Our Kids Play Hockey | Hockey Stories & Teamwork Tips

🏒 What does your player know before they ever touch the puck?
That question is at the heart of hockey IQ — and in this special edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli are joined by former NHL defenseman Andrew “Albe” Alberts, who played more than 450 NHL games and now works with the NHL Sense Arena team, to break down one of the simplest and most important habits in the game: shoulder checking.
It may sound basic, but knowing what’s behind you before you get to the puck can completely change what happens next. A good shoulder check helps players recognize pressure, identify open ice, protect themselves, create more time and space, and make a better first play.
And as Albe explains, this isn’t just a skill for defensemen — or even just for older players. It’s a fundamental habit that can help players at every position and every age become faster thinkers and more confident decision-makers.
🔥 In this episode, you’ll learn:
👀 Why shoulder checking is one of the foundations of hockey IQ
🧠 How scanning the ice helps players create more time and space
🏒 The three key steps young players can use when retrieving a puck
⚡ Why knowing your next option before touching the puck speeds up your game
🛡️ How shoulder checks can help players protect themselves from pressure
🎯 Why repeatedly throwing the puck away often starts with a lack of information
📈 How coaches can progressively teach puck retrieval and awareness
🔁 Why repetition is essential for building good habits — and breaking bad ones
🥅 How NHL Sense Arena creates game-like reps for scanning, reading pressure, and making decisions
One of Albe’s biggest messages for young players is also one of the easiest to remember:
Shoulder check more than you think you need to.
The habit of looking before you arrive at the puck gives you information — and information gives you options.
This episode launches a monthly hockey IQ series powered by NHL Sense Arena, designed to give hockey families one practical concept at a time that players can understand, practice, and take directly into their game.
🎧 Listen together with your player, talk about what they see on the ice, and challenge them to start building the habit of looking before the puck arrives.
Learn more about NHL Sense Arena at hockey.sensearena.com/OKPH.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: The Hockey IQ Habit Every Young Player Should Learn: Why Shoulder Checking Changes the Game
If this episode helped your hockey family, make sure to like, subscribe, and share Our Kids Play Hockey with another parent, player, or coach.
#YouthHockey #HockeyIQ #HockeyDevelopment #HockeyParents #HockeyTraining #ShoulderCheck #HockeySkills #SenseArena #NHLSenseArena #HockeyCoaching #PlayerDevelopment #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
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🔥 What if conflict isn’t the problem in youth hockey… but avoiding it is?
Whether it’s a disagreement over playing time, tension between teammates, a frustrated parent, or an uncomfortable conversation with a coach, conflict is inevitable in sports. But according to Bill Taylor, founder of Sports Conflict Lab and author of Managing Sports Conflict: Five Tools to Master Conflict, learning how to handle those moments can actually make teams, relationships, and young athletes stronger.
In this episode of Our Kids Play Hockey, Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Christie Casciano-Burns sit down with Bill to explore why healthy conflict is essential for growth—and why teams that never challenge one another may actually be limiting their potential.
🏒 In this episode, you’ll hear:
• Why avoiding conflict usually makes the eventual problem bigger
• How healthy conflict can improve trust, communication, accountability, and team culture
• Why coaches should establish a conflict-resolution process before the season gets difficult
• The danger of “three-way conflict” when players or parents complain to everyone except the person involved
• Why parents should ask questions instead of immediately accusing or correcting
• How emotional regulation can completely change the outcome of a difficult conversation
• Why a 24-hour cooling-off period can help parents and coaches communicate more effectively
• The difference between hearing someone and actually practicing active listening
• How genuine apologies can repair trust after a coach, parent, or player makes a mistake
• Why curiosity is more productive than judgment during conflict
• How parents can accidentally rob their kids of important life skills by solving every disagreement for them
• Why championship-level teams often become stronger by learning how to work through uncomfortable moments together
One of the biggest takeaways from Bill is simple: conflict is not a battle to win—it’s a problem to solve.
When athletes learn to manage their emotions, speak directly to teammates, listen before reacting, and work through disagreement, they aren’t just becoming better hockey players. They’re building communication and relationship skills they can carry for the rest of their lives.
📘 Bill Taylor is the founder and CEO of Sports Conflict Lab and the author of Managing Sports Conflict: Five Tools to Master Conflict. Learn more about Bill’s work, conflict-management education, and resources at SportsConflictLab.com.
If you’re a hockey parent, coach, or team leader, this is an episode worth sharing with your entire hockey community.
🎧 Listen, subscribe, and send this episode to someone who has ever had to navigate an uncomfortable conversation in youth hockey—which, let’s be honest, is probably everyone.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Why Healthy Conflict Can Make Youth Hockey Teams Stronger
#OurKidsPlayHockey #YouthHockey #HockeyParents #HockeyCoaches #SportsConflict #ConflictResolution #SportsParenting #HockeyCulture #TeamCulture #YouthSports #SportsLeadership #CommunicationSkills #BillTaylor #SportsConflictLab #HockeyDevelopment
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
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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!

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🏒 What do you do when a teammate won’t pass the puck, you disagree with your coach, or you and your parents aren’t seeing hockey the same way?
Conflict is part of every hockey season. The question isn’t whether it will happen—it’s whether you’ll have the courage and communication skills to handle it well.
On this episode of The Ride to The Rink, Lee, Christie, Mike, and Bill Taylor of Sports Conflict Lab talk directly to young hockey players about one of the hardest skills to learn in sports: having uncomfortable conversations.
Instead of complaining to someone else, avoiding the problem, or assuming another person has bad intentions, the crew explains why great teammates learn to go directly to the source, ask thoughtful questions, listen, and work toward a solution.
🏒 In this episode, players will learn:
Why talking directly to a teammate, coach, or parent is better than holding frustration inside
How asking questions can keep a difficult conversation from becoming an argument
Why your teammate may not even realize their behavior is bothering you
How to approach conflict without accusing or attacking someone
Why you should assume positive intentions before assuming the worst
What to do when someone reacts defensively
Why one difficult conversation can still make an impact—even if nothing changes immediately
How parents and players can communicate about their different expectations
Why being willing to have hard conversations is an important leadership skill
How to recognize when the uncomfortable conversation you need to have is actually with yourself
One of the biggest lessons? You can’t control how someone responds, but you can control how you approach the conversation.
Sometimes your teammate might get defensive. Sometimes your coach may explain something you hadn’t considered. Sometimes you may realize that you need to change, too.
That’s part of growing as an athlete, a teammate, and a person.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: How Young Hockey Players Can Handle Conflict With Teammates, Coaches, and Parents
💬 Be brave. Ask questions. Assume positive intent. And remember that getting better often means being willing to work through the uncomfortable stuff.
Wherever you are on your hockey journey, keep learning, keep communicating, and keep believing in yourself.
#YouthHockey #HockeyPlayers #HockeyLeadership #HockeyTeammates #YouthSports #HockeyDevelopment #Sportsmanship #Teamwork #HockeyParents #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
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🔥 What if conflict isn’t the problem in youth hockey… but avoiding it is?
Whether it’s a disagreement over playing time, tension between teammates, a frustrated parent, or an uncomfortable conversation with a coach, conflict is inevitable in sports. But according to Bill Taylor, founder of Sports Conflict Lab and author of Managing Sports Conflict: Five Tools to Master Conflict, learning how to handle those moments can actually make teams, relationships, and young athletes stronger.
In this episode of Our Kids Play Hockey, Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Christie Casciano-Burns sit down with Bill to explore why healthy conflict is essential for growth—and why teams that never challenge one another may actually be limiting their potential.
🏒 In this episode, you’ll hear:
• Why avoiding conflict usually makes the eventual problem bigger
• How healthy conflict can improve trust, communication, accountability, and team culture
• Why coaches should establish a conflict-resolution process before the season gets difficult
• The danger of “three-way conflict” when players or parents complain to everyone except the person involved
• Why parents should ask questions instead of immediately accusing or correcting
• How emotional regulation can completely change the outcome of a difficult conversation
• Why a 24-hour cooling-off period can help parents and coaches communicate more effectively
• The difference between hearing someone and actually practicing active listening
• How genuine apologies can repair trust after a coach, parent, or player makes a mistake
• Why curiosity is more productive than judgment during conflict
• How parents can accidentally rob their kids of important life skills by solving every disagreement for them
• Why championship-level teams often become stronger by learning how to work through uncomfortable moments together
One of the biggest takeaways from Bill is simple: conflict is not a battle to win—it’s a problem to solve.
When athletes learn to manage their emotions, speak directly to teammates, listen before reacting, and work through disagreement, they aren’t just becoming better hockey players. They’re building communication and relationship skills they can carry for the rest of their lives.
📘 Bill Taylor is the founder and CEO of Sports Conflict Lab and the author of Managing Sports Conflict: Five Tools to Master Conflict. Learn more about Bill’s work, conflict-management education, and resources at SportsConflictLab.com.
If you’re a hockey parent, coach, or team leader, this is an episode worth sharing with your entire hockey community.
🎧 Listen, subscribe, and send this episode to someone who has ever had to navigate an uncomfortable conversation in youth hockey—which, let’s be honest, is probably everyone.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: Why Healthy Conflict Can Make Youth Hockey Teams Stronger
#OurKidsPlayHockey #YouthHockey #HockeyParents #HockeyCoaches #SportsConflict #ConflictResolution #SportsParenting #HockeyCulture #TeamCulture #YouthSports #SportsLeadership #CommunicationSkills #BillTaylor #SportsConflictLab #HockeyDevelopment
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
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🏒 What started as a simple “Day in the Life” became a front-row seat to hockey history.
At the beginning of the season, Hayley Scamurra was facing uncertainty. She was balancing Team USA evaluation camps with a new chapter for the Montreal Victoire, competing for an Olympic roster spot while navigating the demands of a full professional season.
By the end of it, she had accomplished something no woman had ever done before: win an Olympic gold medal and the PWHL Walter Cup in the same year.
In this special edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, we look back at Hayley’s unforgettable 2025–26 season—from Olympic camps and the nerve-wracking wait for the Team USA call, to winning gold, returning immediately to the PWHL playoff race, surviving an incredible postseason, lifting the Walter Cup with Montreal, and celebrating in front of a sea of fans in the streets of the city.
🥇 Inside this episode:
🏒 How Hayley approached Olympic tryouts by focusing on her role instead of comparing herself to other elite players
🇺🇸 The emotional phone call confirming she had made her second U.S. Olympic team
🥇 What finally winning Olympic gold meant after a lifetime dedicated to hockey
🧠 Why visualization, confidence, and staying present became such important parts of her season
✈️ The whirlwind transition from Olympic champion back to professional hockey—with almost no time to recover
🎤 What it was like going from the rink to The Kelly Clarkson Show and meeting Pink
🔥 How Montreal surged after the Olympic break and finished first in the PWHL standings
🏆 The dramatic road through the PWHL playoffs, including an unforgettable Walter Cup Final
💪 Why Hayley’s value went far beyond goals and points—and how embracing her role helped unlock one of the best seasons of her career
🎉 The Montreal championship parade that showed just how far professional women’s hockey has come
For young players and hockey parents, Hayley’s story carries an important lesson: success doesn’t always come from trying to be everything. Sometimes it comes from understanding exactly what you bring to a team, embracing that role, and doing it exceptionally well.
And perhaps the biggest takeaway is bigger than one player, one medal, or one championship.
The history being made by players like Hayley today becomes the possibility young hockey players will expect tomorrow.
Congratulations to our own Hayley Scamurra—Olympic gold medalist, Walter Cup champion, and the first woman to accomplish both in the same year.
🎧 Listen to this special journey through one remarkable season and an unforgettable chapter in women’s hockey history.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: From Olympic Dream to Walter Cup Champion: Hayley Scamurra’s Historic Year in Hockey
Have fun, skate hard, and keep dreaming big.
#OurKidsPlayHockey #HayleyScamurra #WomensHockey #PWHL #MontrealVictoire #TeamUSA #OlympicHockey #OlympicGold #WalterCup #GirlsHockey #YouthHockey #HockeyParents #HockeyDevelopment #ProfessionalHockey
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!

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