Last October, Canadian Women’s National team goalie, Kim St. Pierre, got that opportunity when she joined the Montreal Canadiens on the ice for practice. And she took it all in stride.
Kim described her experience at practice as being, “Priceless”. A pretty clever play on words, since she not only got to realize her dream of testing her skills against NHL players, but she was also filling in for the Canadiens No. 1 goalie, Carey Price, who missed practice with the flu.
Can you imagine what getting that phone call would be like? First you would think it was a prank call from one of your friends, and if you didn’t hang up the phone immediately, your brain would all of sudden start going a million miles an hour thinking about how fun/hard/scary/amazing that couple hours on the ice would be.
You would hang up the phone, pick it up again and call every single person you know and try to explain to them that an NHL team just drafted you for practice. After spending the next hour trying to convince them that you weren’t lying, you would grab your gear and rush out the door.
At some point on the way to the rink, reality would set in. You would realize that you were going to be spending the next couple of hours having Alexei Kovalev and other NHL superstars fire shots at you and your head. If you are a skater, think about playing the same game, but doubling or tripling the speed and size of the players you were on the ice with. Yikes.
You would be excited, scared, nervous, terrified, and in awe all at the same time. But I can guarantee that you would rise to the challenge.
When awesome opportunities like this arise, you’ve got no time to think - you just react. At some point during the long hockey season, every girls hockey player gets mentally lazy. As you settle into your routine for the season, you might find yourself starting to go through the motions mentally. Your excitement for playing dies just a little bit, until the next big game or tournament comes along, and you get to rise to the challenge again.
When asked about how she felt at this once-in-a-lifetime practice, St. Pierre said, “I wasn’t scared, because I was so into it. I don’t get to practice with the Montreal Canadiens every day.”
You don’t get the chance to practice with NHLers every day, but you need to do everything you can to get as excited as possible for every practice and game you play. Sure, you may be in your dingy local rink at 10pm on a Tuesday night, instead of under the bright lights of the Bell Centre, but both of those practices will give you an amazing opportunity to learn.
Every time you hit the ice, you have to find a way to rise to the challenge on both a physical and mental level. How do you get yourself ready for the biggest game of the season and for the late-night run-of-the-mill team practice? Is your preparation different? Do you think it should be?
~ Coach Kim
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Originally published September 22, 2008 on Total Female Hockey [2]