#two touch

We are Freestyle Love Supreme (2020): FROGGER!

from “freestyle love supreme” pilot, october 22nd, 2012

Step out of the elevator and into the bowels of PPG Paints Arena an hour before every Penguins game and on  your way past their locker room you are likely to hear a little hooting and hollering, usually from Patric Hornqvist, after a  well -placed shot or a spectacular save by a teammate.                Oh, by the way, a hockey stick or a puck is nowhere to be found.               One pregame ritual for several Penguins is a game involving a soccer ball called “sewer ball” or “two touch.” Most, if not all, NHL teams have a crew that plays before hockey games. Chances are you’ve seen B-roll footage of the Penguins kicking a ball around during the pregame TV shows.                I knew before joining the Penguins beat this season that hockey players did this to get loose before games. I had no idea it gets so competitive. But, as a few players explained, you get a bunch of professional athletes together and hand them any kind of ball, and it’s bound to get a little rowdy.               Thus the scene before every game, with Hornqvist, usually wearing  tight black compression shorts, cheering or complaining as Casey DeSmith, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and others scramble to keep the ball in the air.                “It’s a good way to warm up, getting your hips going, your head  going, your eyes going and at the same time get a little competition,” Hornqvist said. “It’s the  perfect warm-up for me and for other guys, too.” 

Here’s a quick rundown of the rules: The players make a circle and someone sends the soccer ball toward  another player. That player, just like in soccer, has to use their legs, head or torso to keep the ball in the air. They get two touches to corral the ball and then direct it toward somebody else.               The ball continues to get passed around like that until somebody screws up and lets it touch the ground or a player makes an unsalvageable pass.               If that happens, you’re out of the circle. The last man standing  wins.                “You are trying to keep the ball up,” Rust said, “but also trying  to put the ball in a position that makes it hard for the other guy to keep it up.”               Added DeSmith, who said sewer ball helps him stretch out and  sharpen his foot-eye coordination: “Honestly, we could keep it up for a while. But it’s more about how spectacular the saves are. One time last month, there were like 10 amazing saves. It was  like the sickest rally. Those are the best.”               Rust got a big grin remembering some epic games when Tom Kuhnhackl was still on the team and players would slide and dive  all over the place to keep rallies going for a few minutes. Typically, they last around 40 seconds.                While things can get a little crazy, Rust says no Penguins have suffered a significant injury playing the game, just some “minor stubbed toes or a slight roll of an ankle or maybe a bruise.” But he’s heard stories of guys from other teams getting hurt,  including one player who tore his hamstring.               The Penguins play on the road, too. A trainer makes sure to pack  a soccer ball, and the players find an uncongested area outside their locker room.               A small group of players – Guentzel, DeSmith, Rust, Riley Sheahan  and maybe a plus-one – plays “more of an in-tight skill game”  around 5 p.m. After the team meeting at 5:30, a bigger, usually  “more heated” game goes on.               That one typically has about 10 players, including Hornqvist and  sometimes guys such as Evgeni Makin and Sidney Crosby. Most of them, I’m told, are pretty solid at sewer ball, but Hornqvist  is reportedly the best of the bunch.                I mentioned that to Hornqvist, who played soccer in Sweden until he was 15 and still plays with friends in the offseason, and Malkin, who seemed to be spacing out in the next locker stall over, suddenly chimed in.               “No, no, no, no, no,” the big Russian objected. “I’m the best.”               So, yeah, it gets spirited. And that’s a good thing. “It’s a good way to get the blood going and to kind of get into a competitive  mindset,” Rust said.