Avalanche warmup routines: From Evan Rodrigues’ game with kids to Samuel Girard’s pauses - By Peter Baugh (The Athletic)
Erik Johnson
Johnson wasn’t particularly forthcoming about whether he has any on-ice routines.
“Nothing I would tell you,” he said.
But if you watch every game, you’ll notice that, ahead of line rushes, he flips a few pucks all the way across the ice and into the netting, where they drop toward fans.
“Just working on the flips,” he conceded when asked about the trend, though he insisted it’s not superstition.
His locker neighbor, on the other hand, certainly falls in the superstitious category.
“You should ask this guy,” Johnson said, gesturing to the locker next to him, which belongs to …
Mikko Rantanen considers himself superstitious, especially during the playoffs, but he’s quick to add that there are others who are worse.
“I’m not going to say names, he said. “But 49.”
That means Samuel Girard, the Avalanche defenseman who wears No. 49. He’s notorious among his teammates for his routines, and he doesn’t always like to share his secrets.
“You can talk to him, but he’s probably not going to say anything,” Rantanen said.
The star winger was correct. Girard declined to comment.
“I don’t want to start with that; it’s just too long,” he said last season, and he again didn’t want to speak on it this month.
Some Avalanche players are superstitious. Others just have habits. Nathan MacKinnon, for example, is almost always the last player skating during warmups.
“I feel like everybody follows similar sets of stuff,” defenseman Cale Makar says. “I don’t think there’s something that, if I changed it, it would make a difference. I feel like most guys are the same way.”
Some are, some aren’t. The Athletic conducted a dressing room survey about what players’ on-ice routines look like — and also tried to piece together what makes Girard’s unique.
Evan Rodrigues
Rodrigues’ pregame pattern is one of the most noticeable — at least when his two sons, Grayson and Noah, are in the building.
“Just getting them involved, it makes their day,” says Rodrigues, who came to the Avalanche from Pittsburgh this offseason. “It’s worked out for me, so I might as well keep doing that.”
Rodrigues shoots a maximum of three pucks at the camera hole in the corner of the glass. When he makes one of the shots, he stops.
“If I don’t, I’ll just pick it up and give it to my kids at home (games),” he says. “And then on the road I’ll try to find an Avs fan and give it to a little kid.”
He used to just have to give a puck to Grayson. But now Noah is old enough to want one, too.
Rodrigues has had a successful year on the ice, with 18 points in 27 games. His puck-shooting at the camera hole has been less successful, though.
“I’ve been really cold right now, not going to lie,” he said Dec. 30. “I’ve been bad. I’ve been close but I haven’t gotten it through. At the beginning of the year I was probably 50 percent, and now I don’t think I’ve gotten one since I’ve gotten back from injury.”
J.T. Compher
Compher is the designated puck distributor before line rushes. He gathers them in the net and then flings them to his teammates at the blue line. He’s not quite sure how it started.
“I’ve just always done it here,” he said. “It started when I was younger and now it’s just part of my routine.”
Andrew Cogliano
MacKinnon and Compher chirped the always-industrious Cogliano as he started to talk about how he handles warmups, repeating the question across the dressing room and saying he doesn’t do anything.
“I like to think I actually warm up for the games,” the veteran quipped back. “Comph is flinging pucks around. Mikko is talking to fans. … I use it as preparation.”
He said he potentially goes “a little too hard” at times, but he likes to take advantage of his last chance to prepare before the game.
Ben Meyers
“I don’t really have anything I need to do,” he said. “My only superstition is that I have no superstition. I’m that guy.”
Brad Hunt
The veteran defenseman has off-ice preparation he does before every game, including stretches and skipping. But on the ice, he doesn’t do anything particularly distinct. The journeyman has played on seven NHL teams, and only one for more than 100 games (Minnesota, exactly 100 games). He doesn’t want to be a disruptor.
“Especially being new, you don’t want to screw with anybody else’s routine,” he says.
Andreas Englund
The defenseman makes sure to stand on the right side of the blue line during parts of the warmups.
“Small stuff like that (becomes) a habit,” he said.
Alex Newhook
Newhook has two on-ice rituals. One involves an equipment manager. The other includes the glass.
During warmups, Newhook will go to the bench, where assistant equipment manager Donny White sprays him with a water bottle. The 21-year-old also makes a point to jump into the glass three times.
“Bit of energy, get the guys going a bit,” he said. “It’s funny: The place I do it, there’s always the same fan there every time. (She has a) cowbell. She puts it on the glass and it always falls over.”
Alexandar Georgiev
“I try to read the shots and then play with the puck a little bit,” the goalie said. “I try to be ready to play the puck behind the net. Couple passes. Forehand, backhand.”
Mikko Rantanen
“I have the routine I do at the rink, and it’s always the same,” he said. “You can argue it’s superstition. I just do it.”
Want to know exactly what his routines are?
“You probably can see them in the on-ice warmup if you watch two games in a row,” Rantanen said.
Logan O’Connor
“Normally, when we’re doing the half-moon shooting, I take my first shot and then I go to the bench and take 20 seconds and take it all in: what’s gotten me to this level and how grateful I am,” he said. “Just sort of reflect. Sometimes you get caught up in it, and it’s hard to appreciate it. I try to do that every pregame warmup for 10, 20 seconds.”
Erik Johnson
Johnson wasn’t particularly forthcoming about whether he has any on-ice routines.
“Nothing I would tell you,” he said.
But if you watch every game, you’ll notice that, ahead of line rushes, he flips a few pucks all the way across the ice and into the netting, where they drop toward fans.
“Just working on the flips,” he conceded when asked about the trend, though he insisted it’s not superstition.
His locker neighbor, on the other hand, certainly falls in the superstitious category.
“You should ask this guy,” Johnson said, gesturing to the locker next to him, which belongs to …
Samuel Girard
As mentioned earlier, Girard didn’t want to talk through his pregame regiment. But here’s what it looked like ahead of Colorado’s Jan. 2 matchup with Vegas:
Early in the warmup, Girard stops near center ice. He puts his hands on his knees and remains still for around 30 seconds. He stops at the bench, then skates quickly toward the net. Before line rushes, after circling the ice a few times, he stops once again to put his hands on his knees, this time at the center of the blue line. Later in the warmup, he stops on the blue line away from the bench and remains there for around a minute before taking a shot and doing some fast skating around Colorado’s half of the rink.
His routine remains the same. Night in, night out.
“Eighty-two times a year,” Rantanen said.
Added Girard simply when asked last season: “I like to have my routine.”














