Knoxville Ice Bears

The Winning Ritual

date: 10/24/2011

 

The Winning Ritual

 

Superstitious “rituals” among professional athletes on game days have always been an interesting topic to us sports fans. For example, the Pittsburgh Penguins player Sidney Crosby is known to be a stickler when it comes to taping his hockey stick, and former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Patrick Roy is famous for his maintaining a close “relationship” with his goal post during games.

That got me thinking: Our own players at the Knoxville Ice Bears must have a game day tradition that gives them that edge they need for the next level performance to bring us a win.  Fortunately, I had the opportunity to sit down real quick with Emery Olauson and Tyler Fletcher on Tuesday to find out about some of the “secret rituals” to a winning performance.

 

Sookie: So guys, tell me about each of your rituals or superstitions before the game.

Fletcher: Well I don’t really have a superstition, but I always eat pasta the night before the game and the day of… And I just bike a ton. Besides that I guess I always have the same stretching and wake up routine on the day of the game.

Olauson: My routine is to have a good breakfast, and not work too hard in the day of the game… Oh and I also try to get three meals in before the game.

 

Sookie: What about our other players? Do any of them have unusual game-day rituals?

Fletcher: I think you’re gonna want to ask the goalies on this one (laughs).

Olauson: Yeah, they’re the ones who usually have weird superstitions. I used to play with this one guy who would put on his full hockey gear before the game and close his eyes and pretend he was actually playing in the game.

Fletcher: But I guess if I had to pick one from our team… Mark (Van Vliet) likes to have like a shake or a smoothie before the game, which is I guess kind of unusual because most players like to have pasta or steak. But we don’t have many players with us this season that have an unusual ritual… most of it’s got to do with time – like they have to do certain things at a certain time. For example, like if the game is at 7, at 6:15 they have to start stretching or something.

 

Sookie: So then, moving on from the Ice Bears, what were some of the weirdest rituals you’ve seen throughout your careers?

Olauson: Hmm… Well I used to play with this Finnish guy, and before every game he’d take a shot of this….I don’t remember what the brand is, but this really strong alcohol and go out on the ice.

Fletcher: (laughing) Man that is crazy. I don’t think I’ve seen any weird ones like that.

 

For our Ice Bears, it seems like their talent exceeds their need for a superstitious ritual. It’s okay; the staffs at the front office have created one for the team –putting a quarter down on the center of the ice every season when we’re putting down the ice. 

So some of the players have one, we have one; what are some of your game-day traditions? Share your rituals – anything from eating fried chicken and drinking beer during the game to wearing that special underwear – with us!

~Sookie

 

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