Beer might be flowing in the NHL bubble, but there isn’t any sex happening.
ESPN recently published a fascinating piece about life inside the NHL’s bubble system in Canada, and it’s worth reading every word of. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
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When it comes to relaxing, players are allowed to drink. In fact, there’s a SkyBar where players frequently spend time.
One player told ESPN, “I’m not kidding you when I say that at least 10-15 guys from every team were up there. If a team was playing the next day, you didn’t see any of those guys at the SkyBar. It would be teams playing the following day or after their games. It wasn’t just the fourth-line guys or just the top-end players. The stars, the young guys, everybody was there.”
As for sex, there isn’t a whole lot if any at all happening. An unnamed player told ESPN, “There was some chatter before it started about guys trying to leave the bubble or sneaking girls in. There was none of that going on. Guys were pretty mature. Ultimately, you didn’t want to be the guy that f**ks this up, to be the one that ends up getting everyone COVID.”
Anyone who knows NHL players knows they’re absolute dogs when it comes to partying and women. While it doesn’t sound like the beer consumption went too far here, I’m not surprised at all they were hitting up the bar.
In fact, I would have been shocked if they weren’t doing that. You find me a hockey player who says he doesn’t like drinking and I’ll show you a liar.
As for the lack of women, you just can’t do it. The bubble system is pointless if you’re sneaking in women. Is it unfortunate? Sure, but it’s just the nature of the business.
When you’re getting paid millions of dollars to play a sport, you can’t risk it by sneaking in a few women. That’s a recipe for disaster.
I can’t encourage you all enough to read the entire piece from ESPN. It’s one of the most interesting sports stories that I’ve read in a long time.