MEET THE KRAKEN: Joey Daccord's vision, mask, and more

Goaltender Joey Daccord's conversation with Mike Benton on the latest episode drop of "Meet The Kraken"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to meet the King with Mike Minton. Joey
Decord is back. Need I say more? This fan base
is waiting for you to see you once again.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
You look fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
First off, we'll just dive into it.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
How does this.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Past summer going home differ from previous summers in that
you've now gotten established NHL career.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, well, thanks for having me. It's definitely going to
be back. It's always fun to come back to town,
and I love the city here and it's great to
be back. So yeah, I think, you know, for me,
I'm just excited to get back to work. I feel
like I've been itching for a good month month or
two now to get back. You know, I think we
were all a little bit disappointed with how last season went,
and you know, now moving forward, we're ready to go.

(00:45):
We're excited. I'm excited. I can't wait to get planning again.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
The Winter Classic. What a day?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Where's the Cocoa Cup. Cocoa Cup is in my house
back home in the Boston area. It is upstairs. I
got a little trophy room with some or is. He's
framed and different trophies over the years, and it's yeah,
it's right in there and looks pretty good in there. Oh,
you have a perfect place to put that thing.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
If you're often told that when you get to the NHL,
the field is usually well, you're trying to picture it
as the same game, you know, as you grow and
grow older and older that but that's the mindset. But
what's the most rewarding thing about being a full time
pro at this level now after all the years of
trying to climb the ladder?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, yeah, there's there's definitely a lot that goes into it.
I think, you know, for me, it's that's all I've
ever really dreamt of. That's all I've ever wanted to
be was a hockey player, And to be here now.
I try to just pinch myself as much as I
can and take it all in and be as grateful
for it as I possibly can, because, like I said,
it's all I ever wanted and to be doing it
now is incredible and I just feel so grateful to

(01:49):
be here. And I think I think something that that's
kind of downed on me more as I've gotten to
this level and gotten too you know, playing here full
time is just how can I influence kids and help
kids achieve their dreams because at one point I was
their age and I was a younger kid, and I
looked up to older guys and I thought they were
the coolest guys in the world and had it all.

(02:09):
So now I try to do the best I can
to help those kids achieve their dreams as well.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
What's the best piece of advice you could give a
youth player looking to be better at the goaltending position.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, I get this question all the time, especially from
goalie parents. Goalie parents. It's tough, and for me, I
took a longer road. I you know, I went to
college at twenty years old, I turned pro at twenty two,
and you know, didn't make it really full time until
I was almost until I was twenty seven. So it
took a while for me. I think the number one

(02:42):
thing that I always say is just be patient. Right.
I remember I was sixteen, seventeen years old and I
was playing in prep school and I was seeing these
other goalies and players commit to colleges and get drafted
to the OHL or the Q or whatever and have
all this success, and I'm like, what is it gonna
be my turn? You know, And felt like I was

(03:02):
playing well and doing the things to earn, you know,
something similar, and it just wasn't happening for me. And
I think that taught me a lot about how to
be patient and how to earn what I've gotten. I
feel like everything that I've gotten in my career, I've
had to work for and earn, and I'm proud of
that and I'm grateful for that because it's shaped me
into who I am. So that's what I usually tell
goalies and goalie parents is just be patient, keep working hard,

(03:25):
keep working your butt off, and you know, if you
keep keep working at it, one day, you know it
might just happen for you.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
What's the inspiration behind your change at the goaltending mask?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
That is like the paint or Yeah, that's something that
we do every year, me and my mass painter, A Shifty.
He's out in California. He does a great job. He
you know, sometimes I'll say to him, Hey, I got
an idea, and sometimes he'll say I got an idea.
And usually it was like one FaceTime and we just
kind of spitall and figure out what we're gonna put
on the mask, and that's kind of how it goes.

(03:56):
This year, I said to him, Hey, I was thinking
about doing a home and away mask. Mask will be white,
you know, a white base, and will be for the
away jerseys, and one mask will be darker, darker, darker
blue and be for the home jerseys. And after that,
I didn't really tell him anything. He just he does
an amazing job and he's so creative and so gifted
and talented that I just let him know with it.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Well, the looks certainly is going to suit you well
here by the end of the season. You have a
new head coach of course in place now, but what
do you want to level up as far as your
game by the end of this year?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I think, uh, you know, there's always room for improvement
for me personally. I tried to this summer. I tried
to work on a lot of my like conditioning. I
think that's something that I could I could improve a
lot and and and did really work out really hard
this summer. So that was probably the biggest thing. And
throughout the season. Yeah, I think it's just as a goalie,
it's just never ending pursuit of trying to be more consistent.

(04:47):
You know, even the best goal in the league will
tell you, hey, how can I be more consistent every
single night for his team. That's the biggest thing when
you if I think, if you asked a player like,
what do they truly want from their goalie? They know
that they're getting the same goalie every single night, you know,
and they're not worried, Hey is it going to be
a good night or a bad night. So I think
it's just a never ending pursuit of.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
That of this fan base is looking forward to a
Joey welcome back.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Thank you again, thank you for you're

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Home for the cracking Sports Radio ninety three point three
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