Men's Hockey: Routines, rituals or neuroses?

These habits might strike an uninformed observer as eccentric, but they are simply three anecdotes of hockey superstitions.

“In my experience, everyone has something that they always do the same,” senior forward Brett Wilson said. “It’s kind of weird, but everyone puts on their [equipment] the same way. That’s the most common one that I have found.”

Yet getting dressed the same way before each game is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to many of the Tigers’ habits leading up to a game.

“I wouldn’t really call them superstitions as much as pre-game rituals,” Kalembasaid. “The day of a game, you basically go through the same routine to get your mind ready and focused on what you want to do.”

For Kalemba, this routine begins hours before the opening faceoff with a meal and a pre-game nap. When Kalemba reaches the rink, he starts to prepare his equipment.

“I wouldn’t say I’m obsessive-compulsive, but I like to have my equipment set up the exact same way before each game, and I don’t like to have any piece of equipment touching another one,” Kalemba said. “It bothers me on game days but not on other days. It would bother me if my gloves were touching my helmet. It would bother me so I would have to space it out. It makes me uncomfortable when that happens. I don’t know if you would call that a superstition or my being neurotic.”

Whatever you call it, there is no question that it has been working. Kalemba was recently named Ivy League Player of the Year and currently leads not only ECAC Hockey but also the nation in goals-against average and save percentage.

In addition to laying out his gear in the same manner, Kalemba said he has a specific playlist that he listens to before each game.

“Before a game, I listen to the same songs. I have an MP3 player. I don’t use an iPod because there are wires attached,” Kalemba said. “If I’m taping my stick, I don’t like to have anything in the way. I use an MP3 player that is connected to sunglasses, but I don’t use the sunglasses. I put the shades up. I listen to the same 10 songs before every game.”

One thing is certain: Kalemba does not let outside events distract him as game time approaches. When Princeton’s home game against Clarkson in late February was delayed for more than an hour because of a crack in the ice, Kalemba was one of the few players to keep his pads on the entire time — yet another example of the junior goalie’s singular focus when preparing for a game.

“I think you go with what works,” Kalemba said. “My freshman year, I didn’t have too much because I was trying to find something that worked. If you do something once before a game and you play well, then you try to do the same.”

Sabky’s routine starts when he is getting dressed to walk down to the rink. Each game, Sabky wears the same shirt-and-tie combination, but he said this combination will change if the team loses.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

As Sabky walks down to the rink, he listens to Eminem’s “Til I Collapse” and wears his Nike dollar hat.

Sabky puts on his equipment from right to left while listening to the same playlist before each game. He juggles for a little while before visualizing for five minutes.

Sabky claimed that he has toned down his superstitious inclinations over the past few months.

“I used to be pretty bad as far as having to do stuff. It was kind of like OCD, but I weaned myself. [Earlier this year, I was] only able to go in the right urinal,” Sabky said. “I have to put the right piece of equipment on first, followed by the left side. So right shin pad, left shin pad, right skate, left skate and stuff like that. But I’ve weaned myself [to] a more normal ritual. I don’t look at it as a superstition. It’s more part of my mental preparation.”

Sabky says that his superstitions arose following a good game.

“The way they start, I can almost certainly say, is you’ll do something, and then that game you play really well,” Sabky said. “And then you’ll think about what you did before that game and what happened earlier. So that is how superstitions develop. So one day, I must have gone in the right urinal and played great, so then I continued doing it. But that was kind of ridiculous.”

But Sabky’s rituals are not especially unusual. Lohry’s pre-game routine also starts back in his room as he prepares to walk down to the rink.

“[Sophomore forward and roommate Matt] Godlewski and I have to listen to music as loud as possible while getting dressed. We walk down to the rink, and I change from my suit to my clothes,” Lohry said. “I put my left side on first. I have a certain pair of socks for the actual warm up routine. From there, I take my sticks and rub a puck on the sticks while I’m taping it to give it some good luck.”

After taping his sticks, Lohry fills up two cups of coffee and does stick handling drills with a yellow ball. This ritual is complicated by one specific stipulation.

“The catch is that I can’t touch another ball on game day,” Lohry said. “A lot of players on the other team are juggling before the game, and I can’t get touched by any of the balls before the game or I’ll have a bad game.”

Following head coach Guy Gadowsky’s pre-game speech, Lohry does four sprints in the hallway outside the team’s locker room. Then, he drinks his first cup of coffee and ties his skates. Once again, there is a catch to this routine preparation.

“I listen to whatever song is up next on my iPod [when tying my skates]. I have to tie my skates before the end of one song,” Lohry said.

“Sometimes the song is about one minute and 30 seconds, and I have to rush tying my skates. Then I drink the second cup of coffee, and I leave about half of it for after the warm up. After the warm up, I drink the second half of the cup and leave a little bit left.”

Lohry’s routine finally ends when he and his teammates skate onto the ice for the game.

After shaking hands with sophomore defenseman Taylor Fedun, Lohry walks onto the ice, where he is always followed, in the exact same order, by Godlewski, Fedun and sophomore defenseman Mike Kramer.

Despite the exacting nature of his superstitions, Lohry said that they have never bothered him during a game. It’s after a tough game when a botched ritual can become problematic.

“[Superstitions are] never on my mind during a game. If I forget something and we lose, I’ll think about it afterwards. That’s how superstitions come and go,” Lohry said. “I think everyone does the exact same thing before a game. Some people might be a little stranger than others.”

Wilson, one of the Tigers’ veteran leaders, has never been bothered by the superstitions of one of his teammates.

“I’ve never had something where someone was so ridiculous that it was a distraction to other people,” Wilson said. “Some people like to keep to themselves a little bit, which doesn’t take away from [the team]. I’ve never had a problem with that.”

Though superstitions sometimes seem to emerge out of thin air because of a chance occurrence before a game, one pre-game routine can be attributed to the Tigers’ head coach.

When Gadowsky arrived at Princeton, he encouraged his players to practice juggling to improve their peripheral vision and hand-eye coordination.

“The reason why I encourage players to juggle is for peripheral vision and hand-eye coordination. It was introduced to them as a training technique for those two things,” Gadowsky said. “They just took it to a whole new level. You should see them do it now; they could put on their own circus.”

Gadowsky allows his players to follow their own routines before games.

“I’m very hands-off. I think a lot of players prepare and have to take responsibility to prepare the best that they know how,” Gadowsky said.

“We have very high-quality guys. There is no one doing anything silly or stupid. They are preparing the best they know how. For some it involves other activities: For some it involves getting loose. For others it involves being quiet and focusing. We let them do whatever is best for the individual.”

As Yogi Berra once said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”