Cassie Goyette: Casper The Friendly Goalie
Cetacean Nation chatted with our #33, Cassie Goyette, one of the trio of amazing rookie goalies on the Pod last season. Before we got too far into our conversation, we wanted to clear something up with Cassie. And that would be her nickname. As is our wont at Cetacean Nation, we often give nicknames to players. Cassie was one of those players, and since her goalie partners were Wojo (Brooke Wolejko) and Sojo (Sonjia Shelly), it was not too much of a stretch to dub Cassie as Cujo. Especially since she is a gamer, and Cujo seemed like a good gamer handle. However, it is hard to compete with Casper The Friendly Goalie, or as her teammates and coaches call her, simply Casper. Of course that is her Twitter handle as well, and in the really fun "Tournament of the Twitter Handles that Dan Rice put together earlier this offseason, Cassie did very well! We offered her our congratulations and she replied
Ā āThank you! I didnāt even know I was in it actually. I got a text one morning from Sam Walther telling me she voted for me, and I was like: What are you talking about? And she said: On Twitter! And then I saw it and I was like OMG! The round I got knocked out in was pretty close right up to the end, and Iām not mad to have lost to a handle like that because itās also clever. I thought all the entries were pretty good. Iām just biased to mine, because I think itās awesome. You have to understand the Instagram handle to get the Twitter handle, thatās the only thing. We discussed the Cujo nickname and Cassie said āIt was a little weird at first, but then it kind of grew on me. I go by a lot of names, Iāll answer to any of them, honestly :) Casper is a nickname Iāve been trying to get going for awhileā she said laughing, āso Iām happy people re using it nowā. We said we were going to be full on Casper from now on too, and she said Iām onboard! Weāll bring back Cujo every once and a while:) For a quick throwback! āĀ Sounds good to us...Casper!
Moving on, Ā not unexpectedly we were curious how and where Casper was dealing with the pandemic. She explained
Ā āIām at home in good old Massachusetts. Our entire family is home right now, which is kind of nice. I know my Mom loves it, but sometimes we drive each other a little crazy. My Mom and Dad are working from home now, so we have to be pretty quiet most of the time until they get off work. My Dadās office is on the main floor and my Mom has a folding tailgating table in their bedroom which is now her office. But I just sit in the basement all day:) Not all day, I go upstairs for water and stuff. My video games are down here, my workout area is down here, all I need is a bed really! I think we just have a stay at home order, I donāt think weāre on a complete lockdown, but our Governor is like: Stay home, please donāt leave your house or weāre going to have to shut down the state. āĀ
Casper added āOne of my neighbors is an ER nurse and sheās been out of her mind crazy busy, with work. We saw her the first time in awhile last week. There was a huge wind storm here, and we all lost power So me and my brother and my Mom went on a walk around the neighborhood. We finally stopped at my neighborās house because she was like: Hey, come on down, weāre sitting on the front porch, we have drinks and stuff. So we all walked down and on the the way back we saw her (our nurse neighbor) and just literally just stood there and clapped for her. I canāt even imagine how stressful that is, anybody doing that.ā
She added āIāve never had so much home cooked food than in this past month, itās wild. My little brother was at school and he had to come home and heās eating everything. I donāt cook, but I make chicken nuggets a lot though. Itās pretty easy, all you do is put āem in the oven.:) But sometimes you just donāt want to cook. The other day my Dad went to Wendyās for lunch, just because he wanted to get out of the house for like five minutes. And, he didnāt want to eat another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a ham sandwich. Iāve lost count of the amount of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Iāve eaten.i love PB&Jās, I used to eat them at the rink all the time.āĀ
We wondered of course how Casper was mganaging her training in this unusual off season, She replied
Ā āMy one brother is home, and he likes to workout too. So we kind of split the workout area. I usually get the earlier time and he usually gets the later time. Itās just a small little area. My Dad built it when we first moved into this house like ten years ago, and it hasnāt really been used. But now itās getting so much use, because there are no gyms open anymore. Iāve been trying to work out everyday or every other day, depending on if itās raining ot not, anf if I can go outside for a bike ride. I live in a cul-da-sac neighborhood that branches two ways, so Iām fortunate enough to be able to laps on my bike. And weāre connected to another side road thatās pretty long, so I can go ride my bike down that too. So when itās not the weird New England weather, we got snow the other day and I was sixty the next day, so whenever itās sunny I try to go outside. Walk around the neighborhood, play basketball, throw football in the front yard or go for a bike ride or something.ā
Some of Casperās frustrations came out on Twitter the other day, when she tweeted:
āToday I put my hockey bag in the back of my car, just to feel like I was going to the rink again #ImissHockeyā
We thought that pretty much summed up how a lot of people were feeling these days, and she explained
Ā āI was surprised that so many people were liking it. I usually just retweet stuff and never tweet, because it never gets any attention. (follow Cassie on Twitter @TFriendlyGoalie and Instagram Casper-the-friendly-goalie) It kind of was just a fun thing. I was emptying my brotherās car, he bought a Camaro, so Iām taking over his old car. So I was planning on vacuuming it out, because we take his car camping, and we throw all the wood in the back when we get to the campsite, so thereās a lot of wood pellets everywhere! So I was going to vacuum it, and I opened it up and saw my hockey bag. And I just wanted to move it, because I hadnāt picked it up in awhile and I wanted to make sure I could still lift it!ā , she said laughing. āAnd I also wanted to make sure it still fit in the back of the car, because itās a Ford Escape. They can be bigger, but his is kind of a smaller one, so I wanted to make sure, The goalie bag is pretty big, so I wanted to see if it was going to fit. And then I just kind of threw it in there and I was like: Weāre good going to the rink! :) I signed up to skate, because during the season I skated with my goalie coach in Massachusetts, so I signed up after the season ended, so Iād keep skating with him once a week. So I skated with him once and the Corona happened, so I havenāt been skating since then, and Iām kind of going stir crazy. I just want to go skate, I donāt even have to put equipment on, just give me skates. Might have to break into a rink! ā
Casper has been with her goalie training organization for awhile, and we asked her how that came to be, and what her offseason trainng routine used to look like in normal times. Casper revealed
"When I was in school, and letās say it was my freshman year, the summer going into my sophomore year, I wouldnāt stop working out. We would still have offseason lifts and I would still go to the gym in addition to that, both to keep in shape and keep myself busy. Because I like to workout, it helps me keep my sanity. When I would go home I would give myself a week, a week and a half off, before I started working. Then I would get into working out, and I would skate with Stop It during the summer (stopitgoaltending.com). They have a PGD (Professional Goalie Development) program thatās pretty good. They have a high school level program and a pro level one and a college level one for both male and female people. And itās either Monday or Wednesday in the morning for an hour on a full sheet of ice with twelve goalies. And thereās like four or five stations, and thereās a bunch of goalie coaches and shooters. And itās just working on a bunch of stuff, which was cool, I like it a lot. And thatās what I would do every summer. And I signed up for it again this summer, so Iām excited for that, it actually starts on my birthday in June (22nd) this year.
Casper added Iāve done Stop it ever since I started playing goalie, so Iāve been doing it for awhile. I probably should be branded at this point, because I started my career with a Stop It and Iām still doing Stop It :) I think in high school I did a difrent (goalie training) one, because there are different levels. I think the one I did that summer was both off and on ice, like 6:00 at night. It wasnāt on full ice, it was in a little rink and we would go skate for an hour and then weād then go into the off ice workout place which is called EPS (edgeperformancesystems.com) in Foxboro, Massachusetts, and they would run us through a workout. And then when I went into college, I did the college level one, which is on the big ice. The college program doesnāt come with the off ice, which Iām fine with because I do that on my own.āĀ
When we interviewed our āother #33ā our amazing Assistant Coach Laura Brennen after the season, she told us this about Casper
Ā āCasper played a huge role in helping me teach those new concepts and theories because sheās a huge student of the game and always trying to be better. She went to a goalie coach every week through Stop It Goaltending And it was great, because when Iām on the ice coaching the team I donāt have pads on, so if Iām trying to explain something just through words, I can have Casper do the demo, and it works out really well.ā
Casper respondedĀ āItās a wonderful compliment, I didnāt know she said that. Iāll have to text her and say thanks! I love skating and learning new things on the ice, I love getting criticism basically.. I kind of became the demo goalie at some point. If we were skating, I would do the skating drill first so I could show Brooke and Sonjia I think. I didnāt intentionally go first every time, but now it makes sense. We would do the Iron Cross in one of the face-off circles, and I would always question Laura when she would say something, because she would use a different terminology than I would for the same thing. So Iād be ready to go, and Iād say wait a second, is this what youāre talking about? Sheād be like, yeah, just go! ā
Ā āCasper continued āI think it goes back to when I first became a goalie, because I started pretty late compared to most people. And Stop It was the only real goalie coaching I had through college until Sam came to Nichols. Because the goalie coaches we had were kind of absent most of the time or they didnāt help us. So Stop It was where I would get the most feedback, and it was kind of the only coaching I trusted. That was my only way to coach myself too, was through Stop It. Because I would get a lot of feedback and it would be goalie specific all the time! And I want to do it right and I want to do it better. ā
Casper added āI think it was Brooke, because we were talking about the lateral release one day, and I donāt think sheād ever done it. We interrupted Casper and asked her to please explain the lateral release, and she told us āItās basically a shuffle that turns into a butterfly. Itās a replacement for butterfly sliding, because butterfly sliding can be dangerous because it can put you in an awkward position really fast by getting you out of position. And the lateral release is a controlled shuffle butterfly. I remember showing Brooke how to do it one day. She didnāt know what it was and just didnāt know how to do it, which was kind of fun. Itās difficult for coaches to demo things. Even at Stop It, sometimes they wear knee guards under their pants so they can butterfly, and push around, instead of just dropping to their knees and shattering their kneecaps. But it easier if you have a goalie, itās easier to visually see it if a goalie is doing it rather than a goalie coach. But even at Stop It, if we were doing a drill, I would do a practice run too after the goalie coach would demo it, just to make sure I wasnāt doing it wrong.āĀ
Back to what Laura said, Casper is a huge student of the game. Laura had praised her goalie group when we interviewed her, so we were curious of Casperās impression of her first season, and what Brooke and Sonjia were like as goalie partners? She expressed
āIt was a huge adjustment for me jumping from a really small DIII school into the professional hockey world in general. There was a big adjustment for me, just getting confidence, to play at that level I think. I would say it was a year of growth, as a goalie and a person. Just because Iāve never played at such a high level and Iād never been exposed to such a high level of play. And having three goalies on the team that are all pretty good at hockey is definitely something I wasnāt used to before either. Just definitely a year of growth. I would say it was a learning and growing experience and it was a very big adjustment because I also commuted most of the season from Massachusetts. I commuted to the rink at Nichols, but that was forty minutes away, and this was like 2 ½ to 3 hours at least, there and back, which was kind of different. As goalie partners, I think we all got along pretty well, we had a fun time. It was definitely a little weird at first, because I didnāt know either of them and they had played together before and knew each other. So I was kind of like the odd one out, but it was fun, and we all warmed up to each other pretty quickly. Weāre all pretty easy going, and we kind of goof around a little bit when weāre on the ice, which I really liked. Because having fun is a big part of the game too! Iāve had a few goalie partners that are a little wonky, but what can you do? We all had fun and we were all really supportive of each other which was really nice. At practices me & Brooke would have this thing where if we were not doing so hot, we would just jump straight into, after a two minute shooting drill, into 3 on Oās or 2 on 1ās, or 2 on 0ās and just look at each other and go: Everythingās fine, everythingās fine! "
Casper laughed and added Ā "They (my teammates) were very supportive, a lot of fun. Just good people in general. I would fall all the time in practice too, so that was kind of a joke. We would be doing a hard lap, and Iād take it a little too close to the corner. Thereās this one corner in Danbury thatās so bad, itās the Zamboni door. Itās awful in that corner! Every practice,, I would just divot, and fall into the boards. Or, I would literally just be standing there or doing a warm-up skate for myself off to the side and I would just...fall. Just practicing (goalie moves) I guess :)!Ā
We asked about her experience the first game of the season in Danbury, where Casper had a large turn-out of supporters, and what that was like?
"It was cool, it was cool and weird. They didnāt really give us a lot of guidance on what the game day wa supposed to be like. I didnāt know time to be on the ice for warm-ups, I didnāt know when our off ice warm-up was, I didnā" know anything. I didnāt even know what time to get to the rink. I think I ended up texting Brooke and Sonjia: what time are you guys planning to get to the rink? I donāt know anything! It was fun, two of my friends actually came and surprised me at that game, which was super nice of them. It was kind of surreal because I never thought Iād be dressing in a pro hockey game, or playing for hockey, which is special. My parents come to every game, every time we had a home game, they would come. Weād stay in a hotel and spend the weekend, theyāre very supportive. ā
When Cetacean Nation asked CasperĀ what her favorite memory of the season was, she didnāt hesitate a second and said
Ā āI think it was definitely stopping Allie Thunstrom on a breakaway! I thought she scored, so it was pretty cool afterwards that she didnāt. I think Doyle was the defenseman, and it literally was just a chip that bounced over her stick. Just a freak play and then she (Thunstrom) just took off. It was just like one of those moments. I went into the third period to play, and I hadnāt played in months. So it was very special to me, because I hadnāt played in awhile, and I did it pretty well. It kind of reminded me of Nichols, because it was just one of those plays, weāre losing, the games basically over, thereās less than a minute left and thereās a breakaway! Because that would happen at Nichols all the time. Weāre already losing, the gameās lost and Iād be like: Gosh darn it! (More or less) I mean of course itās Thunstrom, of course thereās less than a minute left in the game! I was just so happy to stop it, I was so nervous! I blinked and she was dangling me!ā
Casperās remarks led us to ask her if it was tougher to stop a breakaway in a shootout or a game? Casper considered that and offeredĀ
āI think itās easier to stop a breakaway that just kind of happens in a game. Because youāre already in the mentality of in the flow of the game. And when Iām playing, Iām not thinking either, so itās just bang -bang, focus on the puck. I feel itās easier to be more confident on a breakaway that happens in a game. Youāre already in the flow, youāve already built the confidence up throughout the game, rather than in a shootout, where for me, I feel I have too much time to think between each puck. In a breakaway in a game you just have to go, unless youāre on the blue line and everyone else is in the neutral zone, you canāt take your time with it. Itās a bang-bang play, it happens, you just kind of play the puck and stop it. But in a shootout they have time, they can do whatever they want, use patience, and itās easy to overthink it.ā
We thought it was pretty cool too! Allie is one of the top scorers and fastest skaters in the league. And side note: truth be told, we still acknowledge Grace as the winner of the fastest skater competition in the ASG. Casper agreed saying āI think itās Grace too, I think they messed up both the speedometers, they swapped them..:)
We also asked if Cassie had done any coaching or clinics during the season, and her reply harkened back to Casperās comments about her commute to Danbury.
Ā āNot really. We did a skating thing, I think it was the first week of the season, before weād had a game, and that was really it. Bray would email us about clinics and ask if we were interested, but most of them are down in a Connecticut which is a bit far. Maybe in the future. Iām looking into it (coaching) but Iām not looking into it, because Iām not sure what Iām doing with my life, still.āĀ she said laughing.
And since Casper as you may recall, is an enthusiastic gamer, we asked her if she followed the Gamer Doc on Twitch.
"Iām a little familiar with her, I know sheās on Twitter, because I see her Tweets sometimes. And I tuned in to one or two of the Open Iceās, I watched Landoās (Elena Orlando) because she was on it. And I watched maybe one or two more. But Twitch was huge! Iām waiting for the league to do something with multiple players and have a video game tournament on Twitch or something. Because Twitch does this thing called Twitch Rivals, where they have a bunch of famous Fortnight players and they were playing with professional athletes.on teams, and it was a tournament. It was for charity, and people could donate to streams and stuff, and they raised money for a charity. But they had some professional football players, and think they had a few baseball players. There are a lot of games you could do it with, theyāre not all super complicated. You could do Mario Kart Super Smash Brothers, anything really. I think it would be fun to watch. āĀ We think that does sound cool, and will pass along Ā that thought to the gamer Doc!Ā
We also asked Casper, as both a fan and athlete, if she thought that salvaging the remaining NHL and NWHL seasons, or trying to have a more normal 2020-2021 was more important to her? Her thoughts were
" Honestly, for the NHL, they should put it to bed. They should re-start with a new season. That could be a while, I think some sporting events wonāt start until 2021. Nobody can predict it, itās so tough to try to predict something like that. But I think they should just kind of scrap it and pick it up the next season.You have to take into account, weāll use Braden Holtby for example, his contract is up July 1st. So thatās another interesting thing too, how are they going to deal with peopleās contracts? If they restart the season does tha t mean your contract from last year moves up to the new season? And thereās so many logistics.ā
And turning to the NWHL, Cassie spoke about the difficulties of holding the Isobel Cup at a later date, because the rosters would likely be different, and she postulated
"What happens if you have players from Europe that didnāt come back? Personally, I donāt think the one game is going to happen. Because teams right now are essentially focused on next season. Thereās really not much you can do.ā We asked her how long toIām would take her for example, to get ready to play a game like that ?Ā She repliedĀ Ā "Honestly, I would do a week of practice, and go for it. Maybe two weeks if people had to get back from wherever they were, Like if you were in MInnesota and went to Texas to quarantine. So maybe like one or two weeks practice, then go for it. Your going to sore after that game.ā
We also spoke to Casper about the Whale's stated desire to bring back a solid core of players, and she stated āThe way we started the year was a complete180 from the way we finished it. And thatās just a testament to all of us as a group. Most of us didnāt know each other and we had to get used to playing with each other, and the preseason isnāt that long either. So I just think the entire season was us trying to find our identity and learning to play with each other, finding a groove that we all fit. And I think bringing back the core players is ideal, because you donāt want to miss out on the chemistry we had at the end of the season, you want to continue that momentum.And that starts with bringing back the core players.ā
CasperĀ offered her comments Ā on the NWHL expanding to six teams with the addition of Toronto. Ā āI think itās super exciting. I didnāt know they were expanding to Canada, but I speculated that they would.expand somewhere. Because they tried to do Toronto last year, and if that didnāt work out, I feel they would have expanded somewhere else, probably in the United States. But itās super exciting because now youāre bringing in the Canadian market and thatās a huge hockey market. And maybe that opens up a second Canadian team one day. I wouldnāt be surprised to see some Canadian players already in the league look to sign with Toronto just because they can go home and play hockey. Itās still such a small league, players can play for multiple teams, itās not out of reason if youāre not happy on one team to go to another team. I wouldnāt be surprised if the NWHL expands again next year. If they do, I would see ot being Pittsburgh or that lower area. Theyād have to expand gradually to the west, because you canāt just jump to California because travel costs would be brutal."
Casper also weighed cin on the player pool, and had some very interesting comments about DIII āA lot of people think you have to play DI to go pro, which isnāt true, Thereās a lot of good DIII players. Like me and Jane came from DIII programs, like Sam did at Hamilton. Thereās tons of good DIII playersv that donāt get noticed because they are on smaller teams in smaller programs. Itās not just the DI players that can make it. She added āI think Plattsburgh should be DI along with Norwich. There are a few DIII teams that shouldnāt be DIII but thatās just my two cents. Thatās my experience of playing against them at Nichols. :) Hallsie played at Holy Cross and theyāre now DI. There are some schools classified as DI independent who only play DIII teams, which is kind of pointless.:)Ā
We finished up our fun interview with Casper with Five Fun Questions for her. Here they are, with her responses:
Ā Favorite Dunkinā Beverage: My favorite Dunkinā beverage is a medium frozen coffee with mocha. No whipped cream! Itās really good! Addictively good! Their vanilla chai is really good too!
Favorite Rink youāve played in?Ā Ā Foxboro Sports Center. Itās where I skate with Stop It, itās where I skated in high school too. Itās the only rink I skate in if Iām not at school or with Connecticut.
Favorite pre game meal?Ā For my pre-game meal I really like to eat Quaker chewy chocolate chip granola bars, and Welchās gummy fruit snacks. At Nichols we used to have them in our locker room all the time. Weād get pissed when the coaches bought us knock- offs . You know, you can have the name brand or then just a āfood brandā ? You want Swedish Fish, not āChewy Fishā :) I hate eating before games or working out, which is why I like small snacks.
Favorite post game meal? Ā If I go out to eat with my parents, Iāll usually get chicken Alfredo, I usually like to have something pasta-ish. Sometimes we would get pasta after home games at Nichols. So Chicken Alfredo or a chicken parm sub.
Coach vs Player, aka Rookie Casper vs Rookie Sam! Answer Me or Sam:
Who played more games you or Sam? "Sam"Wrong! it was you, 11 games to 5 games as rookies
Who played most minutes, you or Sam? "Me"Ā Correct ! You had 49 minutes, Sam had 11:48
Who had the lowest GAA?Ā "Me" Correct! Small sample size but you were at 7.50 & Sam was at 10.48
CasperĀ enthusiastically agreed with Cetacean Nation that Sam was comeback player of Ā the year in the NWHL, as she had a terrific season for the Riveters. Casper added āI am so proud of her coming back and having a great season, it wa cool too because when we played in NJ we were on the ice together which was kind of cool. Itās not everyday you get to suit up against someone you look up to, and sheās a role model for me too, so it was like super cool.āĀ Fins Up to that!
Cetacean Nation thanks our amazing #33 Cassie āCasperā Goyette, for her forthright, entertaining, and informative content. We had a lot of fun chatting with her and learned a lot. Fins Up and stay safe as you get ready for Season Six!