Jonny Brodzinski added to familys tradition of teaching hockey before pivotal Rangers camp
Jonny Brodzinski spent seven years of his childhood working for his dad, Mike Brodzinski, at his hockey store, Hockey Zone, in Minnesota.It was eventually renamed to Hockey Central until his dad was bought out by Pure Hockey just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and a young Brodzinski used to sharpen skates there.They’ve been running the “Brodzinski Shooting School” out of the back for many, many years.The store was going to get rid of an old Bauer training station with artificial boards and artificial ice until it dawned on Mike to offer it to Jonny, who figured his two young daughters — Lucy and Olivia — would love it.Mike told Jonny he had a surplus of kids who wanted to learn how to shoot, too, but not enough time to do it all himself.“It just kind of snowballed from there,” Brodzinski told The Post on Sunday after practice in Tarrytown.
“It went from me having 5-10 kids to, at the end of the summer, it was like 35-36 kids.It was great.
It’s so much fun.Just teaching the kids what I know, just the small little things that can help them even at a young age, teaching them the small techniques that’ll help them down the road — if they learn the correct way now.“Just to see their transformation from the first session to the last one, the smile it puts on their face is great.”Thus began the Greenwich, Conn., chapter of the Brodzinski Shooting School — Garage Edition.From girls going into their freshman year of college to one 5-year-old boy, Brodzinski taught hockey to all ages and all genders out of his own house this summer.
His dad gave him plenty of pointers for the camp, during which players shot 300-500 pucks per day and worked on their strength.His eldest daughter, Lucy, would set up her little lawn chair next to the rest of the parents and watch.She then would get in her toy Zamboni and clean the fake ice after each session.While he has a decent-sized garage, the size of the area was one of the biggest obstacles for Coach Brodzinsk...