[Applause] A [Applause] all right Nikki how you doing great you’re from Buffalo I am they had some excitement there uh week or so ago with the Border um I don’t know what happened there did you hear anything uh I was on the ice for a camp actually it was my
First Camp back on the ice um after about 3 months off not skating got back on the ice and I heard about it I wasn’t really too sure what happened but everyone was talking about it at all the scouts were just in a big race to come
Over to watch you that’s what happens big shut down at the border must have on that but appreciate you coming out to to skate today it’s great to work with a guy that plays Pro Hockey in Europe um and we got lots of cool things to talk
About you’re also a great goalie coach you offer great lessons clinics camps in Buffalo it’s called valo goal tending correct and uh Nick hell of a goalie and you’re going to see today when we’re on the ice some of the the great skills he
Has um I need to get my Nitro Brew in here from Starbucks just to get all gassed up and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the future Pro sportsware that you can get on futur proo docomo line fut nice you should get some of that so
Before we get out there let’s do a little bit of a background on you because you’re an inspiration to a lot of people because you’ve had lots of challenges you’ve had double hip surgery you come from Buffalo where you’re not 6’4 so let’s get right into it and talk
About how has height affected your journey and and from your perspective what’s your take on the height requirements they have in the NHL yeah I mean obviously uh everyone who is watching hockey knows the trend that goalies are going in and um I don’t think there’s any changing with that
Anytime soon but my biggest issue is when I see a younger goalie who um just gives up on basically any aspirations they have when yeah maybe you’re not going to make it to the NHL or maybe you don’t um have the ability to uh do something like that but you just got to
Make do with what you got and that’s been something that I’ve been trying to do and I’ve been very fortunate to be able to like you said play professional and been doing NHL development camp and um you know starting my goalie school now and I really think that if I just
Gave up and um you know if if I knew that the the end goal wasn’t going to be the NHL if I just gave up at that point it wouldn’t wouldn’t be wouldn’t be here right now with you and I think that’s the the takeaway message that’s
Important that you know obviously in NHL they have a height requirement and we don’t want kids to be discouraged but we want them to have their eyes wide open that even if that doesn’t end up being a possibility you could certainly be a professional in Europe you could
Certainly play in junior hockey you could play college hockey and you’ve battled through the the misthink of people about the height and hip surgery so tell me about your hips and how you battle through that because that’s also inspirational a lot of goalies now are getting hip impingement surgeries and
You had both your hips done at the same time I did yeah so I had uh I had pretty bad hip impingement torn Labs on both sides and I also had uh some bone chip hip bone chip on on one of the sides so I was in rough shape and the reason for
That was I just I didn’t have any guidance when I was when I was younger with that type of stuff um and I always kind of put it on the the back burner where I thought I’ll I’ll figure it out later on I don’t have any issues and
Then it just it sneaks up on you really quickly and I didn’t you know I I didn’t take it seriously and ended up missing two years of hockey and two crucial years of hockey too from basically from 18 to 20 it was about 18 months of me
Really not playing at all and um but it was a good it was a turning point for me because now I um I take it so seriously and for me personally I do about 30 40 minutes of mobility and uh Dynamic stretching every single day and I mean I
Think you can kind of see it with my game now I have a wide wide butterfly flare and I can get into the splits and I I I for sure would not be playing right now at 26 26 years old I wouldn’t be playing right now if I didn’t have
That turning point so Nikki vardo great goenda so reach out to him through Instagram or online and we’ll put in the description below how you can reach out to him but he’s a great goalie coach in Buffalo love working with a kid and if you’re a smaller goalie don’t be
Discouraged know what the challenge is understand what it is you can prove people wrong as my friend Nikki has [Applause] All right Nikki thanks for helping out today on the ice been very impressed with how well you’re moving uh and clearly you’re professional a lot of the kids we work with locally aren’t going to be moving with the explosion and the Precision that you have and the other
Thing that a professional goalie has is great transition skills and earlier this year we worked on a a drill because somebody had asked but well I get into a butterfly slide and then I overs slide I over pursue and I wanted to break down in the earlier videos how we can be good
At stopping our slides and so today we’re going to do a drill where I have you use three options where we’re going to slide to the post we’re going to slide ahead of the post and when we slide ahead of the post we’re going to use two techniques where you just
Elevate that lead skate as you’re sliding and create a break to stop it which we showed in an earlier video which I’ll link in the description we’re also going to use a way that a technique that you brought to my attention where you can use a modified
VH slide and then also the traditional when I say traditional the one that’s used a lot today which is going to be landing in that post in the rvh and I think for a pro like you he’ll be able to get off the rvh quite easily to handle the attack whereas some younger
Kids are going to struggle to get out of the VH with their exit so let’s break down those three right now here we go skate here get that good break and then when Tommy swings Back Against the Grain go back and jam him up with that super flare butterfly you got all
Right time y yeah all right here we go perfect [Applause] perfect and if he does happen to score I’m just going to edit it out [Applause] anyways all right those are some great examples of doing that where we slide ahead of the post and we get that lead skate up to form
That nice break show us one again without a puck so there’s a hard slide get that lead skate up and then a quick transition back across that’s money that’s fluid that’s gold now the secondary variation we’re going to do here is where you land there in almost a
Dynamic VH so let’s show the the viewers what that looks like [Applause] last [Applause] one all right excellent now that’s the second option I love it it’s it’s a great thing it keeps you in control when we’re using the VH that keeps that inside pad nice and vertical and really
Discourages him from trying to chip it over you so now if we can do this without banging the post off we’re going to try to do the the variation we see quite a bit now where guys land back in the rvh I think a professional like you
Will have no problem getting back to Tommy I just think on a younger goalie if they choose to go back to the post on this they’re going to get quite locked and not have an ability to get back with you as he wraps it so here’s the third
Option where we land on the post in the rvh or the reverse that’s all right that’s going to look good on the video cuz we can do that in the game several times in minor hockey right and if we keep knocking it off in a game in minor
Hockey you’re going to be getting the penalty so obviously when we do the reverse with great power at a high level goal tender then that’s going to come off with the pegs we got so unless you’re using NHL pegs you’re going to be knocking the net off
A lot so let’s do the same thing that we did on the other side with a couple options first one’s going to be you’re going to do a full sliding butterfly with a good stop and let’s do a couple of those sequences nicely done and the paddle is a good thing to
Use as well when you’re going glove side to blocker side I love it good Jam take away Tommy’s ankles he don’t need no ankles excellent last one last [Applause] one beautiful now we’re going to go back to the to the dynamic VH here and an interesting point I’ve coached goalies
I’m sure you’ve coached goalies too as well that like the rvh on one post and the VH on another and likewise in this situation you can use a dynamic VH where you sort of land with that inside leg leg almost vertical which will also help with your transition Back Against the
Grain and it’s another option here we [Applause] go three [Applause] more two [Applause] more nice last one last [Applause] one all right great job on [Applause] [Applause] that you guys that watch the channel a lot know this guy Tommy he runs my hockey school he he’s okay hands he’s uh he’s not a cognitive Miser he’s very smart he’s very smart and then over here we got Nikki so we’re going to do a little five Puck Breakaway Challenge and
Nikki was mentioning yesterday that you know he doesn’t like shooting on guys that are getting sto and guys that don’t have full gear on cuz he likes to throw the odd poke check so please Nikki don’t kill my number one shooter okay I can’t give away all my secet that’s right how
Many breakaways out of five are you going to stop to maintain bragging rights on this you saw some of his cheese yesterday right how much time he’s got coming in is he taking his sweet old time it’s like it’s like shootout rules he’s got nobody so what
Do you what do you think Tommy let’s start with you how many you going to score in a fight I’m going to go for three three three goals at a five that’s very aggressive challenge yeah we’re going to go for that I don’t think you’re going to get three but what do
You think Nick I mean if he gets anything more than one fluke I’m not happy with it all right let let’s do this then okay if Tommy gets one or less you win and he’s got to be your Puck b word and you know what that means that
Means you’ve got to carry his bag out to his car all right let’s do it all right this is Puck number [Applause] one oh now the pressure’s on you Nikki pressure’s on you uhoh we got to got to go four for four all right it’s a little better one goal
One all right two for three you got to restart [Applause] that all right two Sage two goals last one [Applause] Ah love it good finish way to battle [Applause] [Applause] right All right Nick you’re dead tired and this is where I like to take advantage of a go tender in a in a betting game for Pride I’m probably going to lose um he’s a very quick kid it’s going to be tough to score in his five hole some of
My favorite places to go I don’t like to tell people during the three- Puck game where I’m going to go but I’m going to go glove Side High with the first one second one I’m going to go five hole and third one I’m going to drag to my back
And to go around his blocker side the question is do you believe me me or am I playing mental games with you I believe you let’s not let’s not forget that I’ve been off for 3 months but who’s telling so he’s been off for 3 months anything
Else new gear he’s got new Gear New Gear he’s new environment strange strange country he’s nervous around the goat right yeah there’s there’s that too camera C with cameras that throws a lot of people off including Tommy on his date night now listen we’re get maybe we’ll edit that
Out Tommy here’s the rules I got 10 chances to score three pucks I can shoot or deak either Puck I got to keep using the same Puck till it in you know the you know the game here I’ll figure it out if I don’t figure it out let’s go make some saves let’s
Go I can pick any I [Applause] want all right one [Applause] that’s two two yeah we’re at two three I don’t like a DI than active stick Tom four we got one oh five we got two 7 8 eight CH it I got P last one got stop this got
Last down to the last Puck here I’ll take my off I’ll take my L good job ni all right I’ll take my [Applause] LOD
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