Our Kids Play Hockey | Hockey Stories & Teamwork Tips

🚗 What does the “offseason” look like when you’re an Olympic gold medalist, Walter Cup champion, Team USA hopeful, and one of the faces of a brand-new PWHL team?
For Hayley Scamurra, it looks a lot less like an offseason and a lot more like planes, road trips, training camps, media shoots, new cities, and another opportunity to prove herself.
In this edition of the Our Girls Play Hockey: Day in the Life series, Hayley catches up with Lee Elias after an unforgettable stretch that took her from Team USA camp in Minnesota to an eight-day cross-country drive, her new home in Las Vegas, a whirlwind PWHL media shoot in Toronto, a girls hockey weekend in Florida, and finally Detroit for another Team USA evaluation camp.
And somehow, the season hasn’t even started yet.
🎧 In this episode:
🇺🇸 What it feels like traveling the country as an Olympic gold medalist
🚗 Hayley and Nick’s eight-day cross-country road trip to Las Vegas
🏜️ Why Arches National Park became one of the highlights of the journey
🌆 The moment Hayley realized Vegas was no longer a vacation—it was home
✈️ Why she arrived in Vegas and flew to Toronto that same night
📸 Behind the scenes of an intense multi-day PWHL media shoot
🏒 What it means to become a more visible face of a new PWHL franchise
💚 Why increased attention doesn’t mean changing who you are
💪 Staying grounded when expectations and pressure rise
🎯 Finding a much-needed training routine in Las Vegas
🏒 How UNLV helped Hayley prepare for the season
👧 Growing girls hockey with the Florida Panthers
🇺🇸 Entering another Team USA camp with a roster spot still on the line
🧠 Managing nerves, uncertainty, and the pressure of another tryout
❤️ Why teammates can support each other even while competing for roster spots
🌍 Preparing for the World Championships—and then immediately starting PWHL camp
One of the strongest lessons in this episode comes as Hayley talks about being more visible than ever.
Her response?
Stay true to who you are.
The spotlight might be brighter. Expectations might be higher. More people might recognize your name.
But none of that changes the work that got you there.
Keep playing the right way.
Keep doing the little things.
Keep being a good teammate.
And when uncertainty starts creeping in, focus on where your feet are right now.
Because even after Olympic gold and a Walter Cup championship, the next roster is never guaranteed.
That’s the reality of competing at the highest level—and that’s exactly why this Day in the Life journey is so powerful to follow.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Where Your Feet Are: Inside Hayley Scamurra’s Journey to Las Vegas and Team USA
#OurGirlsPlayHockey #HayleyScamurra #DayInTheLife #PWHL #TeamUSA #WomensHockey #GirlsHockey #PWHLVegas #OlympicGold #WalterCup #HockeyJourney #FemaleAthletes

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🥅 Goalies, skaters, and teammates—how do you handle it when the puck goes in?
Do you blame yourself?
Blame someone else?
Stare at the scoreboard?
Or can you step back and look at how you actually played?
In this episode of The Ride to The Rink, Lee Elias is joined by Dave “Hutch” Hutchison, co-founder of InGoal Magazine, to talk directly to young goalies and skaters about confidence, mistakes, teamwork, and learning to evaluate your performance beyond the final score.
Hutch explains why hockey has created a culture of constantly searching for mistakes—and why young athletes may develop faster when parents, coaches, and teammates also learn to catch them doing something right.
🎧 In this episode:
🥅 Why goalies can’t judge every game by goals against
🧠 How to separate your performance from the result
👏 Why specific positive feedback can change a player’s confidence
🤝 How skaters can better support their goalies during games
🚫 Why telling a goalie what they “should have had” rarely helps
🏒 How players can show better awareness during practice
🎯 Why shooting on an unprepared goalie doesn’t help anyone improve
🔄 How rotating young goalies can create more coaching and team connection
📊 Why statistics and scoreboards don’t tell the entire story
💪 How to find two or three things you did well after every game
One of Hutch’s most important messages is simple:
You can play a great game and still give up goals.
And you can win while knowing you did not play your best.
The scoreboard matters—but it should not become the only way you judge yourself.
Learn from the result.
Then look deeper.
What did you do well?
What are you improving?
Where did you support your teammates?
What can you build on next time?
That mindset can make you a better goalie, a better skater, and a better teammate.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Your Scoreboard Is Not Your Report Card: A Better Mindset for Young Goalies
#TheRideToTheRink #YouthHockey #GoalieMindset #HockeyGoalie #GoalieDevelopment #HockeyConfidence #HockeyTeammates #YouthGoalie #HockeyMentalGame #InGoalMagazine #DaveHutchison

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🥅 What does a young goalie actually need from the adults around them?
More criticism?
More statistics?
More breakdowns of every goal?
Or more confidence, perspective, and opportunities to learn?
In this episode of Our Kids Play Goalie, Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli are joined by Dave “Hutch” Hutchison, co-founder of InGoal Magazine, longtime goalie coach, lifelong goaltender, podcast host, and goalie parent.
Hutch has spent years talking with NHL goaltenders and coaches while also living the youth and junior hockey journey with his own son. That gives him a rare perspective on what goalies experience from both sides of the glass.
The conversation dives deep into how parents and coaches can help goalies develop without turning every goal against into a failure.
🎧 In this episode:
🥅 Why goalie development has to start with confidence
🧠 How young goalies can separate performance from wins, losses, and goals against
📊 Why save percentage and youth hockey stats can be misleading
🤝 How goalie parents can support both goaltenders instead of turning the position into a rivalry
🚫 Why parents should avoid conversations that tear down the “other goalie”
🎯 How to find meaningful wins inside a difficult game
📹 How video can help development without becoming another fault-finding tool
💬 Why positive feedback matters just as much as technical correction
🔄 Why rotating young goalies during games can actually support development
🏒 How coaches can build practices that develop goalies and skaters at the same time
⏱️ Why goalies need quality reps—and rest—during practice
📚 How InGoal Magazine brings lessons from NHL goalies and coaches to developing players
❤️ Why even the best goaltenders in the world experience doubt, pressure, and difficult stretches
One of Hutch’s most important messages is that goalies should learn to evaluate themselves beyond the scoreboard.
A goalie can lose and play well.
A goalie can win and have things to improve.
A shot can go in without automatically meaning someone failed.
Instead of always asking, “What did you do wrong?” parents and coaches can help goalies recognize progress:
What did you read well?
What save did you make because of something you practiced?
Where did you battle?
How did you respond after a goal?
What are you proud of?
Those questions build more than a better goaltender.
They build a more confident, resilient person.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: What Every Goalie Parent Should Know: Confidence, Development, and Letting Goalies Learn
#OurKidsPlayGoalie #DaveHutchison #InGoalMagazine #GoalieParents #YouthHockeyGoalie #GoalieDevelopment #GoalieConfidence #HockeyParents #GoalieTraining #YouthHockey #GoalieMindset #HockeyCoaching

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🧠 Can hockey IQ actually be trained—or are some players simply born with it?
In this edition of Hockey IQ Talk with Albe, Lee Elias and Andrew “Albe” Alberts go beyond individual hockey IQ concepts and tackle the bigger question: How do players actually train their brains to see the ice, recognize options, and make better decisions?
The answer starts with three foundational skills: scanning, reading the play, and identifying cues.
Albe takes us behind the scenes of NHL Sense Arena’s Playmaker Mode, a new training experience designed to place skaters and goalies inside realistic hockey scenarios, pause the action at critical moments, and challenge them to identify teammates, pressure, open ice, threats, support options, and the best available play.
Instead of simply telling players what to do, the training asks them to see it for themselves.
🎧 In this episode:
🧠 Why hockey IQ can be taught and developed
👀 How scanning and pre-scanning change what players see
🏒 Why identifying teammates, pressure, space, and support matters
⚡ How players can learn to make faster decisions before receiving the puck
🎮 How Playmaker Mode creates game-like decision-making reps
🔄 Why hockey IQ training requires repetition just like skating or shooting
📈 How scenarios can be adjusted for different ages and skill levels
🥅 How goalies can train scanning, threats, depth, angles, and backdoor awareness
🧩 Why traditional practice cannot always recreate every five-on-five decision
🚨 How feedback after a wrong decision can become part of the learning process
💭 Why “muscle memory of the mind” matters as players get older
🏎️ How speeding up decision-making can prepare players for faster levels of hockey
One of the biggest takeaways is that the puck will always move faster than the players.
As the level rises, players skate faster and plays develop quicker—but the players who can process information earlier have an enormous advantage.
If you can scan before you receive the puck, recognize your options, identify pressure, and already have several possible decisions in your head, you are playing one step ahead.
And that is what hockey IQ development is all about.
The goal is not to tell players the answer.
It is to teach them what to look for, when to look for it, and how to make the decision themselves.
#OurKidsPlayHockey #HockeyIQ #HockeyIQTalk #AndrewAlberts #SenseArena #PlaymakerMode #YouthHockey #HockeyDevelopment #PlayerDevelopment #HockeyTraining #HockeySkills #HockeyDecisionMaking

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🏒 What does it actually mean to be “elite” in hockey?
Is it the team you play for?
The logo on your jersey?
The level next to your name?
Or is it something you build over time?
In this episode of The Ride to the Rink, Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli are joined by athlete-development expert Duncan Fletcher to speak directly to young players about what being elite really means.
Duncan explains that truly elite young players are incredibly rare—and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with still working toward that level.
The important part is what you do along the way.
🎧 In this episode:
🏒 What “elite” really means in youth hockey
⛸️ Why skating and puck skills still matter so much
💪 How pushing into uncomfortable situations helps you improve
📈 Why getting a little better every day is more important than rushing to the next level
🧠 Why persistence and mental toughness matter
🎸 How hobbies, school, music, and other sports can actually make you a better hockey player
🎯 Why elite behavior matters before elite status
❤️ Why your hockey journey does not need to happen overnight
One of Duncan’s most surprising lessons is that if you want to become a better hockey player, you should have something meaningful in your life away from hockey too.
That could be another sport.
Music.
School.
A hobby.
Anything that excites you and challenges you in a different way.
The best players are not always the ones doing hockey every second of every day.
They are curious.
They keep learning.
They keep pushing themselves.
And they understand that becoming elite is not one moment.
It is a long process built through small improvements.
So do not rush.
Keep working.
Keep learning.
Keep enjoying the game.
And focus on becoming a little better than you were yesterday.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Elite Is a Journey: What Young Hockey Players Should Really Focus On
#TheRideToTheRink #YouthHockey #EliteHockey #HockeyDevelopment #DuncanFletcher #HockeyMindset #PlayerDevelopment #HockeyKids #HockeySkills #YouthAthletes #HockeyConfidence

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