Superstitious: Not Just a Stevie Wonder Song

Whenever you ask hockey players about the pre-game superstitions, a lot of them say that they're not superstitious, it's just a tradition to get them into the mind-set of the game. Whether or not you think that's bull-crap it's up for interpretation because I get the feeling that if you think you're going to have an off-game just because you put your left shoulder pad on first, that counts as more than just a "tradition".

That being said, I don't think I'm a very superstitious person myself so I'm using the tradition excuse for my pre-game routine. The thing is I've been known to freak out quite a bit when my boys lose so I'm usually keen to follow my game day routine to a tee. I mean, why mess with a formula that works right?

My routine is a full-day affair. The evening before game-day I'm always sure to catch up on any work I need to do so that I don't fall behind on the work that I'll miss when I'm too busy being distracted from the game. The day of, whenever I have time to work during the day, that's what I'll be doing. The evening of, I take a shower and wash my hair and get into my PJs. It just means that I'll be less tempted to go out for the night and can concentrate on the game/pretending I don't care about the game and am actually doing work. The key piece of my game-day tradition is the jersey. For my birthday this year, my friend bought me my first Senators jersey. The day I got it, we went to see the Senators take on the Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. I wasn't wearing the jersey at the time but I had it on my lap. When the boys were down in the third period I thought maybe--just maybe, I could give the jersey a try. I put it on and voila, the boys came back and won it in overtime. Ever since then it's been absolutely key that I wear the jersey whenever a game is on. Even if it's not on TV, and even if I don't have time to listen to it, it's very important that I'm still wearing it.

But no, I'm clearly not superstitious at all.