LOOSE BEARINGS - HOW A REFINED MIND GOT TMU NETMINDER KAI EDMONDS TO FACE OFF AGAINST SOME OF THE NATION'S VERY BEST

Mario Russo

A single blue seat separated Kai Edmonds from half a dozen of Canada’s best hockey players under the age of twenty. 

Shoulder to shoulder, a row of scratches from Team Canada’s World Junior squad silently scrolled through their social media feeds - Instagram, Snapchat, BeReal even - as their teammates skating merely twenty feet in front of them got set to face the USports All Star squad for a spot at the 2024 World Junior Championship.

To the right of Edmonds sat a trio of Canadian players with their tickets already punched for the big show set to kick off on Boxing Day. First-round NHL draft picks Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie and Denton Mateychuk crouched over their phones in unison - locking eyes with devices that over the last year, have drained more battery over congratulatory text messages than any other game or social media app ever could. 

As the buzzer echoed to signal the end of warmups, Edmonds rose from his lonesome seat, shimmied past the line of players to his right and made a break for the stairs. 

Before even touching the top step leading to the concourse, Edmonds let out a sarcastic laugh, took a peak over his shoulder to the empty goal closest to the Team Canada bench and said: “that net’s gonna fly off.”

Those surrounding the TMU Bold netminder - fellow scratches, media personnel and even a few loose fans - cracked a smile and let out a quick laugh to suggest they acknowledged the statement, but couldn't resist adding a ‘yeah okay’ to the end of it. 

Photo Credit - Emily Simonetta

Edmonds left the area behind the net shortly after, only to return midway through the second period to watch whistles nudge the game to a standstill. 

To the crowd’s amazement, the net closest to Team Canada’s bench disrupted play the most, losing it’s bearings twice in the matter of 15 seconds.

By the end of the second period, that total grew to five. 

While referees pounded the net’s pegs back into the ice, Edmonds watched them with a smile stretched across his face as he sat in the stands. Among all the Team Canada hopefuls, locks, and NHL prospects, Edmonds fared to be the one most familiar with the equipment between the crease. 

Not to be overdone of course, by his familiarity with the equipment between his ears - a trait that over his career, has become a defining quality of the All Star netminder, separating Edmonds from even the best of his competitors. 

“For a goalie, it’s probably almost 90% of a mental game,” mentioned Edmonds at Team Canada’s development camp in Oakville. 

Well before his selection to the USports All-Star team, his one and a half seasons backstopping the TMU Bold, and even his days as a Barrie Colt in the OHL, the Ottawa native began mastering his fine-tuned mind.

“It’s hard, but you gotta try your best and stay composed at all times and believe in yourself. That’s when you have the most success,” he added. 

And the proof of course, has sat definitively in the metaphorical pudding over the last 14 months. 

Edmonds holds a 23-9-1 regular-season record during his two-year tenure as TMU’s starting netminder. His .934 SV% and 2.00 GAA stood as the third best numbers in the OUA through his rookie season last year. 

Photo Credit - Emily Simonetta

Edmonds also posted a perfect 6-0-0 record while competing at the FISU World University Games in Lake Placid this past January, most notably, making 17 saves to help secure a win in the gold medal game against Team USA. 

No matter the size of the moment that sits within his grasp, the process Edmonds follows to ease his mind into a comfortable position, one that warrants success in bulk, starts from the very moment the cold air of the arena touches his face in warmups. 

To the sound of music in the distance, Edmonds’ pre-game routine takes him behind the glass and beyond the goal that over the course of the game, becomes his prized jewel to protect. 

While he taps his foot to the backsplash of sound, the eyes of Edmonds sweep through the defensive zone as visions and prophecies of the near future breathe life into his mind. 

“[This pre-game routine] helps you get focused on what you are going to be doing and helps with visualizing what you’ll be doing in a game,” he mentioned while recapping his pre-game routine - a process that bears little to no change in it’s performance aside from the roulette of new words that fill his mind from one start to the next. 

Three to five thoughts - typically goals and points of improvement within his game - flood his mind heading into each and every battle. Yet even after the puck is dropped, those thoughts continue to stick atop the forefront of Edmonds’ mind and fail to brush off as the game progresses.

“When you start to get distracted, you kind of bring [those thoughts] back and think about what you want to do.” 

The Bold netminder finds himself constantly repeating those pre-set focuses after every whistle, net-front scrum and shot that sneaks past his body and into the back of the net. 

Where some might label it as his crutch in times of adversity, Edmonds feels repetition connects the pieces of his game together - even the fragments that may come loose or fly off as the game starts to become an uphill battle for the netminder to face. 

“For me, it’s just staying calm in my head and not letting outside thoughts distract or bother me,” said Edmonds, adding that his ability to live in the moment and not dwell on what may, or already has happened, allows him to bring his best stuff to the crease on a nightly basis.

Photo Credit - Emily Simonetta

Nevertheless, this impermeable and sound mind has become a defining trait for the TMU netminder and has reaped rewards at all levels of hockey, many of which stretching well beyond the university space. 

It’s origins can be traced back to Edmonds’ days as a young and aspiring puck stopper trying to work his way up the ranks in the nation’s capital. Every flirting experience with success and failure heightened his mental capabilities for the better, equipping him with a true understanding of what makes his game distinctive between the pipes. 

Among the trials and tribulations, Edmonds cites his two parents as the main source behind his unfaltering wit, mostly notably his father, who played a crucial role in toughening up his son’s mind at a young age. 

“He used to help me warm up when I was a kid, used to make sure that I knew how big it was to be mentally ready,” added Edmonds, who has yet to stray away from his father’s teachings all these years later. 

And even though he was unable to get a start for the USports All-Star squad during last week’s two-day training camp in Oakville, the cool, calm and collected mind of Edmonds continued to shine through as he watched attentively from behind Team Canada’s net. 

Even while high-profile talent surrounded Edmonds in the stands - players on the cusp of becoming celebrities in the nation later this month - the poised mind of the TMU netminder dwelled far from the borders of jealousy and displacement, and completely fixated itself on one small detail.

That from time to time, the net he peers into or plays between will be stript of it’s pegs and lose it’s bearings. But as long as that remains the case, Edmonds will never let the same happen to him, his mental state, and the feat that has brought him closer than ever to the world’s very best.