On November 2nd Zac Rinaldo of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes, one of our Athletes in our Elite Off-Season Hockey Program at the ALP Training Institute, wore a Mic for the entire game against the Buffalo Sabers.
Click here to watch the short 5 minute video for a few raw sound bites from the game.
My particular favorite sound bite, and why I like Zac so much as a human being AND an athlete, was the 30 second bite at the 4:00 minute mark.
The ref was trying to tell Zac how to take the face-off to avoid getting a penalty. It was the conversation Zac had with the official after the play. Zac was trying to help the ref understand how his message (albeit with good intentions), might make a younger guy scared or nervous instead of helping.
Sometimes we have great intentions, but the message isn't received as intended. Zac has a GREAT ability to 'read between the lines' and help his fellow teammates, and younger athletes in our gym, understand messages that might not be as clear as needed to really hit home.
This is a HUGE message we aim to get across to our players in our Off-Season Hockey Program and it certainly helps having such great influences like Zac reinforcing the message.
And for a guy who's role isn't to score very much, when he does here, there's no showboating or extra curricular. His response is classy and genuine!
Good on ya Zac. Keep doing great things for all those young guys with the Arizona Coyotes.
Here's that link again:
https://www.nhl.com/coyotes/video/micd-up-with-zac-rinaldo/t-277437086/c-54405003