Ryan Reaves might be the last player in the NHL you want to make angry, so when you first see his unusual pre-game routine you might wonder what on earth his coaching staff must have said to him to get him so fired up.
It turns out Reaves doesn’t do it to get himself into game mode and ready to go, he does it for his teammates.
In a recent interview with David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the eight-year NHL veteran talked about his pre-game routine and while he might not remember how it started, he knows exactly why he does it.
“It just gets the boys loose, gets the boys kind of ready to go, fires them up just a little bit. It’s something a little stupid.”
But it’s not just for the players, it’s for the coaching staff, too.
“I want to make sure the coaches are ready to go just like we are,” Reaves said to Schoen with a wide grin, “so I just wake them up a little.”
Reaves has been doing his pre-game routine for some time now, but after it was caught on TV earlier this month it became a big topic on social media as people tried to figure out why he was so angry at one of his coaches. Turns out he was just getting everyone ready for the game.
