The Ride to the Rink: Kevin Clark on Building Better Hockey Awareness

🏒 What separates players who simply react from players who always seem to be one step ahead?

In this episode of The Ride to the Rink, former professional hockey player and development coach Kevin Clark joins Lee Elias, Christie Casciano-Burns, and Mike Bonelli to share practical advice that young hockey players can use immediately.

Kevin explains why players need a short-term memory, how additional development during the season can create long-term growth, and why scanning the ice before receiving the puck is one of the most valuable habits a young player can build.

The goal is not to turn your head just because a coach told you to look around. The goal is to collect useful information.

🔍 In this episode, young players will learn:

• 🧠 Why mistakes and great plays both need to be left behind quickly
• 🏒 How to stay focused on the next decision and the next shift
• 📈 Why development should continue during the hockey season
• 👀 How scanning helps players understand where teammates and opponents are
• ⚡ Why better information leads to faster, more confident decisions
• 🥅 What skaters can learn from the way goalies watch the entire game

Kevin encourages players to stop skating with blinders on and begin noticing the full picture around them. The earlier a player develops that awareness, the more naturally it can become part of their game.

The next time you step onto the ice, challenge yourself to look, learn, and collect more information before the puck arrives.

Listen now, share this episode with a teammate, and put one of Kevin’s lessons into action during your next practice.

📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: See More, Think Faster: Building Better Hockey Awareness

This episode is powered by NHL Sense Arena.

No matter where you are in your hockey journey, we believe in you—and you should believe in yourself, too. Have fun, skate hard, and go learn something!

#TheRideToTheRink #YouthHockey #HockeyDevelopment #HockeyIQ #HockeyAwareness #HockeyTraining #HockeySkills #KevinClark #YouthAthletes #HockeyPodcast

Keep your player sharp this summer with NHL Sense Arena. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at hockey.SenseArena.com/okph

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:15

This episode is powered by NHL Sense Arena. Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of The Ride to the Rink. Whether you're on the way to the rink right now, sitting at home, wherever you're at, listening to this, we got a great friend here today. Kevin Clark is joining us. And Kevin played pro hockey. He's done it at the highest levels. Now, today he's working with a lot of high-level hockey players to get them to the next level. And what we want to talk about today, kids, is some advice from Kevin about how you're looking and watching and perceiving the game on the ice, off the ice through your youth hockey journey. Joining me as always is Christy Cassiano Burns and Mike Benelli. Christy, I'm going to throw it to you for the first question. What do you got for Kevin?

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Kevin, we're so excited to have you on this episode of Ride to the Rink. And we know that you help hockey players develop, develop, right? And kids, you all want to get better. What advice would you give to a kid listening right now who wants to improve their game of hockey? How should they think differently the next time they step on the ice? What's a good frame of mind for them?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Um, a great frame of mind would be to um have a short-term memory because there's so many decisions inside of your goldfish memory. Yeah, inside of the next shift, inside of this the same shift you're on. Um you're not thinking about where you need to be skating to the next player, because it's just it's it's second nature to you now. You're playing, you've played so much hockey, but I think forgetting the moments, good or bad, because there are so many decisions inside of the of this next shift, uh, the one that you're even on that need to be made.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

You know, I'm wondering, you know, as a development coach and somebody that has to primarily, you know, maybe work with players in the off-season, what we consider the off-season, how important it is for a player to map out their in-season development? You know, if they're on a team and they don't, you know, again, we're we everybody has a hard schedule, but the fact is you can't just do what everyone else is doing during the season to progress past that group, right? So can you give some advice on, I don't know if it's percentage-wise or or or how to schedule it or you know, what would your advice be to a youth player today that's in season that wants to be ready to go and and then jump to the next level by making sure they're maintaining more of a 12-month schedule as opposed to thinking they could get better in the the two months of the summer?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Great question. Uh I think for for anybody, you need to find the moments inside your schedule that you're able to manage where you're okay with doing something you love to do. It's a choice, right? And we just we talked about that on the last episode. But um I think having some kind of guidance from a coach, from a teacher, from an outside voice, something that's gonna be different than what you're getting on your team coach is gonna be extremely valuable and important to your development path. I think as long as it's different from where different voice, I think it's it's only gonna aid, it's gonna help you. It's a different direction, it's a different focus. And I think if you add up those differences, the collection of them, you will eventually continue to slowly pass by those players that are still on that same level as you because you've started to add in more of a variety in into what you're doing.

unknown 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

So, Kevin, listen, kids listening to this show probably want to get better at hockey or they're driven by hockey. You're not listening to a hockey podcast, kids, if you're not super, super into the game. So I'm gonna frame this question is you you're someone who sees a lot of high-level players, okay? It doesn't have to be one thing, but can you give us a habit or one thing you wish kids would work on more in youth hockey that maybe you're developing a lot at the older ages that you can think of of like, man, if you if we had just started teaching you this at 10, it might be a better, better habit. So again, it can be one, it can be multiple. What are some habits you want these listeners to be working on on the ice or off the ice for that matter?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Um having an understanding of where the opponent is. So great times to look around, and everyone calls it pre-scanning or or you know, vibe words or shoulder checking, but truly like not being a bobblehead, not just like turning and in the collection of of your look was you didn't gather any information. You didn't collect anything. So I think that's by far and in a way the most important, I think, because that's going to set your next path with the puck. If you don't have time with the puck, if someone's right on top, you have to pass it right away, or you have to turn your body and protect it. It's so influential. Um I'm gonna take soccer just because FIFA's on and and the World Cup was on, and I was starting to watch more when I played and was became friends with a high-level mid mid-center. And the amount of collections and and and pictures that he took, he he just he was always ahead. And it's like there's a message clip of like he scans like two times more than anybody else, and his like his decision outcome is higher. Well, it's because you you you have an understanding more of what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

So I I honestly I would just give you give one person that. I mean, defensive side or offensive side, like the you know, you look at goalies and you understand why they're they're like color analysts or they're GMs of teams, like they're literally watching the game like sure for the whole 60 minute. We get off from a bench and we're like head down, need some water, need the oxygen tank, and like we have no disregard what's going on. We don't even know what team what what their fore check they're switching to, or you know, who's the the defensive heavy hitter. Whereas they're there, I would just say collect more information.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I think it's great advice.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

And I'll say that's right about goalies if you think about it. Yeah, their situational awareness is off the charts because they're watching the whole game.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah. Well, and they have to see the game from a different point of view. Yeah, right. And and kids, I think that's tremendous advice from Kevin is you know, a lot of times when when we're coaching, we see or we might say to you, hey, you got the blinders on, you can only see the one path for yourself. The truth is it's not even just your four teammates skating, it's the other team, too. Right? It's a great point, Kevin. Just you've got to be able to take in that information, kids, and process it. And the earlier you start to do that, the better you'll get at it. I love the messy uh twice as much, too, there. So hey, listen, that's great advice, Kevin. Thanks so much for uh joining us today and talking to the kids for a little bit about that. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. All right, kids. Now listen, remember, as we say every episode, episode every episode, excuse me, no matter where you're at on your hockey journey, we believe in you. You should too. Have fun, skate hard, go learn something. We'll see you on the next ride to the ring. Take care, kids.