Our Kids Play Hockey
Our Kids Play Hockey is a podcast that focuses on youth hockey, offering insights, stories, and interviews from the hockey community. It provides valuable advice for parents, coaches, and players, covering various aspects of the game, including skill development, sportsmanship, teamwork, and creating a positive experience for young athletes. The show frequently features guests who share their expertise and personal experiences in youth hockey, both on and off the ice.
The show features three hockey parents, who all work in the game at high levels:
- Christie Casciano-Burns - USA Hockey Columnist, Author, and WSYR Anchor
- Mike Bonelli - USA Hockey Coach and Organizational Consultant
- Lee M.J. Elias - Hockey Entrepreneur, Author, and Team Strategist
In addition to the main podcast, there are several spin-off series that dive into specific aspects of youth hockey:
1.Our Girls Play Hockey – This series highlights the growing presence of girls in hockey, addressing the unique challenges they face while celebrating their accomplishments and contributions to the sport. Each episode of Our Girls Play Hockey is also hosted by Sheri Hudspeth who is the Director, Youth Hockey Programs and Fan Development for the Vegas Golden Knights.
2.The Ride to The Rink – A shorter, motivational series designed to be listened to on the way to the rink, offering quick, inspirational tips and advice to help players and parents get into the right mindset before a game or practice.
3.Our Kids Play Goalie – This series is dedicated to young goalies and the unique challenges they face. It provides advice for players, parents, and coaches on how to support and develop young goaltenders, focusing on the mental and physical demands of the position.
Together, these shows provide a comprehensive platform for parents, players, and coaches involved in youth hockey, offering insights for all aspects of the sport, from parenting, playing, or coaching to specialized positions like goaltending.
Our Kids Play Hockey
The Ride to the Rink: World Champion Caroline Harvey on Habits That Build Champions
Team USA gold medalist and NCAA champion Caroline Harvey joins us for a special The Ride to the Rink edition—and she’s talking directly to young players chasing big goals.
Whether you dream of playing high school, college, or even Olympic hockey, this quick conversation is packed with the kind of advice that helps you take the next step in your game.
🏒 In this episode:
- ✅ Why small, daily habits matter more than highlight-reel moments
- ✅ What Caroline still does every day to improve her game
- ✅ The balance between having fun and putting in the work
- ✅ How muscle memory helps you stay confident on the ice
- ✅ Why practice is just as important as game day
This one’s short, powerful, and meant to be played on the way to your next skate.
💬 “Whatever your goals are, you can achieve them—if you’re consistent, focused, and having fun along the way.”
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Lee MJ Elias [0:08 - 0:44]: Skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. Got an amazing guest today. National champion, world champion gold medalist Caroline Harvey of Team USA and Wisconsin joins us here today. And kids, she wants to talk to you about building great habits and understanding on that journey that you're taking wherever you're at, to if you want to play in college or high level high school, you want to play on Team usa if you have dreams of making the Olympics. She's going to share some of the things that she does on her journey to help her get to where she's at today. Caroline, go ahead.
Caroline Harvey [0:45 - 1:37]: Yeah, so, I mean there is, there's many ways you can go. It depends like what goals you have in mind. If that's playing, like you said, collegiately, if you want to play high level high school, if you want to play for a national team, it goes in to the day in, day out, every day. It's consistent work habits. It's the drive you want to, you want to be the best, you want to achieve big things. You got to have the right mindset. It comes all from that. So if you shoot extra pucks every day, if you do an extra workout, if you stay on the ice longer at the end of practice to work on whether it's your shot, your hands, your skating, it's these little habits that add up every day. They're little wins, so they stack on top of each other and they, they add up to big things. So if you want to achieve these things and that's your long term goal, it's, it's an everyday process and it adds up over the years and you can achieve whatever you put your mind.
Lee MJ Elias [1:37 - 1:47]: To take us into. You know, maybe the younger you, the day to day, what are some of the specific habits that you built that you like to practice every day?
Caroline Harvey [1:47 - 2:43]: Yeah, still. So since I would say mainly like prep school and like even younger than that, I learned a lot of the stuff from prep school specifically, but I still do these things to this day. So I, I try to shoot extra pucks every day. I try to work on my hands at the end of practice or before practice, I'll work on my skating. And then sometimes during the season, like we'll go out early before practice and do a skill session for like 20, 30 minutes. Just working on could be like getting out of corners quick. It could be working on deception at the blue line as a defenseman. So it's just doing these little things every day, like I said. And you know, it's getting your mind right before practices. You know, a practice is just as important as a game. You get as much out of it, so maybe even more. It's. You want to be driven every practice. You want to be competing as hard as you can. You can't let your foot off the gas. So just taking advantage of every opportunity you, you have to get better and making the most of it.
Lee MJ Elias [2:43 - 3:15]: I love it. One more follow up for you, Caroline, is that, you know, and it's an honest question. You know, there's so many fun ways to practice today and we see it all the time. A lot of kids love to practice a Michigan goal or they like to practice these kind of, we'll say low percentage in game plays. Although they are fun. Right. Can you maybe break down the percentage of, of repetitive skills training that you do versus maybe more of the creative side? And again, I'm not saying there's a right and a wrong here, but when you're building muscle memory, right.
Speaker D [3:15 - 3:15]: It's.
Lee MJ Elias [3:16 - 3:33]: I doubt when you say you go to shoot, you're going up to the net and doing 15 Michigans as a defenseman just to get ready. Right. What is your percentage breakdown of repetitive skills? Maybe even dive into some of what those skills are. You did say some of them. And, and how that muscle memory is so important to becoming a better hockey player.
Caroline Harvey [3:33 - 4:20]: Yeah, I mean, of course those like fun, messed around skills at the end are awesome. And like you, there's time for that as well. But I would say honestly like 90, 95% of like the stuff working on, on the ice is like muscle memory stuff. It's the extra skills, the blue line work, the skating, the fine tuned things that really make the difference in the, the big games or just games in general. But you know, at the end of practice, me and my teammates will like work on flipping a puck from like, like a crazy distance and trying to make it in or tap it in, have someone tip it in and then we'll work on, you know, like you said, Michigan's just messed around. But a lot of the work we're doing on the ice is like the nitty gritty, like hard nose things that make you better and make you feel more comfortable when you're out there in a game and confident to try new things.
Lee MJ Elias [4:21 - 5:00]: I love it, Caroline. And again, we say it as coaches all the time on the show. It's nice to hear someone, your position saying it. Because kids, it really does make a difference if you're willing to put in that time as well. Right. You gotta have fun. Don't get me wrong, you gotta have fun. And if you listen to our longer episode with Caroline this week, we talk about how competing is fun. All right. But. But you gotta put the time in with those fundamentals and make that fun, because that's. That is what's going to separate you from the pack, amongst other things. Caroline, thanks so much for joining us today. We're excited to watch your journey. I don't want to say it's just beginning because you've accomplished a lot, but there's a long road ahead for you, and we really appreciate you joining us and talking to the kids today.
Caroline Harvey [5:01 - 5:08]: Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it. And I hope some of those words make a difference and impact some young children out there and young girls.
Lee MJ Elias [5:08 - 5:21]: Well, I guarantee you that they will. And I want to say, too, to everybody listening, kids, remember, wherever you're at on your hockey journey, remember, we believe in you. You should, too. All right, make sure to skate hard, have fun, and we'll see you on the next the ride to the rink. Take care, everybody.
