1-On-1: with Matt Villalta

Roadrunners Goaltender Matt Villalta joined Jonathon Schaffer and Kim Cota-Robles on this week’s Happy Hour Show. For the complete conversation and to hear about what color Matt is, download this week’s show HERE. 

Listen to “Matty V On Gameday” on Spreaker.

How important is it for you to get these games in with Stauber gone? You guys have 4 quick games and then a break for Thanksgiving here coming up.

I think I’m a goalie who plays better the more games I play. So it’s nice to have the ball and be able to run with it here in this little stretch. It’s nice to get my game back on track, it gives me some time to really feel my game and play the way I want to play. I think it was a good start to this week and we’re just going to keep working hard and carrying the momentum into tonight and tomorrow. We’re going to stick to what we’re doing. I feel like I’ve been working hard, sticking to my process and trusting it and showing up every day with a positive mindset. That’s all you can do, especially when you’re like I was, one and five maybe. Definitely not the start I wanted; you can control the things you can control but not until you show up every day with a good attitude and just showing up to work as hard as you can and trusting in your process. I think the more you trust your process, the results will come on the back end of that.

Over this past weekend it looked like the team had a good give and take with you; where they would get some good opportunities and then you would come up with a big save. What was that like from your point of view?

I think anytime we can get off quickly like we saw in the first game of the weekend, we scored a couple quick ones and you kind of create that cushion early on. It really gives us some momentum and I think from the offensive standpoint, it just wasn’t one guy. Like you said everyone contribute: whether it was making a pass, taking a hit to make a play, and not being selfish with the puck. From my point of view, it’s just fun to watch the guys take it around so well. When they get off to a start like that, you want to obviously keep the puck out of the net and keep it at zero. You know, you never want to get scored on, but just keep their score zero for as long as possible. So yeah, it was nice.

What was the process like of moving from that three-game losing streak to now having a three-game winning streak?

I think in the losing streak, the biggest thing is that you have your own job to do and every night you have to do your job, and you have to trust the next guy. I think there was some inconsistency there with the way we were playing, one night we’d play well and then the next night our identity just wasn’t there or our structure. Even though it’s early on this season, I think we ironed that out now. I think the biggest thing was to keep trusting the process, you have to show up to the rink every day and be positive, even when you’re losing, you have to kind of stay even keeled, even when you’re winning. You have to stay in that and find that fine line in the middle where you can’t go too high, can’t go too low. When things don’t go your way necessarily, like on the losing streak, you can say that we were not playing very good hockey, you just have to keep showing up every day and putting the work in. Really focusing and giving it all in practice to really dial it in. You can learn a lot through video as well. Obviously, you do video every day with the coaching staff. Potvin, Slaney and Stortini are chopping it up, they’re helping us out. I think the big thing now is that it’s a long season. There’s always going to be ups and downs and you want to make sure the downs are as minimal as possible, and the ups are for a very long time. The only way of doing that is to put the work in, you have to work hard and have to respect the game. I feel like lately it’s been good energy at the rink, everyone’s having fun, from what I’ve seen and personally too, I’m having a lot of fun. Obviously, when you’re losing, you’re not having any fun, but you have to look at the big picture too. We’re very fortunate to play this game and be here in Tucson with such great fans and the lifestyle that we get to experience. So, you just have to be thankful, look at the big picture and that’s motivating enough to keep working. If you keep working, the results will come, and now we’re on a three-game winning streak. So, we’re going to keep working hard, keep our mindset where we want it, and keep striving to get better every day.

How do you keep you keep your emotions even keeled during a game?

Coming from camp, I thought I had a very good camp, and I was feeling really good about my game and then I came down to Tucson. I thought the first game I was playing well, but I don’t think I was at the level I wanted to be at. I wasn’t getting any wins, and I’m going to be honest, mentally it can be tough when the results just aren’t coming, and you feel like you’ve been working hard. That’s when you have to trust the process, and you just have to keep working and working and working. Now it’s just working through, just keep working hard every day. Staying level minded, that’s the biggest thing. I just turned the corner this weekend to really feel like the work I have been putting in like the last two weeks has paid off. Especially with that long break, we had 10 games in between that was a big week to really fine tune some things and just find my game again. The biggest thing for me is that yeah, we got two wins this week and obviously going back to last week we won a lot of games, but every day is a new day; it’s a new opportunity, no one cares what you did yesterday, it’s all about what you do today. So that’s just my mindset with it and kind of keeps you in the present. I think the best thing you do is not look too far in the future, you can’t look at results, you can’t look at the end of the game thinking about it. You just have to live in your shoes at the present moment of time and be in the moment and have some flow in your game and life. I think that’s the biggest thing for me is just having some flow and when I go home, have some hobbies. (Lleyton) Moore just moved in with me actually, so we’ve been doing some art classes. We like to draw, we’re going to get into painting, we’re playing some golf. So just like having flow and balance, not thinking too far ahead and also not thinking about the past because in life, whatever you did 2 seconds ago, you’re never going to be able to do it again. So, you can’t really dwell on it, and so that’s the biggest thing for me is just kind of find things that work for me and keep it pretty chill.

Anything you do on the ice to stay focused throughout the game?

Yeah, I do a lot of talking to myself. I like to rhyme. So, you see the sponsors on the boards, so I look at a word and I’ll try to rhyme as many words as I can. That kind of just keeps my mind away from thinking about too far ahead, and it kind of just keeps me in the present moment. I play my best when I have fun, so I feel like that’s kind of fun for me. Then obviously I like watching video board. So TV timeouts when the boys come on; like meet the Roadrunners or something. We play the game because we love it and it’s fun. Obviously at the end of the day, it’s our job and we’re out there to perform and every night you have to perform, but you can definitely have fun with it. I think everyone plays their best when they’re having fun. So I mean I like watching the board to see what the boys’ answers are in that. If a good song comes on too, I might sing it in my head: moving, grooving, maybe a song I heard from warm up. So just things like that.

What’s the player of the game award this year? Where did it come from?

We got a Roadrunners chain; It’s so cool. I don’t know who got that set up. Actually, the equipment manager I’d imagine. Could have been the coaches too. I’m going to be honest, I don’t really know, it just showed up.