InGoal Radio Episode 336 Celebrating the life of Glenn Hall

Intro

It's InGoal Radio, the podcast, The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley at hockeyshop.com, our longtime partner. A special episode today as we revisit, an incredible interaction with David Hutchison and the, Hall of Famer Glenn Hall that originally aired back in 2019 as we acknowledge and celebrate, mister Goalie and his incredible career, and, the the passing of mister Hall at 94 years old. Daren Millard along with Kevin Woodley and the aforementioned David Hutchison. When when when we got the news that, Glenn Hall had passed, it must have taken you right back to sitting with him, just outside his barn.

Look. The first reaction obviously was sadness, but very quickly turned to one of the best memories I've ever had, thanks to InGoal. And, credit to our good friend, Eli Wilson, who managed to set up this, visit with with Glenn, his grandson being a student of Eli's on a number of occasions. And, so Eli, myself, my son Matthew got to go over to Glen's house in Stony Plain, which was very close to where we were training at the time and spent an afternoon, reminiscing, going through old memorabilia, sitting in the living room, having a few pops together and and talking hockey. And he is a warm, genuine human being who was hilarious sharing so many stories of his time in the National Hockey League and and it was a real privilege to be able to bring a few of those to our listeners.

Woody, what was your takeaway from that conversation?

I get to be a part of most of these conversations and one of the few times that I've been super jealous of Hutch getting to do something that I didn't get to do at InGoal, to to have the opportunity to to sit down with Mr. Goalie and talk about everything and and going back and re listening to it because it was 2019. That's where, you know, we're coming up on, you know, six and a half more more than that years ago. There are so many stories, so many things that he was a part of in the National Hockey League beyond the stuff that, you know, sorta we first flash back to the 502, the the record that'll never be broken consecutive games played in the National Hockey League, inventing the butterfly, the stories that he shares about being in the locker room, about facing the legends of the game, Rocket Richard, Pocket Rocket, talking about the bubble wrap, putting the bubble wrap into the equipment and then the diff and both as a as a means of protection.

Oh, don't give it all away. Don't give it all away. Make people listen.

Yeah. There's so many yeah. There's just so much. And so rather than giving it all away, which is something I tend to do like an idiot, it's the warmth with which it's delivered. And I think when you I've heard this said, as the tributes poured in this week, it would be really hard to find anyone that has met Glenn Hall, that had the privilege like Hutch did to sit down with Glenn Hall and just didn't come away loving the human being.

As good as he was as a goaltender, he was an even better person. And we've sort of heard those tributes from some of the goalies that he coached because I think that era with the Calgary flames, was not forgotten, but sometimes isn't the first thing that comes to mind, whether it's, Mike Vernon or Kelly Hrudey and the impact he had on their lives as a person, not just as a goalie and a goalie coach. That warmth comes through in this interview. You smile throughout as he shares his memories in a way that just feels cliched. It feels almost like like not the strong like not strong enough work.

It just gives you the warm fuzzies. Like you just you just find yourself smiling along as you listen to it. And that's that's one of the takeaways. Not so much all the content within it in terms of his impact on the game. I mean and it was massive.

You know, innovations that were way ahead of their time, but the way it's delivered and and the warmth of it just delivered. That's that's one of my biggest takeaways.

There's a great comedian, buddy of mine, Kelly Taylor from Saskatchewan, and he does a bit about, Glenn Hall, but about being Glenn Hall's backup. I'll explain some of those, jokes in in the latter part of this episode, but it's, it really does get you thinking about, what it was like to playing back then, 502 straight games, even more if you come to Stanley Cup playoffs. So we're looking forward to that conversation revisiting Hutch being out in Stony Plain, with mister Goalie. Couple of things, to get to. Oh, one, you guys, launched the from the crease with with Ian Clark.

So just, just getting ahead of something that's happening with, with Ian Clark.

Yeah. Just really quickly, you can find it on the website, ingoalmag.com and on our socials where, we're we are a a partner in this endeavor. A lot of people remember we had an interview maybe, what, two, three weeks ago, Hutch? Just a quick brief thing where we talked about the original from the crease, which was basically a written goaltending manual. It was delivered as a periodical, and you could collect them and put them in a binder that you could that you could get from from the crease.

And some of the illustrations from from the crease when we talk about the impact on the game. I recently it's tough for me a little bit because I'm obviously biased to have known Ian, and he's the one that introduced me to goaltending, what, I guess, twenty two years ago now. And, but when I read some of the online stuff about the original from the crease and and sort of the pioneering role it played, that kinda if it came from me, I might feel like I'm overstating, but it comes from others and you realize how impactful it was. Well, basically, this is taking all of that, updating it, and rolling it into an app. So, you can check it out at ingoalmag.com.

There is a preregistration. There's a website where you can preregister for the app for when it launches a little later, in 2026. With that preregistration, comes a both a a discount, on on your actual from the Crease subscription to the app. You get early access to it, exclusive insider updates, and a free copy of his ebook, 10 ways to get killer stats. So make sure you check it out at ingoalmag.com, a partnership.

We'll have more coming. You saw the video that we shot in Portland, sort of a, on the ice with Ian. Just just some tips from him. We've got a series, coming with that. Should be part two should be coming out really shortly.

So, just keep an eye on that on the website.

Can we just stop this trend that we've got going right now? Maybe it's exhaustion, but, we've we've had some high scoring games in the National Hockey League, in different spurts this year. Eight, nine, 10, seemingly becoming regular. So let's whatever you guys have to do over InGoal, put put a halt to it. Hutch, you've got power.

A 10? Come on. This is the first time I felt like a National Hockey League or senior. 10 out there.

Yes. It wasn't ten nine, though.

Yeah. And one of the scoreboard one of the scoreboards published as well couldn't even handle the double digits. It had it was a stacked one over zero. Tech side of me just loves when they can't handle that. I does it does it just talk to how the players are starting to catch up to all the preparation the goaltenders used to be credited with?

And and now the game is evolving so that, hanging out of the puck and and, finding good scoring opportunities are increasing?

I think it speaks to a lot of things, but the extreme nature of it I'd have to look up. Like, maybe this happened last January, first week out of the Christmas break, and we just forget about it. But my hunch is maybe not to this extreme, and I I just feel like this is probably not totally. You're right. Absolutely.

The offense and you know, we went over that last year. Save percentage going down, shots not getting counted nearly as much, but this feels schedule related.

It does, doesn't it?

Yeah. Like, this is this schedule's nuts. There are scheduled losses everywhere. Teams traveling into back to backs, teams at home coming off the road into back to backs where the other team's been sitting for two or three days. Not that there's any excuses, but it just feels like there's an extreme nature to the schedule.

And it kinda reminds me of a conversation I had with a goalie coach last year. And this sort of speaks to we had that whole generation of goalies that retired in the last six years. You know, the Luongos and and sort of that group and now Fleury as well. And they used to talk about being able to learning as a starter, as a 60 plus game starter. We don't have those anymore, but learning how to manage your b games.

Like, how to sort of get through a night where you didn't have your fastball. And I've talked to a couple of goalie coaches about this in the last two years, and they say, if you don't have your fastball now, those are the nights where they put up a crooked number, a seven or an eight on you. Like, you just cannot get away with the b game now. And I think when you combine that perhaps with situations where teams have their b game because of the schedule and they're facing a team that's had a couple days rest and they've got their fastball, the quality you speak of, Hutch, like, it's just going up to the nth degree. Like, teams are looking for the high danger chances.

Your team doesn't have its legs to prevent them, and you might be trying to battle through it as well. It's just I it just feels like there's a lot of schedule component to this. And I would say let's see what it looks like next year on January 11 as we record this to see if there's any similarities. But, honestly, this is gonna be every second season between World Cups and Olympics now moving forward. This is going to be a regular occurrence, and they're gonna have to figure out how to manage it.

On the plus side, we did get a couple of perfect games from, a pair of youngsters.

I will I will take that because that's the I other irony. As we look at all these high scores, I you know, the NHL sends out on its social media, you know, the I think it's I think it's sponsored by Pepsi. So anytime there's a shout out in the NHL, it goes up. So as we got crooked numbers everywhere, and yet I'm being inundated with shout outs. And that includes the first first career win and first career shout out for Trent Miner with the Colorado Avalanche.

Congratulations to him. And on the same night, playing back to back games, so his team and he was tired, Drew Commesso Gets called up to the NHL because of illness to the goalies of the Chicago blackhawks, loses his first one to the caps, but bounces back with his first win and his first NHL shutout the next night. I had a lot of people reach out to me and send me notes on that because of the interview we did with him a couple of weeks ago and how much they learned about him. And I think he made a lot of fans in the goalie community with that interview, not just not not just you, Daren.

So to see him have that immediate success put a lot of smile on people's faces.

Imagine that. Playing on back to back nights, and you pick up your first shut out in the second half. It goes against every data point and analytics suggestion in the game today.

Unless maybe you just have time to feel comfortable and then relax on the second game.

Yeah.

Yeah. There is some there is something to be said. Like, as much as the analytics and I don't know. You know what? I think it's time to update those analytics because the original stories about that, about how much, you know, goalie performance decreased in the second half, like, that that story about like, I think that's, like, seven, eight years, six, seven years old now.

Like, maybe it's time to take a look at that because we talk to goalies, and they feel like you know, we talk about rhythm and feeling like you're in a game. Well, it's kinda automatic in a second game, and the impact is more on the body the next day. And if there's a game two days later, three and four, it's it's the cumulative effect that I think is has more of an impact as opposed to necessarily the performance of the second night. Like, how much of that performance in the second night, if it does slip statistically, is because everything in front of you is coming apart. Either way, full marks to Drew Commesso for for pitching the shutout in the second half of back to backs and his first NHL win.

It was exciting Glenn Hall is laughing at all of us right now for

having this discussion about back to backs.

I literally had to do a radio hit in Calgary this week. I do weekly stuff there, and they talked about, you know, we I I think the words playing the wheels off Dustin Wolf because he'd started seven or eight in a row because Devin Cooley was sick, came out of my mouth. And I realized in that same moment, like, what like, Glenn Hall would just be laughing. Come on. Seven or eight?

Try 502 or as we're about to hear maybe in the into the thousands when you count his minor minor and junior career.

Yep. He you probably don't even get tired until you hit four, four fifty.

Gear

Brilliant observation, Hutch. One of the best. Let's get over to our Gear Segment brought to you by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley, thehockeyshop.com. What are we looking at this week?

Well, we've got there's new gear coming in all the time, so keep your eyes at thehockeyshop.com. There are some new launches in. They're actually going straight onto the website in the coming weeks. We recorded some of those segments, but they were literally tagging the boxes, taking the gear out, and getting it ready. So it's not on the site.

We're gonna hold off on those, but keep your eyes on their website. There are new launches from Vaughn coming as well as, and we're gonna get into this today, some special edition chest protectors, some of which are on sale right now. Again, trying to create room on the floor for all that's to come in the spring as well as sales on other lines. So make sure you check them out, whether it's the latest coming right in out of the boxes onto the wall or the discounts that accompany that on previous generations plus a whole bunch of and when I say custom, we're about to get into one here. There's custom chest protectors with sort of extra protection.

They call it the pro beef, and they've got a lot of models, not just that will help you feel fewer stingers, feel less pucks, always like that, but it'll save you some bucks right now early in 2026 as they try and clear some of that inventory out. So make sure you check it out.

Pro beef? That's that's one of the best names I've ever heard.

Pro beef. Pro beef. Yep. Daren, we're of a certain generation where the as soon as I hear that, my instinct is, where is the beef? You know, the old Wendy's commercial?

I don't think anyone listening under our age will know what that means, but it may have dropped into one.

It did. Don't remember

if it's this week's segment or next week's segment. It's dropping.

Let's get into it. It's the Gear Segment brought to you by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley at hockeyshop.com Pro Beef.

Some of you may have seen this before secretly hanging in the background of one Andrei Vasilevskiy stall. I think that made the social media rounds. This is the Bauer NHL chest protector, and it's available at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports. Welcome back to the goalie department of the Hockey Shop Source for Sports. Cam.

Hi. How did you get your hands on these beauties and and and make it available for the rest of us?

[crosstalk] As they say, don't kiss and tell. Don't chest and tell. Here, we're just gonna leave that one hanging.

What exactly is it?

It was a chest protector.

Yeah. Okay. But, like, what makes it different? We have. This is like, right here in the back, Bauer, NHL, chest and

arm. You're like, hey. There there you go. Nailed it. That would be the name? Roll the credits. Bauer credits.

Bauer pro, Bauer, NHL. Like, this isn't in any I haven't seen this before other than the back of Vassy's stall. So tell me what's going on.

Exactly. So what we have here is NHL spec 100% through and through of Bauers new unit. So how we ended up with these What's the unit? It's a unit. It's a unit.

So a little bit of a difference between this and what now Vassi and Jake Fowler are currently doing. Jake Fowler? Yes. These are the two within in the NHL? Yes.

So these ones are unsigned but not because they're NHL legal by any means. They are 100% through and through. NHL legal. The only difference is is that there was a slight mod to the sternum plate. So the current NHL's have that.

These are the ones that didn't get that proper

So you got your hands on the version pre sternum plate change?

Pre sternum modification.

Okay. Yes. Tell me about this unit other than being extremely well padded. Yes. And protective.

Very beefy. Now with NHL units, you're not gonna see Velcro adjustments on the shoulder floaters. Anything like that. The only thing that is adjustable actually is the arms physically themselves with held on by Velcro. So you are able to pull those up or down.

That would be your minimal adjustment beyond again, your sides to be able to actually Velcro the chest on and give that a little bit of a tighter fit. Now that is NHL spec. You are not allowed to have Velcro on the shoulders or anything like that to be able to move around those shoulder floaters. So in terms of specifications for NHL, NHL Where did I zip my

lip on maybe having seen the odd one with the Velcro on the top? So it'd be quiet for now.

Oh, there you go. Okay. NHL, obviously, legal arm floaters. NHL, legal shoulder floaters. Body of the unit, and it's quite, quite beefy.

No Velcro down low, so these are stitched in. One of the things that we have seen with a couple of customers that have already picked these ones up, if the chest tractor was too long, they have unstitched or actually cut these bottom blocks off just to be able to get that proper mobility. Okay. So very

does compare to any of their other models or just completely unique? Like in terms

of fit and feel? I mean, it does still have what I would call like the original Hyperlite arms. Okay. Just in terms of for overall fitment wise. But even just the way that the body wraps to the unit, how it kind of like physically presents, I would say it's its own unique fit.

Kinda like like like it's soft and flexible right out of the box, but super beefy and padded. Like, it's kinda like a sweatshirt. It kinda feels A very beefy, thick sweatshirt.

Well, the kids these days, they wear the beefy, thick, the oversize stuff. You know? Haven't you tried that yet?

He's not cool enough. He's Kevin's hipping with it.

Yeah.

So a couple of fitment notes. Doesn't care. A couple of fitment notes with these guys. This does follow a similar system to CCM where it has a fit one, two, and three. We have fit two, three, four in stock.

So fit one, size small. Fit two, medium. Fit three, large. Fit four, guess it. Extra large.

Ah, you did it. Now remember,

these are meant for NHL. So don't think that you're putting your 12 year old in a fit one small.

These are adult sized chest protectors. So one kind of note and how I've approached even like CCM's fitting before, so I used to drop the size small and kind of started a medium and work my way up. So I'd almost consider the fit four getting closer to like the double XL territory just in terms of overall size and fitment. So one thing to kind of keep in mind in terms of for notes. Okay.

So they got a double XL for you then. That'd be amazing. I mean, Didn't skip any meals over Christmas this kid. Let me tell you. Neither did I do gym days, buddy.

Attaboy. There you go, folks. Only place that's available here at

The Hockey Shop Source for Sports. If people have questions about that fit cam, where can

they get you? (604) 589-8299 or 1-800-567-7790 or check them out at the hockeyshop.com. They are up on the website.

Bauer Pro Chest Protector. Now that you know they're here, they're not gonna last long. Don't wait. Give Cam and his crew a call.

Hutch, I I'm telling you, we need one of those wide angle cameras just set up to to the side that shows what's happening outside the lens that you set up and just all the activity that's going on because you you kinda do get a sense. Every now and then, the guy's eyes, flick over at at what is happening beyond, the scope of your lens.

Yeah. We, we would probably need the three sixty because there's so much going on around there. And, this week, we were just over there this week, in fact, filming these segments and gets a little frustrated for the guy who knows he's gotta do the editing later. As you hear, the I don't even know what they call the little dolly that comes in to lift these pallets. Yeah.

Pallet jack. There you go. Creaking across the floor and the poor guy's doing it. I credit to them every now and then they see something's happening and they stop and they wait, but sometimes they just have to get stuff done. And you walk in and you just about feel like you're in a warehouse as the aisles are laden with all these pallets full of gear and sticks and so many things.

And so, yeah, they're getting shuttled all over the shop because they're getting ready to open as we are recording these. We're doing this before the shop even opens and so all this work is happening. And this week, it was even more fun when we finished because, little short staffed because of some illness. And so Cam finished the segment and then had to run and put one of those industrial vacuums on his back and he was running around vacuuming the shop. Ghostbusters.

That's and that's what it looked like. Yeah. It looked like the Ghostbusters.

How did he do?

Pretty well, I guess. Yeah. Looks spic and span. We weren't quite there as they opened the shop, but, but good on Cam.

First time he's vacuumed in his life. I'm sure

his family

and wife were like, what is this?

Anyway, many hands make light work. And as we've said before, there's people coming out, grabbing orders off the shelf as well for the online, delivery and just so much happening. It's a it's a great fun place to hang out.

Not the first time when, Cam's been told he's gotta suck it up. Oh, plenty plenty of time when on the ice. But

Yeah. Absolutely. Daren, yeah, you were saying your eyes guarding around because everything going around. Usually, mine are just rolling into the back of my head after Cam's dropped the new pun.

I'm with Cam. I enjoy it. Gene Principe is one of my, best buddies, and, he he does a great job with the OHL's broadcast. A Vizual Edge ProReads, this week, good week chatting with Matt Murray.

Matt Murray, who is as I was down at some Seattle skates, is just getting ready to come off of IR. He's been injured for about six weeks now, but good excuse for us to go back to him. Plus, we got so many goalies in the rotation at ProReads right now that it's it's it's been a while since I caught up with him. So we actually almost went basically the full six weeks in between episodes with Matt Murray, and he's so good in this environment about breaking things down that we had to get back to him. So it's a two on one, odd man rush, and Matt's gonna give us some of the cues and clues that you look for when it comes to deciding pass or shot.

Daren, what are you looking for? Pass or shot off a two on one?

I'm hoping for a shot.

Are you hoping shot?

Okay. I'm I'm hoping for a shot.

Hutch? I I feel like I'm odd on this one, but I I remember having a conversation with Eli Wilson about this and he he agreed, I'd rather have the pass. I'd rather have the pass because, I know what's coming. I know where it's gonna end up. And quite frankly, at the beer league level, there's a high probability they're gonna screw it up when it gets over there.

I don't have any confidence in my in my Beer League defenseman. That's the problem.

So, you know, do you know what this rate reminds me of? This reminds me of a conversation with Braden Holtby, and I can't remember whether it made it onto ProReads or if it was just him and me talking. I think it was the year after he left Vancouver and in Dallas. I think it was ProReads. We're breaking it down.

We'll have to look that one up. But and he talked about wanting the pass like you, Darren, because the Hutch is or sorry. Like you, Hutch. Like, you you know where it's going. You even know what side.

It's not like it's like it's like the old breakaway. Right? Do you want a shot or a deep?

Yeah. A deep a deep possibility is greater on a pass.

[crosstalk] And and the reality is that the way a lot of guys play two on ones, I mean, the defensive system of a two on one, is they turn into breakaways anyway. That guy's shooting, and he's got so much time and space. And at high level hockey the defensive yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And with with the with the amount of time and space at that level of hockey, guys should be able to score in a shot.

Yeah. No. I had one of those on Friday where the guy came down and No.

I said I high level hockey.

Oh, that's fair. That's fair. The guy shooting did play pro. So

That's the meanest thing dad's ever said to you.

Yeah. I'm gonna I'm remember. I'm just I'm

getting into my I'm acting like Kevin in the Gear Segment, and he's Cam right now because

So but, yeah, you're right. It does turn into a breakaway. You can get caught thinking shot and flat footed a little bit. So great points. And the thing with Hockey, if I remember this, the thing that made his his point, his takeaway unique, not only did he want the pass, but he wanted as close to the net as possible.

He didn't want it high in the zone.

Oh, yeah. He pass

tight to the net because you're right. Like, again, you you just have to cut that off a

little distance to cover too.

Exactly. As long as you're not too high in your crease when that pass goes through, it's easy to sort of get on top of the guy receiving the pass and sort of cut it off vertically and basically force him into perfect shot or nothing. And as you guys said, puck coming across the body or even a one timer hard to make that perfect shot. So a lot of great stuff there. What about your defenseman?

Because that's what Matt Murray focuses on in this week's ProReads presented by Vizual Edge. He doesn't talk a lot about the handedness of the shooter, the handedness of the guy who could receive the pass. It's all about the way his defenseman handles it, and that allows him to anticipate whether this is going to be a shot or a pass. So so much and so often we focus on forget our personal preference, what we want. When we're reading what's actually gonna happen, a lot of times it's all about the guys coming at us.

But as we've learned through ProReads, a lot of it is about how your guy is playing it, whether that's within the system or unique individual preferences. So that's just

one of the sides. Defensive stands up. Defensive peels.

Stick positioning, how he's turned, all these things. So Matt gets into that as an important aspect of reading an odd man rush for goalies to learn from. And there is no better way in our mind to learn than from InGoal Magazine's ProReads, which, of course, allow you to read the game. Now there's no better way to see the game than a subscription to Vizual Edge. You want the puck to look like a beach ball?

Every goalie has that night here and there where the puck looks huge. You're ahead of every play. You feel calm, patient, in total control. And there are the nights where you're a half step late. I know those well.

You see it, but you don't really see it. You're reaching. You're guessing. You're fighting it. That's not your technique.

That's your eyes and your brain not processing the play fast enough. Visual Edge fixes that. It measures how well your eyes track and process the game, then gives you a custom plan to train it. Three fifteen minute sessions a week on your laptop or tablet. It's what NHL goalies use to make the game slow down when it matters most.

Remember, InGoal, I n g o a l, all caps, gets you a discount. But if you've got a membership to InGoal Magazine premium and you can read the ProReads in full, there is a extra discount code to double your discount in there. I won't tell you what it is. Just log in to your account, go to the latest ProReads, and get your discount exclusive members only discount to Vizual Edge. Vizual Edge helping you see the puck better, InGoal Magazine, and ProReads helping you read read the game better.

The perfect combination to make more safe.

And when you brought up the defenseman and what they're going to do to handle that, two on one, it, got me thinking. In my league that I play in, I might have a better idea of what the shooter's going to do than my own defenseman. I've got a better handle on their guy than than my guy, the the way that, that we play.

Hey. I got a team I play on where there's a good chance the defenseman are both below the opposite goal line.

Parent Playbook

And it's a forward defending. Come with that. Yeah. Alright. Stop It Goaltending U, the app, a great partner of InGoal Magazine, with the parent segment, presentation with David Hutchison.

Let's, get the latest from Stop It Goaltending U, the app.

Well, the latest from Stop It Goaltending U, the app, is the continuation of excellence. You wanna have twenty five years of NHL goalie coaching experience at your fingertips? Wanna tap into goalie parenting expertise that helped Joey Daccord reach the NHL? That's what you get with a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U, the app. All the knowledge from Brian Daccord has been an NHL goalie coach, scout, and director, as well as the insights and expertise from his entire staff at Stop It Goaltending, which last year celebrated twenty five years as one of the world's top goalie schools, and that includes a long list of veteran NCAA coaches.

It's all delivered in easy to digest chunks, including five short daily primers each week, weekly style analysis and breakdown videos, and drills you can take onto the ice with your team and coach. Plus, you get a subscription to InGoal premium included. So check it out now at the App Store or Google Play and get the best of both worlds with a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U, the app, and a subscription to InGoal Magazine premium. Hutch.

This week, Daren, we're gonna talk about thinking less and and not more and our role as a parent to, to make sure that we're supporting our child in that. Before we get into it, I wanna frame it, though. This isn't about effort or commitment, and it definitely isn't gonna be a talk about being underprepared. It's about a mistake that I think a lot of well intentioned parents, probably including myself, make all the time, especially when we're exposed to a lot of pro level examples of preparation and how that mistake can quietly add some pressure instead of confidence. If you've ever wondered whether your child should be studying opponents more, remembering more details, or preparing like the pros, this segment's for you.

Because at most youth levels, the advantage isn't in knowing more. It's needing to think less. And start with a little story. Our son's third game in major junior hockey guys was a really good example of the dangers of over preparation. He'd played two games, already, and he'd done quite well.

But in both cases, he learned he was playing the morning of the game. The team was in a playoff hunt on the outside looking in, and in his second start, he helped the team get a key win. And with their starter injured, the coach was even heard to refer to Matthew as the starter. That didn't last very long. It meant he knew he was starting the next game with a full week to prepare against a team not just fighting for a playoff spot but for a championship.

And here's where things shifted. Instead of getting a few reps in practice, he got all the systems reps. And this coach was a details guy. He walked the team through multiple breakout scenarios, different scenarios on the forecheck and the coverage, how the team that they were playing played different situations. And there was a lot going through his head there.

And then believe it or not, something I'd never seen before. He even did video right before they headed out onto the ice for the for the warm up. He's a well respected coach and for 19 and 20 year olds, that level of preparation may might make sense. But for a 15 year old, it had to be overwhelming. And all that preparation ended up being for less than ten minutes that, the poor guy lasted in the net that night.

What's tricky here is that as parents, we don't mean to create pressure. We often inherit it. We hear stories about NHL goalies, and, of course, one of them quite recently was Samuel Montembeault and the fact that he knows every shooter's handedness in the National Hockey League and even the detail of what color tape they wear. And those stories are cool. They're impressive and they're meant to show professionalism.

But here's the problem. Those examples are rare and when they get amplified through the media, they start to feel normal. And without realizing it, we start wondering whether our own kids should be doing the same thing, whether they should be studying opponents more, remembering more, preparing more. And that's where expectations start to rise. The key thing parents need to understand is that there are two very different mental jobs at play here.

One is pattern recognition. The other is memorization and recall. Goal tending at every high level runs on pattern recognition. It's fast. It's automatic.

It's built through experience and repetition. The goalie isn't thinking in words. They're reacting to shape, spacing, timing. Memorization though is different. It's slower.

It's conscious. It uses working memory. And under pressure, it's fragile. Performance research has shown this over and over again. When skilled athletes start to consciously control or recall information during action, performance drops.

Reaction slows, anxiety rises. This is the same mechanism behind what people often call overthinking or choking. So when a young goalie is asked to remember key details during a game, who's shooting, who's passing, what team likes to do what, they're being pulled out of the mental mode that allows them to perform best. And even though young kids don't get formal scouting reports, parents still do the same thing in other ways. It might sound like, watch out for that kid.

He's really good. This team really likes to shoot glove. This team really likes cross ice plays. Oh, remember you struggled against this team last time. The intent is to help, but the effect is the same.

Now as the play develops, the goalie isn't just reading what's happening. They're checking expectations. Is this the player they warned me about? Am I supposed to expect a pass here? Did I miss something I was told to watch for?

It's not game sense. It's mental clutter. You'll hear goalies in our ProReads, of course, talk about checking hands early or knowing who's a one timer option, but notice something important there. They're not consciously thinking number nine's a right handed shooter. They just register that side of the ice as a shooting threat.

There's no different than really a shoulder check-in traffic. It's quick awareness. It's not recall. And that kind of awareness doesn't come from studying lists. It comes from experience.

It comes from seeing the same situations thousands of times. It's embedded. It's not memorized. In age guys, it matters here too. A 12 year old's brain is still developing.

Working memory, attention control, stress regulation, even adults struggle when they're overloaded with too much information. NHL goalies, they only get away with it because their detailed preparation is in a game that is highly structured, where systems are consistent, and their experience base, of course, is massive. Youth hockey is the opposite. Systems break down, players miss assignments, lines change unpredictably, execution is inconsistent. So when we over prepare kids for a game that's inherently less predictable, I think we're often adding adding some noise instead of clarity.

That doesn't mean that preparation is bad. It just means there's a sweet spot. Good preparation removes uncertainty. It simplifies the game. It calms the nervous system.

Things like a consistent routine, knowing the start time and expectations, a familiar warm up, maybe one simple focus on the ice. Bad preparation adds decisions. It adds reminders. It adds comparisons. And if a goalie has to think about it while the play is unfolding, it's probably too much.

Those stories about elite preparation at the NHL level describe exceptions, not templates. They're interesting, but they're not instructions. At most youth levels, the advantage isn't knowing more, it's needing to think less. And if your preparation makes the game feel bigger, not simpler, it's worth pulling back.

So the parent takeaway here today is quite simple. Those stories about elite preparation at the NHL level describe ex exceptions, not templates. They're interesting, but they're not instructions. At most youth levels, the advantage isn't knowing more, it's needing to think less. And if your preparation makes the game feel bigger, not simpler, it's worth pulling back.

Calm isn't under preparation. For young goalies, it's often the biggest edge they can have.

Is there a age or a level where you should start going from just playing to preparing?

I mean, that's a it's a good question, Daren. I don't know that it's, it's age dependent. I think it's gonna be individual, but I am just really urging caution here.

Like, I wouldn't want my 12 year old preparing for the opposition. I just want them to play. Maybe maybe thinking in the back of their mind, oh, you know, Stevie scored three on me last game, so I gotta be ready for that.

But I I even think that's a problem. Like, because then you're not reacting. I think I think you need to be able to react even at a fairly high level of the game. I think the difference on those things, as I was saying, is coming from experience rather than looking at a list of things. And and I know Kevin knows this side of things far more than I do, but I I remember him, telling me a number of times that those detailed scouting reports that they get even at the National Hockey League level, and I'm referring more to players in this case, but there are guys that do like to go over those.

But there are guys even at that level that just want to react to the game and and don't give me too much information.

Goalies too. There are some. Like, it's funny. I've had this discussion recently with a couple of guys about what they wanna know and what they don't wanna know. Tendencies on power plays is something they tend to want to know versus, you know, a lot of guys on a shootout, they don't a lot of guys don't wanna know what the what the a move is.

Some of them wanna know just what the a move is so they can keep but they worry about cheating towards it. Like, it's a it's a fine line. It's a fine balance. At the end of the day, so much of what we present in ProReads, don't forget, is them looking back at the video, sometime later and telling you what they were thinking as opposed to in the moment. A lot of them have said this.

Like, in the moment, you're not thinking about all those things. You just identify them and you react to them. They're all part of that built in subconscious knowing what tendency is likely to come from that situation because you've seen it thousands of times. But in the moment, you're not calculating it consciously in your head because that would be quote unquote overthinking. And what's the the funnel?

Like, the number of thoughts and things you can have, like, funnels pretty quick at the pace of the game, so you have to be out there reacting to it. So the things you've learned, you can't go out there. You can watch a peroids and ProReads and be like, oh, yeah. Like, if I go back to my post here in this situation, I know that that's that's the best move here cause I've been working on it, and and I recognize the situation. But it's gotta be instinctual and innate.

It can't be like, oh, hold on. What did Connor Hellebuyck say last week? And it's like, you're fishing the butterfly.

And and don't forget we need to separate practice and games here. Like, all those details you're recalling, you wanna think about it during a practice as you're dealing with different scenarios, then by all means, go ahead. But you need to check that at the door when you step onto the ice for a game.

One thing a coach told me, was the difference between practice and game, is challenging because a lot of times you know what your teammates are gonna do, and it it it's there. And then you go to a game, and you you are just flying, loose and fast, with it.

Isn't that on the coaches too to an extent though to create a practice environment where it isn't just repetitive flow drills where we know exactly what's gonna happen every time?

Yeah. Or where they have enough time and space to go outside of the structure that you're gonna see in a game and and and present a whole bunch of stuff to you that's not realistic. I mean, both both things are sort

of true.

And that's on you to beat, stay competitive and battle through that kind of stuff instead of going, oh, you didn't do the drill right. I get so many times, I I will see that, around the minor hockey level where, something will go awry and the goaltender will go, just just give up because or quit because the the drill is broken down. Stay with it. Challenge yourself in that situation and deal with the x factor of unpredictability. Good stuff, Hutch.

Love it. You you make us think every week on the Stop It Goaltending U, the app parent segment. Brings us to our NHL Sense Arena feature interview as we revisit mister Goalie, Glenn Hall. NHL Sense Arena, continues to give you opportunities to experience the game without having to be on the ice.

Sure do. And it's a great way to prepare without over preparing. If you want your goalie or skater to train how they see and think the game, not just how they move, the Hockey IQ hub from Sense Arena is worth a look. Hockey IQ is all about reading the play before it happens. Scanning the ice early, anticipating rushes, recognizing releases, managing angles under pressure.

Those same skills that elite goalies rely on at the highest levels. The Hockey IQ hub from NHL Sense Arena offers guides and checklists online. We're not talking about in the headset here. Everybody can go check this out now. And you can use them at home to help your athlete build habits that transfer to real games, not by memorizing facts, but by training how they respond and decide.

With NHL Sense Arena VR training, you get immersive drills and game like scenarios that help sharpen cognitive skills like decision making, scanning, and reaction speed anytime, anywhere. And it's perfect for off ice sessions or pregame warmups. New this year, they've got the winter classic twenty six rink now available inside NHL Sense Arena. So you get this fresh iconic sort of environment for your training. And right now you can save 50% on an annual plan.

And with our code IGM 50, you'll save even more on these skill building tools that help athletes play smarter and more confidently. So go check out the Hockey IQ hub at NHL Sense Arena at senseArena.com and check out your options there so that you can learn to see the game before it happens.

Feature Interview - Glenn Hall

We celebrate the incredible accomplishments of Glenn Hall, who recently passed away at the age of 94 with an interview that was originally aired back in 2019 at David Hutchison, and spending some time with mister Hall at his home in Stony Plain. Just, set the the scene for us, if you can, Hutch, where you guys did it, and and what what the atmosphere was like.

If if I may, maybe go into some territory we don't normally hear. I checked with Glen's son and said, is there something in particular I could bring Glen as a thank you for doing the interview? One was, was an InGoal hoodie. So he's one of the rare people out there that has one. But his son actually said, the only thing he needs is bush beer.

That's all he drinks. That's all he wants. I'm like, okay, that's cool. Happy to do that. So, we stopped by the local, store on the way over to Glen's Farm in Stony Plain and I arrived with a case of 24 bushes and put it on the table in front of him and and we started chatting and it was a very fun, relaxing chat.

I've I've said this to people before. I sort of felt like, like I was sitting down with a warm grandfather. He's got that sort of grandfatherly approach to him and, and felt a little jealous that he wasn't part of my family at that moment. Anyway, we're having a wonderful conversation and all of a sudden Glen just stops and looks at the beer and it says, so we're just going to sit here and look at it? So this is probably, I'm fairly virtually 100% certain that this is the only interview in InGoal Magazine history that involved a couple of pops shared between interviewer and interviewee, and, it's possible I even suggested that, my then 12 year old son have a few sips as well because one day he could look forward to telling his buddies that he'd had a beer with a with a hall of famer.

It was a it was pretty cool. Pretty cool experience, and and like I said, just wonderful of him to invite us into his home and and share a little bit of time with us, which which ended after this interview is taking us down to the basement and and showing us a bunch of the memorabilia that he still had from his time playing the game.

Going back to 2019, an interview conducted between David Hutchison and Glenn Hall in Stony Plain on InGoal Radio, the podcast presented by NHL Sense Arena.

Did you enjoy the position for the gear in the same way that goaltenders do today, or was it just there?

Well, we certainly wouldn't enjoy the equipment we used. Nobody could enjoy that. And I think I mentioned that the salesmen for these for the equipment. They knew nothing about good equipment yet or bad equipment or where you needed protection. And I keep talking about like, I keep saying, well, a monkey stands like this.

See? Stands like that where a goalkeeper stands like that. And that's the only difference between a goalkeeper and a monkey. But we used to put the the cotton batten on on her arms here. Right?

But it did it it all welded down and everything else. But when they come up with these wrapping bubbles, that was perfect because Bubble wrap? Put the bubble wrap. It was perfect. You could use that in there, and and it gave the defenseman something to do in between periods.

Pick up your bubble wrap?

Oh, no. To to Oh. Press the bubbles. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah. Just making a motion. So it's it's

Bursting.

That's incredible. Worked out. Did

you did you in talking with I assume it was Koho Skeenski. It was the leading equipment company at the time for pads anyway. Did you ever suggest some modifications to help with the butterfly? Because the pads have changed so much for that reason now.

No. No. He he made certainly by far the best equipment it was. And I had enough trouble that he wouldn't make them too long. Because he wanted to make them.

He would measure your height and and then he'd make them that and I didn't want to want them as long as he wanted them.

You bring it up. I think that's one of the most amazing things. You're you're known as the guy who invented the butterfly and brought it into the NHL. Where where did that come from?

Common sense. Yeah. Like, we were we were told how to play by it was generally the general manager who had never played goal. He told us how we should play goal. We should stand up like this with our legs together, and well, you can't move to the post with your legs are together, so you gotta have a little bit and that's what opens up the five hole, and it's always been there.

Common sense. Yeah. Like, we were we were told how to play by it was generally the general manager who had never played goal. He told us how we should play goal. We should stand up like this with our legs together, and well, you can't move to the post with your legs are together, so you gotta have a little bit of and that's what opens up the five hole, and it's always been there.

And some of the great, great players, they were able to make a living just, you know, using the five hole to to score on you.

Did that come because you'd observed it anywhere else or were you just sort of thinking to yourself, I'm gonna try something different here today?

No. It I think it happened by accident where I got into it is that we used to do a we'd we'd stretch to to stop the puck, and we'd stop it with the skate. And I think it was a groin injury that made it difficult to to do the splits and to and so I think necessity, like they say, is a mother of invention. And so I think just because of of conditions and everything else, I I learned to to swing the pads.

Any idea where the name butterfly came from? Was that around when you were doing it?

No. I think oh, it was a writer from from New York, and I can't think of his name. And he called it the butterfly, like, with the arms kind of up and the the pads swung out. And I suppose that it looked a little bit at that time like a butterfly. Yeah.

Yeah.

Amazing because I I read an article by by Ken Dryden, and he talked about how the mask was the biggest change to the game because it allowed people to play down closer to the ice with some safety. But really you you made that innovation long before it was a safe move to make.

Yeah. It I've been hit hard three times and I've had a bunch of necks, but when we played, it was puck related injuries that were were the worst. We had so many of the goalkeepers have problems, have eye injuries, and kept them from continuing playing. And I was lucky that way, but I certainly got hit all I wanted to be at. Yeah.

Wow. And and no anesthetic when they were stitching you up?

No. No. They didn't think about that. And well, the we were lucky when it wasn't a game if you got cut. We had a trainer who would he'd stitch better than the doctors and he'd

More experienced.

He'd pinch you a little bit. Well, I guess he did the he was stitching up quite a bit, but they'd pinch you he'd pinch you or the doctors would just lift you up off the table. Wow.

So so what do you think when you watch a goaltender today play? I mean, you've got two grandsons who play goal, and they're in this incredible safe equipment.

What's your head? It it bothers me when they lay on the ice and whine.

Not your grandchildren, just the other goalies.

Well, I'll tell you, my grandchildren have been taught that you don't do that. If you lay on the ice, you better be hurt because don't you lay there and whine. We used to the trainer here and the Tiger goalstick that we had in when I played here with Edmonton in the Western League. And all of us thought he was the greatest trainer ever. Because if you were hurt laying on the ice and you saw him come out with his scissors, you got up.

You certainly got up in a hurry. You didn't want him to touch you. Yeah. And so yeah. It was good times, good memories, and everything.

But and so here we are talking about injuries, and everybody brings it up, but we have to. Probably the one record that will never be broken in the NHL, the 502 consecutive games played without missing one. And and I believe you take that back to to junior hockey to well over a thousand games.

Yeah, I called when I played junior and then I played played four years in the minors, I played one year in the American League and then I come out to the Western League and I played three more years here. And like I was lucky, I never missed a game in all that time. And yeah, it was

Can't be just luck, though.

Well, it's nice to be healthy enough that you could at least play. Yeah.

Wait. And then you told us earlier when we arrived here that the first day of training camp, you were in the best shape you would be all season.

Yep. Did you take pride

in that in the off season? Was it just being an honest partner farmer?

I yeah. I kept well, I kept in shape and so many of the players had trouble with their weight. And I wouldn't say I was lucky because I had trouble putting on weight. And I think when I first played pro or something, I was a hundred and forty, a hundred and fifty pounds, and that's all. And so I worked at trying to gain a few pounds.

And you're living on this beautiful farm now and which you got in the late sixties. Were you were you from a farming family in Saskatchewan as well?

Yeah. My grandparents had a farm, and my uncle, I used to go out there regularly. And and Pauline, my wife, she she come from the farm. And so we always knew what we wanted to do, and we squirreled away nickels and dimes in in order to to buy a farm.

And so was was this time of year when when you were playing, were were you doing something intentionally to get in good shape, or was it just the work you were doing around the

Oh, I think it was intentionally. I used to do a little running. I remember some of the other people from around well, I guess we were living in Edmonton at the time, but I used to go out with them and they'd do a little running and stuff. And so I'd I always found it easy to run and so I guess that was as a conditioner too.

Yeah. To me, that sounds unusual. We keep hearing stories of guys showing up for training camp so they could get into shape. You different from the other guys in that respect?

Some of the guys had had trouble with their weight all the time and But most of us come in in real good shape. I remember my first year in Chicago, Nick oh, and I am so bad with even teammates. I forget names so rapidly. And but when we had the weigh in, I was sitting next to where they were doing the coach was in there weighing the players in the first day, and but he picked up the hammer and the the saw and everything else, and he had tucked behind his back, and so the coach couldn't see it because he wanted to come in a little heavy. He was smarter than the rest of us.

About three days later, he says, one guy, one guy lost a lousy three pounds, and he lost that when he put the hammer down. And so that's the answer. Yes. So, yeah, it was different.

And you were talking earlier about some of the other goaltenders that were that you admired were friends of yours?

Well, we've become friends like I'd say two of my favorites were Gump Worsley and Johnny Bower. And they were really, really good goalkeepers. I'll tell you when you when I played goal, I always felt I have to play better than the guy at the other end. They and they made it difficult in order to to do that. They they made it very difficult to do it.

So you raised each other's games that way?

I think we did. Yeah.

Yeah. Did and then at a time when there was no goalie coaching, were you were you learning through observation?

I think so. Yeah. I was lucky. I I played the I think the goalkeeper who put certainly the four best years ever was Sawchuk, his first four years in Detroit. And I was lucky.

I was playing in Windsor, and and I come up in the Junior. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And then in Indianapolis, I come up in the playoffs, and then so I come up and I saw in the playoffs, I saw him play in.

I don't know if I learned anything from him, but just the concentration it was. I always played in a low crouch and Sawchuk played in quite a low crouch too. I I don't know. I remember in junior being told that you couldn't play in that. And I said, well I said, Sawchuk is playing it, and he's the best goalkeeper in the league right now.

And he was. And so but I always played in a deep crouch.

How did you become friends with these guys when it was one goaltender per team? When did you get opportunities to interact with them?

Well, I don't think that it didn't take much time for two goalkeepers to like each other and so

What do you call it? The goalie union now?

Well, yeah, I guess it is. And that was it was a time when if you'd meet at the station, you would always get together and just say hello and talk a little bit. But no. We didn't it doesn't take a lot of time to be make friends.

Who are some of the great characters in the game that you played with?

Bob Plager, one of the one of the real funny guys, and Ed Litzenberger was a kind of a character too. And they were more characters with the stories they had because they always believed if you got a good story, you could improve on it. And they they they really worked at improving a good story and yeah. And and they would do a good job.

We're we might be sitting here enjoying a beverage. And I don't want you to feel like your throat is getting dry just because of this conversation.

Oh, you should have been a doctor.

I in many ways, it seemed to me like you were so far ahead of of your time, and I don't just mean the butterfly. Technically, that was interesting. But I heard you say that pressure is the greatest asset in the world.

Yeah. It is. It it pushes you to another notch. And I and I used to put pressure on myself to be tell. I'd to the point of I don't know if I actually threw up.

I gagged more than I did. But I'd go to the bathroom and I'd I'd gag. Everybody feels that that the wastebaskets and that I had one in front of me because I was the only guy that did throw it in the basket. The other guys would do throw it in the floor, but I

So you went alone?

Yeah. But I I'd throw it in the basket. And so

Is there is there an amount of pressure that makes you better? Is there a is there a point where it just becomes too much and it takes

I never reached the point. I always felt I bet I played better the more pressure I put on me.

I never reached the point. I always felt I bet I played better the more pressure I put on me. The fact I Because it's easy to say that, yeah, this is too hard on me. I think it was hard on me. I think that that's why I basically, when I retired, I was still offered a contract when I retired, even though I was old at that time, because I was over 40, I think, And at that time they felt that you were heading downhill.

I don't think I was, but I was ready to quit. I had had enough. My wife and my father-in-law, they didn't want to quit. They absolutely enjoyed the hockey.

Oh yeah.

But no, I had had enough and I felt you could make as much money. In those days, well, I always said I'd rather be underpaid than overpaid. And Tommy Ivan and Blackhawks, they made it easy for me to achieve that

Happy to oblige.

Yeah. And it's so so that was interesting. But I do believe that why Chicago right now, they couldn't be better to us old guys. They really go out of their way to be good. And I think they realize that we weren't treated very well in those days.

Did you feel you identify more with any of the three franchises you played with?

I think I've gone to back to Chicago. I I always said I I would like to I want to play for the team that wanted me. Now Detroit or St Louis was the the last team I played. But all of a sudden, well, they had this lady there that she didn't want anything to do with the old guys and keep the old guys away from here. And and so I kinda went back to Chicago.

I thought, well, if they don't want us here, it's just because we've retired. We'll and I'll I'll put my loyalty back with Chicago, and and I've done that.

Well, they don't know what they're missing then, St Louis. Was it still fun to see them win this year, though?

Oh, it was absolutely great, and it was perfect. I've still got good friends that played there and played teammates that played when we were there, and we keep in touch now and again. And it's always nice and conditions were great in St. Louis. They were so much better than any place else in the league, and they treated us like, well, like people.

We weren't just an animal and a name. So yeah. We had we had absolutely great great well, we had Scotty as a coach, and Scotty was way before his time, and he was unbelievably great. And Lynn Patrick as general manager, Lynn was just great to all of its players, and so that was different. And the owners of Solomons, they were absolutely wonderful.

They invited us into their home for parties and everything, so it was and how we were treated was unbelievable.

And I and I read that Scotty sort of let you do your own thing with respect to practice. You started not maybe practicing quite as much as you had in the past.

Yeah. I didn't it's it's Scotty knew more about me than I knew about myself. He he knew when to but he knew that about all the players. He knew which player that had to be given a little kick in order to get them going, and he knew which ones needed an arm on the shoulder. And he treated all of us that he kicked the ones that needed kicking, and he had an arm on the shoulder, the the ones that needed needed that.

I think the the idea of practicing a bit less is coming back to the game now, and we're seeing more and more teams practice a little bit less on game days, some of the starting goaltenders taking less time. Go another way that I think maybe you were a little bit ahead of your time there.

I just wasn't learning it and with no use going in the morning and becoming shy of the puck because you had to look at it in the evening. Even even the warm ups before the game, I didn't take many shots. If I took a dozen or 12 or 15 shots, that'd be maximum. Simply because I would become shy.

Well, I I just wasn't learning it and with no use going in the morning and becoming shy of the puck because you had to look at it in the evening. Even even the warm ups before the game, I didn't take many shots. If I took a dozen or 12 or 15 shots, that'd be maximum. And Yeah. Simply because I would become shy.

So so you're known for that 502 game streak as a as a lone goaltender, but then you ended up in St Louis with what I think is arguably the best tandem in NHL history with you and Jacques Plante. What was what was he like as a character? What were you like as a team?

Well, he he never told me how to play, and I never told him how to play. Mhmm. And, yeah, he he was a good goalkeeper, a real good goalkeeper, and he had his own system, which was different. He used to play off a post, basically, and and then moved to where I would play in the middle. Like, the Montreal system was they didn't want you to give up a a short side goal.

And I said, well, if you stop them all there, nobody's gonna shoot there anymore. So if one goes in there, you want them to come back because they're easy to stop. So yeah. I love it. Yeah.

No. It

Go for all of

was different and but so many different things that about playing goal, you know, like, I suppose that I I watch the tennis players. And I remember asking somebody why the the guy taking the survey, and he's moving like this, and he said, well, you move the opposite direction before you move the way that you want to move. So, like, if I'm moving if I'm moving that way, I'll start by moving the opposite direction. And and it's true. And I found out that moving from from the post to the high circle to the high crease above the crease that you've moved and you stopped and you have to stop on the outside blade.

And but then you do a little dance there. Well, that little dance gave you going in both directions so that you could come back to either post. And Right. So it become I I I like that that moving prior to that, we had been told that you move parallel to the crease and but I had players who were were going right to the boards carrying the puck, and you couldn't go that far. And so I realized you instead of going parallel to the crease, that you had to come back to post.

Right. And so I started to go from post to high high point then back to either post. I could come back to either post and like I like that. I could move real easy that way.

And when you were on the post, I understand you had your skate on the outside of

this. I did. Yeah.

Another thing that is starting to come back a little bit now.

Oh, is it really?

Yeah. Maybe not the same situation.

Yeah. Well, but it's a wraparound that and on the outside, like, even they didn't really have the wraparound when I was playing, but they were coming in. They were trying to get short side, like, they're just jam it.

Yep.

And I found was it on the outside of the post that they couldn't move me. Just

anchored in there.

Yeah. But I'm surprised that there's some players thinking about using that. And I

So you started butterfly. Your partner in Saint Louis, Plante was well known for coming out of the net to play the puck, but I read a story that you actually had more points than one of your defensemen one year.

Al MacNeil. Yeah. And, Al, that's a that's a lovely story. Al was such a great defensive player, and he was so good. But I I don't know if I should even tell it.

But

Well, it's out there, so we

might as well do it. Well, yeah, it's I had two points early in the season, and they always had the scoring of the team on it. And they had Hull and Mikita with big points and all the way down, and then they had Hull with two points and MacNeil zero. And at the Christmas party, I remember I said, Al, I don't think you're able to catch me. That that used to be at the halfway mark.

It's Christmas. And so he said, oh, yeah. I said, I will. A good second half. Says, that's barring injury, of course.

He says, And so it ended up, and I think it was in February, he had a big, big night, and he got a point, and he got an assist. So they had in the paper again, all the way down to Hall 2, MacNeil one. But the season ended up, and I beat him in the scoring. But after when he was explaining to people, he says, well, he meaning me, he said, he played all the power plays. Which Al wasn't gonna get on a power play.

Yeah. He has First unit

power play. Well done.

Yeah. No. No. But they're they're great memories and great great teammates and friends that we made during those times. And so many of them go in the way of the wind, and you're losing them regularly, and your name moves up every time one other.

So but I'm I'm ready. I I always said that I'd like to play one more game. I'd really like to play one more game. But then I sit down with the six pack until that feeling goes away.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I isn't Chicago doing something now where they bring goalie legends out for a skate one last shift or something?

Yeah. Trying to plug in now to

get you in for one more shift.

I they did something. They're doing some deal on TV. And

What what's it like for you

to watch your grandchildren play goal?

Enjoyable. Really enjoyable. I'm not it has to be terrible for a mother to watch her her kids play goal because

My mother would agree.

Yeah. Yeah. No. It it it had to be terrible because if you let one in, all the rest of the mothers look over at you or at her and would not be nice for mothers to go to hockey games. My mother used to go to the games.

I knew she hated it. And I told her, well, don't don't come to the games. And and like I say, I'd been hit a few times and that worried her. Yeah, it's it's a position for the goalkeepers and maybe their dads and not a position for the mothers.

I I find it a little stressful. A little stressful to watch even as a dad.

Yeah. Yeah. Well

I bet you feel a

little bit stressful when your grandchildren are out there.

You make the right moves, and you're going to stop the puck the majority of the times. It's a wrong move that'll kill you.

Well, you're hoping they do well, but I've seen them play and even when they let in a goal, I say, well, that was the right move. They made the right move. So I think that's important. You make the right moves, and you're going to stop the puck the majority of the times. Yeah.

It's a wrong move that'll kill you. And, yeah, and if you continue to make it, it it'll snowball.

And it's a mental game, isn't it? You you said that to Matty when we first came in here.

Yeah. It is. It's the mind is the most important part. Knowing which player is capable of scoring is more likely to be able to score.

Did that just prepare you, or did you did you actually tactically do something different in a game depending on who had the puck?

Oh, certainly, you would you would and even if the the guy that was you knew exactly where he was at all times. You knew exactly where he was and if he would enter into a no offensive position or

Who were some of those guys for you that

Well, the the Montreal team, they they were head and shoulders above all of us. They had the best teams. And so, you know, if you didn't know where the Rocket was, well, then you were in trouble. In the pocket, Henri Richard. I don't think a lot of people know what a great, great, great player he was. He was absolutely great player, he had the wrong name.

He had Richard on his name and everybody, when you mentioned Richard, they'd think about the rocket. And Dickie Moore, when I played with him, I didn't I knew I what a great player he was when I played against him. But when I played with him, I realized why he was such a great player. He was a total effort, just everything. He and Ted Lindsay played a lot alike, and they were both great players.

I also understand that you used visualization as part of your routine routine to get ready for a game that you'd sit in the dressing room beforehand and sort of consider

like Certainly. I thought everybody did that. You could close your eyes and you could see exactly what he was going to do. The guy came in and this was the top players you were looking at. You didn't look at I had a problem.

The slugs I figured they were gonna come off the post or something and they just tried to hit the net. Until I smartened up there and realized that I don't have to worry about the post with these guys. They're not gonna come off the post. They're just gonna jam at the net, and that's the extent of it.

So that was a routine for you before every game that you would?

I think so. I think that I would don't know if it was so much before the game as it was after the meal when you'd lie down and and that's when I would would pick up on on moves that would be coming.

What was today the most dangerous situations on the ice are the amount of traffic in front of a goaltender, perhaps the velocity of the shots now with the players who are so well trained and the technology they have. What was what were some of the most dangerous situations when you were playing?

I think the the defenseman dragging their stick. They dragged their stick so that it'd come off and so you'd eat it instead of because they didn't have it in front of them so that they would deflect on them.

Dangerous in

a few ways. Yeah. It was it was hanging out over on the side. And I think that it really what I tried to work with defensemen was don't don't drag the stick like that. I'll lift up automatically from if you're dragging it.

And so I didn't like that. But the defensemen, they were I was lucky. I played with so many good defensemen. I played with some that I couldn't follow very good. But

Did you communicate a lot on the ice when with them?

You did a little bit vocal, but I think the vocal was when it was was in between whistles or something. How you'd communicate by just by a stick and just a nod and everything, and we understood each other like, you've got him, I'll take him into him.

Well, you so much for taking some time. It's such an incredible privilege to sit in the living room of the man they call Mr. Goalie and sharing a beverage with him.

Well, I thank you and

Before we just before we sign off on

the formalities of the interview, I don't know if you remember back in

the day, goaltenders would sit on

the bench if they were a backup, and you don't even know what being

a backup is really from your career. But the backups would wear a towel around their their neck to stay warm.

Yeah.

And in an interview with Mike McKenna, the guy you did that other podcast with, he Daren Millard from our group said, hey, Mike. We need to bring back the backup towel. Just a little bit of fun reminiscing. And Mike sure enough in an NHL game did the the very same thing.

Yeah. And we've had a few of Eli's students do it in the Western Hockey League, Joel Hofer being one of them, and it sort of became a

bit of a a movement amongst the goalie union. So we produce some backup towels

Oh, boy.

For our publication InGoal Magazine. And I've often said that they're not just backup towels, they're starter towels. Because I've seen the starters come on to receive the first star award after a game of towel around the neck. So if if I may, I'd just like to present you here with one of the first InGoal backup towels that we're now gonna call a starter towel

because it's for the man

who played 502 games in a row.

Well, I thank you very, very much.

Outro

Mister goalie Glenn Hall passing away at the age of 94. And you're right. Your description of him as the the grandfather that that everybody wants is is is a perfect illustration of it.

Yeah. And a and a grandfather with a heck of a sense of humor, wasn't he? So Woody alluded to the, to the bubble wrap earlier, and that's one of the questions or one of the comments that stands out the most to me. We often will talk to goaltenders about their love for the gear. And you and I both know, Daren, that messing around with our gear to try and make it a little bit more protective was something we love to do and and was a a big part of our experience growing up and even more so for Glenn.

And, but just that that quick little comment that, that the bubble wrap wasn't just for protection. It was to give his defenseman something to do between periods was just brilliant.

So Kelly Taylor, look him up, great comedian, out of Saskatchewan, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, comes out to Prince Edward Island every year for the Boys and Girls Club, fundraiser. And he does a little bit on on goaltender. He was a goaltender, back in the day, so he's got some experience in dealing with it. He he always says, everybody's cheering for the team except for one person, the backup goaltender. He's like, I was always the backup.

I always want it again. Anyway, Kelly does this little, segment on Glenn Hall and says, about being his backup. And the coach coming to him saying, you're you're gonna go in. You're gonna go in for for Glenn. He's not having a great night tonight.

He's like, go in. I haven't worn skates for three years. Guess the guy played, 502 games. So I was just it's it's always stuck with me, this, wonderful, compliment, from Kelly Taylor about, about Glenn Hall. And then I was when he was doing it, I was sitting beside a former National Hockey League, a guy that was a captain, of of a team, at one point.

And Kelly's talking about 500, two straight games, etcetera, all these accomplishments. And this player looks at me and says, that's not true, is it? I'm like, yes. Yes. It is true.

So even guys that have played the game at the biggest level and been captains and leaders of their teams, like, they they couldn't get their heads around 502 straight games.

It's crazy. It's crazy. And as you said, as you heard, as you said, you mentioned playoffs. As he said in the interview, like, add in his minor career, never missed a game, junior career, never missed a game. It's probably well over a thousand.

So back to back, not a big deal.

Yeah. No. No. I I I will never use the phrase well, I I I should never use the phrase playing the wheels off a guy who started seven or eight in a row again when describing a national Hockey League goalie.

No chargers either. I I know I I haven't looked back at the schedule. It wasn't as compacted as today. Like, there are, were advantages, a little more spaced out games, but, but, yeah, incredible that you're able to maintain that type of, one, availability, and number two, performance.

It might have been spaced out, and it might have been a little easier in that respect. But let's not forget the equipment he was wearing and the equipment he wasn't wearing on his face. Just butterfly pioneer with no mask. Like put those two things together. Remember Ken Dryden, another incredible hall of fame goaltender we lost this year talking he wrote a brilliant article, I think, in the Globe Mail in in Toronto talking about how the mask changed the way we play the game because you could play with your head below the crossbar and know you would be safe.

Glenn did when and there was no mask.

Yeah. Fortunate, that, he was able to avoid some of those, catastrophic injuries that that would have put him out, but also incredibly brave to put himself in and and had to be adept to be able to read the play to keep himself safe and maintain, his stance and status in the net. Awesome stuff. David Hutchison, Kevin Woodley, brilliant, as we get to revisit, some of these, older interviews and bring them back to you. We know they're available, through the podcast platform, but, just, it helps us, discuss things with mister goalie, Glenn Hall.

Thanks to David, Kevin, Cam, and all of you for listening. We'll talk to you next time on InGoal Radio, the podcast presented by the Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley, the hockeyshop.com. Be well.