's not into it or this says, hey, it's admirable that he's choosing his family over the game, but onto the next, you know, and so we really believe that that was sort of gonna be it. And that was really hard. I even said to Greg on the phone, I said, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but I don't think I could do this job.

But again, making the decision for what we believe was the right reasons. And that was tough and then, you know, fast forward a year and there was some movement and Steve Breer ended up in Seattle. Steve was involved a little bit in the interview process and knew a little bit about me and so, you know, that's how it kind of all started with Seattle and I was fortunate enough to get the job offer that was kind of coming out of COVID where things were pretty tight back home and, you know, as far as, you know, what you were and weren't able to do. And I think at that point, our family was just like kinda ready. The boys were a little bit older and my wife Lindsey being in the medical profession during COVID wasn't an easy thing to do.

And so it was just the timing was really good and really fortunate that, you know, that Seattle gave me an opportunity and then here we are.

Okay. So the passion you have for the position comes through every time we've talked. I I gotta ask, like, wanna get into the teaching aspect and the difference between teaching and coaching and how you've tied the two together and the importance of that. But I wanna know where the passion, like because I don't know your background from a goals I know you're coaching and teaching, but not like, where did the goal tending come from? Because you clearly love it.

Every time we talk, I learn a ton of new stuff, but also the energy comes through.

Yeah. It started real early. My dad played some minor professional hockey in Belgium when I was a little kid. I was two, my brother was four, sister wasn't around yet. But so we got to live, you know, abroad, which is really cool.

My dad was a forward, a goal scorer. So like the total opposite of what I became and wanted to become. So, but I don't remember I was two, but he tells the story of them putting me in like the goal judge's chair, like right behind the net for practice and me just watching the goalie, this is two years old, two and a half years old. Go in the locker room, crawl around, play with the goalie gear, like this is what I wanted to do. But he didn't want me to be goalie.

So for the longest time I would do both. So I was doing, you know, goalie on the travel team and forward on the rec league team and that was sort of the, you know, my dad kinda was like, yeah, you can play goalie but you're also gonna play forward and so it was interesting, I never wavered from my love for the position and I enjoy the pressure of it, I think it's cool that I thought it was cool that you could, you know, control the impact of a game for better or worse so, yeah, so it sort of started really young. But I appreciate that my dad made me play out and I think that was cool about that was learning what's available on goaltenders, where to shoot, seeing that diff total opposite perspective. And it also helps with your skating and your puck handling. Like I don't think I'm an elite skater or was an elite puck handler, but I was decent at both.

And I think a big part of it was because of that upbringing of like, I mean, I was just playing in there indirectly till I was 13 as a forward, like it wasn't like, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't like ended at an early age.

We, I mean, we hear from a lot of guys that have similar backgrounds. I mean, in the one I point to the most because it's the just the way he talks about it was Braden Holtby, you know, his dad who also played not allowing him to making him play other positions and how it let him read the game. We get a lot I do get pushback on that. Like, is it can you even do it nowadays? Do you do you work with kids?

Do do you think it's still a really good idea to try and like, as hard as it might be to manage in a minor hockey situation to is there a benefit to doing more than just being a goalie as long as you can?

Yes. Yeah. For sure. And I think it's important because I think skating is such a, like, pivotal piece of the position. And I think that, like, now and now now more than ever, puck play is a separator in the position.

And I think that, you know, playing out, you know, obviously what makes it hard is is that so many kids specialize at such a young age now that's a little bit of the keeping up with the Joneses if you're not doing this and other people are gonna leapfrog you, but like there's a bunch of you know, people out there that had played, hadn't fully committed to goaltender till later like Mackenzie Blackwood was 13 I think, right? So there's examples of the importance of doing that and if you guys enjoy the court like, I mean, that guy goes out after practice and works on one timers, he's, you know, he handles the puck better than a lot of players that we've seen. And so I think there's a huge amount of value from a mobility perspective and from a puck handling perspective and reading the game perspective, challenge becomes, you know, the specialization kids are almost forced into it too early just based on the way the system is. My little guy Sawyer just turned eight and he's been asking for two years to be a full time goalie and we haven't allowed it, You know, he's played more this year in that than any other year and now I'm like, now I'm at that point where he and Carter's son are both attending our goalie camp this year back home in Thunder Bay and it's it's a hard thing because I feel like it's way too early.

And so he's gonna continue to play out and and we've kinda have this deal with him where he understands that and then one of the twins went in and he's a good little player and he went in and put it he wanted to play goalie so he went in, you know, they kinda quick change, throw the gear on. Love that stuff by the way, it's unbelievable. It's who like that idea is one of the best I've ever seen and as far as, you know, youth hockey is concerned because now you're given the opportunity and all the other great reasons. So he goes in and he plays really well and I'm like, no. So he says, hey, can I go out on daddy, can we go you know, so we got one of we had a day off, so we got to use the big sheet in Palm Springs there at the rink?

And so Sawyer's in his goalie gear, Finley's in his goalie gear, and and Oliver and I, our other kiddos, were skating out and I tried desperately hard to score, I mean, as hard as you can really try on a six year old to score as often as possible because I actually wanted to just squeeze just too young. So I felt a little bit bad doing it but after the skate he says, I was like, hey bud, did you have fun? And he says, yeah, yeah, it was good but I don't think I wanna be a goalie dad and I said, okay, so a good thing for now. So yeah, so I think it's for me, I think it's I put a huge premium on your ability to skate, your ability to handle a puck and also just the way that, you know, practices are constructed and stuff as far as like just a purely like a workout sense or it takes a lot in a minor hockey practice at the really, really early age groups to give the goaltenders enough sort of like part of why we're doing this is for exercise and for you know what I mean?

It's a big part of it and I and I think that it's, you know, real important to, you know, to not just put a kid in that at five or six years old and, you know, let him sit there and and not learn any other components of the game.

Or in some cases, I hate to say this, put him in that at five, six years old and have a backup and then when it's game day, leave him on the bench for the entire game.

Yeah. I mean, five or six might be extreme obviously, but you see it at like the, you know, U8 levels and and I I don't I I think it's real important to get get the kid that's just too young to me to to specialize and be a full time goalie and, you know, I, you know, Carter and I run a goalie academy back home in Thunder Bay and we we tell parents that they shouldn't specialize their kids that young and that, you know, it's real important for them to play other positions because you don't really know, I don't think at that age.

Walk me through, because I'm familiar with the coaching side, but your career, where where it went for you and the transition to coaching and when you knew this was something that was maybe for you.

Yeah. So play like, played in the USHL way back in the day, Thunder Bay had we were the only Canadian team so I know. Fortunate enough to stay home and and play junior hockey, which which was amazing and had been drafted in the OHL, but coming from a little bit of an academic background with my family, they were they weren't forceful with taking the NCAA route, but they, I think, recommend, you know. So we were draft by Owen Sound, but played in the USHL. Was was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to Colorado College.

So I spent four years there. Played, you know, with with some great players and for some great coaches and learned a lot and then was really lucky. Didn't have an initial contract directly coming out of, you know, NCAA had a good senior year, but didn't have anything ended up getting invited to a rookie camp with the then Phoenix Coyotes and played well at the right time, played better than I was actually is what what happens. Nice when that that kinda comes together but and Good time for it too. Yeah, good time.

Yeah, good time and Benoit Allaire was a goalie coach at the time and Benny just saw something in me that he liked and it sort of worked out so I was able to sign a contract with them which awesome, I was the fourth in the depth chart but we had a split affiliate in Springfield with Tampa Bay, so I was in the coast, spent quite a few months in the American League that year but didn't play a bunch of games, way that those split affiliates kinda worked then was the other guy, he was higher than you on their depth chart, kinda got the net And in fairness, I think Deter Cochrane was there in my first year and he's a way better go away than me, I would have played him too. So it's all good. So I spent two years in their system and then toiled around the ECHL for a few more, had a groin injury that second year of my contract, never really, I mean, everyone has a, you know, a story of why, don't think that that was why, I don't think that I was ever destined to be there, but it certainly cut my minor league career like a little bit short, got to the point where I'm, you know, 27 years old and I'm like, I'm that guy now that's, you know, I'm in the minors and like things aren't looking up anymore, like now I can't play back to back games, you know, there's so much maintenance and like work to get ready just to practice, let alone play and it becomes a job.

Yeah. Like it'd be exactly. Yeah. And it just took the fun out of it. I enjoyed the guys.

I enjoyed the room. I enjoyed travel. I enjoyed the situations, the interaction with the fans. Like I loved all that, but the actual playing of the game, which is supposed to be the fun part, you know, it just was so much work to get, you know, my body ready to do it. There's also a bit of that hit to your ego when you, you know, you're kind of like you thought you might, something might come out of the career and now like you're getting scored on ways that you know, you believe you shouldn't be getting scored on.

So it was sort of time. So kind of, yeah, hung them up, but always like at an early age, was working at goalie camps, like Rick Heinz School of Goaltending, and then eventually started my own when I was really young. I was only like 20, I think at the time. And just a little thing in Thunder Bay and knew right away that I had a passion for coaching. And so eventually, you know, went back to school, did a math did my teaching degree and then did a master's in education and and and was coaching simultaneously while doing that.

So the two of those kinda married up, you know, pretty quickly and easily.

Okay. So there's a couple of threads I wanna pull on there. One though is Thunder Bay. I can't like, I I've hinted at it already, but, like, you talked about having a school there and McKenzie Blackwood and obviously, Matt Murray and and Carter Hutton. Like, what Alex All Yeah.

You know, like, what's the deal with Thunder Bay and Goal? Because it's not the biggest No. But, I mean, it just keeps churning out goaltenders.

Yeah. Yeah. There's there's there's been a whack of goalies from from Thunder Bay that have have have gone on and done good things, and there's a there's a few more coming. I know you got Carter George who's Thunder Bay. I forgot about that.

Yeah. Who's in LA system and got a taste of the American Hockey League and showed pretty quick that he's more than ready. And is that a guy you've worked with in the past? Yeah. Yeah.

He was younger so his family would, after he got drafted by Owen Sound, his family relocated to Southern Ontario, dad was a goalie, sister was a goalie, Makayla came to They both came to our goalie camps and she was actually She was a really good goalie and mom was a very good curler. They're they're just a super athletic family. And and but another one, Ryan Fanti, is another one from from Thunder Bay and and played some games in Syracuse this year and demonstrated again that he's he's a capable American Hockey League goalie, and he's playing in the playoffs right now for Orlando. They're in the second round against Florida and the ECHL. And yeah.

There there's a bunch. Nate Krawchuck, a kid that played in slavery in the OHL and is now attending RPI next year.

Must be able to get coaching.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

I honestly I'm in the water. There's helping.

Yeah. I'm leaving some Reese Keating. She's a she she's also at RPI, NCLA division one, female goalie. Like, there's, you know, there there's a whole bunch in, you know, in Thunder Bay, Christian CC always a kid that's the starting goalie for Lakehead University, the local team there. He's an OHL pick playing the OHL.

It's actually crazy when Carter and I get on the ice and we do what we call our elite camp, is just a bunch of local goalies that are really, really good. We don't bring them from anywhere else because we have more than enough to work with just in our hometown and yeah, we're real lucky and fortunate and the reasons why, like I've been asked this question, you know, a few times and I think a lot about Thunder Bay, the place itself. Like I think when he asked coaches about not just goalies, but just about players from Thunder Bay, they kind of all say the same thing. They're like, yeah, blue collar, hardworking, like, you know, no ego, just come in, do their work. And like, you think like the Staal brothers, think like, you know, Patrick Sharp, Trevor Letowski, like all these, you know what I mean?

Like Yeah,

I've covered those guys, work ethic is definitely not lacking in any

of them. Like the Johnson brothers, like there's all these Alex Auld like the all the all these all these these individuals that that have come from our home city and and have have done some, you know, amazing amazing things in hockey, but if you've met them, you just think they're like some person that's like working at the gas station or something. They're very like humble, you know, and I think that's just, it's sort of the nature of the city itself, like the type of person that's from there. And then I think the other side of it is, yeah, like you can't these kids are They're all special in their own way but they've all also had like very good coaching. And I'm not talking about Carter or myself, I'm talking about the volunteers that are like at their young ages, are the dads that are volunteering their time.

Like when you go to youth practice back home, it's amazing. Like you walk in the rink and you're like, that guy played in the American Hockey League, he's coaching seven year olds and this guy played in the NHL and he's working with these 13 year olds. And so I think there's a whole bunch of people in the community that are kind of giving back and maybe it's because their kids are on the team, it doesn't matter how they're there, but why they're there is to kind of give back. So I think the combination of, those factors and then obviously like now there is something for those guys to return home to in the summer and to get quality training in and to do the things that they believe that they need to do to get themselves ready for the next season.

I love it. The teaching side. And and sorta coaching and teaching. I think sometimes we hold them in different hands as two different things. There might there are differences, but the importance of being able to teach the lessons you learned formally going through, you know, an education master's degree in teaching and how you apply it and and the importance of it and and how it just how it manifests itself, I guess.

I'm asking the question poorly. Need to go back to school.

No, no, no, that's well said. I think there's certainly a synergy between the two. I think that essentially coaching is teaching and teaching is sort of coaching and I think that, you know, there's lessons that you learn that I learned in education that were extremely valuable. You learn sometimes how not to do things, which is important too, just like you do in coaching. One of the things that stood out the most in teachers college is we professor had there that would always say, they don't care what you know until they know that you care.

No, no, no, that's well said. I think there's certainly a synergy between the two. I think that essentially coaching is teaching and teaching is sort of coaching and I think that, you know, there's lessons that you learn that I learned in education that were extremely valuable. You learn sometimes how not to do things, which is important too, just like you do in coaching. One of the things that stood out the most in teachers college is we professor had there that would always say, they don't care what you know until they know that you care.

And that was a teaching phrase and I remember writing it in my notes and I remember being like, this is such a valuable thing in life but what it landed itself to is building a relationship first is so important. It doesn't matter if it's your class of 30 kids or if it's your steeple of two or three goalies that you're working with. And I found in education to speak to that first, that the quicker you bonded with your students, the quicker you could get work done. And I mean, I don't only mean academic work, mean, are kids that you're hoping become better people by the end the school year. I taught homeroom in a seven, eight school, phys ed, science, some math, language arts, religion, so a gamut of subjects and didn't matter what I was teaching, was, you know, I strived really hard in the first few weeks of school to build a relationship with the students.

I also coached a bunch of the teams at school, which enables them to see you in a different light and you to see them in a different light. And so I think for me, one of the biggest joys of teaching and being in education is when you see a student years later and they come up and say something complimentary to you, they remember like a lesson or a story that you told that resonated with them. And I think it's so important. Ryan Fanti was in my one of my grade eight homerooms when we were when was like 13 years old. And so then, so now, you know, two years ago, I'm coaching against, he was playing for Bakersfield and I'm in Coachella and it's just a crazy thing to see that come kind of full circle and your kind of your worlds collide.

But I think it's the same thing in coaching. Like I love the fact that I can, you know, pick up the phone and have a conversation with, you know, with a former, player that I coach or goalie that I coach and it could be ten years later or two years ago when David Rittich is playing in Ontario and we're playing in the next night, he texts me a few days before and says, can we go to dinner when I get into town? And I said, yes. So we went out and had a great dinner and then he shut us out one nothing and the next time he came, I refused to go to dinner with him. But anyways, it's like, so those are the things and I think that like education, can obviously talk about, the way you plan a lesson and the way you plan like a practice plan and all like the sort of the connections that you can draw from a planning perspective and from, but a lot of it to me, I've learned transfers between the both is communication and relationship building.

Is there anything because I guess part of that is if you believe that teaching is coaching, that it has to be more than just because I said so. Yeah. Right? Like, no. Don't just do it like, being able to explain things is that especially with the new athletes, the new generation of athletes, being able to explain the why.

Yeah. Have you seen that become I think your teaching background means you probably always knew it was important, but have you seen it become even more important with this next generation?

Yeah. For sure. I I I think it's it's ultra important for that for anything you're doing like in teaching, you know, when you're teaching any subject matter, I always would say in the intro to the lesson, like this is important to know because, or why do you think this is important to know? And I typically in coaching and teaching, this sounds crazy, but I often would ask more questions than give answers. Do I have the answer?

Yeah, usually. Maybe not as good as it could be done after some thinking, but I think it's important for, you know, the demonstration of knowing material as best as you can possibly know it is being able to teach it. So when I do my video sessions with our goalies, if you were to look at their clips, what do we think of our positioning here? Or do we like the way we went back to our post? Or what did you see in this situation?

You know, happy with where you ended up or whatever it might be, good or bad. And then they talk me through what they're seeing because I'm not actually seeing it with their eyes. I'm seeing it with my eyes, I'm in a press box and after the game, I get to pause it, rewind it, watch it in slow motion. But these guys are they're doing this in real time. And so I think that and teaching is the same way.

Like oftentimes, you know, I would have the students teach each other. And I think that what happens when you do that is you give them accountability, you give them a voice and you show them that what they know or what they've worked hard to improve on or whatever matters. And so the same thing with coaching.

I love that. So do your guys, like, you encourage your goalies to like, I mean, partnerships are different at every level and with different guys, but do you encourage them to sort of work together and feed off each other and learn from each other?

Yeah and a lot of times these things happen organically where we're doing a drill and something happens and then we're pausing after the drill and all of a sudden now there's a conversation happens and a lot of times I hear it start and I'll skate and I'll set the pucks up for like the next drill and I'm listening to what they're kind of saying and I'm like hearing and like if you look at the three goalies that we have with us right now, we got Alex Stezzy's, six five, moves well, athletic, like competes like, then we got Victor Ostman who's this you know, six four, he's structured, not that Steady is not structured, but you know, Vic has like, it looks a certain way, everything is like calculated and then you have Coco who is kinda like a blend of both of those guys, he's athletic and so they all play a little bit differently and they all do things differently. So when you listen to them have a conversation about something, there's value in that. I was referencing, you know, the summertime having some NHL guys on the ice and you know, putting them in scenarios and listening to them talk about it.

There was one time I had the iPad was just running and I actually didn't know it was running, I forgot to hit pause. So now this is the in between and it was Carter and Matt on the ice and they were it was a post play situation, they were discussing things and it's the best fourteen minutes of video maybe I ever recorded by accident, but it's the best and they play totally differently. You know, so Matt's explaining his deal and Carter's explaining his why and the two are they couldn't play more different, know, and it was a really cool moment to see how important it is for us to learn from one another. It also happens without it being talked about because they're watching each other all the time. They're watching each other in games, they're watching each other in practice and you know, Staz who's an older guy, he's had conversations with me about watching the other goalie, did you see this?

Yeah, what'd think of that? Yeah, that's interesting, wonder why he did that or he's kinda playing like this. Oh, yeah. He is playing like that. And then I'm thinking, okay.

I should probably put that in the pre scope. That's a good point. So these guys are these guys are very, very knowledgeable. They'd be crazy not to learn from one another.

Yeah. I love that. International too. You've had quite like like goalies you mentioned. You talked about David Rittich and and Stes, and you you've got like Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden right now.

You've had from The States. You've had Canadian goalies. You talk about relationship building. When it's international, is goalie a universal language? Do you have to make sure that you use phrasing that they all understand?

Build a dictionary with each one. How do you go about building the relationships when there might be a, you know, language barrier at some times, not not for the Swedes, but you know, for some.

Yeah, for sure. We we use like I use like the same terminology of things like all season long and I explain what it means, even when I like will go out there and demo and like try to show them what I mean. Yeah. And kind of explain what I mean and then I think that that kind of gets established early on, so then when we go through the video, like they know what I'm talking about and then when we're on the ice, they know what that means. So there's no like huge gap, but what's interesting that you say is is about how the goalies that are from different regions of the world

Yeah.

Have certain attributes that are like sort of indicative of that region. Right? Like Vic and his use of his size, you know, Coco and his mobility, Coco and his ability to catch pucks, like very finished, know, like really good hands, you know, and then Stes is a Czech goalie where man, can they battle and compete like no other, like, you know, like the best one ever has to like laid this blueprint and I feel like every one of those kids like has it in them where like they can deviate from their structure and do something incredible like like with without even without a without a blank. And I think that what's cool about that is that they bring these like really cool sort of geographical traits with them with them too. And that's not to say that they don't do other great things too, but but those things kinda stand out.

The I wanted to get into a little bit of some of the practice stuff that we saw today. And working through warm ups in different aspects, you had different variations. You talked to Murray earlier, I just wanted to sort of the idea that it's not always it doesn't have to be the same every time, but there are principles and foundations that you work through a lot of your drills and concepts that are consistent throughout. Just for young goalie coaches that are maybe looking to build their repertoire up, what are some of the sorta not non negotiable, but just the way you approach some of those things?

Yeah. For sure. I think in pro hockey, you have a huge luxury where typically the ice is available to you. I forgot how I'm saying. Before before practice starts and so like, we're real fortunate, you know, in in Palm Springs and Coachella Valley with with our team and the same is true of, you know, I would say all AHL teams and NHL teams, but you typically have like thirty minutes or so before practice for you to choose how you use it.

Obviously, if it's a busy week or we have lots of games, I'm not gonna use the whole thirty minutes every day. And so we, you know, load management's important and I deal with our strength coach, Brandon Wicket a lot on managing, we've catapult, we manage the reps, we manage their energy but I think there's components that like should exist in a warmup, obviously the movement piece is important. What I've done over the years and tried to do is I basically have a few different sort of warm ups movement skates that I like to use, show them to the guys at very early in the season, we'll add pieces, take pieces out and whatever, but when they get on the ice, they they have freedom to choose. I I do believe in choice and I I do believe that that it's important, but we have a framework in place and and you know, they're gonna do skate one, two or three, however that looks and they're gonna add pieces or take pieces away and as long as they hit certain and I tell this to them, as long as you hit certain targets within that movement, then I'm not really concerned about which ones you choose to do.

Now, obviously, if I'm seeing things that are happening in plays or if we're gonna have a day where we're gonna our theme is to work on East West plays, I'll put them into those scenarios just to get them warm and ready and then obviously you do without pucks and you do it with pucks, you get a better result. But more or less, they they have some creative freedom there of of which of the skates they wanna do. And as long as they're, you know, as long as they're like I said earlier, David Rook was was is a friend of mine and and a very good goalie coach, and he had terminology that he used like feet to feet movements, feet to knees movements, knees to knees to feet movement, and knees to knees movement. And it's really universal because you have goalies from all different backgrounds and and and countries, and that's something that's really easy to understand. So we have a combination of those things and as long as they hit those targets and then obviously we have, you know, there's different focuses with each of those, but then you're gonna hit your balance drills, you're gonna hit your precision drills, and then you're gonna hit edge work and you're gonna hit the things that you need to hit and so I don't stand over top of them.

Now I understand for goalie coaches of younger goaltenders, you probably need to be, you know, more scripted and a little bit, you know, have to demo and so on and so forth, which I do do at the start of the year. But now we're at this point in the season and and and they probably don't even need me out there for the first five minutes.

So three different variations of warm up. You give them ownership. Those are the things you talked about in terms of, you know, the feet to feet, feet to knees, those different elements, and then the other balance. Each one of the variations has those components, but, like, those components need to be be a part regardless of what variation they choose for that day.

Yeah. It's a focus. I mean, obviously, when they first get out there and they a lot of times, they'll get out there and they'll go to a spot on the ice that that they've kinda coined as their own and they'll they'll do something like that's a form of, I'm not gonna call it stretching, but sort of. And then they'll get into those things, but some of the basic basic movements like you're just even when you're just in your stance and you're just doing forwards and backwards c cuts, there's an element of, you know, maintaining balance, having proper posture and being precise with your hand positioning and whatever else you're spining, all these other things. So I think, you know, pros take it for granted because they're just so good at it and they've been doing it so long, but for younger goalies, I actually, you know, there there there's an element even in the most basic of movements of having those things in them.

So a lot of the things we see I mean, I was I loved watching the Warrior video today with Coachella Valley. A lot of those same principles right down to your camps with young kids in the summer?

Oh, yeah. Our our our 9U group will be doing very similar things. Obviously, there's some edge work stuff that that doesn't start yet because they just don't have the the strength and the power to do

Probably not putting eight year olds into the the reversal quite that much?

No. No. It doesn't happen a lot at our camp. Know. I I I know.

I'm not I'm not saying suggesting that it shouldn't, but but it doesn't at ours. And and it yeah. For sure. So it's age appropriate obviously, but that's one of the comments that that's made. So after our skates in the summer, we'll get the pro guys on the ice and we tell our goalies that are in our camp, they're welcome to stay and watch and most do.

And the comment the next day is always like, hey, that's the drill we did the other day. And I'm like, yeah, it's the same. NHL goalies do it too. And and they just they just do it, you know, a lot cleaner and a lot, you know, with a lot better detail and whatever else, but that's what we're working towards.

And the comment the next day is always like, hey, that's the drill we did the other day. And I'm like, yeah, it's the same. NHL goalies do it too. And and they just they just do it, you know, a lot cleaner and a lot, you know, with a lot better detail and whatever else, but that's what we're working towards.

I I feel like I need to get you to yell that for the people in the back. The number of times that I've been lucky enough to be on the ice and watch NHLers work with NHL, with coaches like yourself, and then maybe it's in Vancouver and there's a parent there that sees it and pulls us aside and says, well, that's just for the video. Right? You guys are just working on an article. That's not actually how they work.

I'm like, no. No. That's just filming their foundational fundamentals are still core to every end. It's not just the higher levels you get, the crazier the drills don't.

Yeah. It would be like saying that a tennis player doesn't work on their serve. Like, it's of course, like, there's there's only so many ways that a puck gets delivered to the net. There's only so many amount of movement patterns that that are necessary. And and I think that, you know, it would be crazy to think that just because you're, you know, obviously, you're the best league in the world.

You're doing things at a higher pace with with more precision and you're off balance a lot less and whatever else, but but it would be naive to think that that there's not value in continuing to work on your fundamentals.

And now I wanted to bring that into the question about the way, not just the warm ups, with the drills you do, the importance of incorporating gameplay, things that you're seeing trends in the game, whether it's overall overarching trends that you need to focus on or something you've seen maybe over a couple of weeks in your goalies game and bringing that as part of that as these drills as well.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it's it's it's ultra important to to have a theme, Right? So you're getting on the ice, you know, you should have, you know, a movement in there obviously to warm your goalies up, to get them ready to do the things that they need to and also because, you know, you're moving so much in a game, you know, you're actually only stopping the puck for a very small fraction of time in relation to how much you're moving to get into position. So it'd be naive to think that you can't that we shouldn't be working on our movements and working on them a lot. And then the next phase of of any sort of pre practice warm up for for me is to exactly what you just said is to have a theme, and that theme is sort of brought about based on what you're seeing early in the season.

It's different because it's about getting repetition, it's about putting them into scenarios, it's about obviously if you might have a background on your guy that you know there's an area that you kinda wanna target early in the year just to get them more comfortable with it. Maybe they're playing with their depth, maybe they're playing with a post setup, maybe they're playing with more patients on their feet, so then obviously you wanna ensure that you're you're hitting those objectives for them within your warmup as best you can. But I there is a time and place to put a goalie and the butterfly in the middle of the net and just hit their hands, absolutely. I'm not suggesting there isn't, but a lot of times, you know, we're trying to accomplish when we get on the ice is this is the game scenario, this is why we're doing this and even though it's slower and it's structured, it still has a game application And I think that that's, you know, it's a it's a really good use of your time if you could if you could marry those two things.

I was gonna say you've had you've your the goalies you have right now are also different. There is no what I love the most about this position is there's no one absolute way to play it, but there are probably I don't say nonnegotiables. I don't know why that keeps coming into my vocabulary today, but there are probably foundational things that have to be applied across the board. Is movement just one of them? Like, because it doesn't matter where where you move to might be different depending on your size or your you know, how you play the game, but just the ability to move.

Is that like, what other things are sort of foundational anchors within all the differences?

Yeah. So I I I did something. A few summers ago, I was just looking at a whole bunch of clips and spending some time breaking some film down and I was like, you know what, like maybe there's an easy way to explain to goalie like how and why they end up in the right or wrong spot. So then I just simple equation, read plus movement equals positioning. So if you read a play well and you move appropriately, you're gonna like the spot that you get into.

And most goals against, you'll be able to poke a hole in the read or the movement, which equals your poor positioning. So to put it like, put it real like simply and to not to oversimplify it, but your read is ultra important. The way you choose to move, whether it's on your feet, on your knees, are you beating the play on your feet because you can, are you sliding because you can't beat the play on your feet, did you over slide, did you underslide? So your movement, that's gonna dictate obviously like where you end up. So I think there there should be a premium on helping goalies learn how to read plays.

I have a belief that that comes through seeing it like the reason why goalies get better in my opinion as they get older is there's a whole bunch of environmental factors like learning to be a pro and managing your diet and learning how to train and all those other things. But there's also just repetition and seeing a high volume of reps, seeing plays develop a certain way over and over and over again, you get that two ways, you get it by living it in practice or games and then you get it by watching it on video of yourself or of others even. And I think that when you get to that 27, 28, 29, you've kind of seen a lot of those plays and your read is coupled with anticipation because now you kind of are processing that potential outcome of the play. And and that's what enables the really elite goalies to be early on plays. They're like, man, he was just there because he made the right read.

And then you couple that with the ability to move appropriately and now you're finding yourself in, you know, as we say, you get your spot and you're finding yourself in great spots more often. So I think those

And the sooner you're there, the better positioned you are to make the next read.

Yeah. I mean, I think that the saying is like, you know, making the save is the easy part, getting there is the hard part. And so I think that holds true and I think so for me, you know, movement is such an important piece. Reads and movement combined are what separate, you know, you know, the best from the rest.

Yeah. I mean, I think that the saying is like, you know, making the save is the easy part, getting there is the hard part. And so I think that holds true and I think so for me, you know, movement is such an important piece. Reads and movement combined are what separate, you know, you know, the best from the rest.

K. So I'm curious though because you've got three goalies right now.

Yeah.

You know, not everybody can play. Obviously, you know, we talked to Victor Ostman and he started the year in the ECHL, and increasingly, that's becoming an important place for development. I love that he told me there was a goalie coach down there for him because that's not always the case with a lot of organizations. But when there isn't a place to play or a game to play, and this is this is good advice for like, how do we get better at reading the game? It's a question I ask a lot of people, like how should kids get better at reading the game?

Yeah, to me, if you're not watching every goal in the National Hockey League from the night before the next day, then I think you're missing an opportunity to learn And I think that we do it with our goalies, I'll find things that apply to our themes. The nice thing about watching someone else get scored on a notch yourself is that it's less of a hit to our ego or to our confidence and I think it's a really important thing and I think you could start doing that at a young age and start to learn. I know it's the NHL and I know it's not the same level of shots that they're seeing, but the way that plays develop are similar in a sense. And I think that, you know, like I've watched a lot of ECHL hockey, we had Victor, you know, in in Kansas City with Jack LaFontaine, and and and I'm watching them. They have an awesome goalie coach there, Rob Couture.

Really, really great coach. And and and so we have conversations all the time. Well, guess what? The way that scoring chances are generated in the ECHL are very similar to way that they're generated in the American League, which is very similar. You know, obviously the execution might be different at every level.

The NHL, do it quicker and they need less time and space to get shots off, but it's still there's only so many ways that we can get scored on. So by watching those the goals against in repetition and daily, you can learn a whole bunch of information and you'd be sort of missing out if weren't doing it and I think that, you know, the goals from night before depending on how busy the night is, you're looking at six minutes of video. I mean, in today's day and age, know, six minutes of a video for for a kid that, you know, and something they love, I don't think it's it's it's a big ask. And I think that, like I said, we we do with our goalies and we have discussions about it. You know, we looked at some traffic situations earlier in the year because we're playing with some different ideas of how to find the puck better and different things and, you know, now we're watching other guys get scoring on it.

It's not us and we can learn from it and no one's offended.

I love it. And we do we're starting to hear this more, especially with younger kids. Like, we don't wanna be the ones telling kids to watch more TV, but watch more hockey. And I love the idea of being able to watch obviously, I'm gonna say watch ProReads and have NHL goalies break it down for you.

Well, that's it's good and it and it's it's totally true and actually Alex Stezka and I were talking about how we watch that. So we're a professional goalie and I'm a goalie coach of this team and we're watching ProReads because if there's probably something I can learn from, you know, Devon and Levi breaking down a play and there's obvious I mean, the minute you stop learning is the minute you stop growing and then you become obsolete really fast. And so I think, yeah, you'd be crazy not to take advantage of a tool, you know, like that that's available to you. Like I didn't have that, you know, had been while there was, you know, one of the best goalie coaches, you know, there ever was obviously, and he's a fantastic human being, you know, but he wasn't with me all the time, you know, and so now I'm in the minors and his priority is the guys in the AHL as it should be. And, you know, so I'm watching my own film and learning from it.

And then that's the obvious thing. Think a lot of parents are doing that now. I just had a parent send me an email the other day of a kid's getting ready to play some spring hockey and dad had noticed some things in his game and send me a twenty second clip and I gave send him emailed him back two or three points and he showed it to the kid and the kid's working on it. I mean, I think, you know, video is an excellent tool to learn from. I also think that you can overanalyze the game too and you can over, you know, overthink it.

And I think that it's important to delineate between watch what you watch, learn from it, do it in practice, but in the game just play because then otherwise you're stuck in, you know, paralysis by analysis, right? And then now you're not moving but I do think there's an incredible amount of value in watching video as a way to learn how to read the

play better. Look at me just giving a shameless plug for ProReads. I appreciate that, by the way. Last one, mentors. You've worked with you met you talk about Benoit, like one of the best, you know, as a as a goalie coach when you were playing.

You've worked with Siggy in Calgary, Steve Briere with the Seattle Kraken. You know, different how have different influences influenced the way you approach, whether it's tactically, technically, the relationship building, who were some of the guys, you know, I mentioned those ones, maybe I don't wanna miss anyone, obviously, relationship with Carter and other guys you played with, but just the importance of mentors as you come through this. Yeah. I think

I think it's I think it's think it's paramount and I think that you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with and there's been a slew of coaches that I played for and not only just from a technical standpoint but also from a psychological standpoint and just helping you this, like, learn how to be yourself on the ice and believe in yourself. And so I had a guy by the name of Paul Mackett back home in Thunder Bay and John Adams who was a Stanley Cup winner of the Boston Bruins. And they were instrumental for me for just teaching me about confidence and how to believe in your game. And I think that was huge. And then obviously I got to pro hockey and, you know, my first and really only goalie coach, I had one other goalie coach, but my, you know, Benoit Allaire, mean, what an amazing person to learn from and just an awesome human being.

He gave me like five points when I was playing for him and I still have them in my phone and this is like, I signed in like 2001, like this is like, this is almost twenty five years.

And they probably still apply, right?

They're totally applicable and I'll share them with our goalies sometimes and we'll be like, that's crazy, that's 25 and like these points are still So really cool, so obviously like he was the biggest factor for me and he just, he was the first coach that's like basically taught me about structure in your game. I was a Steve puck stop puck goalie. Like I loved Al MacInnis, I wore the helmet cheese grater in college. Was I mean, he wore it well, I did not. And I was like, that was my guy and that's the guy that I watched because it's just like, he just it just looked different than anyone else and then Benny came along and I was like, oh man, this certainly is a lot easier if you do things with some structure and then within a framework and anyways, yeah.

So I think him, but I think also for me, I think there's you mentioned Siggy, like Siggy's one of the nicest, most genuine people that you'll meet in the business, an excellent guy and always willing to help and learned a ton from him. Steve Brieree, same way. Wealth of knowledge, been at it a long, long time. You know, just just ultra ultra good person and and coach and and just a just a really, really, you know, great person to work with and and yeah, I mean, you spend five minutes with those guys and you you know, you come out, you know, a lot more intelligent in the position and and they're also just really good people and that's something else that

I was gonna say, it's easy to miss that but having had a chance to meet all three of them, just genuine and generous with their

time for other people whether it's NHL guys or not. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's that that that's something that sticks out is, you know, these guys are in the highest league, you know, the best league in the world and there's no eagle and there's just a genuine care for their goalies and for their staff and for making everyone around them better, which is amazing. And then I also think that you need a little bit of like a fraternity within the game, like other goalie coaches and you know, I've been lucky.

It's a lonely job if you don't have people to talk to.

I've been lucky enough to have a slew of those guys and that I worked with in previous, you know, jobs like Freddie Brathwaite obviously is a good friend and a great great person and an awesome coach. So sometimes it's nice to have those conversations. There's him, Pete Aubrey, who's now in the college game and Corey Cooper is now the GM of the Kingston Frontenacs but he I just I feel like you know, you get through like the lifestyle and it is a grind, mean, it's a very fun one but it is a grind and you don't get through all that without, you know, those people that you can talk to, that you can relate to and that you can kinda, you know, even if it's just, you know, text message and a quick like pop in the hallway and a ten minute conversation, you know, with someone like I've got Mackenzie with Calgary is another great one, know, Vaughn and Brown, like basically all the all the guys that that that you're competing against, they become, you know, friends and in in some ways mentors because you're, you know, you're always learning from from each other and and I think that, you know, it's know, you're not sharing your secrets on your own goalie or anything, but you're having conversations about goalies and about goaltending and, you know, every one of those conversations is an opportunity to get better.

Well, this conversation has made me smarter and everybody that listened is gonna enjoy it and gonna take a lot of great points out of it. So a lot longer, which is a trend with me than I promised I would be, but thank you so much Colin for taking the time today. I know like we're definitely gonna need a part two. We got through a lot, but I know there's just so much more there and the passion for it and the genuineness and and kindness with your time is sincerely appreciated.

Yeah. No. No problem. I'm happy happy to be on here, and it's always great catching up with you, Kevin.

Outro

Zulianello, a to z, we've got it covered this week.

Oh, look at you. Yes. We do. We did I don't

know what the a is other than you guys. Like, you're a. You're awesome.

I was thinking of another word, but thanks for going that way, Derek. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Hey. You how No.

No. No. I'm not I'm not gonna be mean I called you morons because of your inability to realize the advantages of wearing a dangler. That's all. You're not mean. You're just idiots.

That's right. We are we are the anti Logan Thompson who interestingly enough put on a dangler after taking a couple of high hard ones early in the playoffs, is now wearing one in the postseason after more than one previously in his career and abandoning it for a while. So we're not quite that bright, Daren. But Colin Zulianello is I love that interview. So many takeaways, folks.

I have a feeling that Daren's gonna come back to us within the week and tell me that he went back and listened to it again.

Yeah. You saying it's immediately that valuable in your experience of of of the 300 plus interviews that we've done grabbed my attention right away. So I and I do love listening to them multiple times. So between the pants and now, got I got a busy week. And I don't want Sense Arena with the with the traffic aspect to it, that that being layered onto it, I I I can't be more excited to get into that new aspect of Sense Arena.

You know what I like about the new training program? I like the fact that the shot, the reading the release actually tells you there's one portion of the training where they say, don't try and make the save. Just watch the puck. You're trying to learn all the cues from the hand and the stick blade. Yeah.

And we've heard that from Craig Anderson before, so it's advice that resonates because he was one of the best readers of a release in the game, and he used to do that. But it also means that I don't have to worry about stopping the puck. So any so if I get zero on that one, it's a good thing.

Right. You're not being judged on that.

That's right. It's important.

I'm not sure you're being judged on anything other than you're trying to train yourself, and we won't know about that until you get on the ice. And you're not gonna tell us the results.

I played great on Tuesday, and I was in the Sense Arena headset for half an hour before the game. So I don't

Really?

It's a coincidence. There you go. I told you. Yes. By my standards.

Let's be honest here. Great by my standards.

Now you're you're making fun of yourself.

Low bar. I did not take I did not take the Sense Arena headset into the dressing room with about a half dozen guys that played pro in there and a bunch of junior kids. I don't know that my ego could have taken the hit. I I Joey has normalized it for kids. Aging ex pros and beer leaguers tend to be a little more mean spirited at times.

So I did my Sense Arena warm up at home.

That's good. Jealous.

Probably.

And they if you had the opportunity to say, hey. Do you guys wanna try this? They jump all over it. They would just want a different program on

That's true. And I I would you know what I would do is I would preload the drill for them and crank it up the hard.

Yeah. You guys think this is easy?

Level seven.

Well, there's an idea for Sense Arena. They should have a preloaded for your teammates drill.

Yeah. And everything

is off the line. They

should they should call it, so you think it's easy.

Yeah. Yeah. And it and it's and it's three shots at once, and one of them is going off your head.

K, that actually would be hilarious if they did that.

This this is what this is what warm up looks against you doofuses. Very I'm I'm having trouble with my positivity today. But I don't

know where you played, but when I last played, it was three shots at once and none of them hit the net, so it was no big deal.

Inevitably, one's hitting you, and it's not comfortable. And it's never the one you're looking at that that hits you. That guy always misses the net. It's the two coming from the other side. This has been fun today, you guys.

I I I love this balancing act that we're doing between goaltenders being in and out and how you get the net and how you keep the net and the Frederik Andersen and Edmonton scenario in Toronto, although, isn't available for game six as I just get the update. So we'll we'll see where that goes. But, coaches coaches have decisions to make, and and then you get into the conversation. It's where I'm going right now. Got a little bit of a a drive ahead of me, running some errands.

I'm gonna listen to it again today. You guys have a great weekend.

Listen to some Mike Baker music while you're driving.

Oh, yes. We got that. Is this Behind the mask?

Well, that is that's what we're gonna leave this episode with. But there's as I said, there's 15 more on there.

Check it out and the details in the show notes Behind the Mask as we send you into the goalie universe from InGoal Radio Podcast.