Stanley Cup Champ helps local goalies

Name some of the best goaltenders in the NHL. Take some time, don’t worry, I won’t be offended if you pause here in the reading of this article to think of a few. Chances are, you named some of Carey Price, Frederik Andersen, Marc-Andre Fleury, Sergei Bobrovsky, or Braden Holtby. Now, let’s narrow that list down to Stanley Cup winners, who is left? Well, that leaves us with Fleury and Holtby. Let’s focus more on the latter in this instance, that being Washington’s Braden Holtby, or rather, the goaltending coach behind Holtby in Washington.

That man is Scott Murray, who is in North Bay this week running the Scott Murray Goaltending school on the surface of Pete Palangio Arena.

“I had stopped playing and I knew I would eventually get into coaching,” a Capitals clad Murray said shortly after finishing an on-ice portion of the camp.

“It’s an easy way to know that you’re still in the game when you know you’re done playing. Once I was done, I started my goalie school. I knew I wanted to be a goalie coach and it was a good way to get to know kids, and get to know them and do something that you are passionate about.”

Murray, a Kitchener-Waterloo native who makes his offseason home in Sudbury, hosts the camp for a week in North Bay and then another week in Sudbury.

“When you move up here, you get to know the lay of the land a bit,” Murray said on his decision to run the camp in North Bay.

“The two cities are far enough apart where I could get to a few places, and stop people from having to drive really far to go to a school. In Southern Ontario we were a little spoiled, we could drive five minutes and get to a rink. So far it has been awesome.”

So for you at home wondering, what does a Camp run by Murray offer?

“We try to be different in the way that we look at foundational habits. In a goaltenders life, they never see the same situation twice, no matter, if they’re seven or 30 so what needs to stay consistent, is their habits. We really try to dig at the habits and make their game better.”

Of course by counting Holtby, Philipp Grubauer and Pheonix Copley - who is training with Murray in North Bay this week - as his understudies, the credentials are there. And working with the pros is not much different than teaching kids either according to Murray.

“There are different aspects to it in regards to the material, but there are still those habits that are so important that drive you through whatever situation that you have to face in your career,” said Murray. 

“As goalies move up the ladder, they really get to know themselves and what makes them good and what areas they need to get better at. Getting to really know them and understand who they are as people and what their point of view on themselves is, is important because they know themselves and they protect it and believe it.”

Murray worked as the goaltending coach for the Sudbury Wolves before making the move to Washington, which seems like it is on the other edge of the planet, so how does one end up there?

“A good friend of mine who worked at one of my schools in Kitchener ended up getting an internship before a video coach job with Washington. We stayed close and being in the OHL, you put yourself in a position to move up,” Murray explained. 

“The Caps were looking for a development goalie coach and I got the job. I went to Hershey and got to work with Mitch Korn who is the best in the business, and he helped me in my first year. My experiences helped me build a relationship with the goalies and allowed me to be a part of something awesome.”

The part that was most likely the highlight, had to have been hoisting the Stanley Cup last summer with the Capitals when they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

“It was really cool,” Murray said, pausing as he thought about the championship-winning club.

“I have played on some championship teams and coached one in midget. It doesn’t really matter what championship it is, the best part is the group and how close they are and how much they want to be around each other.”

“That two months of being able to hang out and really enjoy the moments and enjoy the victories, and the culmination is winning the cup. When you win it, and put it over your head, you think about the people along the way that have helped you out. I made a call to my brother on my way down to Vegas and said ‘listen, I’m going to bring this to our hometown’ and that’s the stuff you think about right away.”

So if you or your child would like to learn from a Stanley Cup Champion NHL goalie coach and missed the opportunity in North Bay, you can catch Scott and his team in Sudbury from August 5-8 at the Countryside Arena.