Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we are
Speaker 1: still watching that clip of Serena Williams crip walking in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl halftime performance, a clapback at critics from
Speaker 1: the Olympics, and a chance to dog a dude to
Speaker 1: try to dishear and her husband because he didn't get
Speaker 1: the girl.
Speaker 2: Oh and plus she looked fire doing it. Let's go.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, February twelveth and on today's show, we're skipping
Speaker 1: the need to know and jumping right into my chat
Speaker 1: with Claire Thompson, a defender for the Minnesota Frost of
Speaker 1: the Pro Women's Hockey League. We talked on Monday about
Speaker 1: how she's balancing medical school and hockey ambitions preparing for
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, her affinity
Speaker 1: for travel, and her minimal.
Speaker 2: Desire to trash talk. That interview is coming up right
Speaker 2: after this joining us now.
Speaker 1: She's an Olympic gold medalist and World champ with Team
Speaker 1: Canada Hockey, a defender for the Minnesota Frost of the
Speaker 1: Professional Women's Hockey League, and currently on a little hockey
Speaker 1: brain from medical school at the NYU Grossman School of medicine,
Speaker 1: a Princeton Tiger, a fellow Michigan fan despite neither of
Speaker 1: us attending. She's hung out with sled dogs in Alberta
Speaker 1: and elephants in Thailand, and she once slept in a
Speaker 1: sea through pot on the side of a mountain in Peru.
Speaker 2: It's Claire Thompson. What's up, Claire?
Speaker 3: Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I gotta start with Michigan.
Speaker 1: I chose them after a lengthy process called college Football Bachelorette,
Speaker 1: wherein I needed to select a football team to root for.
Speaker 1: Since I went to Cornell and it's not a big
Speaker 1: college football school, how'd you end up rooting for Michigan?
Speaker 4: Michigan was my dream school. We had a tournament in
Speaker 4: Michigan in ann Arbor when I was in novice, I
Speaker 4: think I was like eight years old, and we toured
Speaker 4: the Michigan facilities and went to a men's hockey game there,
Speaker 4: And from then I was a dead set on going
Speaker 4: to Michigan, despite them not having a women's team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then that ended up getting in the way.
Speaker 1: Do you still feel bad about choosing Princeton over Cornell?
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 3: I was sad in the moment but I'm proud to
Speaker 3: be prince. Sometimes you got over it.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, important things first, Why are we still calling
Speaker 1: women and hockey defencemen?
Speaker 2: Can we work on that? What's our solution to this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm honestly not sure.
Speaker 4: I think people try to use the gender neutral term
Speaker 4: just defense and not put a gender to it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, definitely something we could work on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, defense woman doesn't have the same ring to it.
Speaker 1: But also defense doesn't feel grammatically correct sometimes, so I
Speaker 1: end up just stumbling and saying defencemen and being like, ah,
Speaker 1: that's not that's not right.
Speaker 2: I'm going to work on something to work on.
Speaker 1: It's been so great to see you in the PWHL
Speaker 1: this second season. Can you tell our listeners why you
Speaker 1: didn't play in year one?
Speaker 4: I couldn't play in year one because I was attending
Speaker 4: medical school and the demands of my clinical training. I
Speaker 4: just couldn't be at practice and in the hospital at
Speaker 4: the same time.
Speaker 3: So I had to pick one or the other.
Speaker 4: And I had kind of already signed up for my
Speaker 4: year of medical school before the league came together, so
Speaker 4: it was kind of a wasn't really a decision to
Speaker 4: be made.
Speaker 3: It was just unfortunate. I had to sit out last season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there was something with a visa too,
Speaker 1: where at one point you thought you might be able
Speaker 1: to do both, and then it kind of threw a
Speaker 1: wrench in the plans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was on an F one student visa, so
Speaker 4: I wasn't able to work a job that wasn't in
Speaker 4: my field of study.
Speaker 3: So I couldn't.
Speaker 4: Sign a reserve player contract and be paid to play
Speaker 4: hockey while my visa was for medicine. So I had
Speaker 4: to wait a bit to switch my visa and get
Speaker 4: work authorization and all that. So it never quite came
Speaker 4: together last season. But for a while I was optimistic
Speaker 4: that it was going to work out, but it didn't
Speaker 4: end up happening.
Speaker 1: I feel like if this were the much sneakier men's
Speaker 1: side of sports, they would have just like hired you
Speaker 1: as a physical therapist, chock it up to a medical gig,
Speaker 1: and then thrown you out on the ice.
Speaker 2: We got, Yeah, we got our sneakiness.
Speaker 4: I know, but I didn't. You know, immigration and everything.
Speaker 4: It's pretty serious stuff. So I didn't want to do
Speaker 4: anything that would like jeopardize my future abilities to work
Speaker 4: or to play in the United States, so I went
Speaker 4: by the book and waited the lengthy process of acquiring
Speaker 4: a new visa and all of that. So it was
Speaker 4: a bit of a bummer in the moment, but it
Speaker 4: definitely gave me the chance to really lean into medical
Speaker 4: school and be very present for this past year of training,
Speaker 4: which in retrospect, I'm really grateful for.
Speaker 2: That seems like the smart move.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to understand why you're becoming a doctor ninety
Speaker 1: ninth percentile in the MCATs.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it was a good test day for me.
Speaker 3: I yeah, I don't know it worked out.
Speaker 2: You got lucky?
Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, nobody believes that clear. Okay, So, how tough
Speaker 1: was it to put medical school on hold and enter
Speaker 1: the league? Like, obviously there's a time limit for hockey
Speaker 1: in a different way than there is for medicine, but
Speaker 1: that's also something that requires a tremendous amount of work
Speaker 1: and effort, and to be in the middle of it
Speaker 1: and have to part with either.
Speaker 2: How tough was that?
Speaker 3: It was pretty tough.
Speaker 4: It was a sad realization that the people I started
Speaker 4: medical school with and some of my best friends right
Speaker 4: now wouldn't be the people I would graduate with and
Speaker 4: wouldn't be the people that you know, you go through
Speaker 4: all those milestones of taking your board exams together and
Speaker 4: applying to residency and matching and all of that, all
Speaker 4: those steps. It was it's a bit sad for me
Speaker 4: to know that I won't be doing that alongside my
Speaker 4: best friends, which is disappointing, But I also look at
Speaker 4: how grateful I am to have best friends playing hockey,
Speaker 4: and I couldn't imagine a world in which I wasn't
Speaker 4: alongside those girls pushing for the next Olympics, pushing to
Speaker 4: make the PWHL better.
Speaker 3: And so it was kind of I.
Speaker 4: Had two worlds to choose from, and knowing I had
Speaker 4: amazing people in both places, in two areas I wanted
Speaker 4: to be a part of.
Speaker 3: It was I was so grateful for the time I got.
Speaker 4: To spend with my med school classmates and getting to
Speaker 4: know them and stuff, but I was more than happy
Speaker 4: to come back and be alongside all my hockey teammates
Speaker 4: and everything. So I just really grateful to have such
Speaker 4: amazing people that made making a decision so so hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like there's the similar bonding probably with
Speaker 1: classmates in medical school, like not real trauma bonding, but
Speaker 1: like it's stressful. There's a lot of tough days and
Speaker 1: big tests and long night studying. Does it feel similar
Speaker 1: to some of the bonds you make with teammates when
Speaker 1: you're doing like super hard workouts and getting ready for
Speaker 1: stressful tournaments.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, I think. Yeah, whenever you're kind of
Speaker 4: put in the same positions as other people, and those
Speaker 4: are the people you lean on because of shared experiences
Speaker 4: and shared understanding of what you're going through in the
Speaker 4: stressors you're facing. It's hard not to get very close
Speaker 4: to those people. And then in New York at and
Speaker 4: why you a lot of us were really fortunate, but
Speaker 4: the Grossman School of Medicine has an apartment building that
Speaker 4: they subsidize the rent for their medical students because it's
Speaker 4: really expensive to be a medical school but also really
Speaker 4: expensive to be living in New York. So then a
Speaker 4: lot of us actually live together, and so it's you know,
Speaker 4: shared experiences like being together a lot.
Speaker 3: Of the time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's very similar to being on a team and
Speaker 4: working together to get through it, to get through those
Speaker 4: tests and all of that. So yeah, you definitely form
Speaker 4: really close bonds to people, and it makes the experience
Speaker 4: that much better because of the people. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: would say I never really thought of it like they
Speaker 4: were my teammates. But they were my teammates, those yaws
Speaker 4: going through all of all of those hardships together.
Speaker 2: This feels like a TV show.
Speaker 1: I can't believe it hasn't been made yet that there
Speaker 1: isn't a show about the medical school side of medicine.
Speaker 1: When you all live in an apartment together. There's like
Speaker 1: a million medical shows, and where there's one of the
Speaker 1: doctors that also goes to hockey practice every day. I
Speaker 1: think we need to pitch this, Claire, this is yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, we.
Speaker 2: Need to pitch this. Do you know what type of
Speaker 2: medicine you want to specialize in?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm fairly certain I want to do orthopedic surgery.
Speaker 1: Cool gosh, I just it's so overwhelming to even think
Speaker 1: about trying to balance all your ambitions in one place
Speaker 1: and another. Was there ever a point when you felt
Speaker 1: like it was sort of incompatible to be as ambitious
Speaker 1: as you are in both spaces.
Speaker 4: I'm not really, I think I you know, I haven't
Speaker 4: really hit a point yet. I mean, I guess last
Speaker 4: year you could say I wasn't able to do both,
Speaker 4: but I still knew, like I was still playing hockey
Speaker 4: and practicing, and I knew I was gonna come back
Speaker 4: to the p WHL, And so no, there's never really
Speaker 4: been a point where I haven't thought it was possible
Speaker 4: to do it all. Definitely, some long nights involved some
Speaker 4: busy travel days and stuff, But at no point have
Speaker 4: I ever thought that I haven't been able to achieve
Speaker 4: both or achieve my goals in either because of the other.
Speaker 4: So I'm really grateful. I think that none of this
Speaker 4: would be possible without the people in my life supporting
Speaker 4: me in both sides and supporting the person that I
Speaker 4: am who wants to do everything and so I am.
Speaker 4: I would be mistaken not to acknowledge the people that
Speaker 4: make like the team around the team, the people that
Speaker 4: make this all possible.
Speaker 3: But so far it's been going well.
Speaker 1: I was listening to on the Jackson Jills podcast and
Speaker 1: I noticed that Tessa said when she walked up to
Speaker 1: start the interview, she joked that were you studying and
Speaker 1: you said, yes, So are you still sort of maintaining
Speaker 1: this through line of medical study behind the scenes just
Speaker 1: so that you're ready to go when you head back.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I am doing a bit of work on the side.
Speaker 4: I have to take one of my more important board exams.
Speaker 4: I'm probably going to try to take that in the spring,
Speaker 4: so I study a little bit each day for that,
Speaker 4: just so that when I sit down and start studying
Speaker 4: again for it, truly it's stuff is still fresh and
Speaker 4: there's you know, a lot of time across the days
Speaker 4: that I can just put a little bit in and
Speaker 4: chip away at the large amount of content that I
Speaker 4: have to get through. And then I still do research
Speaker 4: for the Sports Medicine Orthopedic Department at NYU to stay
Speaker 4: involved with kind of that community and just reaffirm that
Speaker 4: that is what I want to spend the rest of
Speaker 4: my life doing after I retire from hockey.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So when you were trying to do a little of both,
Speaker 1: what does a day in your life look like? Because
Speaker 1: I feel like it's got to be a lot of
Speaker 1: discipline to get you know, your time management and everything
Speaker 1: handled so you can get it all in in twenty
Speaker 1: four hours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of depended.
Speaker 4: Last year I was on my clinical rotation, so even
Speaker 4: within those rotations, the days looked very different from being
Speaker 4: in the OAR in early starts and rounding on patients
Speaker 4: to then other days when I was in the clinic
Speaker 4: and it was more of like a nine to five picture,
Speaker 4: but it kind of you know, I would wake up,
Speaker 4: try to get a little bit of work done if
Speaker 4: I didn't have to be in the hospital too early,
Speaker 4: go to the hospital, be a part of the team
Speaker 4: that I was assigned to, and just try to help
Speaker 4: make anyone's job just a little bit easier doing tasks
Speaker 4: that I was able to do, to take off you know,
Speaker 4: the residents and the attending's plates. And then you know,
Speaker 4: we'd come home from the hospital whenever we were dismissed,
Speaker 4: and then I would usually either lift and do a workout,
Speaker 4: or I would go and practice at the rink in
Speaker 4: New York if it was one of the days that
Speaker 4: the NYU men's team was practicing. And then with whatever
Speaker 4: kind of time was left in the day, I would
Speaker 4: study for the like exams we had to take.
Speaker 3: But it's busy as a med student.
Speaker 4: But I you know, I've been fortunate that my trainer
Speaker 4: from home was really great about programming my lifting schedule
Speaker 4: and you know, making the most of like the hour
Speaker 4: I had each day to work out and then I
Speaker 4: would have to dedicate a bit more time to practice
Speaker 4: days where I had to travel.
Speaker 3: More and stuff.
Speaker 4: But I was really fortunate that the people were in
Speaker 4: my life were able to be flexible with me and
Speaker 4: allow me time to get my studying done because that
Speaker 4: was really important to me. But then also find you know,
Speaker 4: make time to get the workouts done and stay in
Speaker 4: shape and as.
Speaker 3: Best as I could coming back into the league.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just a constant re upping, both physically and
Speaker 1: mentally of everything you can within a certain day to
Speaker 1: keep it as fresh as possible. You know, before the PWHL,
Speaker 1: one of the things that the previous women's hockey leagues
Speaker 1: didn't have was something that seems pretty basic in retrospect,
Speaker 1: a team physician.
Speaker 2: You're young enough that you didn't play.
Speaker 1: In those other leagues, but I'm wondering how your time
Speaker 1: in medical school has sort of informed or understanding of
Speaker 1: what medical standards in women's hockey should look like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I you know, I think that the PWHL has
Speaker 4: done a fantastic job. The head physician of the league,
Speaker 4: doctor Tina Atkinson, was my team physician going into the
Speaker 4: and throughout the Olympic year, and so The league is
Speaker 4: in great hands with her at the HELM, and I
Speaker 4: think that it's going to be really exciting some of
Speaker 4: the data that's going to come out of I know
Speaker 4: that they're keeping track of all the injuries and everything
Speaker 4: that's been going on, and so I think there's going
Speaker 4: to be a lot of good research coming out on
Speaker 4: professional women's hockey players. In the past, I think there
Speaker 4: has been a disproportionate amount of study on men's professional
Speaker 4: hockey players and men's professional athletes in general compared to
Speaker 4: professional female athletes. So I think it'll be really exciting
Speaker 4: for the future studies and the amount that we're going
Speaker 4: to be able to look at what's been going on
Speaker 4: within women's hockey and then you know, use that to
Speaker 4: put in better policies to keep our bodies healthier.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that you could also sort of either self
Speaker 1: diagnose if you start to feel something, or your teammates
Speaker 1: might come to and be like, Okay, how serious is this?
Speaker 1: Should I go to the trainer or should I just
Speaker 1: play through it like you're like a little doogie house
Speaker 1: around the ice. I keep using that reference for young
Speaker 1: people and no one knows what it means. That is
Speaker 1: a very old show about a doctor who is like fifteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, we got to take a quick break. When
Speaker 2: we come back more with Claire Thompson. Sit tight, I
Speaker 2: want to talk hockey.
Speaker 1: You're the Olympic record holder for points by a defender
Speaker 1: in a single tournament. You finish the Beijing Games with
Speaker 1: the highest plus minus rating of anyone in the tournament,
Speaker 1: with the plus twenty three. You've got the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six Olympics next year. How is twenty twenty six next
Speaker 1: year already? That's insane. How does the existence of the
Speaker 1: PWHL and this league that you're getting constant reps in
Speaker 1: change your preparation on your training compared to prior games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's really changed the landscape a lot
Speaker 4: in previous years. The Canadian and US national teams will
Speaker 4: centralize before so we'll all move to the same place
Speaker 4: for the months leading up and practice and train together
Speaker 4: every day, which I think helps us put in a
Speaker 4: ton of time and getting reps together. Whereas next year
Speaker 4: we won't step.
Speaker 3: Away from the league.
Speaker 4: All the players will play for their clubs and then
Speaker 4: come out and just it'll be a shorter run up
Speaker 4: to the Olympics, so I think that it's going to
Speaker 4: look a little different. We haven't you know, we haven't
Speaker 4: been named to the team or even to the pool yet,
Speaker 4: and we don't know what the schedule is going to
Speaker 4: look like. But I know that there are a lot
Speaker 4: of people working very hard behind the scenes to make
Speaker 4: sure that we're adequately prepared. And then I think, you know,
Speaker 4: for some of the other I mean, for a long time,
Speaker 4: it's been a big Canada US rivalry, but I think
Speaker 4: the exposure of some of the other European players playing
Speaker 4: in our league, I think the gap is closing very quickly,
Speaker 4: and I think it'll make for a really exciting Olympics
Speaker 4: and international play with the upcoming World Championships, as those
Speaker 4: players have the opportunity to be involved with players that
Speaker 4: they previously wouldn't have had the opportunity to practice with
Speaker 4: in that year leading up to the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of that, you played with Team Canada in
Speaker 1: the rivalry series that recently wrapped up. Has it been
Speaker 1: different playing against the US now that you regularly play
Speaker 1: with and against so many familiar faces in the PWHL.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this was this past week was my first time
Speaker 4: kind of playing against the Americans that I had gotten
Speaker 4: to know so well over this year, and I think
Speaker 4: it is a bit different.
Speaker 3: It's harder to be mean to them. I always have
Speaker 3: a hard time.
Speaker 4: With that, but you know, I think you tend to
Speaker 4: when you practice with people day and day out and
Speaker 4: you see the habits and like the little things that
Speaker 4: they do so well that you maybe wouldn't have never
Speaker 4: noticed not seeing that on such a consistent basis. I
Speaker 4: already had a tremendous amount of respect for my opponents,
Speaker 4: but now, you know, playing alongside them and getting to
Speaker 4: know them as people, you know, I just have so
Speaker 4: much more respect for everything that these other women do
Speaker 4: on the other teams, and it makes it maybe a
Speaker 4: bit harder to play against them. But you know, it's
Speaker 4: everyone's a competitor, and anytime you get on the ice
Speaker 4: with them, no matter if it's a mini game in practice,
Speaker 4: people are competing hard. So it's a lot of fun
Speaker 4: playing against them now that I know them. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: It's like the famous Mark Twain quote, travel is fatal
Speaker 1: to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness. Like when you finally
Speaker 1: meet the people that you think you hate you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're just like me. It's like you're like, darn it,
Speaker 1: it's so hard to hate the US.
Speaker 2: They're my teammates. Now I love them.
Speaker 1: Is there a lot of trash talk with the Frost though,
Speaker 1: because you've got folks like Kendall Quoinschofield against whom you've
Speaker 1: played in the Olympics, in World Championships, have like been
Speaker 1: like out to get and now every day you're in
Speaker 1: the same locker room, like rallying together to get a win.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think we.
Speaker 4: I think people do a good job kind of of
Speaker 4: separating those like national allegiances when it comes to Frost play.
Speaker 4: I know that we're all united in the same goal
Speaker 4: of achieving the Walter Cup this year, and everyone's very
Speaker 4: dedicated towards that. And then in the weeks we take off,
Speaker 4: you know, we're then part of our national teams and
Speaker 4: were competitors there. But then as soon as we're back
Speaker 4: together again in the hotel, it's like nothing has changed.
Speaker 4: It was cute were texting. There were a lot of
Speaker 4: flight delays coming out and I wasn't traveling from Minnesota.
Speaker 4: I had been in California because we had a few
Speaker 4: days off, and they texted me to make sure that
Speaker 4: my flight had made it out okay and that I
Speaker 4: had made it on time, because they knew that a
Speaker 4: lot of the players were getting delayed. So I think
Speaker 4: they people are still really thoughtful and care deeply about
Speaker 4: each other as individuals, which is really nice to see.
Speaker 1: Even when you're the enemy, even when you're like, what
Speaker 1: if you didn't make the game, that'd be cool too,
Speaker 1: it'd be.
Speaker 3: Easier, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: So, this is your first year in the PWTEL. You
Speaker 1: were drafted third overall in June. How is it matched
Speaker 1: or differed from your expectations?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think I tried to not have too many expectations
Speaker 4: going into the league. I knew I had taken a
Speaker 4: year off. I tried to be kind on myself with
Speaker 4: where I came back into the play. But the league has,
Speaker 4: you know, far exceeded my expectations in terms of professionalism,
Speaker 4: in terms of the competitiveness of the games. The fans
Speaker 4: are way more than I could have ever hoped and
Speaker 4: dreamed for. We were really lucky to participate in the
Speaker 4: Takeover Tour in Denver, and it was a dream come
Speaker 4: true playing in an almost sold out NHL building. We
Speaker 4: got pretty close in Seattle a few years ago. But
Speaker 4: it's been just a tremendous experience getting to be a
Speaker 4: part of this league. It was everything I could have
Speaker 4: ever dreamed for. It's been really special.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned you had to offer yourself grace after
Speaker 1: a year off, but you're doing pretty well. You've been
Speaker 1: among the top point scorers in the PWHL all season
Speaker 1: despite playing defense. Why do you think such immediate success
Speaker 1: despite the break.
Speaker 4: I think I was very fortunate to come into a
Speaker 4: team with a lot of very skilled goal scorers. You'll
Speaker 4: see my points are a little skewed. I have a
Speaker 4: lot of assists in not very many goals, which.
Speaker 3: Is how I tend to roll.
Speaker 4: And I think just putting the puck on people's sticks
Speaker 4: and letting them go to work has been the key
Speaker 4: to my success, I guess.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's just I.
Speaker 4: Think coming in the team is amazing. The girls work
Speaker 4: so hard day in and day out, and I'm fortunate
Speaker 4: to play with a lot of very talented people that
Speaker 4: make my job really easy.
Speaker 3: So it's been It's been fantastic so far.
Speaker 1: Your teammate at Princeton and Team Canada, Sarah Filier described
Speaker 1: your style of play to the Athletics Hailey Salvian as
Speaker 1: quote a little reckless, but in the most poised way possible.
Speaker 2: Would you say that's accurate?
Speaker 3: Maybe?
Speaker 4: I guess people I think I'm a little unpredictable sometimes
Speaker 4: in my D zone, which I think people think is
Speaker 4: maybe a little reckless, but I try to keep it
Speaker 4: under control and make good defensive decisions in situations. And
Speaker 4: I've been, you know, over the past few years, really
Speaker 4: working harder to clean up my defensive game and be
Speaker 4: a little more intentional about where.
Speaker 3: I take risks and stuff.
Speaker 4: But Sarah has been a fantastic friend and teammate for many,
Speaker 4: many years, and so honestly, that's high praise coming from her.
Speaker 2: Where does that style come from?
Speaker 1: Like, in my brain, my assumption is that you're ten
Speaker 1: steps ahead of everybody else because of that big old
Speaker 1: brain of yours, and so sometimes people see it as reckless,
Speaker 1: but you're actually seeing things that they're not seeing. Do
Speaker 1: you think that's where the quote unquote recklessness comes from.
Speaker 4: Potentially, I think some of it comes I came from
Speaker 4: playing as a forward. I played forward until my last
Speaker 4: two years of high school, and so I think that
Speaker 4: some of the skills I developed as a forward in
Speaker 4: ways to be people in one on one situations to
Speaker 4: open up another play or not maybe the most conventional
Speaker 4: things to do in the D zone because they're kind
Speaker 4: of seen as higher risk, right plays like toe dragging
Speaker 4: someone in your D zone is generally not what you.
Speaker 2: Should be doing.
Speaker 3: You should probably just move the puck to the wall.
Speaker 4: And so I think that my tendencies to do some
Speaker 4: of these higher risk moves, just from how I was
Speaker 4: brought up, tend to happen without really thinking. I don't
Speaker 4: really think that this is the best decision I have.
Speaker 3: It's just what I do right, and usually.
Speaker 4: It pans out. Yeah, it's just my instincts. I don't
Speaker 4: really know what to do about it, but thankfully it
Speaker 4: works out most of the time. I only do it
Speaker 4: when I have to, I guess, or when I just
Speaker 4: think I need to.
Speaker 1: So, you know, why'd you make the switch to defense?
Speaker 1: I just said it like a Canadian defense.
Speaker 2: Sorry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was a kind of defensive minded center. I
Speaker 4: was more of a playmaking center, and I was not
Speaker 4: I mean, I scored a fair amount, but I always
Speaker 4: just felt very responsible and I enjoyed playing defense, and
Speaker 4: my dad and my coach at the time thought that
Speaker 4: my skill set and my tendencies would translate very well
Speaker 4: into being.
Speaker 3: An offensive defenseman, and that.
Speaker 4: As you go up and up, the people that become
Speaker 4: these responsible centers are actually people who were prolific goal
Speaker 4: scorers in their younger days as well, and so we
Speaker 4: just thought that my skill set would translate better to
Speaker 4: being an offensive defenseman, which I guess they were right about,
Speaker 4: but it was really my dad and my coach's idea
Speaker 4: at the time.
Speaker 1: Okay, we've been talking for like twenty four minutes. Your
Speaker 1: humility is very appropriate for someone who wants to be
Speaker 1: a doctor and help people, for someone who wants to
Speaker 1: be on defense and be supportive for the team, less
Speaker 1: of the glory, more of the the for.
Speaker 2: The overall team.
Speaker 1: And now I'm starting to wonder where does Claire become
Speaker 1: raggedocious or swaggy in what part of your life are
Speaker 1: you ever showing that side of yourself that's like, I'm
Speaker 1: of gold medal winning doctor to be who's a pretty badass,
Speaker 1: you know, I.
Speaker 3: Think that not many places.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 4: I think sometimes I try to use my previous accomplishments
Speaker 4: to prop up my confidence when I been making some
Speaker 4: poor plays and I'm like, this isn't like you've done
Speaker 4: a lot, You're still that person. You can be that
Speaker 4: person like this was like one wrong decision, but nine
Speaker 4: out of ten times that pays off. And I use
Speaker 4: that to kind of keep myself going when I start
Speaker 4: to feel like I'm you know, my confidence is starting
Speaker 4: to get down. But I think that I know that
Speaker 4: I am where I am because of the people in
Speaker 4: my life, and I'm extremely fortunate to have been brought
Speaker 4: up in the family that I was raised in and
Speaker 4: to have the opportunities that I have had have just
Speaker 4: been largely.
Speaker 3: Circumstantial my family.
Speaker 4: I was just at breakfast with my parents and we
Speaker 4: were talking about how fortunate I was to be in
Speaker 4: the places that I was as a minor hockey player
Speaker 4: and have access to the you know, skills coaches. I
Speaker 4: just got luck. I truly just got lucky that I
Speaker 4: was in the right place at the right time, and
Speaker 4: so I keep.
Speaker 3: Trying to be in the right places at the right times.
Speaker 4: But I know that I wouldn't be who I am
Speaker 4: without the people around me, and so I just try
Speaker 4: to remain very very grateful for all that I've been
Speaker 4: given and all that I've had access to.
Speaker 1: It's an incredible perspective to have at your age, and
Speaker 1: it's so helpful to finding joy in life and being
Speaker 1: grateful at all times. I think it's going to serve
Speaker 1: you so well. Can you talk shit though? Do you
Speaker 1: ever talk shit?
Speaker 3: Maybe? Sometimes?
Speaker 2: Let's hear it? Yeah, what's your go to? What's your
Speaker 2: go to? Trash talk?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: I try not to trash talk on the ice.
Speaker 3: I usually, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes people say things to me and I'm just like,
Speaker 4: I don't even know why you're saying that to me.
Speaker 3: It really doesn't affect me. I don't know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I ask them how many shifts they've had this game.
Speaker 4: If it's like someone who's pretty random, Oh, okay, there,
Speaker 4: it is the meanest thing I'll say.
Speaker 3: But if like, I'll never instigate. You know.
Speaker 4: It's only if someone's like cross tracking me in front
Speaker 4: of the net and I'm like, what are you doing
Speaker 4: out here? Like you're just hurting me for no reason.
Speaker 3: That's when I might say something. If they're yelling at
Speaker 3: me too.
Speaker 1: Honestly, the most annoying thing for trash talkers is someone
Speaker 1: who is unfazed and so you're winning.
Speaker 2: You're winning.
Speaker 1: If you're like, I don't even know why you're saying that,
Speaker 1: it has no effect on me.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Your teammates call you human chat GPT. When do they
Speaker 1: most often call on you to like repeat something or
Speaker 1: interpret something for them?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's sometimes when there's been like a long meeting
Speaker 4: full of logistical stuff. We've had some recent like updates
Speaker 4: to taxes and that sort of thing, and so they're like, Oh, Claire, like,
Speaker 4: what's the what are the quick hits on on what's
Speaker 4: going on?
Speaker 3: Give us the bullet points exactly.
Speaker 4: And so it's kind of in those situations that they
Speaker 4: like to be like, oh, Claire, like, what are we
Speaker 4: doing here?
Speaker 3: But no, they're great, it's all in good fun.
Speaker 1: It sounds like an excuse to just get you to
Speaker 1: do their work for them and be the one who
Speaker 1: has to listen carefully.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe it's probably a medium for them for me
Speaker 4: to summarize it, but.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't mind.
Speaker 4: I like to, you know, get my information straight from
Speaker 4: the source and kind of do it myself.
Speaker 1: So I don't have a screible memory, right, Your memory
Speaker 1: is just insane?
Speaker 3: Yeah, apparently it works. It works pretty well, I'll say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, final question for you. I was scrolling through
Speaker 2: your Instagram and you look.
Speaker 1: Like a travel influencer, like the just unbelievable trips and
Speaker 1: adventures I mentioned sleeping in that pod that's like see through,
Speaker 1: floating off the side of a mountain, like unbelievable. So
Speaker 1: jealous of some of the adventures that you've had. What
Speaker 1: was your favorite trip or maybe the wildest activity.
Speaker 4: Sleeping in that pod, hanging off the side in Peru
Speaker 4: that was that's probably up there. And then on that
Speaker 4: same trip, we hiked the Salkin Tae Pass to Machu Pichu,
Speaker 4: which was amazing. We grew up in glaciers and down
Speaker 4: in rainforests. That was probably the most complete, amazing trip.
Speaker 4: And then I was also in Thailand a few years
Speaker 4: ago and that was really special. With the elephants down
Speaker 4: on the beaches in the rainforests, it was really special. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I would say probably the most complete trip Peru. But
Speaker 4: my family we sail. We've been all over the world sailing,
Speaker 4: and being on the boat with them is really really
Speaker 4: special and really time I cherish. So I've been really
Speaker 4: lucky to see a lot of not a lot of
Speaker 4: the world, but some of the world to this point.
Speaker 4: And I think that that's one of the things I
Speaker 4: enjoy most is planning a really cool trip and doing
Speaker 4: like amazing things that I would never have the chance
Speaker 4: to do otherwise. That's something I like to do in
Speaker 4: my free time and something I really look forward to
Speaker 4: every off season.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, honestly, it feels like you have it all figured out, Claire.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited to see what's next for you. I
Speaker 1: can't say I'll root for you in the Olympics, but
Speaker 1: I will hope that you do your best and then
Speaker 1: the USA wins, and excited to watch more of you
Speaker 1: in the PWHL and just see, like what amazing things
Speaker 1: you contribute to the world, because it feels like you're
Speaker 1: destined to.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. But go
Speaker 3: Ken go.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much to Claire for joining us.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, guys, but after talking to her,
Speaker 1: I would definitely trust her as my surgeon.
Speaker 2: An exceptional human.
Speaker 1: We got to take another break when we come back.
Speaker 1: Have I reevaluated my relationship to trash talking Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1: We love that you're listening but we want you to
Speaker 1: get in the game every day too, So here's our
Speaker 1: good gameplay of the day. Support our new friend and
Speaker 1: tune in for Claire's next game, her Minnesota Frost play
Speaker 1: the Ottawa Charge tomorrow at seven pm. You can catch
Speaker 1: that one streaming live on YouTube. We always love to
Speaker 1: hear from you, so hit us up on email good
Speaker 1: game at wondermediaetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail
Speaker 1: at eight seven two two four fifty seventy. Keep those
Speaker 1: platonic Valentines come in our way on voicemail. We want
Speaker 1: to hear about the athletes, coaches, all the people in
Speaker 1: women's sports that you love and don't forget to subscribe,
Speaker 1: rate and review. It's easy watch Claire's trash talking skills
Speaker 1: rating one out of five.
Speaker 2: There's not a mean bone in her body. Review what
Speaker 2: a genuinely kind soul.
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, like really resonated, even though we did
Speaker 1: the interview via computer. And for someone that young to
Speaker 1: have like this self awareness that trash talk is kind
Speaker 1: of more distraction than a tool that is really admirable.
Speaker 1: Now does that mean I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna stop trash talking anytime soon?
Speaker 1: Definitely not no, But I do love that Claire keeps
Speaker 1: the main thing the main thing and does it her way.
Speaker 1: Kudos to her all of my enemies. Sorry, you're not
Speaker 1: off the hook. Now it's your turn, rate and review.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Claire, Good game,
Speaker 1: Team Canada. I guess you only twenty four hours in
Speaker 1: a day. Some of us want to be doctors and
Speaker 1: Olympic hockey players.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iheartwomen's sports production
Speaker 1: in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
Speaker 1: find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our
Speaker 1: producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
Speaker 1: are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, and Grace Lynch.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm your host
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain