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"But I don't think it's weird at all. A goalie's preparation and superstitions could be seen as weird, but for me every goalie has their own little quirks to get them going. It may seem weird by non-goalies but to goalies it's just what we do." Like the protective armor he wears as a member of the U.S. National Under-18 Team, Knight has developed a thick skin when it comes to dealing with the slings and arrows that come from those outside the goaltending community. "One thing I've learned and what I've done is I try not to take myself too seriously," said the future Boston College netminder. "If someone says something I just laugh because they're more than likely just joking with you. I've always said they can say it, but I'll just go and stop the puck and then I'll have the last laugh." And he does that better than most, leading the U.S. to a silver medal at the most recent IIHF World Under-18 Championship. His coach Seth Appert can definitely relate. He too wore the tools of ignorance growing up in Minnesota and then at Ferris State University before turning to the coaching profession. He's known a few goalies over the years who may have been a little on the quirky side, but that perception could have more to do with the solitary nature of the position than any character flaws. "Players are always together in the locker room together, and on the bench. They play together on lines together, and in [defensive] pairings. The goalie, for the most part, is alone back there with his own thoughts, and sometimes his own demons," said Appert, who completed his first season as a U.S. National Development Coach. "There's a different element to that, and you have to be very com- fortable with that loneliness." They must also be comfortable with the pressure. "Forwards can make tons of mistakes and most people don't even know and they get seen for what they do well," he said. "A goalie makes a mistake and the red light goes on and 10,000 people scream." It's a message that Appert passes down to young netminders, including his 15-year-old nephew Roan, who plays goalie for the Mahtomedi Bantam AA team in Minnesota. "I told him the position will become easier once you understand that every goal is your fault, and that it's OK," he said. "You have to take accountability for every goal, but you don't have to beat your- self up about it. It's the balance of those two things that is tricky for young goaltenders." It's something that even the best goaltenders have had to get used to over the years. John Vanbiesbrouck has won more games than any American goalie in NHL history, and he has heard it all from the time he was a youngster growing up in Detroit right on through to today. "I would say generally that nobody wanted to be abusive and I didn't take it that way. I took it as a funny, tongue-in-cheek kind of comment and went along with it," said Vanbiesbrouck, who recently took over as USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations. "It didn't influence me to not want to be a goalie. Maybe the laugh was on me, but I went along with it." Like many of the colorful expressions associated with the game, the origins can be traced back to a bygone era when it took a certain breed to get between the pipes. "I think that stigma was born out of a time when goalies didn't wear masks and it took a certain type of person to play the position," said Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill, who also played his college hockey as a goaltender at Ferris State. 30 // JUNE/JULY 2018 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM PHOTOS BY Getty Images; USA Hockey Magazine Archives "The position will become easier once you understand that every goal is your fault, and that it's OK." — S ET H A P P E RT