from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star,

It was some time in the 1940s when the Maple Leafs were playing a road game and were having trouble with their skates.

“Back in the old days, the equipment wasn’t as good as we have today,” says NHL executive Jim Gregory, now 80. “And it wasn’t taken care of as well. A guy might not get his skates sharpened for eight or 10 days in a row.

“At one game in the ’40s, the Leaf players were really having trouble with their skates. They had a meeting they decided from now on, on the day of the game, they were going to test them. And if there was a problem they would get them fixed before the game started.”

Gregory can’t remember the precise date, but a hockey ritual began: the morning skate.

Gregory started his career in the Leaf organization in 1955, acting as the team’s GM in the 1970s. By then the morning skate — once a player-driven idea to test equipment — had morphed into a coach-driven idea. The coaches wanted to shake the cobwebs out of the players before the game, especially if he knew his players had been carousing the night before.

“It was a way to have the team not sleeping in,” Gregory said. “Get them out of bed and mobile.”

Today, the morning skate seems not just an anachronism, but pointless. The players are fitness-crazy with their protein shakes and workout routines.

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