Consider This from NPR - How a Rookie Hockey Player Prepared for the Big League

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

Hockey season is underway and NPR followed one hopeful rookie dreaming of taking the ice for the Washington Capitals.NPR's Scott Detrow spends time at hockey training camp with goalie Mitchell Gibson.A note for our listeners. We want to hear from you about what you like and how we could improve. Please visit npr.org/fallsurvey to complete a short, anonymous survey. Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Before we jump into our episode today, we want to reach out to you, our listeners, to ask what you think about Consider This. Please help us out by telling us what you like and maybe what you don't like. It's okay. We want to hear. Go to npr.org slash fall survey. That's npr.org slash fall survey. Thank you so much. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. That thud is the sound of a rubber hockey puck that's been shot at Gibson that he is blocking with his body. It's kind of a crazy position where your job is to put your body in front

of hockey pucks that could be going at this level over 100 miles an hour. A new NHL season is underway. For one rookie, that means it's his first day of work. Consider this went behind the scenes on Mitchell Gibson's first day on the job with the Washington Capitals. We had our microphones out as the 24-year-old goalie reported to rookie camp to try to make the team. Gibson was drafted in the fourth round back in 2018, and in hockey, unlike the NFL and other sports, players are often drafted before they go to college. So he committed to the Capitals, but then headed to Harvard to play college hockey, and now years later, he's a pro. Gibson first talked to us over

Zoom from his parents' house in suburban Philadelphia just before he drove down to Virginia for the Caps rookie camp. You know, I have nothing to lose, right? I mean, they kind of, they probably already have, like, what's in their head as to where guys are going to go and where, you know, I'm slated kind of in their lineup. Consider this. Across the 32 teams in the league, there are 736 roster spots. And millions of kids grow up wanting to one day earn one of them.

So what does it take to get there? After the break, we'll take you through Mitchell Gibson's first day of trying to make the team. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Sunday, October 22nd. Sure, testing 1, 2, 3. We are standing in the bleachers looking at the Caps rookies practice. We got four goalies on the ice right now. They're all wearing red.

Gibson came on and immediately went over to the little ref circle by the penalty box, and he was stretching out. He's talking to the coaches now. All the goalies are getting together. That thud is the sound of a rubber hockey puck that's been shot at Gibson that he is blocking with his body. It's kind of a crazy position where your job is to put your body in front of hockey pucks that could be going at this level over 100 miles an hour. Gibson is a chatty guy. He skates over to compliment the shooter.

I like your shot. I like your shot. What? I like your shot. Yeah? It's keeping me on my toes right now. After a few rounds, the coach pulls Gibson aside. He's spotted an issue with his leg position. Yeah. Where that back leg gets away from you. Yeah, yeah.

For the most part, really good job. At the end of the drill, I was a few minutes in. Yeah, you can feel that back leg in short here. Yep. During a break, Gibson skates over to the bench to grab a water bottle. This time, he chats up a trainer. How we doing? Chugged a coffee, so I'm buzzing.

Before practice, Gibson had walked with us from the ice rink to a nearby coffee shop. Along the way, he told producer Gabriel Sanchez and me how he got started and when he realized he had a shot at the NHL. When did you start playing goalie? Seven. I started skating when I was five, seven when I played goalie. I have an older brother and a younger brother. So my older brother, we had an old unfinished basement in my old house

with cement walls, so he just needed someone to shoot at and just pinned me up against the wall with a pillow under my shirt and just started hammering away when I was when I was that age. So actually, I feel like I know a lot of goalies who were who just like came down to the fact that they were the youngest kid and got stuck in goal. Yeah, basically. And just someone someone bullied them into doing it. And it just ended up. Don't regret it now. It's kind of a crazy like start to it. Mitchell Gibson progressed through youth hockey. it just ended up don't regret it now it's kind of a crazy like start to it mitchell gibson progressed through youth hockey and one day around when he was a freshman in high school he realized whoa there are scouts in the stands checking me out i was terrified because especially you go to those

rinks and it's like youth rinks so like you only see like a couple guys in the stands and like you know exactly all the jackets on you know what i mean it's like that typical scout kind of look they all have notebook and they have the jackets on. And like, for me, I just wanted to get to college. Like, that was really like, I thought like, okay, if I just get D1, then maybe I'll think about pro after, but like, that's it. After high school, Gibson spent a couple years playing junior hockey, an ultra competitive youth setting where people trying to make it to the pros or college often go.

From there, he got drafted by the Capitals, then headed to Harvard. And all along, he's got a lot of pressure. I don't know, I think I'm, you know, as a goalie you always just try to be the coolest guy on the ice, right? Like you don't want to show your nerves or, you know, show that you're intimidated out there, which I feel like I'm never really too scared at the moment. I kind of like it and enjoy it. I stay pretty stern when I'm in net. I try not to show too much emotion. So that's one of the things I try to focus on. You're not a break a stick over the top of the net guy?

When no one's looking. If I'm just with my goalie coach back home, I might do that. Gibson spent all summer working out and preparing for the faster speeds and the stronger players and the longer seasons he'll face in the pros. But he's most focused on the mental game, trying to keep that cool, even when he's now playing with the best of the best and facing the toughest pressure of his young career. I think for me it's all between the ears. A lot of mental battles kind of go on when you turn pro. Other guys coming in, you're competing with other goalies now.

The right mental approach is key for every athlete, and it's especially key for a position like goalie. If you dwell too much on the mistake you made and the goal you let in, you lose your confidence. More mistakes follow. But get too proud of that amazing glove save, and maybe you get too comfortable, too unfocused, and suddenly you're scored on twice.

Gibson is big on meditation. I do it myself. So I read a book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunru Suzuki. I read it over COVID and then I got into meditation over COVID and that opened up a whole new world for me. He's made it a daily practice now and says it helps on the ice. You can't control what happened literally two seconds ago. You know, the horn goes off, all that stuff. But it's weird. You would think it would be the opposite, where I have to take time and take a break

and figure out what happened and kind of move on from there. But for me, it's actually been, you know, just keep moving forward. Because the more I dwell on that, the more it's going to affect the next thing. It's harder in this setting, though. In college, everyone was in it together. Teammates lived in the dorms together. They went to class together. They looked out for each other.

In the pros, it could be more cutthroat. There are way more goalies at Capitals camp than there are roster spots. We're at this point now where I'm trying to take another guy's paycheck from him, right? So I think in college there was maybe a little bit more of that camaraderie, but now it's kind of you want to fight for your spot on the team. And there's another huge mental hurdle. We see it play out as we walk back to the rink so Gibson can get ready for practice.

He's telling me about when the Capitals drafted him when suddenly our conversation trails off. It worked out. I had a good interview with them. Gibson and I are both kind of laughing nervously there, because suddenly Alex Ovechkin has come around the corner and is watching our interview from just a few feet away as he waits for the elevator. Ovechkin, a Stanley Cup winner, the captain of the team, and the player on pace to pass the great one, Wayne Gretzky,

to become the league's number one goal scorer of all time. That's cool. That intimidated me. Did that intimidate you just now? Well, I don't know what he was doing down here. The encounter reminds Gibson of a moment last spring when he got called up to the Capitals for a one-day emergency stint as the backup goalie. He had just finished his final season as Harvard's goalie, which meant he was finally free to

formally sign with the Capitals, who had drafted him five years earlier. The team's regular backup goalie was sick, and the Capitals told Gibson to be on standby. They called me and said, hey, just so you know, they're on the road, but in case anything happens with the Caps goalies this week, they had like three games that week, if I remember. If anything happens this week, you're going to be the guy on the bench, basically. Gibson slept with his ringer on, though he didn't really expect the phone to ring. But it did. So Gibson rushed from his college dorm in Cambridge all the way to the

Capitals Arena in Washington, D.C. He sat in the locker room looking around and not quite believing what was going on. You know, I'm looking over and I'm like, I'm like, holy shit, Ovi's my teammate now for a game. What the hell is, you know, it's like I was definitely scared. Gibson didn't get into the game, but he was on the ice for warm-ups. When he skated into goal to get some practice, the rest of the team cleared out to make way for Ovechkin. The future Hall of Famer was resting on one knee and seemed determined to welcome the surprise rookie to the NHL in a memorable way. And then Ovi stands up, kind of flicks the puck up into the middle of the zone and comes down on me, and I'm like, oh, my God, my first shot's going to be from Ovechkin.

And he winds up, and I think he, maybe as a rookie, he was trying to test me a little bit, and he winds up a full slap shot as hard as he can from maybe 15 feet away from me, and I'm like, oh, my goodness. The shot hit the post and bounced outside. Ovechkin came at him again. This time he scored. Then a third shot from the NHL's number two goal scorer of all time. He came down again and scored on me and then I gloved him on the third one.

So I guess I'm tied against him. Now on the ice at rookie camp, Gibson is trying to earn a permanent spot on the team. First day on the job, technically. The warm-ups are over and Gibson is in goal as Capitals players rush down the ice, passing the puck and taking shots at him. Oh, you're a headhunter. The last shot zings right by his head. During the downtime, Gibson keeps chatting. He talks about food. Stretching at center ice, he shares deep thoughts.

You ever just think, like, what are we doing? You know? We're entertainers. And at the end of practice, Gibson stretches and talks to another player about the microphone he's been wearing all day. I don't think I gave him any content today. A few weeks later, we talk again.

Gibson had survived rookie camp. He made the initial NHL squad training camp list. But ultimately, he got cut. He'll start his season in the minors. That mental preparation he talked so much about, he's got to keep working on. Yeah, being completely honest, I think I got caught up in the whole, you know, listen, I've been watching Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie since I was, you know, 10 years old, right, from watching these guys kind of come up in the league

and to finally have the chance to see their shots on a day-to-day basis. It all got into Gibson's head a little too much. It affected his performance in goal. Went 10.34 to go in the second. Mitchell Gibson will take over in goal for Bjorklund. Gibson went down to minor league camp, and he got into a game playing for the Hershey Bears. He grew up going to Bears games.

Suddenly, there he was in goal for them. Frasca in on Gibson. Backhander, and Gibson, what a start, a glum save. Off his right arm and into the catching mitt. was in goal for them. Gibson says he's determined to help his team win, whether that team ends up being Hershey or the Capitals' lower-tier minor league squad, the South Carolina Stingrays. He says he also needs to just learn as much as he can about being a professional. Toward the end of the interview, I asked Gibson if he set a personal goal for himself for when he wants to make it to the NHL.

You know, I'll get kind of, I'll relate it back to the first time we talked. I'll get a little Zen Buddhist on you guys. It's just about like right now, you know, and I can't, you can't look too far down the line.

Like, I think if you start thinking about timing to yourself, you're going to be disappointed because it's out of my hand. Wherever Mitchell Gibson lands, we'll try to check back in as the season continues. We mentioned this at the top of the show. We'll mention it again. We would love to hear from you. Tell us what you like about the Consider This podcast and how we can make it better by completing a short anonymous survey at npr.org slash fall survey. That is npr.org slash fall survey. Thanks so much. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.