Today, Neil Stevens at the Canadian Press ran down a selection of trivia found in the NHL media guides. For instance:
Chicago defenceman Brent Seabrook loves yogurt covered peanuts, Carolina captain Rod Brind’Amour can’t get enough Red Vines licorice and Los Angeles defenceman Tom Preissing says his favourite food is bacon.
Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron has horses named Mel and Mad Dog, teammate Mike Knuble has a leopard gecko named Flames and San Jose centre Joe Thornton owns cats named Lenny and Indy.
Fascinating? Well… cherry-picking the CP article a bit, perhaps there are some other odds and ends you’re desperate to know. Starting with the Leafs:
Unbeknownst all these years about Mats Sundin is that the one person he’d like most to meet is Nelson Mandela, and he’d be an electrician if he were not playing hockey.
The Leafs’ Mark Bell would prefer an audience with the Dalai Lama, while teammate Bryan McCabe apparently isn’t looking for a spiritual awakening. The one person McCabe would most like to meet is Vince Vaughn. You know, the actor.
Well sure—anyone can dream of meeting Mandela or the Dalai Lama, but it takes a brave man to admit that Vince Vaughn is your secret crush.
More trivialities:
—We learn that Joffrey Lupul, another former Oiler, would choose to be invisible if he had one super power to choose…
—Krys Barch, a forward in the Dallas organization, worked on a slaughterhouse killing floor…
—If he could choose an actor to play him in his life story, Colorado goalie Jose Theodore would pick Johnny Depp…
...which makes sense, maybe, since Johnny has such lovely, flowing hair (well, I guess?). Regardless, everyone knows how important nice hair is to Jose.
About the Canucks—not much was noted in that article, so I looked closer at my own media guide for what might be unknown to some fans.
The best I could come up with:
- Matt Cooke: says if he wasn’t a hockey player, he’d collect and sell antiques.
- Ryan Kesler: mentions Mike Modano is one of his “mentors”
- Lukas Krajicek: his brother is a professional hockey player in the UK
- Markus Naslund: Says if he could spend time with any three people, he would choose Mike Myers, Dana Carvey and Robin Williams.
- Mattias Ohlund: Loves to cook, especially Italian food.
- Sami Salo: Person he’d most like to have a chat with is the President of the United States
- Henrik Sedin: Has a thing for Meg Ryan…
None of which might seem terribly interesting, till you contrast it with what I found in the Columbus Blue Jackets media guide, discovering what might be the most boring roster of players in the NHL.
The only part that stopped me from falling asleep entirely was the revelation that Czech defenseman Jan Hejda’s favorite musical artist is Madonna. (which, of course, is only interesting when you consider the photoshopping possibilities…)
But still, not interesting enough. After all, Pascal Leclaire loves Justin Timberlake and Rick Nash shakes his money maker to Tim McGraw.
There’s a point when loving Madonna actually makes you seem like the “cool” guy in the locker room.
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