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In the ruins of an apocalyptic war zone, Mitch Marner is gunning for you. He’s tracked your movements, followed you with precision alongside his Toronto Maple Leafs teammates. Hours after the arena cleared and his day shift is done, the three-time NHL All-Star is locked on his mission and looking for another kill.
Ryan Reaves, the veteran muscle, might be around one corner. Matthew Knies, the fireball future, around another. You probably won’t notice 6-4 Steven Lorentz closing in. And William Nylander’s famous flow won’t give him away.
Though you’ll likely never know it, you’re about to be another casualty of the Leafs postgame routine.
Years ago, you might have encountered members of an NHL team like the Leafs in a more traditional setting after a game — like a bar across the street from Maple Leaf Gardens, or in a private booth in a ritzy club on Toronto’s trendy King Street West. But today, they’re more likely to be in the privacy of their own homes, sitting in front of a screen planning out missions against random “Call Of Duty” opponents over their headsets.
“Usually, I like to get home to my dog, chill for a little bit and then go downstairs and just kind of black out in my own world,” Marner says.
NHL team bonding has moved away from partying in public settings to the quiet privacy of online gaming. At the same time, the drinking culture that was once pervasive across the league is waning while the use of cannabis products is on the upswing.
When The Athletic asked more than three dozen players on different teams whether they use edible marijuana during the season, 38 percent indicated that they did. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, The Athletic agreed not to identify those players.
When Nate Schmidt entered the league a decade ago, he says cannabis use by NHL players was unheard of — but partying and boozing were widely accepted.
“You show up and guys are 100 percent all the time,” Schmidt says. “You can’t be at 80 percent.”
Nearly every player The Athletic interviewed for this story agreed that partying in the NHL is on the decline.
One NHL veteran forward, who asked not to be named, lamented the demise of alcohol-fueled bonding with his teammates.
“When I came into the league, we were going out for beers the night before games,” he says. In this dramatically altered off-ice landscape, he believes something has been lost: “I think (the NHL) used to be more fun back in the day.”
That sentiment is echoed by others, who say those nights out helped their teams bond.
When one player boarded a flight after a matinee loss, he says he was irritated when he looked up and down the aisles to see only about a third of the guys having a beer or a glass of wine. A decade ago, when he entered the league, he says players commiserated.
“Two beers in the back of every seat on the plane, and that’s just on the flight. Then there would be a couple more in your bag, a couple more on the bus,” says the player, who asked not to be named. “A nice professional buzz before you got back.”
Alcohol softened the blow of a loss and got players opening up to each other about the game. For generations, those booze-fueled evenings were an integral part of NHL life.
Now?
“It’s a lot less,” he says.
Oilers defenseman Troy Stetcher — who was a member of the Arizona Coyotes when The Athletic spoke to him — said if his team had a day off before a road trip years earlier, players would have gathered to hit the town.
On a day off more recently? “We didn’t even practice, and I know some of our younger guys played Xbox in the room for three or four hours,” Stetcher says.
Another NHL veteran describes his shock a few seasons ago when he turned back from a game of cards on a team flight to see one of his younger teammates locked into a VR headset, deeply entrenched in a video game.
“And I was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” says the defenseman, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely about his teammates.
