Lorne Molleken is to Blame!

Isn't it easy to play the blame game?

It's so easy to look at failures in your life, and look at someone who screwed it up for you rather than looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, "I'm at fault here".

So let's play the blame game for a second.

Let me point my finger directly at current Saskatoon Blades Head Coach Lorne Molleken as the reason I never played at the Western Hockey League level.


Let's go further than that!

The reason I am not earning a pro paycheck is because of Molleken.
How's that for a bold statement?

Remember we are playing the blame game here!

Why is Molleken the problem?

Lorne Molleken was my goaltending coach at the Stan Dunn/Ron Munro hockey school back in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in the late 70's. For three summers I would attend the hockey school, wanting to learn from this tall, blond 'guy', who had neat looking goaltending equipment.

I didn't know who he was, or what he accomplished when he was introduced to me prior to the start of hockey school.
I'd eventually find out years later than he indeed was a former Swift Current Bronco, and played with the likes of Bryan Trottier, Dave 'Tiger' Williams and Ron Delorme on a team in the early 70's.

Yet the cool thing about Molleken was he would wear his pads and gloves on the ice when he instructed us, and would skate by as we were stretching and would pat us on the pads and asked us how we were doing.

Molleken taught us one simple rule at hockey school.

Always stand up and never - never - never go down. Going down was a cardinal sin.

That's how goaltending was taught back then.

He emphasized to us young goaltenders to challenge the shooter, never play the puck, and always communicate with the defenseman.
Molleken showed us the proper technique on making a double pad stack save, and the always famous - skate save.

We practiced it over and over and over again.

We got our reps-in with Molleken because most hockey schools back then had problems attracting goaltenders as few kids wanted to play the position.
Being a goaltender wasn't cool back then. It was for the dummy who couldn't skate and had no puck handling skill.

Boy have times changed.

All of the technique's Molleken showed us where the latest at the time, yet since the position has evolved, all of what we learned back then for the exception of communicating with your defenseman are used in today's game.

Tell me when was the last time you saw a skate save?

Old timers - exactly!

I still have my 'report card' that they handed out at the end of the week showing our progression. It also featured words of wisdom as we headed into the next hockey season.

Molleken wrote - quote -"Regan has a positive attitude. His skating has really improved this week. Regan tends to put his glove hand behind his body when facing a shooter. Have a good summer and enjoy the upcoming hockey season."

If Molleken was a real good goaltending coach, he would have corrected that problem.

No wonder I couldn't stop a beach ball.

All kidding aside, Molleken is not the reason why I am up in the radio broadcast booth rather than playing the pro game. The reason I am not playing at the elite level is because, I wasn't good enough...bottom line.

But if I wanted to take the easy way out and play the blame game, Molleken would be my first choice.