Mike Valley: 10 lessons from career of former Stars goalie coach

PART 4: You Can’t Change the Past, featuring Niklas Backstrom

Our limited series with former Dallas Stars goaltending coach Mike Valley continues with a lesson from his former playing partner in Sweden, Niklas Backstrom, who went on to play 413 games over 10 seasons in the NHL, mostly with the Minnesota Wild.

This series, which has already been going on for three weeks, highlights 10 lessons from Valley’s fascinating career as a professional goalie, goalie coach and self-described serial entrepreneur.

The presentation was part of the WHL / Hockey Canada Goaltending Symposium presented by InGoal Magazine, and thanks to that partnership, we get to share them with our readers. If you haven’t already watched the first three parts, you can still find them by clicking these links:

Part 1: Balancing technique with letting a goalie go out and play

Part 2: Lessons from head coaches: ‘There’s Winning and There’s Misery’

Part 3: Wisdom from Stu Barnes: You Can’t Cheat the Game

In Part 4, Valley discusses the problem of overthinking as a goalie, the importance of being able to stay in the moment, and ways to do so, including the importance of not becoming too much of a “Monday Morning Quarterback” when working with goalies. There’s even a Tale of Two Monks, and as he does each week, Valley ties his latest lesson back to how it relates to a goalie coach and a goaltender, and by default (and more so this time) a goaltending parent too:

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