Do hockey players win games because they work hard and try their best? Nah, it’s because of all the pre-game rituals and fan traditions.
Wayne Gretzky had a very specific intermission beverage routine. Right off the ice, he’d drink a Diet Coke, followed by an ice water, then a Gatorade, and then another Diet Coke. It had to be in that order.
• Glenn Hall got nervous before games for almost his entire career. To calm himself down, he’d vomit before the game started.
• Stephan Lebeau would chew a massive wad of 25 pieces of gum, just before the game. Once the game clock had been running for two minutes, Lebeau spit out all the gum (not onto the ice).
• Red Coupille is a little-known player from the 1930s. During games, he’d keep a bottle of Coca-Cola in his shoes, in the locker room. He claimed the superstition would guarantee he’d score a goal…although he only ever scored 12 times in eight years of play.
• Stan Mikita would smoke a cigarette between each period of play. When he was done, he tossed the butt into the trash—always over his left shoulder.
• Bill Ranford wouldn’t let linesmen take the puck out of his goalie glove. First, he had to toss it in the air and land it on the back of the glove.
• Stéphane Quintal refused to talk to anyone after 1:30 p.m. on game days.
• Joe Nieuwendyk would eat two pieces of toast—with peanut butter—before every game.
• Sidney Crosby won’t call his mother on a game day, because on the days of the the three games in which he’d been injured were also days he’d talked to his mother.
Canada’s official groundhog is an albino named Wiarton Willie
• Ken Dryden had to end his goalie warm-ups with a save, not a goal. If a teammate practice-scored on him, he had them shoot again so he could make a save.
• Kyle McLaren wore a yellow, not clear, visor. It started as a prank—his teammates changed it because McLaren is colorblind, and would have no idea that it had been changed. But McLaren scored that first night, so he kept the visor as a good-luck charm.
• Ray Bourque changed his skate laces before every individual period, and never used the same pair twice. He played in 1,826, which amounts to 10,956 pairs of laces.
• Patrick Roy had two weird superstitions. When skating to his goaltending position, he’d hop over the blue and red lines—he didn’t want to touch them. He’d also talk to his goalposts throughout the game.
• Jocelyn Thibault would pour water over his head exactly six-and-a-half minutes before the start of a game.
• Karl Alzner would tap his stick to the ice exactly 88 times during the playing of the Canadian National Anthem. As he did so, he’d trace the outline of the maple leaf in time to the music.
• Bruce Gardiner played from 1994 to 2005. During that span, before every game, he dunked the blade of his hockey stick into the locker room toilet. (Bruce Gardiner is now Uncle John’s all-time favorite hockey player.)
• Here’s a nice team-wide superstition. In 1987, the Winnipeg Jets faced the Calgary Flames in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The Flames had a tradition for home game fans to show up wearing the team’s red uniform color—it made the stands a sea of intimidating red, known as the “C of Red.” In response, the Jets came up with their own tradition based on their own color: home fans showed up in entirely white to create the “Winnipeg White Out.” The Jets won the series, and carried on the tradition for home playoff games—even when the team relocated to Phoenix.
Estevan, Saskatchewan is the sunniest place in Canada—2,540 hours of sunshine a year.