Episode 77 - Alyssa Gagliardi

On this episode of the Hockey Think Tank podcast, we bring on women's professional hockey player Alyssa Gagliardi.  Alyssa has literally won a championship at every level she's played...including a National Championship at Shattuck St. Mary's, 4 Nations Cup with USA Hockey, 3 ECAC Championships with Cornell, a CWHL Championship with the Boston Blades, an NWHL Championship with the Boston Pride...and now she is giving back as well to the hockey community in her hometown of Raleigh NC with her AG2 Hockey Camps.  She currently is on the "Dream Gap" tour with other high level women's players promoting the game.  We had some great topics on this podcast episode, including:

25:10 - Playing Girls vs. Boys hockey growing up.

30:20 - Playing at National Powerhouse Shattuck St. Mary’s (she had a class with Nathan MacKinnon.

37:35 - The recruiting process to college hockey for girls hockey players.

42:05 - The incredible culture turnaround at Cornell.

45:05 The importance of experience in hockey (we discussed what's going on in San Jose & Toronto).

53:00 - Playing professional womens hockey.

55:25 - The inspiration of Denna Laing.

58:20 - The state of Pro Hockey for women today.

1:03:15 - Sexism in hockey, at multiple levels.

We want to thank all of the listeners of this podcast, and we want to thank GelStx, the official sponsor of the Hockey Think Tank podcast.  Go to gelstx.com and enter the promo code "thinktank" to get a reduced price on their training sticks.

*Opening music: Forget the Whale - Take to the Skies (Instrumental)