Season 6 Episodes 21 and 22 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Feels Like Home and This Is Art. This week, THG’s fearless leader was once again no where to be seen so Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were joined by former Michigan Tech Huskies goaltender Jamie Phillips. In these episodes they discussed Jamie’s career path after his playing career, Jamie’s current business ventures, being the goalie coach at the Muskegon Lumberjacks, listener questions for Jamie, a review of Michigan Tech’s series against Bowling Green, and a preview of Tech’s upcoming series against St. Thomas.
A very busy man
Jamie started off the show by going through all of the positions he currently holds. These included his physical therapy business in which he’s building his clinic, being a goalie coach for local kids, the Director of Goaltending at Fox Motors AAA hockey and his goalie school which is both online and in person. Jamie talked about his physical therapy clinic being targeted at hockey players with injuries. Jamie talked about it being very important to him to give back to the hockey community and loving putting his energy into helping others stop pucks. Jamie talked about a variety of ways technology such as iPads plays into his business and coaching.
Jamie talked about his decision to settle in Grand Rapids, Mich. He talked about loving the west Michigan area while vising throughout his years of playing and his wife being from the area. He also said looking for an opportunity to be a goalie coach was a driving factor and he was able to convince Fox Motors AAA to give me free reign of their goalie program. He brought up the fact that his last college and AHL games were both at Van Andel Arena, and so he thought there was a bit of destiny involved.
Coaching
Jamie talked several times about how important being a goalie coach is to him and giving back to the hockey community. He talked about his remote training program he’s developed which has participants countries including the United Kingdom, Norway, Spain and Brazil. He talked about the various skill levels of the participants, ranging from high level skaters to relative beginners.
Rob asked Jamie how he landed his goalie coaching gig with the Muskegon Lumberjack in the USHL. Jamie talked about being recommended for the position and how nice it is to coach high level hockey players. He talked about how well run the Lumberjack organization is as well as the wonderful staff behind the scenes. He discussed some of the differences in coaching high level goalies versus kids, which mainly boiled down to refining the goalie’s skills to get them ready for the college speed game.
Matt asked Jamie which age range players is his favorite to coach. Jamie thought that skaters between the ages of 14-18 were his favorite because most kids that age have become technically proficient goalies but still have lots of room for learning new goaltending techniques. He talked about adding more advance goalie techniques to these kids’ repertoire. Jamie also talked about the importance of vibes when coaching. He said there’s some goalie’s he doesn’t vibe with and vice versa and loves it when goalies are hungry for knowledge and ask him “why are we doing this” during drills.
Michigan Tech recruits
Jamie is working with two Michigan Tech recruits on the Muskegon Lumberjacks. He talked about working with Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (Shikha), a goalie recruit for Tech. Jamie talked about Shikha having a unique goalie style and being very athletic. Jamie also said that Shikha is an incredible competitor and is exited to see how Shikha will perform in college in a non-offensive heavy league like the CCHA. Jamie thought Shikha would embrace the fans and atmosphere at Tech, but stressed that Shikha has to learn not to let himself get distracted by the fans. Jamie also mentioned having forward Matthew Van Blaricom on the Lumberjacks team and thought that he would be a good addition to Tech’s roster in the future.
Listener questions
There were a number of listener questions for Jamie. One question asked Jamie if Tech goalie Max Vayrynen is the best skating goalie he’s ever seen, which Jamie said was true. Another question asked Jamie why he chose to play at Tech and Jamie talked about being recruited by Tech’s goalie coach at the time, Steve Shields, as well as being offered a full ride scholarship. The next question asked Jamie what facilities upgrades Tech could use to help attract top level recruits. Jamie thought that the facilities at the arena were top notch and said hiring a sports scientist or dietician could help boost the attractiveness of the program.
Another listener asked Jamie what advice he gives to parents or players who cannot afford private goalie coaching. Jamie talked about the numerous free resources available to players online and highly advised taking advantage of any ice time that is available. Matt asked Jamie if goalies used advisors like other skaters do and Jamie said using an advisor is the same for both skaters and goalies.
The last set of listener questions started off by asking Jamie for his thoughts on the most important quality a goalie could have. Jamie said it was critical for a goalie to be able to read and understand the game happening in front of them because teaching hockey IQ isn’t something that happens easily. Jamie talked about former Tech goalie Blake Pietila being phenomenal at understanding the game and was also great at taking feedback and implementing it immediately. The final listener question for Jamie asked if he’d be interested in being Michigan Tech’s head coach as some point, to which Jamie answered “NO” before Rob could even finish asking the question.
Before Jamie left the show, he plugged his goalie training (Elite Goalie Method), his upcoming goalie coaching app, his physical therapy clinic (Ghost Rehab) and his goalie science podcast.
Bowling Green series review/St. Thomas series preview
Once they were alone, Rob and Matt reviewed Tech’s series last weekend against Bowling Green and previewed the teams’ upcoming series against St. Thomas. Matt talked about Friday’s game against Bowling Green being very dominant and thought it proved the idea that Tech is a step ahead of Bowling Green in the conference. Matt thought Saturday’s game was frustrating because Tech didn’t get some bounces but gave the team major credit for getting a point from the game after entering the third period down by two goals. Rob expressed frustration at the power play struggling at times during the series but was thrilled to see Isaac Gordon get on the scoresheet for Tech.
Moving to the upcoming series against St. Thomas, Matt immediately picked Tech to win 4-2 each night. The guys discussed some of the losses St. Thomas has suffered on the season and Matt attributed some of those losses to head coach Rico Blasi making questionable roster decisions. Rob ended up predicting a 2-0 Friday win for Tech and a 3-1 Saturday win for Tech.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately one minutes long in which Matt talked about the evolution of the hockey rink in Grand Rapids where Jamie works.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 95 minutes.
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