Rink Stories

Maria Mountain is an exercise physiologist who has specialized in off-ice training for hockey goalies for more than 20 years. She is the founder of GoalieTrainingPro.com, where you can find all sorts of videos to help with your dry land training practices. Please welcome this 5-6 goaltender out of London Ontario.

In this episode, we ask Maria: How did you get into training goaltenders? What are some of the most common injuries you s...

On March 16th, Bob attended his first ever women’s professional hockey game and recorded a monologue/rant on the way home.  Here is what he had to say in the immediate aftermath of the game, a PHF playoff tilt between the Boston Pride and the Minnesota Whitecaps at the Bentley Arena in Waltham MA. Later that week, Bob crashed the PHF press conference before the Isobel Cup championship game and asked some questions.
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The...

Where Bob reflects on his last game ever as a hockey dad under withering questioning from Matt and our special guest, The G Force. 

• 0:00-G Force joins the podcast
• 11:30-Where Was Bob Last Week?
• 23:25-G Force plays Wrist Shots
• 31:13-After the last game

Plus other fun and funny stuff.
N.B. – don’t worry folks, we’re not done making podcasts. Stay subscribed and keep spreading the word.
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The Rink Stories podcast i...

Today we have a special episode produced in conjunction with Cape Ann LIVE! Earlier today, Sunday 02/26, I sat down with our friend and previous podcast guest, Phil Nicastro, the announcer for Gloucester Fisherman hockey here in Massachusetts, to preview the MIAA boys high school ice hockey playoff tournament. Our focus was mostly on the teams in the Northeastern Conference, but you’ll get a pretty good picture of which teams to lo...

Daryl Watts recently signed a contract with the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation that will make her the highest paid player in the history of women’s professional hockey ($150,000/year!). She is the 2nd leading scorer in women’s NCAA history, tallying 136 goals, 161 assists for a total of 297 points over 5 seasons. In 2019, as a freshman at Boston College, she won the Patty Kazmaier award as the best player in the count...

Gabriel Foley is Recruit Scouting's Head of North American scouting. This 6-1 left winger out of Peoria Illinois returns to Rink Stories discuss his 2023 NHL draft rankings and other topics.
Foley cracks open the notebook to give us an overview of some of the names we'll likely hear called  in the 1st round of the 2023 NHL Draft, including Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Will Smith, Oliver Moore, Ryan Leonard, Jacob Fo...

Anthony Ciardelli covers schoolboy sports in California and has been a contributing writer to a range of publications including, The Hockey Writers.com, The Hockey News, USCHO.com, and the LA Times. He is also a co-executive producer for the Sundance-accepted 2022 film, God’s Country, a thriller starring Thandiwe Newton. Please welcome this 6-2 left winger out of Hanover, New Hampshire, #3, an LA transplant and still a Boston Bruin...

Phil Nicastro – a 6-foot right winger out of Gloucester MA – is “the voice of the fish,” the announcer for Gloucester High School Fishermen hockey and football games on Cape Ann LIVE!
This was our first ever in-person interview. After some pizza and salad at Bob’s house, Matt joined Phil and Bob via Zoom, and the boys discussed: the electric playoff atmosphere at “The Tank,” the Dorothy Talbot Rink in Gloucester; the Fishermen’...

In this episode, Bob and Matt catch up after a hiatus and introduce a new segment called New Hockey Parent Advice, which may actually be useful to some people. Plus, the boys run through a bunch of topics from the notebook: Will Bob’s goalie dad anecdote be chosen for inclusion in a hockey book? What is the least popular Rink Stories episode? After recent visits to two of the most notorious rinks, how are renovations to the Kasabus...

Paul Stewart – a 6 foot 1 inch left winger out of Dorchester, Massachusetts – is the only American to both play and referee in the National Hockey League, playing the 1979-1980 season with the Quebec Nordiques before logging 1,010 games as an NHL referee. In 2018, he joined his grandfather, Bill Stewart, as an inductee in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. You can check out his thoughts on all things hockey on hockeybuzz.com, and you ca...

Our summer break is over. At long last we welcome Steve Clay, play-by-play voice of the Marblehead (MA) High School Headers; a public address announcer, and broadcast producer for high school, college hockey, and professional sports over the past 20 years; and a hockey dad for an 07.
Steve regales us with tales of joy and woe from many broadcast booths. Should broadcasters be homers or neutral? What’s it like to call a game wit...

What happens  when the guest doesn’t show up? Bob is dismayed that his extensive notes will go unused. Matt could have been watching the Mets game. So we continue on - without a guest - and talk about the stuff in the notes anyway.
Thus began an awkward dance on the third rail of women’s hockey – from trans/non-binary athlete inclusion policies to the recent news about Digit Murphy, the 2-time Rink Stories podcast guest and ne...

Jennifer Chefero  is a frequent contributor on The Donut Bag podcast, a chronicler of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Twitter, and a hockey trainer and coach.  In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss: predictions for the NHL playoffs, “toxic hockey culture,” player development, and Bob’s trip to the Frozen Four in Boston.
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The Rink Stories podcast is produced by Matt Hopf
 Artwork and music by Ken Klein
Additio...

Hubie McDonough is a 5-foot 9-inch center out of Manchester NH who scored 210 points, 124 goals and 86 assists, for Saint Anselm College on the way to winning the Small College Hobey Baker Award in 1985. He followed that up with a 13-year pro career where he tallied 820 goals and 513 assists for a total of 1333 points, along the way playing 195 NHL games with the LA Kings, NY Islanders and San Jose Sharks.

In this wide-ra...

This week we welcome to the podcast Kristina Young, Director of Marketing and Social Media at LiveBarn, the streaming service that broadcasts games from more than 1,000 rinks throughout USA, Canada and Sweden. Here we ask all the questions that need to be answered, such as: Do people ever contact you to remove video of their regrettable behavior? What was the impact of the pandemic on LiveBarn? What does LiveBarn think when their v...

Bobby Orr,  a staple of the hockey GOAT conversation, the best player on the best and most colorful Bruins team ever, the phenom from small town Ontario who fully reached the potential suggested by his eye-catching play as a 9-year-old.
In this wide-ranging investigation, we combine contemporaneous and historical sources with nostalgia, to get a full picture of Orr’s career and life.
Special thanks to Joe Bertagna, G-Forc...

Stu Woodrow, a  5-10 forward out of Marblehead MA, has been refereeing youth hockey games for the past 14 years, and he is a hockey dad for 3 boys, a 93, a 95, and a 98. With the kids grown up and securely out of the house, we’re delighted that he had time to speak with us. 
In this wide-ranging conversation, Stu provides fascinating insight into what it's like on the other side of the glass as a referee for youth and adul...

A 5-8 forward out of Acton Massachusetts, #9, Nick Carpenito is the Associate Head Coach for the Northeastern Women’s Hockey team, 2021 Frozen Four Finalist and preseason #2 team in the country.   
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Bob and Matt welcome Nick, who takes all of our mispronunciations and misspeaks in stride, introducing us to the loaded NU Huskies team (3 returning 1st team all-Americans!?!?), along the way regaling us with quick takes on r...

Christina Putigna is a 5 foot 8 forward out of Grimsby Ontario. As a key contributor for the 2021 Isobel Cup champion Boston Pride, she was the league’s leading scorer and MVP runner-up in the Premier Hockey Federation.
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In this fast paced conversation, Bob asks Christina about: Comparisons between life in the Lake Placid Bubble and sleepaway hockey camp; technical pointers on Christina's two hella assists in the I...