Like Father, Like Son, Like Goalies

On game day, Feb. 15 in Boston, the last stop of the Kraken’s post-All-Star-break road trip, Brian and Daniela Daccord were about to leave their North Andover, MA, home where they raised their son, Joel, who of course we all know better as Joey. But before embarking on the 29-mile drive, the Daccords detoured to step inside Joey’s childhood bedroom. That was the first time that day it really soaked in they were about to go see their 27-year-old NHL rookie son play goal against the locally revered hometown Bruins in TD Garden.

“Before we left, we went into Joey's room,” Brian Daccord was saying on the phone this week, in between his work as a goalie coach for No. 2 ranked NCAA Boston Univerity and running his “Stop It Goaltending” company that trains some 1,000 goalies each year through an academy program, camps and clinics. “Joey's room is still kind of the same as when he left. He's got his stuff up on the walls. He's got a jersey and a note from Andrew Raycroft [former Bruins goalie and Brian Daccord pupil who played for five different NHL teams over 11 seasons] and a picture of Tim Thomas [Boston goaltender in goal for 2011 Stanley Cup champions]. We just kind of looked around. It was really cool, emotional.”

The couple collected themselves, headed south for the game, walked into the arena, and found the right escalator to reach their seats. That’s the second time Brian Daccord said his mind, body, and heart could viscerally feel the thrill of this high-mark night in family history.

“Funny enough, it was going up the escalator,” said Daccord. “For both of us, it was, ‘Wow, we're going to see this game and we're going to see the Bruins and Joey's playing, right?’ It was the second time that it really hit us.”

From there, Daccord said he and Daniela “did a really good job of just being in the moment and just enjoying it” as warmups and the game unfolded on the ice.

Right now, if you are thinking, what amazing self-awareness for the Daccord parents, so grounded, so smart to stay in the moment, no matter how dream-like and so potentially out-of-body such a game might be – especially as the game advanced with their son making 36 saves in a 4-1 win, including one indelible close-in stop on Bruins star scorer David Pastrnak when a goal might have reversed the night’s outcome.

For Brian Daccord, it figures. He has been advising goalies, from newbies to NHLers, on how to maintain the proper mindset, not letting any mistake deter you from making the next save, or how to start calm and stay calm when playing in big games. He and his son talk after every game, though Joey Daccord openly admits he’s on the phone more with his mom, whom Brian met while tending goal over seven pro seasons in Switzerland after three years in net for NCAA Division I Merrimack. Fun fact: The Kraken goaltender is a citizen of the U.S. (born in Boston), Canada (Brian was born in another Original Six city, Montreal), and Switzerland.

The Daccord men like to talk on game nights when possible, but the bi-coastal time-zone difference does at times push the discussion until the next morning some nights. One can only imagine what the dad said to his son about that no-stick save with seven seconds remaining in Tuesday’s 4-3 road win at Winnipeg. The Seattle goalie’s fist pump and swing after the victory is already a signature moment for the second 100 wins in Kraken franchise history.

“Joey's a talker,” said Brian Daccord, something Kraken fans have likely and delightfully figured out for themselves. “Joey is a communicator. I think it's really good for him to verbalize and talk things through. So I'm glad that, especially if the game's not too, too late that we're able to talk the game over and go through everything, see what he saw.

“I'm a coach and I'm a former goalie, I can appreciate some of the nuances. It’s a really special relationship that we have. I'm able to truly understand situations such as when a stick [or skate] changes the direction of the shot. Unless you're a goalie, it's hard to understand how even someone not following through on a shot will change the trajectory.”

Daccord has worked with goalies at all levels of hockey, handling the Boston Univeristy duties since 2021-22, working with Drew Commesso (drafted No. 46 overall by Chicago in 2020) and this season, Mathieu Caron, the sixth-winningest goalie in NCAA Divison I this season. Before he was a special assistant to the general manager and director of goaltending operations for the Arizona Coyotes. Before that, he spent five seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs in goaltending scouting and development.

The elder Daccord worked six years as a goaltending coach in the top German pro leagues and served as a goalie coach on the staffs of head coaches Pat Burns, Mike Keenan, and Robbie Ftorek for the Boston Bruins. After his Swiss playing career, Daccord earned a master’s degree in sports management and authored a popular book, “Hockey Goaltending” (with an endorsing preface written by Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur). Daccord broke into coaching as an assistant at his alma mater Merrimack while establishing Stop It Goaltending, LLC, in the mid-1990s. His training company has produced 25 NHL draft picks over the years, with his son serving as a guest instructor more than a few summers.

“I definitely worked a lot of camps for my dad, helping with the coaching,” said Joey Daccord recently after a Kraken practice. “I think it’s helped me over the years, in-game or during practices. I can kind of be my own goalie coach in that moment.”

“For me, it was pretty simple,” said Daccord, when asked how he transitioned from player to coach-author-entrepreneur. “I grew up in an era where there really weren't designated goalie coaches. You go to a hockey camp and, maybe someone would be assigned to the goalies.

“Even as a professional playing in Switzerland, they didn't have a regular goalie coach. One year, Marco Baron, who's a former NHL goaltender for the Boston Bruins, was actually living in the area in Switzerland. The team had him come in and do some work with the goalies. He was showing me a systematic approach to tracking the puck. I never thought about it before that day.

"[The tracking system] had such a positive impact on my game, I decided I wanted to build a structure of some sort in which goalies would get the attention they really need to improve at the position. When I came back to North America from Switzerland I was just determined for a system for goalies could get that focused instruction.”

Daccord’s vision included camps, clinics, and private lessons. He started with 12 clients, conducting individual sessions on “plastic ice.” Now his company boosts the physical and mental skills of those 1,000 goaltenders at different levels of play. He works on small sheets of ice set up specifically for goalies and has established a “bridge” academy for youth hockey goalies to prepare for playing at greater heights in the sport. He is the founder of that bridge program, plus Sport Performance Labs and the Stop It Goaltending GCG Prospects Event.

The father of an NHL goalie remains a visionary. His Stop It Goaltending company has launched two apps, one for goalies to help better evaluate themselves, looking at rebound retention, freeze-the-puck rate, playmaking ability, and more, including a revised goalie rating (think QB ratings in football) that goes beyond Expected Goals data favored by hockey analytics experts.

Brian Daccord says he wants to take the subjectivity out of evaluating goaltenders with such data application, but he also values the mindset factor of playing “between the pipes.” His second app “teaches goalie IQ, the mental part of the game.”

“I’m trying to do things that contribute to a goalie’s development both on and off the ice,” said Daccord.

In this particular case and twist, the son certainly knows best. His breakout season in Seattle has deep family roots. Like father, like son, like goalies.