Our Kids Play Hockey

🏒 What does it really mean to “grow the game” of hockey?
Is it getting more kids to pick up a stick? Building more elite teams? Selling out professional arenas? Or is the real work making sure that once a young player discovers hockey, they feel like they belong enough to stay?
On this episode of Our Girls Play Hockey, Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Olympic gold medalist and PWHL Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra dig into what growing hockey actually looks like—from grassroots programs and community outreach to the small choices coaches, parents, organizations, and players can make every day.
Inspired by Lee’s recent experience helping introduce hockey to young players in Puerto Rico, the conversation explores why simply putting a stick in a kid’s hands isn’t enough. There needs to be a pathway forward.
🏒 In this episode, we discuss:
🌎 Why hockey can belong anywhere—from traditional rinks to Puerto Rico and beyond
🏒 The difference between expanding elite hockey and truly growing the grassroots game
📈 Why retention matters just as much as recruitment
💰 How cost, equipment, ice access, and early specialization can shrink the game
👧 How coaches can make girls feel like hockey players—not outsiders—on co-ed teams
🤝 Why welcoming a new family at the rink can have a bigger impact than you realize
⭐ How PWHL players and professional athletes inspire new players simply by being visible and accessible
🧒 Why older players helping younger teams can build stronger athletes, better people, and deeper organizational identity
❤️ How fun, belonging, community, and connection keep kids coming back
Hayley also shares what she sees when young girls encounter professional women’s hockey up close—including the story of a young player who started hockey after watching the Minnesota Frost play the Ottawa Charge in Raleigh.
And the message is simple: you do not need a national platform, professional title, or massive event to grow hockey.
A coach can invite younger players onto the ice.
An older team can help at a learn-to-play session.
A parent can introduce themselves to the new family standing alone at the rink.
A player can make sure the new kid gets the pass that leads to their first goal.
Those moments matter.
🎯 The challenge: Find one thing you, your team, or your organization can do this season to make hockey more welcoming, accessible, and fun for someone else.
And if you can, go watch a PWHL game—live or from home. Let the next generation see what is possible.
If this episode gets you thinking, share it with a coach, parent, player, or hockey leader who can help grow the game in their community.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Growing Girls Hockey Starts With Something Bigger Than Recruitment
Have a story about how you’re growing hockey where you live? Send it to team@ourkidsplayhockey.com and keep the conversation going.
#OurGirlsPlayHockey #GirlsHockey #WomensHockey #GrowTheGame #YouthHockey #PWHL #HockeyParents #HockeyCoaches #GirlsInSports #HockeyDevelopment #HockeyCommunity #WomenInSports
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
Hockey IQ: Scanning the ice, recognizing pressure, anticipating what happens next, making the right decision faster. Research shows these perceptual and decision-making skills can actually be trained. With NHL Sense Arena, kids can get extra game-like reps at home, working on hockey IQ, reactions, real stick-handling for skaters, while goalies can train reads and tracking. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at http://hockey.sensearena.com/okph
Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:
Facebook Group
X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

🏒 Made a bad play? Had a rough shift? Feeling nervous, angry, frustrated, or overwhelmed? Former NHL player Kurtis Gabriel has a message for you: those emotions don’t have to control what happens next.
On this episode of The Ride to the Rink, Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli are joined by former NHL player Kurtis Gabriel for a practical conversation about one of the most important parts of becoming a hockey player: learning how to manage your mind when the game gets difficult.
Kurtis introduces young players to a simple breathing technique called the psychological sigh—a tool he used during his own playing career when he needed to calm down, reset, and prepare for his next shift.
But the conversation goes deeper than breathing.
🧠 How do you recognize what fear feels like in your body?
💪 How can you respond differently when pressure shows up?
🎮 What if understanding your emotions is like unlocking a map in a video game?
🔥 And how much could worrying about what other people think be holding you back?
Kurtis encourages players to start “mapping” their emotions—learning what fear, excitement, pressure, and confidence actually feel like physically so they can recognize those feelings when they arrive.
Lee also shares a powerful story from his own playing career about feeling so much pressure during a game that his legs suddenly felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. What changed wasn’t the situation—it was his understanding of what the pressure meant.
Instead of thinking, I can’t handle this, he learned to recognize:
I feel pressure because I care. I feel pressure because this moment matters. How great is it that I get to be in this position?
And Kurtis leaves young athletes with another challenge: break out of the “cringe prison.” Don’t let fear of what teammates or friends might think stop you from working on yourself, believing in yourself, or chasing what matters to you.
In this episode:
🫁 Learn a simple breathing reset for difficult moments
🧠 Discover how to recognize and “map” your emotions
🏒 Understand why staying even-keeled is a hockey superpower
💭 Reframe pressure instead of running from it
💪 Build confidence without comparing your journey to someone else’s
🔥 Stop allowing other people’s opinions to dictate your effort
❤️ Remember that no matter what happens in hockey, you’re going to be okay
Young players: you have more control over your response than you may realize. Like shooting, skating, or stickhandling, managing your emotions is something you can practice.
Wherever you are on your hockey journey, believe in your ability to learn, grow, reset, and attack the next shift.
Skate hard. Have fun. Go learn something.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: How Young Hockey Players Can Reset, Handle Pressure, and Believe in Themselves with Kurtis Gabriel
#TheRideToTheRink #YouthHockey #HockeyMindset #KurtisGabriel #MentalToughness #HockeyConfidence #HockeyDevelopment #YouthSports #HockeyParents #MentalPerformance #HockeyPlayers #OurKidsPlayHockey
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
Hockey IQ: Scanning the ice, recognizing pressure, anticipating what happens next, making the right decision faster. Research shows these perceptual and decision-making skills can actually be trained. With NHL Sense Arena, kids can get extra game-like reps at home, working on hockey IQ, reactions, real stick-handling for skaters, while goalies can train reads and tracking. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at http://hockey.sensearena.com/okph
Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:
Facebook Group
X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

🏒 What happens when a player’s belief is strong enough to take him all the way to the NHL—but his identity becomes so tied to hockey that he has to rediscover who he is when the game ends?
Former NHL player Kurtis Gabriel joins Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli for a powerful conversation about chasing impossible dreams, being overlooked, finding your role, handling pressure, and learning that hockey can be an incredible part of your life without becoming your entire sense of worth.
Kurtis wasn’t a highly touted prospect. He played AA hockey, considered hanging up his skates, was passed over in the NHL Draft, and still developed an unwavering conviction that he would eventually play in the NHL.
What followed was a remarkable journey built on work ethic, sacrifice, resilience, and what Kurtis describes as something even stronger than belief: knowing.
But reaching the NHL is only part of his story.
Kurtis opens up about how deeply his identity and self-worth became connected to being a hockey player, the struggles he faced after retiring earlier than expected, and why his journey inward has changed the way he now looks at hockey, parenting, coaching, success, and happiness.
🔥 In this episode, you’ll hear:
Why Kurtis believes young players should be allowed to dream as big as possible
How a AA player went from nearly quitting hockey to eventually reaching the NHL
Why parents shouldn’t have to manufacture motivation for their kids
The difference between supporting a player’s passion and making hockey their identity
Why your child needs home to remain a safe landing place after difficult games
How parents can model the behaviors and values they want their children to develop
Why process, presence, and self-awareness can matter more than obsessing over outcomes
How meditation and recognizing emotions can help athletes respond to mistakes and pressure
Why Kurtis believes happiness and fulfillment cannot ultimately come from hockey—or anything outside yourself
What he learned from reconnecting with former NHL opponents through The Fight Plan Podcast
One of the biggest reminders from this conversation is one we return to often on Our Kids Play Hockey:
The return on youth hockey isn’t a scholarship, a roster spot, or even the NHL. It’s the person your child becomes through the experience.
Let them dream.
Let them work.
Let them stumble.
And when they come home from the rink, make sure they know that their performance never determines their value to you.
🎧 Listen now for an honest, vulnerable conversation every hockey parent, player, and coach should hear.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Your Child Is More Than a Hockey Player: What Kurtis Gabriel’s NHL Journey Can Teach Hockey Families
And be sure to follow Kurtis Gabriel and check out The Fight Plan Podcast, where he continues exploring the fights athletes face on the ice—and the much bigger fights all of us face in life.
#OurKidsPlayHockey #KurtisGabriel #YouthHockey #HockeyParents #HockeyDevelopment #HockeyMindset #MentalPerformance #AthleteIdentity #YouthSports #HockeyLife #NHL #SportsParenting
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
Hockey IQ: Scanning the ice, recognizing pressure, anticipating what happens next, making the right decision faster. Research shows these perceptual and decision-making skills can actually be trained. With NHL Sense Arena, kids can get extra game-like reps at home, working on hockey IQ, reactions, real stick-handling for skaters, while goalies can train reads and tracking. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at http://hockey.sensearena.com/okph
Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:
Facebook Group
X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

🏒 What if confidence isn’t something a coach, parent, teammate, or scoreboard can give you—or take away from you?
Olympic gold medalist and Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra joins the conversation for a powerful look at one of the most important—and misunderstood—parts of being an athlete: building confidence from within.
Even at the highest levels of hockey, doubt doesn’t disappear. Hayley opens up about seeking approval from coaches and parents as a young player, struggling with public speaking, learning to trust her own assessment of her game, and discovering that confidence isn’t about never making mistakes. In many ways, it’s built because of them. 
The conversation also explores the experience of girls in hockey, including the pressure many young female athletes feel to be perfect, follow every instruction exactly, and avoid mistakes. Hayley explains why giving girls permission to experiment, create, fail, and learn can be critical to developing both confidence and long-term success.
🔥 In this episode:
 Why external validation can make confidence fragile 
 How athletes can reset after a bad play or mistake 
 The power of asking, “Are you proud of yourself?”
 Why coaches and parents should help athletes evaluate their own performance 
 How mistakes can become evidence that an athlete is growing 
 Why girls may feel extra pressure to be perfect 
 How coaches can create environments where young female players feel safe being creative 
 Why comparing your everyday game to someone else’s social-media highlights can destroy confidence 
 How even Olympic champions still whiff pucks, get nervous, and have imperfect practices 
 Why real confidence is less about praise and more about learning: “I can figure this out.”
For parents and coaches, this episode is an important reminder: our job isn’t to manufacture confidence for young athletes. It’s to create the conditions where they can discover it for themselves.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: How Girls Hockey Players Can Build Real Confidence: Lessons From Hayley Scamurra
🎧 Listen, share this episode with a hockey parent, coach, or young player who needs the reminder, and subscribe to Our Girls Play Hockey for more conversations supporting girls at every stage of the game.
#OurGirlsPlayHockey #GirlsHockey #WomensHockey #HayleyScamurra #HockeyConfidence #YouthHockey #FemaleAthletes #HockeyParents #HockeyCoaches #MentalPerformance #AthleteMindset #GirlsInSports
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
Hockey IQ: Scanning the ice, recognizing pressure, anticipating what happens next, making the right decision faster. Research shows these perceptual and decision-making skills can actually be trained. With NHL Sense Arena, kids can get extra game-like reps at home, working on hockey IQ, reactions, real stick-handling for skaters, while goalies can train reads and tracking. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at http://hockey.sensearena.com/okph
Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:
Facebook Group
X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

🏒 Do you know what your skates are telling you when something just doesn’t feel right on the ice?
Your stick gets a lot of attention. Your gloves are fun to pick out. But when it comes to actually moving, stopping, turning, and competing on the ice, everything starts with your skates.
On this episode of The Ride To The Rink, Lee Elias and Christie Casciano Burns are joined by Russ Layton, founder and CEO of Sparx Hockey, for a quick, practical lesson every young hockey player should hear: how to understand and take better care of your skate blades.
Russ explains why players—not just their parents—need to recognize when an edge feels wrong and speak up after a practice or game. He also walks through his complete pre- and post-skate care routine, from drying skates and removing footbeds to protecting blades with soakers and checking edges before heading back onto the ice. 
You’ll also get a crash course on skate hollow and why the amount of grip or glide you feel can change depending on your sharpening setup.
🔥 In this ride, young players will learn:
 🏒 How to recognize when a skate edge may be damaged or dull 
 🗣️ Why telling your parents how your skates feel is part of being responsible for your equipment 
 💧 Why completely drying your skates after every session matters 
 🛡️ How skate soakers help protect your blades around the locker room 
 ⚙️ What a skate sharpening “hollow” actually means 
 💨 The difference between more grip and more glide 
 📈 Why understanding your skates can improve consistency and confidence 
 📱 How Sparx Hockey’s Hollow Finder can help players explore sharpening options 
The biggest takeaway? Your edges are the foundation of your skating. If you can’t trust them when you turn, stop, accelerate, or change direction, the rest of your equipment can only do so much.
Spend a little time learning how your blades work, take care of them, and start becoming an active participant in your own hockey equipment decisions.
And wherever you are on your hockey journey, remember: we believe in you. You should too.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Why Every Young Hockey Player Should Understand Skate Sharpening
#YouthHockey #HockeySkates #SkateSharpening #HockeyTips #HockeyPlayers #SparxHockey #HockeyEquipment #HockeyDevelopment #SkatingSkills #TheRideToTheRink
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
Hockey IQ: Scanning the ice, recognizing pressure, anticipating what happens next, making the right decision faster. Research shows these perceptual and decision-making skills can actually be trained. With NHL Sense Arena, kids can get extra game-like reps at home, working on hockey IQ, reactions, real stick-handling for skaters, while goalies can train reads and tracking. Save $25 on an annual plan with code OKPH at http://hockey.sensearena.com/okph
Have A Topic You Want Us To Cover? Let us know!

Please Be Sure To Subscribe & Leave A Review For Us On Apple Podcasts, doing so helps our show grow!

Follow Us On Social Media:
Facebook Group
X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube