Penn State men’s hockey players take different approaches to preparing their gear for games
They’re teammates on the ninth-ranked Penn State men’s hockey team, seniors waiting this weekend to find out what’s next in the Big Ten Tournament, and they’ve been integral parts of the program’s success the past several seasons.
Still, for all Kris Myllari and Nate Sucese share they’re quite different.
Myllari, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman, leads the team with 62 blocks. Sucese has 17. Sucese, who stands 5-9 and weighs 175 pounds, leads the team with 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists). Myllari has two goals.
They also differ on how they prepare and use their hockey sticks.
“I’m not too picky as far as equipment. It’s pretty much whatever they give me,” Myllari said. “When it gets close to breaking or it’s broken, that’s when I get a new one.
“Mostly, our equipment manager will tell me when one’s getting in bad shape.”
Myllari seems relatively low maintenance in terms of preparation as well — just a little black tape on the blade of his stick.
A PRECISION PROCESS
Sucese has a more involved process. He gets a new stick every Thursday before a series, and the first thing he does is cut it to the proper length. That’s to his nose when he’s on skates.
His taping process then requires precision. Preparing the four sticks he’ll have available on any given weekend takes about 90 minutes.
He tapes the blade with white tape, carefully lining up subsequent rows. At the top, it’s light blue tape that stretches about a foot from the butt end of the stick. That portion of the stick gets labeled with his uniform number (14), a cross and one to four dots for the order in which he’d like to use the sticks in case one breaks.
The newest one always gets a single dot. “A fresh one has a lot more zing,” he said.
The back side of the handle includes his nephew’s name: Cade. “It’s who I play for,” Sucese said. “My brother’s been one of my biggest mentors in the world and we’re looking to pass the game down to him.”
Approaches on stick preparation differ from player to player for the Nittany Lions (20-10-4), who will spend this weekend watching other conference series to find out if they claim the regular season conference championship. If not, they’ll find out who they host in the opening round next weekend.
A WEEKLY ROUTINE
If they play next weekend, several players will get new sticks Thursday night. Forwards Evan Barratt and Brandon Biro and defenseman Paul DeNaples are in that group.
Barratt estimates it takes about three minutes for him to tape a stick. He starts at the knob and then writes his number (17) and two quotes on the handle — “Strength Through Adversity” on the front and “Don’t Doubt Yourself” on the back. A layer of clear tape then covers that area.
DeNaples tapes his stick with thick black tape, wrapping it exactly 25 times from the top down to near the midpoint of the stick. He also tapes the blade. Overall, it’s about an eight-minute process.
He estimates he goes through about 40 sticks a season, changing regularly. “I get a new stick whether there’s actually a broken stick or just because it feels ‘whipped out,’ ” he said.
Equipment manager Ben Kogut said the team budgets for 36 sticks per player per season. Those are exclusively provided by Bauer. And while the coronavirus has limited production from factories in China, Penn State has not been affected.
Players often have four sticks prepared on their racks for a weekend series. Kogut also has two more backups for each player.
Whether they put a lot of effort into the preparation of their sticks and taping or not, players know how a good stick feels. Even two from the same new batch can differ somewhat, and they adjust accordingly.
They also agree a “whipped” stick might be worse than one that’s broken.
“It feels like a noodle when you’re done with it,” said forward Liam Folkes, who gets a new stick every two to three weeks.