🏆 What Youth Hockey Players Can Learn from the Stanley Cup Final

The Stanley Cup Final may be over, but the lessons for youth hockey players and coaches are just getting started.

This week, Coach Jared and Coach Drew break down key moments from the championship series and discuss how Carolina's identity—relentless forechecking, committed backchecking, net-front presence, and team-first hockey—can translate directly into youth hockey development.

The guys analyze Jordan Staal's dominance around the crease, Jacob Slavin's elite defensive habits, and the collective commitment that helped Carolina capture hockey's ultimate prize. Along the way, they share practice drills and coaching concepts that can help players become more effective and help coaches build stronger team identities.

The episode also includes updates on the upcoming 2 Many Men on the Mic acoustic performance, support from Five B Designs, and the launch of the show's initiative to help make hockey more affordable through donated skates and sticks for youth players.

Topics Include:

• Stanley Cup Final analysis
• Team identity and culture
• Forechecking and offensive zone pressure
• Backchecking and defensive responsibility
• Net-front play and scoring habits
• Practice drills for coaches
• Growing the game and making hockey more affordable

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I mean the thought gets me pumped up. I, you know, uh it and it's Stanley Cup Edition.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Lucky not smile. Lucky not smile.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

It's it's Stanley Cup edition, uh, too many men on the mic, and uh what a pack show. Uh I love these kinds of shows because we say frequently to players watch hockey, watch a hockey game. If you can't watch an entire hockey game, watch a period of a hockey game and find a player that plays your position. So I love this show because we're going to be talking about what we just experienced, uh, the ultimate prize in sports, the Stanley Cup, and how we can take the success stories within the game and the series and translate it down to youth hockey and some teaching moments. I love these kinds of shows.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah, Vegas and Five, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

So much so much for what I know, right? You know, you know, there's an old saying that uh swallowing your pride has no cholesterol. So I'm I'm swallowing my pride a little bit this one when I'm saying that I was wrong about Vegas and Five. I'm just happy Grant's not joining us this week to rub it in.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Uh well, be that as you know, the the uh um the the bet is due. And so yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that that that's a great segue to outside of us covering, you know, uh great youth talking teaching moments here tied to this series. Uh, we get to see Graham tomorrow at our Too Many Men on the Mike uh Acoustic Duo. I can't wait for him to come. I'm already thinking about what song uh he may or may not sing with us. Uh and you know, maybe we'll just let him go a cappella. We'll just stop playing, we'll step back and we'll say, give us your berry manalo, give us your uh, you know, whatever you're feeling at the time. Uh uh, I don't know. I I think I have maybe a kid's tambourine somewhere in my house I can bring to the gig. Uh I'm sure he's got to have a recorder at home, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I mean, he was just in, it was just like he was in elementary school a couple years ago. So he's gotta have a recorder. Somebody's got a recorder in that household. I'm I'm sure of it. Um well, I I love this show, um, notwithstanding my terrible prediction, which by the way, we're gonna cover some things that had it gone just a little bit the other way, it could have been a Vegas sweep. But um this is an awesome opportunity for us to to nerd out. This is this is a couple of hockey nerds because we're gonna be able in full full transparency. If you're listening to us on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts, thanks to everybody for Buzz Sprout, and wherever you get your podcasts, this might be the episode to give YouTube a try because we're gonna have a lot of fun in breaking down uh film from uh from the various games and then comparing that, not so much as like these are NHL players that are the best at this sport in the entire world, but looking at coaches and players and saying, hey, here's how you can formulate your practice if you want to have this identity. And identity is like the through line for me in this entire series. Um, in any sport, and and I like to think the NHL is probably the pinnacle of professional sports leagues. The the best teams have an identity, and Vegas has a phenomenal identity, the way they they you know score off the rush, the way they defend, um, the way they funnel to the net. They got out-identitied by the hurricanes, in my opinion. Like the the commitment and just the the way the hurricanes played, the hurricanes just played their game better than Vegas played their game. And at the end of the day, that's what that's what that's what wins games and championships.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, and let's so let's dig into that. Let's talk about identity. Um, and I'll start with a stat. 45.5 percent of the time Carolina was in the offensive zone. Like, think about that for a second. So almost 50% of the game, you're in the zone that you want to be in, you're in attack space, you're you're you have an opportunity to score. I mean, how fantastic is that? But how did that happen? Why do they have that stat? Because they are a for-checking team, and they are a dog on a bone. And I know you've got a drill in your back pocket that talks about this, but it is it is the fore-check. And you know, the first player is uh uh uh uh coming in and making sure that uh the you're you're leading that defenseman, me defenseman. I'm behind the net, right? You're leading that defenseman where you want him to go, and that second player is on top of the puck and making sure that that puck's not going to get out of the zone. And that third player is scanning and looking around the ice, and that is part of their identity. They are just a dog on a bone for-checking team, and the stats supports it 45.5 percent, five on five, they were in the offensive zone. That is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, and let's put that in perspective. The average team in the NHL spends somewhere around 37 to 40 percent in the offensive zone. And if you think about it, you know, you've got three zones of hockey, and you're you know, you're gonna spend some time in your defensive zone, usually a little bit of an inordinate time because you've got structured breakouts. Sometimes you're gonna be back there on a change while the other team is changing, and there's some there's time to take a breath. Certainly, neutral zone is highly contested, but to be over 40 percent, and and just think about this from a from a standpoint of that's three more minutes of offensive zone time than the average in the NHL. Three more minutes. I mean, power play is only two minutes, so that tenacity, that ability to create offense from pure aggression and tenacity is something that I think uh most teams want to aspire to. And we've got we've got a we've got a clip here that we can break down, but go keep going. I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Real quick. I just wanted to, you know, I uh I I had another thought as you were sitting there talking, and it just made me think about it. Think about what that does for your forwards. Okay, your forwards aren't back checking 45.5 percent of the time. They're they're in the zone, so already you've made your forward's uh job. Uh part of your job as a forward is yes, to back check and play defense. And so 45.5 percent of the time, if you're a forward, you don't have to worry about back checking. What a luxury to have as a forward playing on a team like this. But uh let's see your clip because yeah, uh, I I I know what it looks like, and it's dog on a bone, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, the best the best defense the best defense sometimes is an offense. And so let's break this clip down here. This is the uh the second goal out of game six, which really was the sealer. But if we if we watch this, you know, you start off, you know, this is the series, this is the this is the before, but look right there. You've got two seven in Stank um uh um stankoven down deep on the puck. We've got control of the puck here. Puck goes out now. Again, you got two on five four check, forechecking the puck. Look at Stan Coven. All he's doing is just throwing that puck. And what I love here is look at look at right, he's coming off the wall with a nice little turnout. And look at that, look at this right now. You have five golden knights. Stancoven wins the puck on the half ball. And for those of you listening at home, the half wall is not halfway up the boards, it's basically the wall between the blue line and the goal line, the half wall between the corner. But he does a nice little turnout here, and then just just he's just pushing that puck towards the net. Meanwhile, you I think this is stall, stall's down below the dots, stick on the ice, tossing that puck towards the net, and then again, following his following his shot pass, being right in the face of the of the Vegas defender, winning the puck again. Sometimes you don't have to forecheck a player, you're for checking the puck, you're for checking the area, you're beating the defense to the puck. And again, Stay Coven down low, and then he he trusts that the identity of his line, these players are going to be right to the front of the net. And so as he goes and picks this puck up, he doesn't even look. He puts that puck right back up into the blender. The puck's bouncing around, and then it comes back to him because it's feeder moving. You've got Taylor Hall who's crossed in front of the net, and then what happens? There look at where their heads are. Every single player's head is on the puck. There's no shoulder, there's no shoulder check.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

So we've got no check here. And you know what? Look who's in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. Yeah, all by himself.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Taylor Hall. So we've got we've got one player essentially beating five and then setting up, which is an awesome, awesome play here. And then this goes off of a Vegas defenseman. So thanks, Vegas defenseman, for doing our net front job. Um, but the whole series here is an example of really everything in motion for for um for what Carolina's identity is. Four check cycle net front.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, and one piece in that video that uh if you're a player, uh, I want you to really listen to this. And actually, if it's not too much trouble, could you pull that clip up again right at the end? It's don't on don't give up on the play. So zero back in on Taylor Hall, and what was he doing? Uh he didn't give up on the play, he drove the post being on the back door.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

And then look who's got the puck right now. You've got a Vegas defenseman, the puck's on his stick, Stankhoven's in for checking, plays the puck back, and then Taylor Hall here is just inside the right dot, head up, watching, drive right. He comes right through the right through the house, coming right through the house. So 4, 15, Ike, 9, 9, 3, and 21 have to won. They're all watching the puck. He comes right through the house. You're cycling here, so Blake's gonna come right back up to the high slot. And then, like, maybe there's a little puck luck there. I'd like to think they made their puck luck right back on Stancoven's stick. This wasn't a I I I couldn't seeing this live happening. I was screaming at the TV at Vegas, what are you guys doing? Like, well, what a bot there, like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

And look and look at Hall. He could have just watched. What did he do? He kept going to the net right there because there could have been a rebound. He might not have scored, he was uncovered, he was right there in front of the net. He would have been in perfect position had they not scored. Fortunately, they didn't. So they play to their identity, and it is attack. I love it. It's attack.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

And so now you're a newer coach or you're trying to get your players to attack, and you don't just want to be like dumping the puck in and watching lines. What can you do? So let's take a look at some of the the drills that we've we've come up with here. And I think one that comes to mind is let me see here. And going through uh Drift Hockey brought to you by Drift Hockey. No drill draw today because we're gonna do several drill draws. So drift's gonna get a lot of air time here today. If you're watching us on YouTube, head on over to drifthockey.com. Our friend Brian Dolan is building out a phenomenal uh hockey tool for coaches, players, and parents alike. All right, let's see here. I think that this where is the drill that I'm trying to go with? Um Red Wing cycle. Shout out to the Red Wings. Um well here's one that you can here's one that you can use that's gonna that's gonna teach both a cycle, and it's also gonna help your your defenseman in the game as well. Because one of the things that the defensemen did not do in that in that in that sequence there, I got it right, that sequence there is they weren't clearing out or boxing out Staincoven or Blake or Hall. It was just like a constant cycle, a constant coming out from the corner, going to the front of the net. And so this is a game. Um, hang on here, let me may have to come back to this coach. So this is a modified game that you can play in practice that's gonna, you know, teach how to forecheck the mentality of forechecking with your forwards. It's also gonna teach your defensemen how to angle, box out, clear out. And it's a layered, um, it's a two-part game. So you're gonna start off here um with two pucks in in the opposite corners. And uh what you have is the um let me pull this up with some skating here. So each of these players, D1 and F1, are going to skate on the whistle. We'll skate up around the cones and go compete for this puck. If F1 gets the puck, obviously he's gonna try and go score. If D1 gets the puck, he's gonna he's either gonna try and pin, he can get a point for pinning the forward against the boards, or he can get two points for skating the puck out between the cones. The forward gets a point by getting possession of the puck and getting off a shot, and the forward gets two points if he can score. Once one of those things happens, coach blows the whistle, and F2 and and D1 and D2 do the same thing over here with this puck, but here's the kicker. These now come and play into this game over on this side, and you've got a 2v2. You have a 2v2. You can elect if you're a forward to outman the puck and play support. Um, you know, there's variants that you can put into this as well. You know, I like the idea of creating odd man um opportunities. So you could have red players here to the right of the to the right of the coach, you can have blue players to the left of the coach. And basically, if uh you know, if like the defenseman wins, maybe instead of it just being a two-on-two, maybe you let a blue player come in to make it a three-on-two. If the forward wins, you know, maybe you let a player come in to make it a three on two that way. So there's a lot of different constraints and variables. But the key to this is is we're trying to be first on puck between a defenseman and a forward. If the defenseman gets there first, and they're the way to do this is actually to make the defenseman's uh path a little shorter by even moving that cone down a little bit or making the forward go a little higher. Um you want to encourage the forward to be in that four-check mentality, and then you know, you're keeping score because that's part of the identity, is you want to create a winning mentality, a want, a will and a want to win. You know, um, the best teams that I've been around, and I know the best teams you've been around, are the ones that are competing in every aspect of practice. Um, there's always a level of compete. So you've got a four-check component, you've got a retrieval and try to breakout component, you've got angling, um, you've got support because you now make this a two, a two, uh, a two v2 once you get to the second half. And then again, switch it up. Play as many players as you can into this. Maybe start this off as a two v1 with two forwards versus one defenseman, and then have it the opposite over here. There's so many different ways that you can do this. Um, but the key here is you're you're you're shrinking the ice. And again, this is only one zone you're playing in. And that entire clip, that entire clip that we showed of that goal was all in one zone, and it was a little bit over a minute. So if you play this drill and it takes you about you know 45 to 75 seconds, you're simulating a game scenario and you're building a mentality to uh to win the puck battles in the offensive zone or to win the puck battle in the defensive zone and get it out and transition to offense. Because the minute that puck's on your stick, no matter where you are on the ice, you are on offense. So great drill, um, high level of compete. Many of the concepts that we just saw. And a perfect world is that F2 gets possession of the puck, and now he and F1 are playing that two-man game. Maybe you throw in an additional forward to make it a 3v2. Um, there's so many things to do with this, but we call it the big boy game. Um, because you gotta be a big boy to go in there 1v1 and win that puck.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, love it. Well, uh, we talked for checking. Um as a defenseman, I I loved in the last game in particular, game six, there was so much uh featuring of Jacob Slavin. And uh I mean but but what I really want to highlight here is just back checking, but back checking connected to defensive gap control. Okay, the reason that Jacob Slavin, and I'd love to hear your take on this. This is you know, my thoughts on it as a defenseman, the reason that Jacob Slavin is allowed to play the way that he is, is that he knows that he can trust his forwards to come back and backcheck. So back to the identity. Part of the identity of being a forward on Carolina is that not only are you gonna be a great forechecker, uh, you're gonna be a 200-foot player. You're gonna skate uh and back check and make the job for your defenseman easier. And so, defensemen, if you're a player out there, uh a D-man in particular, I get it. You know, nobody wants to get burned, uh, but you don't want to give up so much of the neutral zone that you're backing up into your own zone and giving away ice. And so Jacob Slavin made a lot of great plays right in the neutral zone before that blue line happened, getting his stick out, making himself vulnerable. I mean, think about that. You're sticking your stick out, you're you are moving, you're going backwards on top of it. But think how exposed you could be potentially to getting burned there. But he didn't, and he didn't because he had the support of his forwards that were coming back, and he knew he could count on them to back check. That's my defenseman view. What's your what's your view as a forward on on Jacob Slavin?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Um, I think Jacob Slavin attacks the puck um as a defenseman. And one of the things that I love about aggressive hockey players is their first steps is is forward. Um, and they're leveraging the length that their stick adds to their body to create an obstacle for that forward. You know, it's not just about the physical aspect of getting that uh of beating that forward physically or to the puck or with speed. It's also the mental aspect where that forward's got to make decisions. And look, in the NHL level, the all the players are they're like supercomputers on skates. They're processing constantly because that's all they do. But it didn't start that way. And so what Jacob Slavin has the ability to be aggressive is like you said, he trusts that F1, F2, and F3, depending on where they are on the ice, are going to get back in case he gets beat. Because he's going to get beat sometimes if he's aggressive. He's going to get beat. And what I want to show here, we're going to show a couple of clips here. The first clip is not highlighting Jacob Slavin. We're going to get to that. But it's it's it's highlighting the group back by the forward group here and what this and and how they um this is gonna sound dastardly. How they foil a scoring attempt uh by the uh by the Golden Knights. So let's add this to this to the stage. I love it. And let's foil. Let's run let's run through the run through this.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Okay. No, that's a great slapshot-esque uh uh quote, and I love that you used it in a uh in a per format.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Gotta use the foil. All right. Well, let's let's run through this whole clip and then we'll come back and break it down. But with this the clip starts in the neutral zone. Um Vegas is on the attack. Basically, uh you know, we're balanced on the ice. Three fair three Vegas players, three uh three uh three hurricane players. Well watch watch five three, especially. Wow. Look at that. And then and then look at Stenkoven is in basically um Stankoven. What I love about this play, I love I love so much about this play. This is your trailer. He is at the opposite blue line. You know, everybody else is tips north, they're all head on the puck. He's not, he's just straight back, straight back, straight back down the royal road, and he's gonna be the one who ends up, he's not able to get a body on a player, but he gets his body in the play. You don't always have to get your body on a player, get your body in the play, take away opportunities, and and then you'll see another forward come back and clean it up. Another forward who, by the way, is not a center in Stancoven. Look at that. I mean, like, even though you know you might make the argument that that Vegas player missed the net, you're missing the net because there's a player diving in front of you, taking your eyes away. The puck, look what the puck is. It hits him, comes out, and then Stencoven is the first man back. So we went from a three on three in the neutral zone to there's four hurricane players down just inside the circle.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

You know what? I almost like that play better. I am I I I love them both. I love that 53 got all the way back, but the fact that again the player didn't give up. Uh Stenkoven came back. He wound up getting that rebound. Think of what happened if he wouldn't have been there. That would have gone to a Vegas player and potentially another scoring opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Now it's that mentality, knowing that your folks are going to backcheck is what is is is gonna be key when we watch this next clip. And again, to all of those of you watching and listening on or listening on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon. All I can ask of you is please download us this week, but then go watch us on YouTube. Go go ahead over to YouTube if you're listening to us on on Spotify because we've got some really good, uh, really good film breakdown that is applicable to youth hockey. All right, let's bring up Jacob Slavin. Let's talk about the who I think was the best player in this series quietly, was the you know, was the best player. Um, but I want to show you one of the things that I highlighted that'll haunt Jack Eichel. And I love Jack Eichel, so I feel bad even showing this. Um, but I love Jacob Slavin too, a couple of American-born players, um, Olympic gold medalists. Um, so here's here we've got a situation where uh Eichel is coming up the ice. And look where Jacob Slavin is in this in this play. So we'll watch it all the way through. Look at that. Like, just look at that. Oh, I can't see uh the video. Uh you know what? Because I didn't add it to the stage. There we go.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

There we go.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah. I'm so excited I forgot to press the add button. Let's start this off from the game. All right, we've got it. This is a great textbook breakout by text textbook breakout by Vegas. You know, we've got three hurricanes in the picture here, defense is off, you know, one, two, three, four, five, five-man breakout coming out of the zone. You got the puck on the right guy's stick, Jack Eichel. I mean love that play. Just just it's beautiful. You know, forces the dump in. And, you know, again, he's able, he's not, he's not retreating. He's using his length, he's he's measuring his gap. He knows, like the thing about this play that people don't realize is when he makes that play, look at you've got two Vegas Golden Knights in the picture, and you've got guys already back checking in case I'll beats him.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah, you've got two forwards right there. That that that's a great shot right there. Yeah, because you've got to look at him, he's he's extended, he's exposed. His D partner is already looking over and going, Man, I can help you if this doesn't work out. And then on top of it, he's got a layer of two forwards that are coming back and back checking. They're like, I got you, man. If this doesn't work out, don't worry about it. Uh, we got your D partner, and both of us are here uh to help you out. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

I I and and this is the we have a great game to play that allows you to do all of this. I actually combined the last the last two clips with this clip if you play this game. But what I love about this is just like you said, D2 is here to support if needed, and you've got F1 and F2 that are gonna basically F1's probably gonna come and support the puck here and make sure that Marner is not a threat, and then F2 is gonna go straight back and and and support the support you know deeper in the zone. But you've also got Jacob Slavin, so not to worry. And I think this next pic this next picture encapsulated it because I think uh uh I think I'll let's watch it again here. Just I mean um unbelievable and so cool comedy collective about it. Look at the tips are perfect, and then I mean what what can you do? What can you do with Jack? Well, your buddy Jacob just took you out there. So before we go to break, let's take a look at how you can how you can incorporate all these concepts in a game scenario in practice that's gonna be fun, it's gonna be high compete, and it may actually be a sneaky bag skate on top of it. So let's pull this up for our folks at home. You gotta like sneaky bag skates.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Oh yeah, they don't even know it, but they're skating a ton.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

They don't. All right, so this is a 3v2 small area, which will then graduate to a five-on-five, and it includes back checking um and all those good things that we've just talked about here. So let's pull up this let's pull up the screen, add it to the uh add it to the stage. All right. So let's talk about this, and then we'll we're gonna have to head to a quick break. But what we have here is we've got the ISIS set up where you're playing, you're you're facing the net versus uh you know towards the boards on in this in this zone. You can put bumpers up here, you you don't have to put bumpers up, um, but you know, you're basically playing in between the dots down to the to the end boards. And this is 3v2 with red being the forwards and blue being the defensemen. You'll play this game for about 30 to 45 seconds or until there's a goal scored. Meanwhile, blue forwards are lined up just in between the the blue line and red line on their side of the neutral zone, and you've got two red defensemen. Once this game is blown dead, either it's 45 seconds or a goal is scored. Coach passes to the forwards, they're attacking 3v2, but then all these players, and most in particular the forwards, have to back check. So they're having to get back down, back check, and create, and even even the odds down here and create a high odds.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Such a bag skate.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

But think about it. You you have a situation where you're playing inside the dots in a phone booth, you're wanting cycling, you're wanting uh puck battles, you're wanting quick shots, stick on the ice down here in front of the net. You're simulating, you're simulating hard-won battles down in front of the net and in the corners. And then you're forcing those players to back check because you're you're basically saying, okay, now we're gonna go play with this puck down here. And if that doesn't get the juices flowing for your players, if that doesn't start to teach the mentality of, you know, not only do you have to back check as fast as you can, but hey, defensemen, if you want to score goals, you've got to get in up into the play. You've got to join the rush. You've got to recognize the opportunity to join the rush and get back in the play. And so this whole battle here, these forwards are trying to catch these forwards before they get into the zone and steal the puck and come back down here and score. And these defensemen are trying to beat them in there so they can make it a five-on-two or a four-on-two or some form of an odd man, uh, odd man play. And then you come down here and you play five on five until a goal scored, the puck's cleared, or it's another 30 to 45 seconds. And you keep rotating it.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

That sounds like a lot of breathing to me. But what a great uh what what a great combo of I love the tight play to start it off, small area, and then uh yeah, you you gotta skate the full length of the ice uh to get into the second half of the play. Good drill. Like it.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

The the other game you could play, um, and this is is when you're maybe got two groups or three groups across, is you can essentially do a 3v3 in the zone, and you have an offense and defense or 3v2 in the zone. Usually you usually do a 3v2 in the zone. And if the if a goal isn't scored after 20 seconds, you blow a whistle, the forwards have to abandon the puck, come back to the neutral zone and pick up another puck and come back in. So it's simulating them tracking back and back checking. You know, right? It's like, hey, you didn't, you know, so there's a lot of different ways that you can start to instill that back checking mentality amongst your forwards. That game we just showed is a pretty extreme lot of lot of real estate to cover out there, and that's also gonna be your your, I call it that's uh that's our PT, our physical training or our physical fitness. Um, but again, it's compete, it's racing to the puck, it's tracking back, it's joining the rush, um, it's attacking. And then you also have this 3v2 mini game that that gets everybody jazzed up as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

So like it. But we've got to take a we gotta take a we gotta take a minute of play in this period.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

We gotta take a quick break, pay a couple bills, we'll come back. We've got some more clips to break down and some more things to talk about as we uh as we head into uh the off season. But what what phenomenal lessons that we we we can use as teaching opportunities as coaches from the Stanley Cup.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Yeah, I mean this is uh this is taking the game, breaking it down, and showing players uh uh a real life situation, but then also helping coaches. Here's how you can take this and implement it into your practice plan. So, coaches out there, uh uh I I hope you're enjoying this, and I hope you can incorporate some of these drills into your practice plans for next season.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

We'll be right back. Don't go.

unknown 34:44

St.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Louis hockey families and business leaders, if you need custom gear that stands out and stands for something, it's time to meet 5B Designs. Founded by Shannon Bruhini, a proud St. Louis mom and entrepreneur, 5B Designs is a woman-owned small business that brings purpose to custom apparel. Whether you're suiting up your youth or high school hockey team or leveling up your company's branded swag, 5B delivers top-notch quality with a personal touch. You need a team store, not a problem. Corporate polos or event giveaways, they've got you covered. 5B makes it easy with fast turnaround, flexible service, and designs your players or employees will love to wear. Check them out at stores.inksoft.com forward slash 5B designs. That's the word 5. And if you are watching on our YouTube feed, go ahead and scan that QR code in the top right hand corner of your screen and see what great gear and great service looks like. Real quick, folks, before we jump back in, if you're enjoying too many men on the mic, hit like and subscribe on our YouTube channel. It's a quick click for you, but it helps us grow the show and keep bringing you great hockey conversations. You can also follow us on Instagram by scanning the QR code on your screen in the top right hand corner. And be sure to download, follow, and rate the podcast on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find us if you just go directly to our website too at twomanymanthemic.com. That's the number two. Those are small things from you that help us keep delivering new guests, downloadable coaching content, and more from the rink. All right, back to the show. Well, I gotta tell you, that was one of my favorite reads for 5D design. Um, big news and big thank you to Shannon. Um, she has re-upped with us as a partner. Um, we're gonna be getting some great gear uh to give away. Uh, not only are we gonna have these hats, but we're gonna have hacky sacks to give away to the kids around the rinks um for great for warming up pre-game and getting your hand-eye coordination going. We're gonna have some great, cool retro style t-shirts uh and some cool uh some cool colors. And then uh the big news is we've got she's we've got this new banner that allows us to uh to put our banner up when we're gonna be live on site at uh different rinks doing different events with our new partner vantage credit union, but also and very cool, um we'll be able to put it up when we do our live acoustic gigs, which we'll touch on a little bit further in the show. So before we before we get on with the rest of the show, thanks again to Shannon Brahini and 5B Designs. We are grateful in touch that you're a partner with us again for this uh this upcoming year.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Thanks, Shannon. All right. So uh we've talked about uh fork checking, we've talked about back checking and gap control. Uh this is an insane stat to me. This is like this is you almost read a stat like this and you go, can it be real? Is it really that number? The Con Smythe MVP, Jordan Stahl, 68% face-off win over the final, the best face-off percentage in the game final history for a six-game series. But uh my point in bringing this up is I'm not really trying to tie uh to focus around face-offs. What I'm trying to tie face-offs to is net front because guess what happens when you win face-offs? So you have the opportunity to get the puck to the net, you have an opportunity to drive the net. And so Jordan Stall is not only a fantastic face-off performer, but he's a big body, tough to move, plants himself right in front of the net. Uh, I don't know. I'd have to go back and look at every clip, but I don't remember one where he was off on his own, up above the circles, uh, shooting a shot. They were all greasy, dirty goals right in front of the net, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 38:40

It's insane to me. He's on power play one, but only he only stays on power play one if he wins the face-off. Because he wins the face-off and goes right to the net. If they lose the face-off, he hightails it off the ice, and I think he's usually replaced by Ealers. Um, he had some of the like, you know, I love, and you know how I love this, you know, you can't spell goal without net front, and the kids are always looking at me like, what is he saying? And then by the middle of the season, they're like, Okay, we get it. You want to score a goal, go to the net front. And then I mean, I he was able to do, we've got some clips here.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I was thinking of you when I brought this up because this is right up your alley. This is your your favorite ism in coaching. Uh, you can't score a goal without net front, and uh, and and this is the guy.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Yeah, let's um there's a couple here that I wanna I mean, there's a couple things that I want to like look at. Um let's see which one to go first here.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

So real quick, while you're while you're pulling this up, if you're a player out here, and we're gonna watch this clip in a second, but he doesn't just stand in front of the net and get in the way, he reads the goalie. He's he is uh blocking the goalie while also moving as the goalie's moving. So there's an element of scanning, reading and react. It's scanning in a very tight space, but he's not simply just planting himself there and saying, okay, fire away. He actually is uh uh doing everything he can to play off of the goalie and read where the goalie's going and give his team the best opportunity to do something with that.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yeah, let me we've got a four check one here where he's he's he's getting behind the defense and gets a tip. Um let's pull up hang on one second. This is why this is the beauty of doing live, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Um yeah, and and and I'll add one other element to it too. Uh while while you're you're getting it up. Um, Carter Hart uh uh likes to uh kick rebounds off, and he likes to kick rebounds off on the right side. So part of this was him studying the goalies tendencies. And so if he wasn't right in front of the net, the next best place he was was on the back post, so that when Carter Hart was kicking off potentially a rebound, he was right there. He had a stick on the ice, he was positioned perfectly, so he was either in front of the goalie, uh screening that goalie, reading and reacting, or setting himself up, and maybe a little bit of both. Maybe he started in front of the net. That shot came in from the defenseman, rotated out, went to that back post on the right side, and put himself in position to get that rebound. Uh, so a lot of things that he's doing, and it's not just simply standing there.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Well, let's let's take a look here at a couple of goals by actually I want to look at three goals by Mark Stahl. Three three particular goals. Um, let's take a look at the one that you mentioned first. This is courtesy of our friends at Sportsnet up SportsNet CA up in Canada, um, which hey, we'll give we'll give the Canadians their due when it comes to the Stanley Cup coverage. It's pretty good, pretty good. All right. So let's see if this is actually let me do let me let me do something here really quick. Let me actually uh before I add this, let me kind of trim it down so that we're not getting no free ads. So let me let me record this really quick for us. Modern technology, man. Could you imagine having this technology when we were, you know, when we were kids being able to like run all these these this film and tape?

SPEAKER_00 42:55

It would be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Let's get this pulled up here. Alright. All right. Uh again, kiss of death is this dead air, but I think it I think it's that important to show all three of Mark Stahl's these three these three goals by Mark Stahl. I think that's that important. So let's pull up the first one here, which I think this one probably encapsulates is talking a little bit like you said, him getting to the back door. Um, and you're gonna see a lot of of just again, the same thing, that movement in the zone, um, some net front, uh, some some some work done hard similar to what Taylor Hall was on that other other shift that we uh we broke down. Let's bring this one up here first. Puck battle down low. Look at Stahl, he's right off the look at where. Stall was that whole time. So when you see where Stall starts, and everybody's watching the puck in the corner. Look at Mark Stahl. I mean, he's only scored at this point four goals in the series. But nobody just nobody wants to be around him.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

And then following down the way. And and and you know what he's on the backside of the goal. The goal didn't even know he's there. Nope. Didn't even know he's there.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

So that's one, that's one uh one of those, one, one of those great goals. Um, let's show a different one here that talks about stall coming out of the corner and then going to the net. And it sticks, this drives me nuts when I see kids with their stick at the stick at their hips or stick at their waist. Let's watch this next goal. This next goal is a thing of beauty, if you ask me. I might have even posted this from the Too Many Men on the Mic uh Instagram account and talking about how you should practice how you play. So let's do let's get to the point here. All right. So we've got what we've we've got uh let me let me just add this. All right, we're starting here in the defensive zone for Carolina. I mean, just five guys in the zone. You've got two down low for Vegas and some guys coming off the bench. Winning the puck. Up the boards, down now. So the key here is is let's go back. Puck transitions. Again, we can't show a clip of Carolina without talking about for checking. Cannot, can't can't do it. And who's the guy for checking? Look who this is. This is this is stall. He for checks the puck, goes down low, causes that to be a he's for checking the puck down low, and causes this Vegas defenseman to not be able to get the puck out cleanly. So you're doing yourself a favor by fore-checking and then continuing to move your feet and just watch this. Oh, D D D, where's the stick on the ice goal? I mean, like I would say you can't coach that, but I actually have a clip of a drill that shows that you can go for that. But it's amazing to me how again we talk about the identity of Carolina. You have net front, but you're not stuck in front of the net. You're moving constantly. And stalled there, he was down in front of the net trying to cause chaos with the goalie. Let's, I mean, we could let's go back and run run the playback a little bit. Like he's down here by Carter Hart. That puck is not there. He's down here. Puck is up top. He's hang on, where is he? Right here. So he's you know, down here in the corner. Now he's in front of the net, following, tracking the puck around, and then he's hustling. I mean, I would like to think all NHL players are gonna bust their butt as hard as he has in game six or game five or game four of the Stanley Cup finals, but they don't. They didn't. He went almost 85 feet, you know, from right, you know, let's call it 60 feet, full steam. The puck is moving faster than him. This player has the advantage because he's heads up, he sees stall coming for him, and stall just through comes over, and they can't get the puck out. And yeah, we had great support at the blue line, and then to make the play. Like, I mean, coaches, that's the type of stuff you need to be working on in practice. If everything can't be a small area game, and we actually have a drill that we run um as almost like a warm-up for our players, where you've got two lines at the at the red dot at the dots, and you're you're doing a puck retrieval, a dump, a pass up, and into the front of the net with your stick on the ice. And we've got video of what that looks like in action. Let me draw it up really quick if I can uh on drift hockey. Again, shout out drift hockey. And then I'll also I'll I'll draw it up and then I'll also show a video of what this looks like in action. It's just again, you're just creating um little nuances to your drills and games that translate to playing hockey, not just you know, drawing it up on a whiteboard. So we run this sometimes as a as a as a warm-up drill um for our players. It's also a warm-up drill for the goalies because trust me, the goalies freaking do not like this drill, which is good. I like when goalies are uncomfortable and they don't like things. It makes them ordery. I know, right? All right, so it's a little, it's it it what I will also say to coaches is you can run this at a lot of different age levels, just be patient and be and tell the kids to be patient because they're gonna, it's a lot of movement. But as you saw in that play, there was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven distinct motions in within that play we just watched on the screen there. So let me show you how this works. You line everybody up at each dot.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Oh, you gotta bring up the drill draw.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

Oh, you gotta bring up the drill drop. Got darn it, I get so excited. There we go. There it is. So we set up in in one end of the zone. You line every player, you put pucks on the dots, and every player lines up on the uh the the uh the dots here. So the first thing you do is the way this works, and and I'm gonna actually change the color of uh the players that are involved in the actual drill. And we'll call them just P1. All right, and we'll call it P2. And we'll call this guy P3. And this is gonna constantly rotate. So the puck is gonna start with P3 here, this player right here. This player is going to dump the puck into this corner. The puck's gonna come down into this corner. Let's move the puck down. Puck goes in that corner. So then P1 is at the back of the opposite line. This is important. This player skates down and picks this puck up here. At the same time, the P2 is gonna curl out and come up to the boards. Like this. There's a pass from P1 up to P2. The minute that pass happens, P1, I'm gonna move down here actually. Let's do some movements here. P2 here, P1 down here. Now what happens is P1 skates to the net front with a stick on the ice. P2 does your turnout. Gotta do a turnout. Oh yeah. Attacks down the middle and takes a shot. P1 goes to the front of the net. I'm sorry, P1 here is now at the front of the net. P2 has skated here and made the shot. Tip drill, you can play a little rebound game pretty quickly. But then what happens is now P1 goes to the front of this line. So now he's he's he's going, he's gonna be the next, he's gonna go to the front of this line here, and the first player in this line over here dumps the puck in this corner. And what do you think happens? P2 continues down and picks this puck up, and then the last player in this line curls over, and we continue the cycle. And what you're doing is you're creating a retrieval, a put a pass up the board, a you're you're playing the puck off the boards, you're doing a turnout, you're coming in in a shot, and you continually do this. So, what does this look like in practice? Like, what does it look like when you're trying to practice it? Well, I'm glad you asked Jared because I'm gonna show you exactly what it looks like. Um I I mean, you know, you can't for me it's it's it's all about um let me pull up the the uh let me pull up the file that I have. There we go. There we go. And so what that I mean, that's a lot of that's obviously a lot of uh it's a lot of moving parts. Um, but I want to be able to show show folks at home that it can be done. So let's let's let's show what it looks like in practice. Um and that it's not as complicated as that looks as it looks like on a on a virtual whiteboard.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Yeah, this is the drill that always throws the kids off because you're you're working from the back of the line. You're you actually have a front component and that first player that's throwing the puck in the corner, but you're actually working off the back of the line.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

Yep. And so if you watch this, this this this shooter is gonna end up going in that corner, but it's just a simple, it's a simple rotation where player in the players comes, picks the puck up, we're curling out, comes up top, goes to the net, tip, and then there'll be a puck back down the corner. So it can be done again. Like you said, patience is is a virtue for both the coaches and the players. Encourage your coaches, don't or encourage your players not to get discouraged. It's okay if you mess up. And typically, if you mess up, if you're still taking a shot, and if somebody's still going to the front of the net, the drill's still going to be worthwhile. Um, but it's absolutely a great warm-up drill. It gets the mind going, it gets the hands going, it gets the feet going, and it's a good warm-up drill for the for the goalie as well.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

Yeah, and one thing that just add to this, uh uh another coach that we both know uh coined this, and it's making a deal. It's making a deal between the defenseman and the forwards. So the defenseman will shoot the puck low. And the reason that the forwards can feel okay going to the net front and planting themselves there is that they're not going to get a high shot from the defenseman. So it's a deal. Uh D shoots the puck low, forwards go to the net. Nobody gets hurt. And so if you're a coach out there, that's one piece that you could express to your players before you get started in this. Uh, in case you might have some kids, depending on what age that you're working with, uh, that might have a little bit of trepidation with going to the net. Don't worry about that. Defensemen are going to shoot low, you're going to be perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

And if we want to talk a little bit about that, we actually have a game that we can play. Um, it's uh also in the in the scene, it's in it's in one zone. Um, let me pull this up really quick. And it's a 2v2 with um defense up top. And the whole point of this is to win a puck battle, get possession of the puck, get the puck up top, and get to the front of the net. And let's kind of let me lay this, lay the uh set the stage here. And again, if you're on if you're listening to us on uh Spotify, we love the fact that you're listening to us, and hopefully you downloaded. But this is the week to go check us out on YouTube. Because we've got some cool stuff going on. Um, all right, so to your point, um, being able to practice net front, being able to practice um, you know, really that defenseman's uh ability to keep that puck low and and dangerous. Uh let's let's demonstrate this last uh this last um this game, this last small area game. And uh I will uh kind of walk us through this really quick. So the game starts off, and again, if you don't have two goalies, you can do this with just one net in the zone. Um, but the game starts off with a 2v2 below this below the dots with two nets on either side of the crease. Um we're gonna blue is gonna be defending the net up top, red's gonna be defending the red the net on the bottom, but you'll notice that the defensemen are in the offensive side of the of the of the zone. So the game starts with the coach dumping the puck in. So we're gonna dump the puck in. And we'll have all these drills and games on our website, too many menonthemic.com. Check it out. It's great, great read. Um, so start with a puck battle with blue versus red, and uh we'll uh we'll make the colors appropriate. And let's say in this scenario, red outmans and gets control of the puck. So, what red is gonna do is let's say he gets control of the puck, he may elect to skate it out here and then pass it up to his buddy at playing defense up top. So now what happens is all the all the skaters, the forwards, have to activate and go to the front of the net. So we've got red going into the front of the net here. We've got two levels of red players. Obviously, blue is gonna come down and try to box out or clear out. Now, what happens here is the defense goes D to D with the puck as many times as they want. Now, I always recommend uh it should just be D to D because D to D to D to out of the playoffs, is what happens if you go too many times D to D. Um, but this is where we talk about that shot. And as the reason why you want your D to go D to D at least twice is you're gonna get the goalie to have to move laterally, and you're also gonna get these players having to move and make sure that they are squaring up to the shooter and creating as much of a of an obstacle for the goalie and making it hard on the defenseman. As soon as that shot comes through, you can play tip drill, blue gets possession, they're gonna come to the other side, and the whole thing hopefully takes place over here on the other side. You run this for about again 40 40 to 60 seconds, rotate your players. You can also do this with three on three. You can also do this with just one goalie and two defensemen who are kind of like your all-time quarterbacks. They're for they're just up there to shoot the puck. Um, but it's a great drill to again, you're incorporating puck battle, for checking, body checking, escape, support, net front, box out, clear out, you know, lateral movement of your goaltender. All those things are incorporated in this drill, and and it's really gets that, you know, kind of those that muscle memory for when you're on the ice and it looks like the game. And that's the most important thing when you're doing these practices.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:26

And an important point to uh hang on, pull the drill up just one more time if you could. An important piece on the drill, uh, if you're a coach, is the D cannot go below the top of the circle and the forwards cannot go above the dot. So we don't want the D getting chased. We want to work on the concept, and the concept is net drive, net front, uh, net front in particular, uh, giving the D that space to be able to have that D to D passing back and forth, get the goalie moving, have your net front players moving along with the goalie. And so forwards can't come up, D can't come down, and that drives uh really creates the conditions for uh the the whole net front piece.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

Yep. Shout out to Drift Hockey for us to be able to like highlight different zones that uh that can can can accentuate that rule. But that's a great piece. We want to be able to, again, this is practice, we want game-like situations, but we still want the players to be able to do what they they are. Um I've got one thing that I I wanted to share. Um, and this is a video that has nothing to do with any footage from the Stanley Cup playoffs, but this is a cool one, and uh I'm gonna I want to share this one before uh before we move on to the next topic because I think it's so important. Um where is let me pull up my I jump it all around here, it's awesome, but it's also I sometimes get lost on my own computer. So we talk about identity, and uh I want to just show here uh a practice, an actual practice clip from the Carolina Hurricanes. And I think what you'll see is a lot of what they do um are the same things that youth hockey coaches are doing all around the country. And it doesn't matter how old you are, how skilled you are, you know, making sure you're having a fun, intense, and meaningful practice is important no matter what level you're at. And I think it speaks a little bit to you know the the culture and the identity of the Carolina Hurricanes. So I'm just gonna go ahead and let this play through for a minute for our viewing enjoyment. But you know, this is a pro practice, and and I'm I'm proud to say that I think the coaches I've been around have taught me that this is what you want to aspire to. Let's run it. So look at that. You've got a four four v three, little breakout, four check, moving the puck, back checking. I mean, it's just constant. Everybody's moving, everyone's moving. You know what? And look, they're not laying each other out, they know they're all teammates, but there's intensity, back door, looks like stall right there. And again, we're just moving right off the bench. Here we go. There's no no pause. Players know where they're going, they're playing with intention and intensity. Look at that four check. Look, I mean, that's a four check against against you know, one of their best players at the time coming in wide, just lots of fun. And and this is the type of stuff that when you have the option, and you don't need full ice to do this. You can do this with a half with half the ice and just have guys like roll around and tag up like they're playing basketball. But like this is a pro practice, and the compete, the fun, the intensity, um, and the stuff they're working on. It's muscle memory, it's fore-checking, it's back checking. You know, they're not just letting a guy off the hook because there's a puck loose next to the net. They're attacking the whole time. So, you know, you know, right there, fore check. You know, he's not gonna let them out. He's like, I'm I'm coming here for checking. And and for these guys, it's their living. And you know, for them, this is the sometimes the difference between you know a healthy scratch and and being able to play in the next game, um, and maybe their next paycheck. But I know from talking to guys that I've had a chance and pleasure to meet, and I know you've met some former NHLers too, they just love playing, and the best practices incorporate games, whether it's in a small portion of the of the rink or it's the entire ice, it incorporates games that look like the game and are fun and competitive. And so I uh I encourage folks to to to if you're a new coach, find a good coaching mentor and just keep at it, have fun and and use these opportunities. We're not looking to coach and make the next MHL player, but hockey players are hockey players, and I think it's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:25

Love it, love it. Well, we got to tell our uh listeners about our uh gig.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

Oh, absolutely. So let's uh let's take a break here, real quick. We'll come back and we'll tell folks about that and uh we'll put a bow on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

Love it. If you're listening to the show and you're local to St. Louis, Missouri, come on out to the Too Many Men on the Mic Acoustic Duo Show. We're gonna be out at St. Louis Music Park. That's on the back side of the Centine Community Ice Rink from 5 to 8 p.m. Uh, you're gonna hear two sets of Great music covering everything from rock, uh yacht rock, uh California rock, uh blues, folk, uh basically any kind of good music that's out there. Uh there's also gonna be shopping, uh there'll be uh food and beverage out there, and of course the too many men on the mic show. So that's five to eight today out at St. Louis Music Park. Come check it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

I'm excited. Um I don't know how we're gonna I don't know how we're gonna top this one. This is this is a big deal for us, so I'm super excited. And thank you to Centen and St. Louis Music Park for having us out. Um you know, Coach, you'd mentioned a couple things um as we talked last week uh about the affordability of hockey. And I think you teased uh an initiative that we've had, and I I know that we talked about RK and Luna Sports being able to help us out, but I think um why don't you go ahead and elaborate on that for our friends uh in the community that you know there's an opportunity to give back, and uh I think um let me pull up the graphic and you can go ahead and get started talking about our our skate and stick donation plan.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

Yeah, if you uh didn't catch the show, uh just a stat that we'll put out there 62.6 increase in tier two youth hockey fees over the last decade. Uh hockey is becoming harder and harder from an affordability standpoint for families uh to get their kids involved within youth hockey. We see that as an opportunity. And so we're making a commitment at the Too Many Men on the Mike Show to put uh kids in three pairs of hockey skates and also sticks. If you want to support this cause, uh you can reach out to myself or Jared, Drew at Too ManymenonTheMic.com, Jared at Too Many MenonThe Mic.com. Your proceeds will help make hockey more affordable for families out there uh that might not have uh the luxury of uh uh being able to consider a new pair of hockey skates. And hockey skates are the most expensive piece of equipment that your youth hockey player uh will be equipped with. Sticks are a pretty close second. So we're thrilled to be able to uh launch this initiative, put some free skates and some free sticks in the hands of youth hockey players, make youth hockey just a little bit more affordable for families out there. So uh I can't wait to see how many skates we can come up with. Uh, if you'd like to contribute and have an interest in helping out, reach out to Jared, reach out to me, and uh we appreciate your help.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

Yeah, and again, the huge thanks to RK and Luna Sports for donating the first uh I think we've got uh three or four pairs uh ready to donate to um a couple of organizations that uh help uh families um make hockey more affordable. You can't play without skates. And if you got an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old, a ten-year-old, a twelve-year-old, though they don't stop growing. And sometimes they have to get a new pair of skates in the middle of the season, and that's that's not an easy thing for some families to to handle. So we're gonna give back and we're gonna challenge our community to help us do it. So unbelievable opportunity, and we hope to hear from you on it. Well, that was a fun one, coach.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

Oh my gosh, it it is, and and I love being able to tie the game in.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:31

I've got to put my nerd glasses on because I was definitely a hockey nerd this.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:36

I love being able to uh to tie the game in, and I feel like we spend a lot of time on the ice talking to the kids throughout the season and saying, watch a game, uh, watch a period, follow a player that plays your position, but being able to tie uh the most exciting games, uh the highest stakes games, uh, showcasing uh some concepts, uh, and then tying that right back in uh to coaches to be able to implement into their practice plans. I hope our players learn something. I hope coaches walk away from this and uh have maybe one or two drills that they can add to their arsenal. And uh uh I love tying it all together.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:21

I think there's one other aspect to this that I don't think we touched on. Um it has nothing to do with the performance on the ice, but it has to do with being a phenomenal teammate. Uh Freddie Anderson was pulled from Carolina uh less than halfway, about halfway through the series. And this is a guy who was really, I think he was going into the finals, he was eight and one, nine hundred plus save percentage. Um and recognized that in order for things to change for Carolina, um, they had to make a change in that. And the first guy, you know, not on the ice to Busted that I really saw was Frederick Anderson. And that just goes to show you that uh, you know, goalie is a unique position. You only have one on the ice at any given time. Um but the team within a team and the great teammates that those two guys are, I think that that's a testament in all youth hockey players, whether you play goalie, defenseman, forward, take a page out of that book. It's about what happens with the team and how you lift each other up. And I thought that that was one of the best scenes of the final. Wanted to make sure I pointed that out. Um what an awesome teammate Freddie Anderson was.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:35

What a classy player. And uh he only supported him in the post-interviews I heard afterwards, and uh and Busy uh only uh lauded Freddie. We couldn't have been here without him. He carried us the whole way, so just great teammates.

unknown 1:11:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:54

And on that, I think that's uh that's a wrap for this week. Next week, be sure next week will be a much more uh podcast-friendly episode as we bring on uh uh Dr. Matt Dr. Adam Gelhill from uh uh who's a child psychologist and uh youth uh sports uh uh researcher from the UK who's done some work with uh kids over in uh the UK and in uh the mainland Europe, uh specifically Swedish hockey, um, about the importance of having fun. So I'm excited to meet with with uh with Adam next week, and I think it'll be a great uh great episode for all of our of our audience. So be sure to tune in next week as well. But thanks for joining in tonight. Uh he shoots.