1-On-1: with Josh Doan

Roadrunners Forward Josh Doan joined Jonathon Schaffer and Kim Cota-Robles on this week’s Happy Hour Show. For the complete conversation and to hear about which Disney prince Josh, download this week’s show below.

Listen to “Doan On Your Dial” on Spreaker.

We’re 9-2 on the year when we play four games in less than seven days. What’s helped us with these quick games? What are you doing to stay healthy and be ready for the next one?

I think one of our strengths is our ability and our endurance to push through stuff like this and we practice and train really hard as a group and we focus a lot on that cause at the end of the year. It is going to be a heavy load and that’s just how it goes in this league. So, we’ve prepared early in the year to be good throughout stretches like this and I think that is one of the things that we’ve set ourselves up for is having success in a lot of games in a short period of time. It becomes a huge benefit at times like this right now; when you play a lot of games in a little bit of time. You have to credit Parker (Poore) and the coaching staff for preparing us for moments like this; I think we have confidence in our abilities when we come to the rink and play these kinds of games because we are ready and prepared.

What does your pregame routine look like?

I’m one of the guys that is as laid back as it can get before game. After meetings, I’ll come home and hang out with my dog and then we’ll hang out. I’m living with Curtis Douglas and Ryan McGregor right now, so Curtis will make us a pregame meal and then we’ll come to the rink a little bit earlier and I’ll get everything I need to do done and then we play a couple of warmup games and then I listen to music. There’s a lot of guys that are pretty dialed in like Sam Lipkin. He’ll be dialed in from about 4:00 PM on the game day and he’s pretty laser focused. Hebig is another one that’ll stretch for a long time, but I just like to enjoy it. The best part of playing hockey is game time, so just enjoy that, that process and everything leading up to it.

What’s your favorite thing about playing hockey? Is it fun or serious for you?

Hockey’s fun: I think my biggest thing is just having a good time when you get an opportunity to play a game at a high level with your best friends and the whole process throughout that is just something that you have to do. Obviously, scoring goals and that is really fun, but at the same time it’s the process of getting there, being on the bench and laughing at stuff that happens in the game. There are funny things that go on and if you take it too seriously and you don’t think it’s funny while you’re playing; I think it’s it honestly hurts you a little bit. We got a group now where Kyler Yamamoto and I and a couple others, we’re kind of giving it to each other, almost chirping each other more than the other teams during games at this point. It keeps it light, and I think it’s part of the reason that we’re having success and having fun right now.

I’ve heard of locker rooms being kind of toxic and coaches being too hard on the players. How does this coaching staff balance the seriousness of the level you’re playing at and having fun in the locker room?

I think they’ve done a really good job of finding that balance of how to keep it light, but at the same time making sure the group is ready to play. That’s one of the hardest things I think in all of sports. Finding that balance where you’re not making the game too serious, but you’re also not making it to where it is just a joke all time, and I think that it comes from the coaching staff, but it also comes from our leadership group with Austin Poganski, Travis Baron and Kevin Connauton. Some of the older guys do a good job making sure we’re kind of in the guidelines of what we can and can’t be doing before and during the game. There’s always a time and a place for certain things. So, I think we got a good group at just handling it, but it does stem from the top down and I think they’ve done a really good job of helping us find our way through the ins and outs of that process.

You were in Utah for a bit and now you’re back. How has the experience been being back? We’ve seen your parents around the rink a few times. How is it playing in front of them again?

The end goal obviously is to get back to Utah, but at the same time when I’m here, it’s enjoying the process and having fun with the guys and getting better. I think that was the biggest. The big club and the manager put a lot of trust in me being able to come down here and get better again, because I do come down here and I have fun, and I enjoy myself and I try different things that will help me grow as a player. It’s been awesome to play for the family again, to play in Arizona, to play for the fans that that I got to play in front of last year and to get to see some familiar faces. So, it’s one of those things where I’m kind of enjoying the process right now, and I think it’s hard not to, but my main focus is being in the moment down here and not worrying about any of the noise.

What does youth hockey in phoenix look like to you right now? It has grown so much since you started playing as a kid.

Yeah, I think I was pretty fortunate to grow up close to the Ice Den in Scottsdale, which is become one of the more prominent rinks in in North America in terms of youth hockey development. It’s an amazing facility and I think that’s part of it; but you look at how many teams there are now compared to how many teams there were when I was younger. My age range, from when I grew up, played with the same kids from probably 8 years old until I was 16. Which if you go around the country, that doesn’t happen too often because there’s a lot of interchange between groups, kids get cut and they bring in new kids. We were fortunate enough to carry the same group. We had kids from Surprise, Chandler, Peoria, Glendale, Scottsdale and Phoenix. Which isn’t really allowed in other states because they have to play for their county. The rinks were good enough to kind of get by. Obviously, I love Oceanside because I got a chance to play there for a while, but at the rink in Arcadia, we had games get cancelled because the roof caved in a couple times or having to drive out all the way to Chandler, being an hour away, is the next nicest ring to go. It can be a little bit frustrating at times but that’s part of the game growing is having to drive and support the smaller rinks. Now the Ice Den Chandler compares with Scottsdale. So, I think it’s one of those things where they’re all still doing well and you can kind of see them growing in that that direction and kids are wanting to play. I think obviously having ASU still around is going to be the thing that kind of pushes hockey in the desert to the next level.