Another Locker Room You Don't Want to Visit
I've mentioned before that the idea fans have of how marvelous it must be ... inside a professional team's clubhouse/locker room ... is wrong-headed.
And the other day I was reminded why hockey fans really do NOT want to be inside an NHL locker room.
It starts with the smell.
It's awful.
Hockey locker rooms are easily the worst-smelling in sports. And they stink even when the players aren't there.
I'm told that the culprit is hockey equipment, which gets wet and then never quite dries ... and smells worse than some athletic socks left at the bottom of a laundry hamper for a year or two.
The essence de P-U of the hockey locker room is particularly flavored by players' gloves, which are made out of leather.
Apparently, nothing stinks quite like sweaty leather.
A player once told me that if you watch a hockey fight, players make a point -- before dropping their gloves -- of sticking them in the face of the other guy. Because they smell so badly.
I was reminded of that special hockey stench on Monday when I was in the Ducks locker room shortly after Teemu Selanne announced he would be coming back.
No players were in the room. Four big floor fans were blasting warm air through the room ... and it still smelled awful. The kind of smell you fear might get in your clothes or your hair and never come out.
So, no, you don't want to be in a hockey locker room. Wait for the lads to shower and come out -- having left behind their reeking equipment.