Welcome back to Screen Shots, an ongoing THN.com series in which we break down a number of hockey topics into shorter sequences.
Let’s get right to it.
When hockey players finish up with their daily on-ice routines – be they in games or practices – there are certain things they do to wind down.
After a recent Toronto Maple Leafs practice, THN.com spoke to a couple of Maple Leafs players about how they decompress and maintain a healthy life away from the game.
But thinking that any one player does the same thing day in and day out between playing is a mistake. Some hockey players are creatures of habit, but having a good variety of activities makes it easier for NHLers to decompress.
Leafs left winger Steven Lorentz is one such player.
“There’s nothing I really do that’s set in stone,” Lorentz said. “I’m pretty high-strung, so I don’t really decompress. It’s kind of more of a slow, kind of gradual thing over the course of the day. Once I get back home, I usually go with my wife for a walk. We like to stay active. So it’s just kind of winding things down, and after dinner, it’s probably watching a movie.”
Asked what his favorite movie is, Lorentz counts himself as a major fan of war movies and shows.
“Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific – anything like that is something I’ll watch,” Lorentz said. “I like all the (war) shows and documentaries. I even watch them in other languages and turn the subtitles on.”
For his part, Lorentz’s teammate Bobby McMann does a number of different things to decompress.
“I try and read – probably should try a little more,” McMann said. “But I’m more of a show guy, shows and movies. And I like thrillers, thriller movies.”
The recent release of a new thriller on Netflix also caught McMann’s attention, but he leans on a tried-and-true TV staple as a regular show to tune into.
“The Girlfriend is a new thriller show I watched lately,” McMann said, referring to the Robin Wright thriller series. “But it’s not the easiest thing to decompress. Usually I’ll throw on Friends or something after a game to try and settle down. But when I’m home, after dinner, I’ll probably usually watch a thriller movie.”
The Utah Mammothunveiled their new mascot this week – Tusky, a 6-foot-5 Mammoth character that looks like it has emerged right out of the snowy tundra.
Tusky is going to be challenged to be as successful as Philadelphia Flyers icon mascot Gritty – but given how popular the Mammoth organization has been since relocating from Phoenix in 2024, the team needed to quickly move on a mascot that was family friendly and true to the team name.
In fact, they might have created a new mascot rivalry that would be fun for the league to buy into.
"A baby blue prehistoric animal... how orignal," Nashville Predators mascot Gnash posted on X Wednesday.
Gritty became a cultural phenomenon, and that’s a hard bar for every other mascot to clear. Nobody is reinventing the wheel here with Tusky, but it’s nice that Salt Lake City and the Utah hockey community get the full NHL experience – and that includes having your own mascot.
Finally, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spoke out in the strongest terms yet regarding growing the league beyond North America.
"We're focused on what we can be doing more outside of North America to continue to grow the game on a worldwide basis," Bettman told NHL.com following the league's board of governors meeting on Wednesday. "That's becoming an increasing focus and priority for us because we believe we're the most international, certainly with our player composition, of the four major sports in North America, and we think there's a great opportunity. But even more than the opportunity, we'd like to see the game continue to grow."
If You Ever Get A Chance To See A Hockey Game In Prague, Take ItWhen you walk into the O2 Arena in Prague to cover a hockey game, one of the first things they give you is a ticket, which allows you to redeem it for a sausage and a beer.
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly had previously given a strong indication the NHL is aiming to expand its footprint deeper into Europe and beyond and grow its product in a slew of big-city, big-money markets overseas. The latest announcement in that regard is a media deal that will broadcast 21 NHL games in Australia.
That said, Europe is the more significant area the league can extend its product into. While we won’t see NHL European teams anytime soon, you will see more games being staged there and more progress in growing the game where there’s a promising hunger for it.
"We're not talking about starting a league," Bettman said. "It's more about playing games, media, grassroots programs, providing content – the things we do in North America on a regular basis and we've been doing to some extent in Europe. But this is about investing more of ourselves in building."
That makes a lot of sense for the league. We’ve been a longtime proponent of any movement that grows hockey in Scandinavia and beyond – places where there are established markets for the sport – and these moves mark the first step toward eventually growing the NHL game to previously unthinkable heights.
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