Work + Persistence + Timing + Luck
Yesterday was a pretty exciting day at Stop It Goaltending. The Montreal Canadiens waived backup goalie Dustin Tokarski to make room on the roster for Mike Condon. Mike has been training at Stop It Goaltending since he was a Bantam while playing for the Boston Junior Eagles. After the initial excitement of the news had passed I started thinking about Mikes path to the NHL and the path's of the other SIG goalies that have made it to the best league in the world. Here is what struck me...

1. You have to put your work in: I chatted with Mikes dad Ted yesterday and we were reminiscing about Mikes private goalie lessons at our old facility in Methuen, MA twelve years ago. The countless hours of goalie lessons, camps, practices, tournaments, games and off-ice training that it takes to make it is enormous. In the book "Outliers" they refer to this as the 10,000 hour rule. There is no way around putting in the work and sacrifices.

2. You must be persistent: Mikes path to this point was not easy. He sat on the bench for two seasons at Belmont Hill Prep School waiting his chance to play and was not drafted into the NHL. Mike had to battle all week at practice to get starts in college while at the same time keep up with the heavy dose of academics at Princeton University. As a pro Mike had to start in the East Coast League and work his way up. You need to face adversity to really see where you can get to in life. You need to struggle and as Mikes dad put it..."keep your head down, your mouth shut, and keep moving forward ."

3. You need timing and luck: As I look at success in the world of goaltending I can't help but keep coming back to timing and luck. I know some terrific goalies that are in a situation where they can't get a start and others that are not as talented but play every game. In order to make it timing and luck have to be in your favor but in order to capitalize on it you must put in your work and be persistent.

I believe Mike becomes the 15th goalie that has trained at Stop It Goaltending to play in the NHL. Some of these goalies have trained their whole career at SIG while others may come and have come periodically to work with me and my staff. The SIG coaches and I continue to evolve thanks to the opportunity of work with dedicated goalies such as Mike and take great pride in all of our goalies successes on and off the ice.