The Hockey Think Tank Podcast

Episode 319 - Andrew Alberts

This week Topher and Jeff welcome former NHL defenseman, Andrew Alberts to the podcast! Such an inspiring episode including playing with Zdeno Chara in Boston, the Sedins in Vancouver, and how a little belief from a mentor after getting cut at 15 changed his life. In this episode we talk about: — Playing Midget B at 15 to over 450 NHL games — How Zdeno Chara changed the Bruins — Defending the Sedins in practice every day — Working for NHL Sense Arena AND SO MUCH MORE! Thank you to our title sponsor IceHockeySystems.com, as well as Train-Heroic, CuredNutrition, Helios Hockey, and, NHL Sense Arena! Visit NHL Sense Arena and use DISCOUNT CODE TANK-72A36D to get 10% off an annual plan of NHL Sense Arena. And thank you to our AMAZING LISTENERS; We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites! If you’d like to join our Hockey Think Tank Community, head over to Community.TheHockeyThinkTank.com and check it out!

Duration:: 1h 4m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

In this episode we talk about:

— Playing Midget B at 15 to over 450 NHL games

— How Zdeno Chara changed the Bruins

— Defending the Sedins in practice every day

— Working for NHL Sense Arena

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Thank you to our title sponsor IceHockeySystems.com, as well as Train-Heroic, CuredNutrition, Helios Hockey, and, NHL Sense Arena!

Visit NHL Sense Arena and use DISCOUNT CODE TANK-72A36D to get 10% off an annual plan of NHL Sense Arena.

And thank you to our AMAZING LISTENERS; We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!

If you’d like to join our Hockey Think Tank Community, head over to Community.TheHockeyThinkTank.com and check it out!

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Manscaped even threw in two free gifts to their Performance Package 5.0, the Manscaped Boxers and the Shed Travel Bag. I have both of those and they are both awesome. Get 20% off and free shipping with the code THPN at Manscaped.com. As 20% off plus free shipping with the code THPN at Manscaped.com. It's smooth summer boys. Get on board or get left behind. Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to the HockeyThink Tank Podcast brought to you by the hockeythinktank.com website for all players, parents and coaches to go to get a little bit of education and a little bit of inspiration regarding the greatest game on the planet. What an episode we have for you guys here today. We are bringing on veteran of 450 plus NHL games, Andrew Alberts. What a phenomenal conversation this was. He's from the Minnesota area, played his college hockey at Boston College before embarking on that incredible NHL career. Man, this is one you're going to want to listen to, especially all the kids out there. What an absolute legend of a story that you're going to hear before we do get over to Andrew. So let's bring on the talent of the podcast on Jeffrey J who the Vecchio decks. What's up today? Not much man. Since we last had a podcast episode, my gym remodel is now 99% finished. I haven't really slept in four days to get this all done and put it all together. Well, I helped put it together. We all know I did not put it together, but I was there handing guys stuff and holding stuff and all the day and night for three days, but it's almost there, man. And to see the guys faces when they came in on Monday morning for each of us throughout the day, I mean, I have no shame like I'm the way like I was parked outside the gym and there's like a side door. I go into the rink that goes right into my gym and I was like tear it up before I went in there. I was like, dude, like this is going to change the guy's life. Like I'm going to be able to get even more out of my guys because I didn't have the best equipment, you know, for the last my whole training career, 16 years I've been training hockey players. I've never had the equipment that I want and finally I can afford it. And now I have it and just the things I've done in the first three days of this week, like I come home. I just can't. That's I want to like live at the gym right now. It's been really exciting. It's been really cool. It's been really cool to see how excited the guys are to have the stuff and to do the stuff we're doing too. You know, it's been a cool last couple of days. There we go. I've had a cool couple of weeks too. I think I've talked on the last podcast I was out in St. Cathins, Ontario for a conference at Brock University with ice hockey systems.com and then I was out in Nashville working in camp out there. And then one of the most downloaded episodes that we've had, Brett Beebe, who works in player development out in the LA area with a lot of kids out there invited me out there to speak to a large group of coaches and players and parents. And we held to like, this is where like there's so many good people in the hockey world. And Brett Beebe is one of the best. Amazing. And he put this thing together. He just really wants to help Los Angeles, Southern California hockey. And he had a camp going along with it. And there were so many people letting out I'm coming to it and we had college coaches speaking. We had junior coaches speaking. We had advisors come. So it's just like really helping to educate Southern California people on the hockey journey in the process. And man, it's just like just good people, man. There's good people in this game, isn't there? So true. He's such a good dude. I also love that you're going to all these places and being able to because you are one of the smartest hockey people in the world, like you are so knowledgeable and you're so good at talking to people. I'm really happy that people are flying you out and bringing you out and having you teach all the things that you've learned throughout all the different things that you've done in hockey. You've been a junior hockey player, the youngest ever in the USHL. And then you were a college hockey player. And then you were a pro hockey player. And then you were an assistant coach or a volunteer coach or we know grad assistant in college division one, then an assistant coach scouting and then you ran an organization and you've coached medjets and all the stuff, you have been in so many places and at the highest levels and with young kids and you just have so much to offer. So I'm really happy to see all of these people inviting you out to speak because you deserve a man and you do so much for the game. So that makes me happy. Anybody who's listening to this fly tote out, he will help your org. Come on. I appreciate that, man. You know it's mutual too. But no, it is cool. And the coolest part now is like doing what I do with the hockey think tank ever since I went full time, I don't know, nine months ago, whatever it was, like I have a whole new perspective on the game. I've been able to talk to so many people doing such amazing things in like youth hockey in particular and my perspective on everything. And that's like you have to be a lifelong learner. You can't go in and think you know everything because you don't. And so getting the chance to work with all these organizations and speak to all these hockey directors and hockey parents and coaches and working with the kids like man, it's just really cool to be able to learn so much about what we're failing at really in the game. Some things that are going really, really well with our game and how we can best educate people on how to have a great journey in this game too, you know. And yeah, man, it's just been really cool being able to do that. So, yeah, I, you know, I don't have some sick ass gym where I'm making NHL hockey players but anything though. You're infected. I'm not taught up people there. Yeah. And speaking of affecting a ton of people, I think this podcast is going to affect a ton of people positively. I mean, we're to you guys here where this guy who played in the NHL for over 450 games where he was when he was 15, tell you right now wasn't the best team wasn't the best player. I don't want to give too much away about, about Albert's story here, but it is very powerful and everybody listens is going to get a lot out of this. Yeah. Take some notes. For sure. For sure. And you know, heading into the conversation, you know, one of the things that he's doing right now is he's a development coach for NHL sensorina, which is one of our sponsors of the podcast and he talks about it and it's really, really cool the way that he talks about the things that he's doing and how it can help players to be better. So as we kind of transition into it here, go to hockey.sensorina.com and check this out, this virtual reality game where you can have over a hundred drills as a player, over a hundred drills as a goalie and he tells some pretty funny stories. In fact, he told a funny story about Freddie with it too. But like we all know that ice time is expensive. We all know that getting a skills coach is expensive and what we talked about reps removed out and NHL sensorina is a virtual reality training game that can help to give you more reps on your hockey sense. What are all coaches looking for at the higher levels? Hockey sense. And so it's just a phenomenal, phenomenal product. And so we'll start it off by going go to hockey.sensorina.com. We're going to put the link to get a discount in our show notes to get 10% off your annual plan. And after listening to Andrew talk about it, like this is a must get. This is some must get. And so like I said, go to hockey.sensorina.com and use that discount code in the show notes to get 10% off your annual plan. Also, we want to thank ice hockey systems.com, our title sponsor. Another thing that can make you so incredibly better and they have thousands of drills on there that you can use with your players, whiteboard explanations from amazing hockey coaches and amazing hockey development people from all over the world. There's a drill drawing tool where you can use and you can draw it up, plan your practices out and send them off to your players beforehand. And also we've partnered with them to do an associations platform where you can get this for every single coach within your organization. Go to ice hockey systems.com today. Jeff. I want to say thank you to train heroic. Train heroic is the amazing app that allows me to work with so many teams, organizations and players that are doing my off season training program. The app is amazing. Videos of me demonstrating coaching everything, the ability to send me videos of your form so that I can help coach you through messaging. It's unreal. I'm super excited. I'm going to start working with one of my college teammates, Chris Klaxon. He just became the head coach of a team out in Pittsburgh, high school team and so I'm going to start working with his whole high school organization out there. But if anybody has any questions on what it's like to train me online for teams, how I can help at a hilariously low price, because my whole goal is to deliver actual real quality training that these players so desperately need, not going to crossfit, not going to a random personal trainer, no shade, but also shade. And I can really help them at a very, very low price. So thank you to train heroic for giving me that ability. And also thank you to care nutrition, to nutrition to CBD company I'm with. I've had 14 concussions, CBD is something that is a staple in my daily routine. I take it twice a day every single day and have since my last year playing 2017, 2018 season. So if you have any questions on who, what, why, when, where, how, all that stuff, what dog dip dive, duck and dodge, right? Just reach out to me and ask or go to care nutrition.com and use my discount code GMBM. There we go. Also want to thank Helios hockey, Helios hockey is an unbelievable tool. It's a sensor that you put in your shoulder pad that gives you real time data, real time feedback on your play. And they have some really, really cool stuff going right now. First of all, unbelievable in your helping of your stride mechanics type stuff, unbelievable. They have a hustle score that they can give you when you're on the ice. They also have a leaderboard where you can compare yourself to different people within your age group as your scores are going up. And the best part about it, it pairs with your video and you get your shifts cut for you automatically after every game. Oh my gosh, value add, absolutely incredible. So crudyhelios hockey.com use the code think tank one word and you'll get 20% off your pro annual plan or your pro 24 month plan. You can also get this monthly, but you get that 20% discount off the annual plan. So go to Helios hockey.com to day with that now without further ado. Here we go. Unbelievable conversation with Andrew Roberts bet on the action on the ice with draft King sports book. There are all available lines and odds from the draft King sports book app for this week's game. Build the app now and use code THPN new customers can get 150 bucks instantly and bonus bets for betting just $5 on hockey. That's code THPN only on draft King sports book and official sports betting partner of the NHL. The crown is yours. Bonus specs expire 168 hours after issuance gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or visit www 1 800 gambler.net in New York call 877-8 hope and why or text hope and why 467369 in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of boot hill casino and resort 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance CDKNG.com/hockey for eligibility and deposit restrictions terms and responsible gaming resources NHL and the NHL shield are registered trademarks of the national hockey league copyright NHL 2023 all rights reserved. We are so excited to have out in the Boston area we got Andrew Albert's Andrew how you doing today man doing well guys thanks for having me on appreciate it. We are pumped to have you on and have a lot of mutual friends in the game and excited to kind of hear your your journey and as all people who grow up in Minnesota hockey is typically a part of that journey so growing up in Minnesota do you have family involved with the game I can imagine there was some pond hockey at some point throughout your tenure there but talk to us a little bit how you found out with this great game of hockey. Yeah absolutely I mean the family involved in not directly I guess but so so I grew up Minnesota I grew up on kind of a lake pond behind my house so I kind of had a built in rink there which is great but my dad never played and my mom couldn't play you know back in the day they have girls women's hockey and so I kind of got pushed into it and just through like my uncles and my and my with my mom's family when I had three uncles that played D1 hockey one played up in Duluth Notre Dame and then at the University of Minnesota so I grew up watching those guys play which is pretty cool and they live with us in the summer so they were college kids and say they want to stay in the city and so my street hockey and the basement I kind of just like those guys were who I kind of idolized growing up and that's what I wanted to be and so I kind of wanted to be actually a golden golfer when I grew up but those are that's kind of how I got into hockey and yeah we had a lake behind our house so after school every day it was his grab the grab the neighbors grab the buddies and we'd be on the lake you know playing shinny and that's there's nothing better than playing outside the lake so I know it's summertime right now and that's like you're talking about that and I'm like all right I like this warm weather but like that sounds awesome I don't want that there's there's nothing better than skating outside wind flowing through your hair just want to snowing out it's awesome the breath coming out she must be unlisted if you know you know oh god already coming out with the movie quotes absolutely love it vex on fire to start so interesting things so you end up going to banal state markets which is an academy out there in in Minneapolis area what was that like that's a pretty big powerhouse in Minnesota what was the thoughts behind you know going to be milk well I really had no intention of really playing well I guess I had the intention of playing but never thought I would so just if we take it back like I grew up playing like be hockey all the way up you know not make a top teams wasn't a great skater didn't have a lot of skill and so I was just I went to even for high school my freshman sophomore year trial for varsity after a day they're like beat it you know go to JV trios went to JV trials for two days they're like I'm sorry like they pulled me in it's like hey I'm sorry your high school career is over you're never going to play high school hockey I'm sorry you know good luck with junior gold and like I was devastated can we stop you hold on for a second right there I just want all the kids listening so you're 14 15 years old and you get told by your high school team beat it I think those were your words and you played 450 games in the NHL so for like all the kids listening to this right now or all the coaches or whoever like who think your career is done if you don't make like the national team at 15 years old like okay that's one way but most people's way is the long way in the hard way so sorry to cut you off there but I'd like when you said that I was kind of like man that's that's like it's just wow no it's it's I mean looking back now it's like the best thing that ever happened to me right and like I remember sitting in that chair and like like you grew up in like in Minnesota it's the high school coaches oversee the banners the pewees like everything because it's all it's youth hockey all the way up to the high school and that's that's the top right like that's the elite and so they know who's coming up they know who the player is and so I go you go to high school games as a kid watching so you're in the office and like I remember like Lee Smith that got my eyes there'd be like hey your your ice code career is over buddy sorry like thanks for giving it a whirl like I was devastated right and so I was like you know it's a couple days later go to junior gold tryouts and like I was like yeah I'm gonna make this no problem like we post a list at the rink go to the rink look like didn't make it got to go to try midget midget A or whatever it was I go make this didn't make that team got cut from there I guess they decided to take all the older guys and so I was a sophomore trying to play high school hockey and I got cut down to like midget B which was house hockey at the time and so like I really played like in the cellar of the hockey community if you will but end up being a great year because like like no pressure in the parents no pressure from other coaches got to play with some neighborhood buddies that were a couple years older because hockey goes in two year increments right so I have a place a couple seniors that I was buddies with and had just a blast you know at a good time playing hockey and then that next year I decided transfer school just for schooling reasons and academics just because I want I thought it'd be better to get into college and follow whatever I was going to be didn't have an idea at the point but at the time but just like that'd be better for school and so I ended up playing like I said you know house hockey my sophomore year and then I went to Benil tried out and the guy named Jack Bladewick which I'm sure you guys have probably heard of before Jack Bladewick was the defensive coach there and he's famous in the hockey world USA hockey NHL and went through tryouts and he called me and he said he's like hey you're gonna play varsity and I'm like I'm like looking around like see if he's talking to somebody else right and he's like you can't skate with a lick kid but you got a brain on you and we're gonna turn into a hockey player and like that was how everything started and it was just it was like him believing in me and things just took off from there and I stayed underneath his wing my whole career trained under him so there that is that is so cool to hear yeah I went to after my freshman year I was undrafted I got invited to Washington Capitals development camp and like you know I was like 192 at the time but pound for pound I was like so freaking strong for a hockey player back then and I smoked the traditional lifting testing like bench press only one guy beat me from a house state and and right after me I told the story in the podcast all the time Nicholas back from one after me and I did like I want to say I did like 275 or seven or something and back from couldn't bench 135 and I was like this guy like the media is all over this guy whatever I go into the room with with Jack to like body fat testing and and you know some other testing and I'm talking because all I'm interested in is exercise science to help me be a better hockey player and he said to me and I say it I've literally changed my life he said to me if you can do all your training in a phone booth you're not training to be a hockey player and I was like I'd never heard of him I didn't know who he was you know and he said that and then the rest of the camp every day I was just like asking him questions just around him picking his brain and literally I don't think I play pro hockey if I didn't have that conversation I would have continued to train the way that I was like a football player in the 90s or 80s or even 70s and and you know I wasn't good enough to train that way and play hockey at higher levels I had to learn to be an athlete and learning that from him and all the questions I asked that week opened my mind up to like oh I don't have to just do what everyone else is doing I can do whatever to try and make me better at hockey that's so cool because I've never heard anybody else really bring him up even though he's like a savage he was the 1980 strength coach right yeah yeah yeah he's so he's so far out of his time so far ahead of his time like I think did he write a book I feel like I read his book actually after that camp maybe I got it oh he's going to get it so that there we go what's the book called I keep it close it's hard to find oh yeah you can't see it all the training that it's not coming up but right right like that guy literally he has no idea who I am a one sentence change my career change my life like it's the basis for my business how I train athletes so wow very cool isn't that amazing know how like one person can change the trajectory of your like one person you know what you can do and that's like the thing like I tell kids all the time like who want to play college hockey like all it takes is one coach to like you that's it like if there's 65 division one teams there might be 64 that don't but like there's one person that sees you as a fit to their program or whatever and then all of a sudden they have that belief in you and then you believe in yourself a little bit more and then like you train a little bit harder and like all that kind of stuff so like can you can you dive in a little bit more to that just like what is belief in you like due to your mindset due to your intention of like and and just the way that you prepared and the way you thought about yourself as a hockey player yeah you know you hit it right now there is it's have a one coach like just like almost like throw a seat of belief in you right and then it just it just keeps growing with everything you're doing because you're seeing you're seeing yourself take the next step right and so with Jack um like for high school or most or like I guess in high school even Prairie or Minnesota you have like captain captain's practices right or you play in like the fall league and then you go into high school tryouts which are early November I want to say or late off late October right and so like Jack can and Ken Polly that coach they'd watch um and then you know I had my meeting and Jack said I'm gonna play gonna play high school and I'm like you know all right cool this is ridiculous but he just said he said he's like just get better every day right and like and he kind of just like let me go right and Ken Polly uh the head coach you know he would coach us but the big change kind of came that summer where I was like I had like an okay year as a junior at Penil and that summer I remember Jack pulled me in he's like hey do you want to play in the HL and I'm like yeah no shit everybody wants to play in the HL you know like what kind of question is that you know he's like he's like were you willing to sacrifice and do whatever I tell you to do and I'm like tell me what to do and I'll you know do it the best I can I'm sorry I'm swearing but like that's that's like what I said I'm like tell me what to do I want to play in the HL I'll do whatever it takes and like and that's that's kind of where I was like all right I'm throwing all my eggs in this guy's basket like he's been there he worked he's working with uh any Calgary and the Rangers at that time with their off-eye stuff and so like I knew he was a brain genius at the connections and seen NHL players what it takes to train what it takes to get there and so I threw all my eggs in his basket worked out within every single day of that summer you know whether it's five days a week six days a week those six days I was working out underneath his his influence doing exactly what he said I became a much better skater put on 20 pounds I mean I was like six three like a buck 65 like just being old right just played loomer drew late started sprinting working out training outside of the box as you're saying like that's like his key phrase I apply metric sprints jumps all the stuff that I'm like what the hell is this am I a gymnast but like that became you become more athletic and that's what it is and about explosiveness right and so I did everything he said for example I followed a jackfruit throw my whole career and every summer was something new making it better making it faster quicker more explosive and his belief kind of like I said you threw that seed at me and it just kept growing as I continued to get better better better so that's kind of the story how I grabbed on to you know what he's saying and kind of took it and ran up there myself that's such an awesome story and like yeah like all kids need to hear these kinds of stories man like we all go through our ups and downs and at certain points there were people that didn't believe us and then other points there were people that believed in us that helped us get along the way and we had to learn to persevere through some some tough stuff and like no journey is easy man like especially if you're gonna play in the NHL and high level hockey like there's a lot of a lot of tough times that come through that and the more we can talk about those things better and and another one of those kind of like transitions that you had just you know you can always do the elite prospects look on somebody's career but one thing that Vex and I talk about all the time is how incredibly difficult the transition from Midget hockey is to junior hockey and how in our careers that was the hardest transition than any of them not from junior or junior to college or pro like Midget to junior was was always the hardest and you go from bemilled where you know your defenseman but you're over a point of game and then you get to Waterloo and your first year you get four points and you know as a defenseman or anybody we should never judge ourselves by our points but you know four points in one year isn't usually what we're looking for so like what what was that year like you know playing in Waterloo you're playing for PKO Hamley who is I don't want to say a tough coach to play for but he's demanding and he has a high standard and he'll hold you accountable what was that going from bemilled playing high school in Minnesota being at home to moving away from home and and that transition yeah yeah it was in your right it's a very hard transition so so PK wasn't there yet PK came in oh okay after that yeah I should research though Scott Scott Peonk which was still very hard ridiculous but so speaking of transition so that year I didn't play a game until after Thanksgiving I was tracking shots for like 30 games or whatever wow any five games and I thought about quitting like it was I just I had the point where I hated hockey like Scott Peonk was there and it was like two of days two hours a day and training camp and like three hours off the ice like just grinding it right and and then I kept it just kept going I'm like I don't even play like what am I doing here right and so I thought about quitting and obviously I didn't a different coach came in started to get more ice time after Christmas and then I think I had four points like the last month right just to get my points there but I had a good really good end of the year with with the new coach coming in a different philosophy and giving me some ice time and then that second year at a great start to the year ended up playing getting selected to the top prospects tournament and that's when BC saw me play and I talked to them afterwards so but yeah the first year transition is really tough it's really tough I mean especially year 18 year 17 playing against guys that are 20 21 whatever it might be like that's physically that's a big jump that you know that age group so 100% and 100% well you mentioned BC awesome hockey school to play for awesome academic school too what was your experience like playing for for Jerry York there BC Jerry Jerry's great Jerry's a master of culture and I think if you look at every single player that played underneath him he is a guy that he treats you like a professional from the day you step in there which is a really I guess it's interesting like you're going through it at the time so you don't know but like looking back now I'm like gosh like you treated every freshman just like the seniors gave him the same leeway same respect talked to him the same way and what he does is he lets the older guys start to teach everybody else right and he drives the bus but it's the support from the assistant coaches and it's the influence from the older guys and that culture that brings up the young guys which is pretty cool to look back on and he did it for she's a young he's there for 25 years or whatever was but like just the culture that he creates there and being able to adapt to the young guys coming in with him getting older the young guys still staying young like and being able to manage those personalities and manage those players and coach those players he's just an absolute legend and what he provided and brought as much on the ice experience and knowledge he brought us like the off ice was such an important part of it too because it's like here's how to be a pro here's how to be a good person here's how to act appropriately here's how to get your life in order how to get your classes in order you know hold you accountable for what you're doing to grow as an adult and a young person so as much as BC is a great hockey power it's also a great school to develop a young man yeah i so Chris Collins is a really good friend of mine we've done a lot of different stuff in the past and i've talked to him about you know the culture that was at BC and he was a younger guy when you were an older player there and that's one of the things that he always mentioned was like dude the older players were awesome like it was so easy to to get acclimated and to understand what BC hockey meant and and a lot of it did come from the older players that he still keeps in touch with today and great friends and and so i want to dig into that because like i think we'd all agree that the best cultures that we've been a part of are ones where it's policed in the room you know the the coach wasn't the one necessarily having to hold people accountable like it was really it that the room owned everything and and so how did Jerry and the coaching staff there like what were some things that maybe they did you know to foster that kind of environment where hey the room is yours guys like i'm here to support you and and we're gonna hold you accountable but it's got to be yours is there something that you can remember any kind of conversations any kind of activities that you did or was it you know simply like recruiting good people you know like um what was the the secret to the sauce there um i don't know if it's such a like like the secret i guess would be like i remember like i went uh i'd already committed but still i still went to my visit afterwards and just you know sit down with the coaches and then talking about the players they had their success year that they were they were gonna win the national championship like i came in a couple months before uh they went on that run right to win in no one but they were just talking about the team and the makeup of the team and how they expect the freshmen and sophomore every single class to chip in but they talked about like character like the character individuals they brought in and so jerry is saying i came here and i had to change the culture right so you you change the culture by brain and character individuals that are all pulling the same rope in the same dress for the same cause right and being uh good teammates about it and like you guys have all played enough hockey where you know there's there's good teammates bad teammates and there's a one cancer in the room it's it's gonna affect everybody so it's getting like the right leaders in the room and i think that started with like the you know the farkus and um trying to go like a marty reasoner and those guys that came in the geontas that came in uh you know roughly after yorky started and you know those character guys started it and it just kind of falls down through the through the years to the guys that are just picking up the slack every year when guys are graduating and so if you find the right guys that started out and i think it's just going to continue rolling and that's what's going on and it's it's more you know reloading not rebuilding and um you're not trying to reinvent everything every year and now with great brown brownies the same way i had browning my senior year and he was a great influence on my career as well and he's done the same thing he's kind of you know he's got different things that he likes to do right but it's creating a good cohesive environment where everybody's pulling the same rope and and again it's as much as off ice you're learning it's also much as you're going to off or on ice it's the off ice stuff that's that's just as important too so um like we do a vc mentoring program i've been part of for 10 years and we go meet with the kids uh you know three times a year and just talk about hey after hockey during hockey transition from hockey you know what you're doing after hockey just because like that's an important part of it too and so we get to know those guys a little bit and they're all great kids so they're all willing to learn and want to learn and meet new people and connect me and that's a big part of the life after hockey so it's not just vc what's going on the ice it's it's trading good individuals that's amazing and you you said you know the the people that they bring in the the leaders are such good people and trickles down we have so many coaches that listen this and obviously so many players who want to get to these levels if you're gonna talk to a group of youth or midget or junior coaches what should they be looking for in players and players obviously listen to this hmm no great question um oh no if i think of not really if i think of like the things that propelled me to in my career like a lot of those values were developed at vc and like i kind of call like the 3d is like discipline determination and dedication right so it's like if you're gonna set out on those goals like you better be disciplined enough to know that like you're not you can't party on friday and go work outside in the morning or you can't go out thursday like you have to be disciplined to your craft in every sense of it i'm talking nutrition lifting sleep right like you name it right and then after that it's like all right well i'm going to be disciplined to do this and now you got to have the determination to go through with everything right and then on the ice there are you going to be that that hound on the puck are you going to come out of the corner of the puck like those small things and then the dedication to keep going right no matter what um and so they call it you know the three d's like those things you know discipline determination and dedication like those are what carried me through my career like like being useful like being valuable on a team whether you're playing or not you know i was a six seven defense man in my last couple years but it kept me around because i was positive i had had a good you know i was a great practice player and made those guys better right and then when i got in the game you know i did my job you know so uh you know you can control your attitude you can control how hard you work and if i'm the hardest one working on the ice whether it be practice or off ice whatever it might be i guarantee you they'd rather have me around some guy you know with a sour face i'm walking around pissed off he's not playing right so you know being useful being valuable you know doing whatever you got to do uh to help the team push forward you know so um long winded answer but that's that's kind of uh those things that i kind of took from bc that's amazing that's amazing and i think that's another thing like all kids listening is like even if you're not a top six player or top two d pair you still have value to your team even if you're a six seven defense man even if you're in and out of the lineup like you still have value to the team and oh by the way coaches like to play the seventh defense man that has a better attitude than the eighth defense man who might be a little bit more talented but you know is is a mope around the rink because he's a great defense man too um and uh yeah i just just like everybody's got value everybody's got value in so many different ways you mentioned on the ice at bc off the ice at bc like it it all ties together it all ties together and so i think that's really cool that uh that you talked about that and the other thing that kind of you know i wanted to ask you about similarly relating to this is not you know you go from minnesota high school to the ush shell you go to ush shell to to bc bc to go on and play pro hockey and especially as a defense man and this happens with a lot of defense man like sometimes you have to um reinvent your game you know maybe you're an offensive defense man and then you're asked to play a defensive role and then maybe you move up and then you play the power play again and then you got so like for you as somebody at all these different stops i have to imagine that you were put into different roles in different places that you were at um talk to us a little bit about just how important it is to kind of reinvent your game sometimes and how important it is to be a versatile player and really understanding all the different nuances of the game because you're going to be thrust into into different situations depending on where you're at yeah absolutely if you want to have a long career you have to be able to adapt like and like the way you're saying it's like whether juniors i went from a not playing to a third pairing to a second pairing to a first pairing to a shutdown pairing my second year i then to college to a third pairing to my second year on the power play and be an offensive um which a lot of people won't believe but i was at one point my career to then go into the NHL where uh you're just you're happy to make the team then you're like well shit i'm here i better do something now right so now i'm gonna play strong defense i'm gonna run over every single player uh play tough hockey and then to the next year where i was playing with a z for two years right you know being a shutdown with z for two years and then uh you know back to second pairing with parents for a year and then i got traded and then you're back to a third pairing right or the second pairing and then uh to van where i was a third pairing most of the time right but being able to adapt to who you're playing against uh what line you're playing against what your job is out there are you pk are you power play are you a shutdown guy you know what are you trying to achieve out there um and then as you're changing like the game's also changing too like you look at how different the game is from ten years ago or even seven years ago till now like the speed the skill like it's it's it'd be like me standing in the highway right now if i jumped on the ice guys like oh you can still play i'm like hi you give me like uh no chance right um the game has changed so much so like it's amazing to look at the guys that played so long so you take take chara who's playing in the oh two or three to start whatever maybe nine to start and how his game adapted as he grew throughout the years you know like um so that's pretty impressive so so with me it's the same thing it's like find your what find a way to be useful you know and um i've always believed like whatever your strengths are like that has to be your strength like i was a shutdown physical guy like that has to be i have to be the best on the ice at doing that right and like yeah you work on your other game in the off season but like if you're a skill guy be a skill guy right and that's changed a little bit nowadays because the parts like now it's like you line up at lefty but you're playing everywhere because guys can move and skate so well and it makes it so much more fun and confusing hockey right um so now guys are just lining up in positions but you know for me in my career it was just adjusting to what was needed on the team um you know whether it was uh you know being first parent or last parent so i love that man and now we're gonna get to the controversial part of the podcast here because you mentioned z for those of you that are unaware that is ze no chara so vex claims if if right you broke his play or his pull-up record at watson's camp not claims i did okay so he did andrew had a hard time believing that 34 pull-ups 34 pull-ups maybe full extension guys right there and ever came down chara gave me a hug when i came down he was he was right i don't think no i wasn't there uh when you were there i was a year after you so i signed in after the 0 7 0 8 season but then 0 8 0 9 i missed the whole year of the concussion so i was at camp but i didn't do anything i missed the whole 0 8 0 9 season so i broke his record the year after that which would be 9 10 okay i wasn't there yeah yeah he was like i thought i thought you were saying the first year z was there no no no no this was the first year that i partook in camp oh yeah 34 it was funny but there is controversy because i did not find out till probably two years ago that i had to do full range pull-ups lock out the elbow chin over the bar 34 everyone said that chariot never had to do that he would go down like three quarters of the way is what i was told no okay that's what i told me he had to do it because so so john white sides was yep coach yep he's an absolute beauty love it and you know his voice right so even make sure you get down right so when you when you would lock out he went down yeah so z had to go here to lock it uh you made it okay sure you locked out yeah okay because i was told 10 10 15 years after i broke it oh by the way they never made chariot go all the way down because it's chariot and i was like oh my god like because i was like i all summer long i heard i think his record was 32 or 33 i think 33 and i was like i'm like this is my ticket this is if i beat this you know they're not going to dog me this year you know i have the Gilmore style if i beat the pull-up record um and uh yeah i don't know if somebody told them like i was gonna try it because he was right behind me and i came down almost blacking out and he gave me a hug and you know i'm sure he didn't even know who i was and he was like congrat you know sick congrats and i was like oh i thought he was gonna kill me no that's a that's an unbelievable feat man good for you thank you yeah i was it was not easy i grinded for years i when i met tauff the first time i ever tried to bench press tauff is five what are we tauff or in the program i'm five six that's what i know but i'm at real life tauff probably like five four and a half i'm six two so i go and live with tauff when i'm about to turn 16 and tauff was tauff was so good at hockey and so i looked up to him even though we're about the same age and he'd already been working out and so he gets some of the barbell and he does a bench press and he rips out 90 pounds of 25s on each side and i'm like oh tauff can do it i can do it i've never lifted a weight he unracks it for me and i drop it on my neck and i'm like oh my god i am so weak so i worked a long time for that i was uh i mean congrats on the 34 but uh no it was uh it was it was like like a pivotal moment for the Boston Bruins like that that five minutes he was doing pull-ups because like that was his first year and he got up in the bar and actually before he got up in the bar he gave it like one of these and like took the shirt off and it's like every muscle like pop and everywhere and he got every guys guys were doing like 10 15 like somebody had 17 and he got to like 17 and he just like dink dink dink dink dink like just like clean everything clean smooth like same reps i think it's like 20 and the boys were like there's no way he's getting more and like got to 30 and then he's like struggling gets three more and like i remember looking around and like every single person had stopped and like their jaw was dropped just like watching what had happened and like that's when everybody knew we were like oh shit like fucking big man's here and like he means business and like let's go like it was that was it it was pretty cool to be a part of that because like didn't say a word he just turned around and like everybody knew everybody knew like this is the standard's been set and like this is no joke now so pretty cool to be a part i got chills right now man i'm like i want to i want to get under the pull-up bar now one and and how how freaking long his arms are like it is so much harder to a pull-up that's taller you are like and and he's weighs so much it's like his strength i don't even understand how he got that right as wild he came in it he came in like 265 that year or something just ripped like 265 with those long levers yeah that's a big boy well one of the one of the coolest things about getting the chance to play at that level is you get to see some people like that and learn from people like that and and obviously you have the chara story but is there anybody else when you had the opportunity to play at that level that you were kind of like wow you know this person gets it like this is why this this guy is the best or this guy has played in the league for 20 years and and and i want to model my and then maybe not necessarily model my game after them but i want to model my mentality after them is there anybody else that kind of really rings a bell in your time plan in the NHL yeah so i i mean i i had a chance like put a burgy for four years and like buries super awesome guy um and like you could you could just see the way he like the way he would go about his business whether it was a game or a practice or the off ice and like just calm cool collected like like so much inner drive but yeah i didn't need to be a voice percite but like just the way he he went about his game or his practice habits like you knew he was uh you know a guy that was gonna have lots of success and he did early but like just him falling in line also it was he helping out but like like like buries the guy that i think a lot of young players you know emulate and want to be like and he did it in such a like a classy manner like awesome guy on the ice awesome guy off the ice so buries one of those guys and then in van like you know like you look at like the twins like the citines like awesome people like some of the best nice people i've ever met but like the same type of focus same type of drive show up every summer or every fall like they're in top shape they're doing all the extra stuff you're trying to just keep up pace with these guys and then on the ice like like the way they thought about the game and the way they perceived the game and would outthink you before you even thought about what they're going to do like it just i'd never seen anything like that connection before yeah how when they came in the league it was like nobody's ever seen like to like it was like they just always knew each other were i feel like you tell me maybe i'm wrong i feel like i never saw the shot pass high tip in the slot that they love doing and like that became a thing it's still a thing right like they just always knew where each other were were they after practice like just the two of them speaking in swedish like if you go here i'm going here and you know having ficas and you know that's an afternoon coffee free at elf if you don't know uh sweet love that pika um like like what was it like being around them and how did they just know where each other were all the time it was it so that's something i didn't practice i remember so i got traded there at the deadline uh 2009 and i remember like like your power play practice whatever pk practice right and so we're doing power play practice and i'm playing on pk and like it's just like rep after rep after rep like hanks on the wall because so hanks so you guys know like danny's a score hanks to play maker yeah and like hanks uh no offense to danny but like hank can kind of like he'll make he'll play that anybody and still make things work where danny's like the trigger man and kind of needs a passer so so hank always runs the half wall and i'm playing that left side and like they just went rep after rep either through the triangle or their interchange and score goals and perhaps i'm like i'm a kinky like like come on buddy like how do i stop you guys like what could i do to just like slow you guys down he's like he'll be like you can't stop us and like he just but he's like they don't talk they just they just communicate and know where each other is going to be and it's just like it's not even like it's just like the subtle little picks or like one of them lifting up the stick where the other one goes for your triangle like that sort of thing that like you can't teach that guys just like figure that out and like those are the small things they did all the small things that people don't even really notice it and practice like getting a chance to go against that practice and like you guys know like in practice guys are trying stuff it's almost more skilled stuff happens in practice sometimes yeah because of the pressure of a game and like you're just like like how do i like i can't stop you guys it's ridiculous you know so um watching those guys and playing against those guys and practicing against those guys made me a much better player but to see how they communicate and the goals they score and how they work off each other and then they have like working with burrows like you know how to pucks off and getting the puck go to them and then going to the net like they were just they were a force to be reckoned with for like four or five years right so um but great human beings unlivable ice hockey players uh some of the best teammates i ever had and then they have like that same type of drive leadership where it's like they don't say much and they don't need to say anything it's just like hop on my back like let's go you know that makes me think like with them and you were talking about how you had you know you saw at least two different kind of styles of play in the NHL throughout your career maybe even like two and a half three when you started probably looking at like when you started pro like guys weren't actively picking up a D-man stick but then you play with the two guys who are doing it every single shift non-stop you know you oh i'm gonna poke check this guy and then all of a sudden somebody lifts your stick so it goes under and and that's just so cool and you know something that Tope and I always talk about it's like you get better in practice like like you have to dial in your practice your habits your details also don't be afraid to try things i don't know how it was you know you're just a a year or two older than me i'm an were eighty-fives um you know i was never allowed to make a pass on my back hand until i probably got to pro hockey like like just what he don't make passes on your backhand then you get in a game and you're like i i'm not an ambiturner i'm not zu i'm zu i can only turn left you know you know what the vex like it's so funny when we get players that have played in the NHL on there and we'll ask them questions about like hey who who were the guys that had the biggest influence in your stuff and it's always this guy had awesome practice habits like andry the way that you like answered that question about birds you're on and then and then the sedines it's like all you talk about is practice and you know and it's like that's how you get better that's where you get better and like ah man just they're not talking about like the skill or the highlights and and all this kind of stuff like what makes those people great it's like when the lights are off what what they do when the lights are off that's what makes them great and and that's why it's so cool to be able to talk with you guys and and hear these kinds of stories and and even and hear your story too especially like look at where you were when you were 15 years old you know at the start of this podcast and and look at how amazing of a career you had and everybody wants this like quick fix like how do you make it to the highest level as fast as well no there isn't there isn't one they're just there isn't one until to hear these guys the stories is amazing dude i literally gave a speech to my midget group Tuesday last night i gave a speech to my midget group last night because i had a buddy come in town or who was at the rink and i saw him and he played like eight years pro mostly in the coast a little bit in the a he was a captain of of mankato back in the day and i was like this guy right here was way less skilled than me all right guys and he played eight years pro i was like these are the kind of guys that you need to listen to like yeah everybody wants to be counter mc david and everybody wants to be cindy crossby but that's like point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one percent that go to the show at 18 and do well like i was like if any of you were that in this room i'm sorry guys i would already know i would know that you're you're you are that so like listening to guys like me and listen to guy like albie and listen to guys who had to grind like you got cut from your high school hockey team at 15 you're in the nhl less than 10 years later that to me it's like well what did that guy do what did he do to make up that much ground in such a short time because now if you're a guy who does have skill and then you add the pieces that you did whatever you did with jack and mindset and nutrition whoa now you're putting the skill with the will and now how far can we go yeah i mean you said right there the skill of the will right like the will of a young player and it goes back to what tofu's saying too it's like uh and what you were just saying is like it's the top end guys they'll go like they'll play how far they get we'll see but like if you're a a third or fourth line guy on a midget team right now or a u15 u16 guess what you don't think coaches are looking for those guys like look at the you watch the playoffs they only could play like the third and fourth lines or a lot of times will win the games the top two lines they're gonna grind it out and like they'll get their goals and get their points but like a lot of times it's the bottom six that carry teams and like you need a dog to get on pucks right you need a guy to get in there bang get on the fourth check disrupt shit like that's all part of the game that's part of being a team so those guys are on the third and fourth line like like keep grinding keep working like be the best out there and be the best of your job bring value to your job and people will find you you know stop chasing coach you stop chasing teams be the best that you can be and people will find you if you're good and as simple as that like there's a there's a issue with a lot of youth hockey nowadays and it drives me crazy and it's just like you're good enough they'll find you and you don't have to be a goal scorer so just like Marty St. Louis said on our podcast be the best at getting better baby be the best at getting better well you obviously had an awesome career and like transitioning outside of hockey one of the things we wanted to ask you about to end this was you know we have this partnership right now with NHL sense arena and it's a phenomenal phenomenal tool it's awesome and Vex and I both used it Vex has it in his gym and you're working with those guys right now and talk a little bit about just your experience working with NHL sense arena and and how you feel like in help because again we do have a ton of kids a lot of parents that listen to this podcast like how how can that help them to to really develop some of that IQ help them to develop some of the skills to to eventually maybe get to where you were yeah yeah I mean the simple part is like what we've talked about it's like it's reps it's like how many times you guys are forward so it's like how many times oh how many pucks you shoot like rep for rep for rep how many times have you dumped the puck and got a break out pass and broke the puck out two and one down the ice interchange whatever might be it's just like reps right and so gosh like three years ago Brian Decord who helped about the goalie product gave me a buzz because they were moving into the player product sensory and so I went down put the headset on never didn't know a thing about it never been in VR put it on and I did they had me do the shoulder check drill which I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with but what it is is puck is caring about the goaltender to the corner you're there to grab the puck but before you do you have to shoulder check to see what information is behind you what can you what key identifiers can you grab what cues you identify that guys on in immediate media conflicts stick position you know body position where players headed and then once you turn back they show you either a color or the puck appears right and so depending on the drill you have to either find the stick that goes with that color or you find your open man but so I did that drill and then I got let's do another I'm like wait wait let's only get this down I want to check it out and get it down again like understand what's happening here and so my thought process was like like you guys we can change the difficulty the speed of the players and where they're going and they're AI so it's not the same patterns every time and we just who rep after rep and they're like yeah and I'm like well how many more drills do we got here you guys it's like 30 drills and I'm like this is phenomenal because players need reps like that's that's what coaches provide right they provide reps and practice and then off ice you can do whatever you got to do but like players need game reps that's how you get better and so I thought this I like I was like this is unbelievable as a training tool that you can be in your house and get all the game reps you want unlimited game reps of drills or work on specific skills to make you a better player and it's all in your own it's it's not paying for ice it's not paying a coach you've got me in your ear instead of some coach yell and I am right but I just I think a platform like this and this technology is such a great way for players to get extra reps and you get and understand you know patterns in the game enhance your decision-making abilities understand what's going to be available to you in different situations and so I love being a part of it I love being on the development side kind of helping young players you know improve their game and so it's been great to be a part it's been a fun ride and we've got a lot more stuff in the bag here coming so I fell in love with it right away I saw the vision and I like where we're headed but it's always great to get feedback from other people and we're always trying to improve it yeah and I think it's so cool the way that you talk about it's just it's more reps it's more reps to be able to get because there's only so many hours in a day you get on the ice ice time is expensive skills coaches are expensive and so having the opportunity to just hop into your basement or your garage or whatever it may be at your house and and get these and it's not physical reps it's a little physical but it's it's the mental reps that you get over and over and over again and that's what makes you better reps remove what VEX doubt baby that's moved out it's one of the things it's wild how weird it looks I was using it like probably three weeks ago with one of my goalies we're battling back and forth and I'm just I suck at it and obviously he's a D1 goalie he's really good and he's like is that Trent and so I put it on all of a sudden it comes back around and it's one of my clients is shooting on me in VR Trent Frederick I'm like that's exactly how Trent skates and shoots and then I text Trent I'm like bro are you in this game am I taking your and he was like yeah dude I am what that's so cool yeah no so we yeah we do HD video for goalies we'll record NHL shooters or pressure women coming down college players actually we're gonna release a bunch of age-appropriate shooters so we'll have U16s U15s U12s for young goalies because they don't necessarily need to be seeing NHL shots and they'll help them improve their game because a 12 year old shoots a different than an 18 year old right so they're reading the release they're looking at the shin pads the shoulders the hands of where that puck's gonna go so no it's pretty cool I guess that if you've never been in VR just go somewhere and try it because once we get a headset on somebody and they understand you're fully immersed in this environment the sounds you hear the sights you see the shot coming off the blade you're seeing an HD video melt into a VR platform for goal tenders I'm speaking of the of reading the release and the spin off the puck can come off the blade and everything else so it's really true shots coming at you and again it's just reps it's your scans your pre-scans your reads all that stuff and we also track metrics which is cool so you want a quick release we're tracking that baby so yeah that's really cool that's really cool well we appreciate your time and we have a discount code for anybody that wants to get involved and might want to get a sense arena here so we'll put that in the show notes it's a lot of it it's a lot of oh we got it if you're on YouTube it's right at the bottom of the screen but we'll put this on the show notes for the podcast where you can go there and get 10% off an annual plan and so yeah this is a phenomenal product and and that dude that was such a great like synopsis of like why it can help you and how it can help you be a better player and yeah just a really really cool thing but we appreciate your time we're going to hold on to you here for another five to ten minutes or so and we're going to do a 10 questions with you this will be housed in our hockey think tank community and so if you're not in the community yet go to community.thehockeythinktank.com got another 10 questions here with with Andrew but dude thanks so much for for your time and talking about your journey with us today I think it's one that is gonna really resonate with a lot of the kids that listen to this one so appreciate your time and appreciate your input. Hey I was happy to chat off you boys. Thanks for having me. Awesome. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]