Welcome home ... !!!

Hi gang,

By and large, Boston sports fans enjoy the reputation of being among the most passionate and most knowledgeable sports fans on the planet. It's a well-deserved reputation for most diehard Hub fans (not those bandwagon-jumping, Johnny-come-lately pink hats that show up every time one of our teams goes deep into the playoffs!). That hard-core fan status was never more evident than one day this past August, during my coaching sessions with Stop It Goaltending at Merrimack College.

Again this summer, I had the chance to work with Cory Schneider, the Marblehead native and former Phillips Andover/Boston College goaltender who now plies his trade for the Vancouver Canucks. Schneider has worked closely over the yeas with Brian Daccord, who owns Stop it Goaltending. This spring, he got some quality minutes during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and acquitted himself well, especially in the finals against the hometown Boston Bruins. No surprise there.

Schneider was and is a tremendous young goaltender, a guy who has continually honed his game throughout his amateur and now professional career. He's patient, which you need to be when playing behind a $6-million goalie like Roberto Luongo. He's also a genuinely good guy -- dedicated, articulate, humble, hard-working, and good-natured. That last trait came in handy one day this summer, during one of our camp's normal end-of-practice "game time" sessions.

Schneider was working out with our older college goalies, sharpening his game after a brief respite that followed a long, long season (making it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals meant Schneider's season lasted well into June). During these afternoon sessions, our Stop It counselors (who are campers themselves, typically older high school or college-age guys) would bring a number of the younger campers to watch the "big boys" play. I love this concept, because it gives these youngsters -- even the most cocky of the bunch -- a chance to see how much better they could be, if they keep at it.

On this particular afternoon, the counselor shepherding the kids was a young guy buy the name of David Cunningham, who played at Belmont Hill and was angling toward a possible Division 1 scholarship. Cunningham is an Arlington kid, competitive as all get out, but with a mischievous sense of humor. As we wrapped up our drills on the ice, Cunningham positioned his fuzzy-cheeked charges in a corner of the Merrimack College stands by one net. Which happened to be the net that Schneider occupied.

Our "game time" is a chance for our shooters -- mostly D-1 guys and young pros -- to stretch their legs a bit after each session. It usually features four nets and four goalies in the offensive zone, and three or four shooters firing at any net, needing to score four goals in 40 seconds to win each "game." If the goalies allow fewer than four goals, they win. Depending on how much time we have left, we usually try to squeeze in a 7-game series.

So for the first game on this particular day, we asked four goalies to jump in the nets. Schneider, showing one of the reasons why he's so good, jumps right up and takes a net by the corner. Next to all the young kids. And how do they show their love for the local guy? By chanting. But not the chant you might expect. The kids in the stands, maybe a couple dozen of them, start serenading Schneider with the classic Boston Garden mantra, "Let's go, Bruins! Let's go, Bruins!"

I started laughing so hard, I just about fell over. In fact, everyone began  howling. When I looked at Schneider, I could see Cory was rolling his eyes, getting a good laugh as well. Schneider might be the local guy, but these kids weren't going to let him forget where their true allegiances were.

To cap it off, the goalies won the "game," shutting down the shooters. As he left his goal, Schneider tapped the glass, letting the kids know that the Bruins might have won the war last spring, but he just won this little skirmish. And they could expect to hear more from him in the years ahead. It was a perfect hockey moment, equal parts competitive and jovial. Just a wonderful snapshot from a great summer on the ice.

Motivation, Part 1 ...

One of the most popular questions I get from parents of prospective young netminders is this: "How do I know my kid will want to play goalie?" It's a fair question, especially given the costs associated with outfitting a young keeper (see previous post). My standard reply is simple: "Oh, don't worry. They'll let you know."

It's a concise answer, but one with a broad interpretation. I'm not trying to be clever or coy. I really believe that kids, especially really young kids, will be the first to tell Mom and Dad that they'd rather not play between the pipes, once they find out how hard it is. Today's top-notch goaltenders, whether high school, juniors, college or pro, make the position seem so effortless that kids who watch them, and are enamored with all the cool gear, think it's going to be a snap for them as well. What they rarely comprehend, at least initially, is the hundreds if not thousands of hours of training required to make those movements appear so "effortless."

It's not unlike regular players, who immediately start looking for the pucks the minute they hit the ice. There is undeniably a magical quality to pucks; Kids want to stickhandle and shoot early, late, and every moment in between. The problem is, in a hockey game, players are likely to have the puck on their stick only a fraction of the time. And if they can't skate, they'll see the puck even less, because they won't be able to keep up with the play. Skating is the bedrock foundation of this game, and the better players almost intuitively understand that skating drills, without pucks, are necessary to improve their overall skills.

Similarly, young goalies want to get in the net, and stop shots. After all, that's their job, right? But, like their counterparts at forward and defense, if a goalie can't skate, he or she will rarely be in the right place, and in the proper stance, to make that save and recover for the next shot. Though the skating techniques employed by goalies are different than positional players, those techniques are just as critical to their success. And they're just as difficult to master. There's a lot of sweat equity required to build that foundation. And that's where you find out if the kid is motivated or not.

Motivation is one of the trickiest aspects of coaching any sport, and particularly hard with goaltenders. Yet it's also one of the most obvious, and most decisive factors, when assessing a group of young goalies. The kids who really get after it, who battle on every drill, every shot, for every loose puck, quickly separate themselves from the pack. Those kids are a joy to coach. Even more importantly we, as coaches, know that those are the kids other players will gravitate toward, and work hardest for. So it's a win-win.

I often wonder whether there's a corollary between effort and talent, because the kids who try hardest are the ones coaches naturally gravitate to. The more time we spend with them, the better they get. That improvement, in turn, validates our role as coaches.

Still, the sad truth is that too many kids have the talent but lack the requisite motivation. Few parents see this side of coaching. We will agonize over a kid who has great ability, but for any number of reasons – from personal issues at home or school to simply a lack of interest – won't realize his or her full potential. It's an incredibly frustrating situation, because we know that you can't "teach" motivation. We can present an optimum environment for learning, but even then some kids just won't show any spark. Like one long-time coach and friend likes to say: "I want to tell his parents to save themselves a lot of money and aggravation, and get their kid a basketball for Christmas."

In reality, the kids who "want" to play goal don't need any special considerations. They'll play hard regardless of the condition of the rink, the quality of the shooters, the dreariness of the drills. They don't even care what kind of gear they've got. They just want to play. And they'll play their hearts out every time they get on the ice. This summer, I worked with a number of top-flight goalies, all prep-school, collegiate, and/or pro-level keepers. Two of the hardest workers were two of the best, Cory Schneider of the Vancouver Canucks (shown in the accompanying photo), and Cody Reichard of the Miami University Red Hawks. Likewise, future Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek was legendary for hating to surrender even a single goal during an entire practice. It meant that much to him.

Kids who share the same mindset and work ethic as a Schneider, a Reichard, or a Hasek are born goaltenders. Those are the kids who will let their folks know that Mom and Dad are raising a goalie, like it or not. The parents won't have any doubts.

Part 2 will discuss the psychology of coaching a kid who has the talent, but doesn't seem to have the drive to give his or her best effort.

Best,
-Brion