When the first period ends, Scott Hannan really starts moving.
The Avalanche defenseman strips off his hockey gear and heads for the showers. After basking under the nozzle for a few minutes, Hannan heads over to another body of water — a cold tub — and jumps in. Sufficiently cooled, Hannan then returns to his locker, puts all his hockey gear back on and gets ready to go back on the ice. When the second period ends, Hannan does it all over again, until there are no more periods to play.
“I think I’ve got it down to about three minutes now, from the time I get in the room ’til the time I’ve got all the gear off and in the shower,” Hannan said.
His between-periods routine is just one of the many unusual ways NHL players spend their time in the locker room. So much is known about today’s pro athletes, but one area that’s off-limits is the locker room.
So what are the Avs doing in there, anyway?
“Mostly, not much,” veteran Andrew Brunette said. “You just want to maybe cool down a little, which is why most everybody takes off their jerseys. Get something to drink, rehydrate and mostly just shoot the breeze.”
Everybody except Hannan, who is too busy doing his whirlwind tour of the aquatic parts of the locker room area. He is the only Avalanche player who showers between every period. Not many, if any, other players in the NHL do so.
“I actually had it influenced to me when I first got to San Jose by (former Shark) Tony Granato,” Hannan said. “He’d do the same thing. For me, I sweat a lot, especially my feet. It’s a way to get my body temperature back down. The cold tub really takes care of that. But, yeah, it’s just become a routine now, where I have to do it.”
NHL teams have a 17-minute break between periods for televised games, which equates to about 15 minutes of actual downtime once they get on and off the ice. Most players use that time to take their jerseys off, towel off a bit and use the restroom.
After the rest and relief from nature’s call, players usually spend the last half of the break reviewing the previous 20 minutes: What went right, what went wrong and how can the next 20 be better?
“If it’s a good period, you talk about just keeping it going, and identifying what we did right,” Avs winger Ian Laperriere said. “If it’s a bad period, there might be some trips to the coach’s office to go over some video and you might get a nice verbal spanking from the coach himself. But the players, we are always talking about the game between periods. Mostly, you loosen your skates a little and just get off your feet. The time seems to go so fast. Maybe it doesn’t seem that way for the fans, but it does for us. I’m sure it does for Scotty Hannan.”
Hannan always changes socks between periods, but otherwise uses all the same clothing as well as equipment. Most players insert their gloves into a makeshift device that has multiple blow dryers, to dry them out. Very rarely do players eat during the break, though occasionally someone will break out a protein bar.
“Usually it’s just water or some Gatorade-type of drink that goes into the system,” Brunette said.
One thing that used to happen all the time between periods, said Hall of Fame former coach Scotty Bowman, was a player lighting up a smoke.
“Lots of guys smoked cigarettes between periods in the old days,” Bowman said. “It was a different era when it came to that.”
That never happens anymore, unless someone can sneak a puff somewhere outside the locker room. Former Avs defenseman Alexei Gusarov used to take smoke breaks, and former NHL defender Al Iafrate made it plain to anybody passing through the hallways of the old McNichols Sports Arena that he had a smoke going. Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur was a committed chain-smoker.
As for Hannan, what happens if the Avs play a multiple-overtime game? Does he continue his shower/cold tub routine?
“Oh, yeah, even more so,” he said. “When the playoffs come around, the equipment men know to pack a lot of socks for me. If a game goes four overtimes, that means six showers. Then the one after the game.
“I guess whatever team I play for is going to have the highest water bill in the league.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
