RinkWise podcast: Dan Muse on coaching players for Team USA’s NTDP

Dan Muse, who's from Canton, Mass., is the coach of the US U-18 men's national team. (USA Hockey photo)

Dan Muse the head coach of the U.S. National Team  Development Program’s under-17 squad, is the guest on the latest episode of the RinkWise podcast.

Muse played at Canton High and Stonehill College before embarking on a coaching career that has taken him through the highest ranks of junior, college and professional hockey. A member of Keith Allain’s staff at Yale, Muse was part of the Bulldogs’ 2013 national championship. Earlier that winter, he won a World Junior Championship gold medal with Team USA as the video coach. He has also won a championship with the USHL’s Chicago Steel as head coach in 2017. He spent three years as an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators before joining the U.S. NTDP in Plymouth, Mich. in 2020.

Listen:

On creating versatility in hockey players: 

Even within the practice setting, I think it’s always like, try to, you know, put them in situations where they’ve got to kind of solve the puzzle a little bit on their own. And as long as there’s a purpose to it, they’ve got to make some, they’ve got to read and they’ve got to think about time and space, and they have to have spatial and situational awareness, and they’ve got to be in positions that maybe they haven’t been before, but they’re that’s good for them. I think that’s good for them as players, and it’s good. You should be, you know, I think especially in the way you train in the way you practice, like if these guys are comfortable all the time and things are easy, then I don’t know if we’re putting them in the right environment.

On the type of hockey players he wants to coach:

You want players that are going to, you know, they’re going to find the purpose to everything that they’re doing. They’re going to suck as much as they possibly can out of every practice, every skill session, every weight session, every video session that they possibly can and sometimes coming in.

On what he wants to be known for as a coach:

I think I’ve wanted to be known as somebody that genuinely cares. I hope that the players and not just the players with staff members that I that I’ve worked with know that I do like I care about them. I think, as I said earlier, this is a people business like I care like that’s why this this game is so great. And it’s why the, you know, just to have any opportunity to work in this game is so great. You know, you get an opportunity to help people, whether know, be able to help your players develop as hockey players and as people to be able to help, you know, the staff, whether you’re a head coach and helping your assistant coaches, other members of your staff, them continue to develop in their journey, you know, being able to just, you know, or if you’re an assistant coach, being able to help other staff members, whatever it is like, I think this is the greatest game on Earth and I think the reason is for the people who are in it. There are not a lot of bad people in hockey.

The podcast can be streamed at hockeyjournal.com/podcast and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“RinkWise” is brought to you by Paul Vincent Hockey, Laura Stamm Power Skating, Sacred Heart University and University of Nebraska High School, Lovell Hockey and Pro Ambitions.

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