As he has worked for hockey, even though he recently said he didn’t consider anything he has done in hockey as “a job,” the game keeps giving back to Roger Grillo.

A Minnesota native, Grillo moved east to play his college hockey at the University of Maine in the early 1980s, then spent the next few decades of his life and career coaching college hockey in New England – first as an assistant at the University of Vermont, then as a head coach at Brown University from 1997-2009. 

His next hockey job, at USA Hockey, as regional manager of the American Development Model and most recently as director of player development, set up integral to the ADM’s evolution while keeping him in New England.

Recently, he started in an entirely new role for what might be the passionate hockey home for Grillo yet: Montreal.

Newly hired as a coaching consultant with the iconic Canadiens franchise, Grillo couldn’t be happier with his next challenge.

“Yeah, it’s been amazing,” says Grillo, who, when we caught up with him, was in Montreal’s locker room at the Bell Centre. “Absolutely amazing. I’ve had a great life through the sport and I’m looking forward to continuing it. I’m very lucky [to be here]. All the history, the love of the sport up here is just crazy in a positive way.”

The move brings a relationship full circle in a way, as Grillo will be on the staff of former NHL star Martin St. Louis, who played his college hockey at Vermont. Their relationship dates back to the early 1990s when St. Louis and his childhood best friend Eric Perrin were piling up points, including 85 apiece on identical 29-56—85 lines in 1995-96 for the Catamounts (and being backstopped by former Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas). 

St. Louis wasn’t the only draw for Grillo, however. For a hockey lifer, the Canadiens and the city are a hard brand and environment to beat.

“Being part of a team again,” Grillo says of the draw to Montreal. “I mean, I was part of a team at USA Hockey but it’s a big team. So, to have kind of a singular goal, and to be around the elite players, to be around coaches and staff who love the game, who are passionate about the game and super-knowledgeable about the game. I had that at USA Hockey but I think this is just at another level. A lot of impressive people. Even the support staff. Everybody is a pro.”

And when it comes to St. Louis, who wound up playing more than 1,000 games in the NHL and recording more than 1,000 NHL points, he’s simply one of the most impressive hockey players anyone is going to ever meet.

“Probably the first time I met him was when I first saw him play,” says Grillo. “It probably would’ve been in ‘91 or ‘92. So, a long time ago. [What stood out] was his compete level. His passion. His effectiveness. And his ability to impact a game in a positive way pretty much every time he stepped on the ice. He was certainly one of the best players in the ice. I don’t think there have been many games in his life where he wasn’t one of the best players on the ice.”

Yes, St. Louis, listed at 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds, undrafted but undeterred on the way to a Stanley Cup, the Hockey Hall of Fame and to stand behind the bench for one of the most famous teams in sports.

And he sees Grillo as someone who can help.

“I’m amazed every day,” he says of the talent he’s watching on a daily basis. “The players’ ability to play in traffic. Their poise under pressure and their hands. Their ability to pick up a puck, pretty much anywhere, backhand or forehand, to catch a pass on either side, or pick it off the boards. The better you do those things, the more time and space you have. And time and space are very valuable.”

For his part, Grillo has been focusing on the building blocks of the game for most of his 60 years and his youth hockey work remains invaluable to the sport in this country. 

Grillo shared his insight on skating, shooting and puckhandling for youth hockey players looking to take the next step in development.

SKATING

“At the younger ages, USA Hockey created a really great course called Dynamic Skating, how to kind of teach skating at a young age,” Grillo says. “And the difference there is that it’s along the lines of riding a bike: You really can’t teach it as much as you have to experience it. So it’s creating scenarios where you’re skating but not fine-tuning your skating. That comes later.”

In Grillo’s eyes, “later” comes with elements both in development and in mindset.

“I’ve always thought that the fork in the road for kids is around 13 or 14,” says Grillo. “There comes a point, and, for me, is … that, ‘I want to play’ or, ‘I want to be really good.’ If you just want to play, that’s fine. That’s great. But, if you want to be really good and play the game as long as you can, then you’re going to have to work on some things. And kids’ bodies, do they get strong enough to do certain things? Hold an edge on one leg. Really explode out of a turn. Really separate. Not everyone is the same. There’s no right or wrong way. I think coaches getting in trouble, when they try to make everybody the same.”

Playing sports other than hockey can help, too.

“We have always pushed multi-sport athletes because you’re working on some of that stuff that’s going to help you on skates in other sports,” Grillo says. 

Younger players can also benefit from not having anyone worry too much for them about the mechanics of what they’re doing.

“When you’re coaching young skaters, there has to be a purpose to it,” says Grillo. “To do 30 crossovers makes absolutely no sense. Because, in a game, you do a crossover to change direction or to get to a puck. You’re picking up speed for purpose, not to skate fast just to skate fast. Sometimes skating fast puts you in the wrong spot. So there has to be a reason for it. And it has to be effective. And I think people get mixed up in that messaging.”

More than ever, even after fewer than two months in Montreal, Grillo has become a firm believer in that purpose.

“Maybe I look at the game differently than most, but people like Marty look at the game on a whole different level,” he says. “I think that the purposeful part of training young kids is really critical. You don’t just do edge work. You do edge work with a purpose. And the purpose is that they have to see something or make a decision and let their body lead to that decision. Like a car, skating technique is the motor but you’re not going anywhere if the computer doesn’t work. As a hockey player, skating is critical, but give me somebody who sees the game and thinks it and understands it – and you can teach skating, and it’s really hard to do the reverse of that. I’m not going to say it’s overrated, but it’s somewhat over-emphasized at a young, young age.”

Somewhat ironically, being a great skater at a young age can limit a player’s ceiling.

“If you do skate at a young age, you can dominate,” says Grillo. “But is it real? Or are you masking deficiencies? A lot of kids, their hands suffer, and then their head suffers because they don’t have to make decisions because they’re never in traffic or in conflict. And when they get older and everybody else can skate, what’s going to get you out of those issues?”

The lesson for this fundamental is to go back to basics.

“I think for younger players, it’s getting their reps not in a technical way, but in a fun way, kind of like Flintstones Vitamins,” Grillo says. “They’re just having fun but you’re delivering something good for them. They don’t know they’re working on something.”

SHOOTING

Part of hockey’s evolution has included all manner of hurried-up offenses in the NHL, from lightning-fast team transitions to players who have to shoot with increasingly less time and space.

What makes an elite scorer these days?

“How quick it comes off the stick,” says Grillo. “The ability to one-time a puck is really critical.”

Truthfully, many young players aren’t developmentally anywhere near a one-timer. And that’s where good practice plans and coaches come in handy. 

“A lot of young kids aren’t ready for that yet,” Grillo says. “That’s too hard. So, you have to put them in where they can attempt it – how to learn how to get their bodies around and pick their head up, have a feel for where the net is, where the openings and seams are. I think the set-up to the shot is just as important as the shot.”

At the earliest ages, though, there’s no great focus on shooting at such an advanced level.

“I wouldn’t say so, no,” says Grillo. “Not that young. I think the biggest mistake that’s made is not using the blue puck. The blue puck is designed for little kids. It’s designed so that they can transfer their weight and lift the puck and feel good about themselves. How many kids scoop the puck at a young age because they can’t lift the puck? And now you’re reinforcing a bad habit.”

Another bad habit?

“To me, the most important thing is that if I’m going to be a good goal-scorer, my head has to be up,” Grillo says. “How many kids shoot the puck without even looking? It’s because we do a ton of things that reinforce our heads being down. We create the problem.”

Once young players do hit those early teens, as with skating, the time to focus at that point can pay significant dividends, provided the player is invested.

“I think you have to work on any technical abilities in our sport as you get older and become more serious,” says Grillo. “The danger is at that same split of 13 or 14, the responsibility for development flips over to the athlete. As a parent or a coach, if you are forcing a kid to do things at a young age, it becomes a job too soon. You can do the reps and you could get better at it, but the passion part of being better is the foundation. So you have to make sure as a parent or coach that when the fork in the road does happen and your kid does want to get better that they have the willingness to work at it.”

And, again, with purpose.

“If you look at USA Hockey, there are five key elements of a good practice (fun, constant decision-making, challenges the players, puck-touches, looks like the game),” Grillo says. “You need repetitions and, if you’re going through repetitions, you’re going to get better. But you can’t just do the reps. If it’s not fun and game-like and doesn’t have decision-making, it’s only going to get you so far.”

HANDLING THE PUCK

Evolution, thanks in great part to the ADM, has brought a good deal of change to practices, though resistance remains in practice plans and, as a result, for players themselves. 

“It’s changed over the last 15 years, but I think, unfortunately, there’s still a lot of static non-game like reps for kids,” says Grillo. “I think with younger kids, the more it can be those five elements, the more impactful it is.”

Take something as simple as learning to swipe a puck cleanly off the boards and make something positive happen just as quickly.

“You can start [game-like] drills by picking pucks off the wall,” Grillo says. “There are all kinds of ways. You don’t need a drill just doing that. You can you start a drill by picking a puck off a rim around the boards. It doesn’t mean you don’t do stuff that are just reps. And certainly the guys at our level to a lot of them. But they also have unbelievable computers and they’re highly technically good and fine-tuning. And I don’t think you should be fine tuning a 10-year-old.”

The more natural a progression is through gaining comfort with a skill, the more linear development could be. Which is why young players can be in and out of spaces with lots of traffic.

“I think you have to do both,” says Grillo. “You have to build some confidence with it. But, at some point, you have to put them in a game-like situation where they do things because of where the puck is or where the opponents are or where your teammates are. To do it just in space without any decision-making or accountability only can get you so far.”

Potential also has a way of meeting up against passion, particularly a lack of it.

“To me, without passion and compete and decision-making, the fundamentals don’t matter,” Grillo says. “It’s not a sport where there’s nobody out there trying to knock you down or getting in your way or trying to take away your opportunity to be successful. It’s all on you and your technique. In hockey, it’s about problem-solving. Everybody has holes in their game. But what separates good from great is a willingness to work on the holes in your game.”

Grillo has a note on this from St. Louis, too.

“Marty actually has a pretty good saying when somebody asks him what was he best at,” says Grillo, “He says he was best at getting better.  Everybody thinks he was best at this or that or skating or decision-making or reads, but he strongly feels that what separated him from others was his willingness to get better.”