Michael Mole 24, is a New York Islanders prospect. He currently plays for their ECHL affiliate in Utah. He has also played a number of games for their AHL team; the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Mike played four seasons of hockey in the OHL. Undrafted during his Junior years, Mike played a season in the Canadian University Hockey League winning the National Championship and Goalie of the Year honors. “Molesy” was then signed by the Islanders and left University to pursue a professional career. He is from Ottawa, Ontario.
Here is his entry:
The morning of the game, I always wake up early to eat a solid breakfast. It helps jump-start my day and give me plenty of energy for the morning skate. My breakfast includes a toasted english muffin with peanut butter, a bowl of special K, a cup of yogurt and a glass of orange juice. I like to get up early to allow myself plenty of time to eat and get ready. I hate being late or rushed getting to the rink. I like to be calm and relaxed on the day of a game. I’m usually the first to the rink. I lay my gear out the way I like it before I change into my gitch (undergarments). I lay my pads face down on the floor with my pants placed on top with my socks folded and lying inside my pants. This allows me more room to sit in my stall and get ready.
During the morning skate I like to get a good feel for the puck by facing plenty of long shots and giving myself lots of time to react. Once morning skate is over, I usually go off on my own and do a few basic crease movement drills to get my feet moving and to visualize myself moving around in a game.
Michael Mole - New York Islanders Goalie Prospect
Following morning skate I like to shower and get out of the rink quickly and head for lunch. I usually eat out for my pre-game meal: some sort of pasta with chicken in it. I enjoy eating my pre-game meal by myself. This gives me time to think about the rest of my day and what I need to do to prepare. After lunch I head home and take my pre-game nap. I sleep from around 1:30pm to 3:30pm. When I wake up from my nap I turn the music on loud while I shower, get dressed and leave for the game.
It’s a team rule that everyone must be at the arena no later than 5pm, however I like to be there by 4pm. I’m usually the first one at the rink. I turn the stereo on, lay my equipment out once again the way I like it and then change into my gitch. I put on my ipod and sit in the stands with my sticks. I freshly tape two sticks every game. Even if it’s and old stick I’ve used before, I’ll completely remove all the tape in order to re-tape it like new. I enjoy sitting in the stands listening to my music and taping my sticks. It puts me in a relaxed state of mind yet very focused.
After taping my sticks I stay seated in the stands and look onto the ice surface trying to visualize what I would look like in the net. I go over plays that may happen in the game and visualize how I would react to them. After, I return to the dressing room. By this time, the team has arrived and everyone’s in game mode. I go to the trainer’s room, lay out an exercise mat and begin stretching for roughly 15 minutes while still listening to my ipod. By the time I’m done stretching we have a team meeting to go over the game plan.
Following the meeting I put my music back on and begin to get dressed for the game. While I’m getting dressed I often read through the game notes to see who the opposition’s top players are, what jersey number they wear and what hand they shoot. By doing that it sometimes helps me to identify players during the game. When suiting up I usually put my gear on from the right side to the left. Once I’m dressed and ready to go I grab one of my two sticks and head out to the ice. I never use the stick that I use in warm-up for the game.
I like to take lots of shots in warm-up to get myself ready for the game. After warm-up I go back to the dressing room, remove my upper body equipment and relax. At around eight minutes before we need to go back out for the game I begin to suit back up. Once it’s time to head back out onto the ice, like most goalies I’m in the front of the line. When they announce the starting line-up and call me to the ice I sprint on in excitement to my net. When I get to my net I always place my bottle in the middle of the top of then net. When I was younger I was watching a show where an NHL goalie had said he never places the bottle on the top corner of his net because he said it looks bad if a shooter beats you top corner and the water bottle goes flying. You never want to give the player any extra satisfaction. I can’t remember who the goalie was who said that but to this day I have always done it for that reason. I then proceed to scrape up my crease.
When it comes time for the national anthem I skate up between the hash marks to stand. Usually I start to slowly glide backwards on the last verse, and on the last word of the anthem I tap my left pad and then turn to the net to put my mask back on. I then start out to my left skating out and around the left face-off dot all the way around the opposite face-off dot, then I tap the left post then the right post on my way by, then it’s around the left face-off dot once more and back through the middle toward the net. I tap the middle of the cross bar with my stick, then the left corner with my glove, then the right corner with my stick. I then turn and face center ice while I tap each post with my stick again and take one big push out and get set in my stance for the opening face-off. I repeat that same routine at the start of each period, minus the anthem part obviously.
Michael Mole
