How is the preseason experience as a player?
Fans can now breathe a sigh of relief as the NHL preseason is finally over and the regular season will soon get underway.
While some may think the preseason is too long, training camp and exhibition games serve as a key marker for players to build good habits and find their rhythm as they prepare for another NHL campaign.
On last Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk asks former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton about his experience in the preseason and what things he focused on as he worked through the preseason.
Tyler Yaremchuk: From a fan and analyst perspective, I’m someone who sees training camp starts, you see everyone buzzing, and I’m thinking “OK, let’s get to some preseason games.”
Then it usually takes me until halfway through the first preseason game to see one team is playing an entire American Hockey League roster, so I don’t care about how the other team plays, because it’s not true competition. But two games into the preseason, I’m over it, already.
When you were a player, was that the similar vibe? The first game, you’re maybe thinking it’s good to be back, but by the time the second game rolls around, it’s like, “alright, let’s get to the real thing.”
Carter Hutton: I think a great comparison would be my first-ever preseason training camp when I was in Nashville, which was stressful. It was like, “this game I’m getting a start, or I’m playing half a game,” and there was so much pressure on me and I wanted to perform.
Meanwhile, as I went on in my career and had contracts and stability, I didn’t view it the same. It was more like, “what’s my routine, again? What time do I nap? What time do I drive to the rink? What am I eating?”
You try to check off all those boxes as the preseason rolls along. I think for the veteran guys, it’s more getting your body back into the rhythm of turning it back on at 7 o’clock at night. You just went all summer training in the morning, during the day, trying to get back into the rhythm.
For some of these younger players, maybe there’s a spot to make a difference and show it, but at the end of the day, you can look at a roster and know who is going to make the team, or who might get a little star beside his name and make coaches think, “we need to keep an eye on this guy when we send him to the AHL.”
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…