On Tap with ... Dan Bartlett

Q: What was your “welcome to college” moment?

A: My “welcome to college” moment probably came during preseason my freshman year when I realized how hard you have to work on and off the ice to be successful. Specifically, I remember almost drowning in the middle of the pool in Dillon [Gymnasium] during our team swim workout and wondering how that related to hockey.

Q: What was the greatest highlight of your sports career?

A: Last year, winning the Ivy League regular season title, the ECAC [Hockey] tournament, and going to the NCAA tournament was the highlight of my athletic career. Hopefully that will change this weekend.

Q: What is the funniest story you have about your head coach?

A: [Head] coach [Guy Gadowsky] likes to keep us on our toes. We have a ping-pong table in our locker room, so we play a lot, but sometimes before practice Coach will challenge us to nominate a representative to play him. The loser has to do a conditioning skate or some other punishment. But as the game is about to start, he calls in a member of Princeton’s ping-pong team to replace him. He sits back and laughs as our player struggles to even make contact with the ball.

Q: Who is your quirkiest teammate? Why?

A: There are a number of strange guys on our team, starting with the two goalies [sophomore] Alan Reynolds and [junior] Zane Kalemba. But if I had to pick one person I would go with [sophomore forward] Kevin Lohry. Unless you know him it is kind of hard to explain why. He is moody. He has many superstitions, including being afraid of touching any kind of ball on game days.

Q: What was your most embarrassing moment at Princeton?

A: My most awkward and probably most embarrassing moment at Princeton would have to be rap-battling at Bicker last year. It didn’t go so well.

Q: What is the best part about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: I think one of the best parts about being an athlete is that I get to leave campus most weekends and stay in nice hotels with big, comfortable beds. Getting excused from the occasional class is a nice break also.

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Q: What is the worst part about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: Walking to class every day. I see 20 people wearing the same Princeton Athletics sweatsuit as me.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do when not practicing?

A: When I get a break from hockey and school, I enjoy sitting in front of the TV doing nothing. I like watching “The Office,” “24” and just about any sporting event. If I muster up enough energy to leave my room, I’ll go to T. Sweets or Twist.

Q: If you didn’t play hockey, what sport would you play?

A: I would play golf. I enjoy playing in the summer, and I feel like a road trip to Florida on a nice spring day would be more enjoyable than a trip to upstate New York in the middle of winter.

Q: If you were the head coach for a day, what would you do?

A: If I was coach for a day, I would get rid of our preseason pool workout that consists of swimming laps, pushups and treading water continuously and replace it with a team golf tournament.

Q: What has been your favorite class at Princeton?

A: My favorite class I’ve taken so far was probably CEE 102: Engineering in the Modern World. The class was pretty relaxed in terms of the workload and the lectures were interesting.

Q: Which of your teammates has the most game off the ice?

A: This year, our team has a lot of guys with girlfriends, but of the single guys I’m going to say [junior forward] Tyler Beachell has done pretty well for himself with the ladies. A freshman [forward] on our team, Scott McNeill definitely has the most game. Whenever I see him walking around campus, he is always dressed up nicely while walking a girl to class and having a nice conversation.

Q: What is your pre-game ritual?

A: I don’t have any really weird pre-game rituals, but I try to do the same things before each game at the same time. There is a clock that counts down to game time in our locker room, so I use that to guide when I get ready.

Q: What music do you listen to before games?

A: I don’t really use music to get pumped up before a game ,but I’ll go with “Lose Yourself” by Eminem because we listen to that each game right before we go out onto the ice for warm ups.

Q: What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod?

A: I rarely use my iPod because I haven’t added songs for a while and because there are only a few hundred songs on it. The most embarrassing would probably be that Nick Lachey song from when he and Jessica Simpson broke up.