Tape it or leave it Whether a hockey player’s stick blade is wrapped heel to toe, decked out with just a strip, or even left ‘naked,’ there’s sure to be lore, logic or an ice legend that informs their style By: David Sanderson Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Feb. 3, 2023 Last Modified: 7:45 PM CST Friday, Feb. 3, 2023 Updates

It’s early January at Canada Life Centre, the downtown home of the Winnipeg Jets. The Central Division club just wrapped up a morning skate ahead of an evening date with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Jets forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby is now back in the locker room, demonstrating how he tapes the blade of his hockey stick.

He’s been doing it pretty much the same way since he was a youngster growing up in Stockholm, he states, showing how he starts near the middle of the blade, and winds the tape around and around, toward the toe, taking care not to create bumps, by overlapping the strips too greatly. When asked why he chooses black tape over white, he says it’s because he isn’t known as a goal scorer, and white tape is reserved for players who light the lamp on a regular basis.

Defenceman Nate Schmidt, seated in front of an adjoining stall, stops untying his skates the second he overhears Jonsson-Fjallby’s comment. “What are you talking about?” Schmidt asks, with a bemused look on his face. “I use white tape, and I don’t score a ton.”

“Yeah, but you’re on the PP (power play), which means you’re a skill guy and can get away with white (tape),” Jonsson-Fjallby shoots back, reaching for a pair of scissors that have travelled with him throughout his career, his “lucky pair,” to cut the applied tape from the roll.

Forty-eight hours after Jonsson-Fjallby was held off the scoresheet in the Jets’ 4-2 win over the Lightning, he was back on the ice for a Sunday tilt versus the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Only for that contest, the blade of his stick was sporting white tape.

Well, wouldn’t you know it?

During a post-game interview for the Free Press, sportswriter Mike McIntyre quizzed Jonsson-Fjallby about his game-winner in the third period of the 7-4 triumph, which was his first goal in 10 games. McIntyre joked he didn’t know Jonsson-Fjallby had that “rocket” in his arsenal.

“Yeah, me neither,” came Jonsson-Fjallby’s response. “Actually, I changed (my) tape job for today, changed to white tape… so I guess that was it.”

Anybody who watches Jets games on television on a regular basis is familiar with a commercial starring speedy winger Nikolaj Ehlers, during which he advertises the Jets special-edition, reverse-retro jersey. At one point in the 30-second spot, Ehlers is shown expertly applying white tape to his stick blade.

That got us thinking: whether you’re a peewee, pro or grizzled beer-leaguer, taping a stick isn’t something you’re likely to entrust to a teammate, coach or equipment manager. Rather, it’s highly probable everybody has their own technique and routine, right down to how frequently — or infrequently — they dress their lumber.

To determine if our assumption was correct or not, we spent a couple of weeks bouncing between practices and games, chatting with players from all levels of the sport. What we discovered is when it comes to this undeniably sticky subject, everybody has their own tale of the tape.

REASON

According to the website, hockeyanswered.com, there are various reasons why hockey players tape their stick in the first place. Some swear it allows them to control the puck more easily, while others maintain it provides a cushion, when accepting a pass.

Most importantly to Evan Andrew, a married father of three hockey-playing sons under the age of 11, it’s felt it offers protection to the taped area, a huge factor given today’s composite and carbon-fibere sticks can cost as much as $400, including kids’ models.

“What I got the guys to do when they started taping their own sticks was put an extra layer along the bottom of the blade, to try to extend the stick’s life cycle a bit,” Andrew says, moments before his seven-year-old son Olin’s team’s frosty outdoor practice, at Deer Lodge Community Centre.

Before answering questions about how he tapes his stick, Olin wants it stated for the record that the only reason he’s donning Jets colours is because his preferred jersey, a blue-and-white Toronto Maple Leafs model, no longer fits over his shoulder pads. Having made his point, he holds out his stick to show off a heel-to-toe tape job, remarking it’s only the second time he’s fully done it himself.

Not too shabby, says his brother, Cade, 8, who plays on a separate squad, but has accompanied Olin to the rink, to get in some extra ice time. Dressed in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, Cade says he began taping his own sticks last season, with assistance from his father and older brother Larson, 11.

He redoes things every three or four games, making sure to heed his dad’s advice by applying two layers of tape. Not that he hasn’t openly questioned the logic behind taping a stick.

“One of the guys on my team doesn’t tape his (stick), or he only puts one strip in the middle (of the blade),” Cade says, preparing to leave the dressing room. “I asked him why and he told me it’s because Bobby Orr did it that way. From what I read, Bobby Orr was good, right?”

MEANING

The first thing people attending a recent Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League match between the J.H. Bruns Broncos and visiting Garden City Gophers noticed was that almost every player on the ice at Southdale Community Centre had green tape on the blade of their stick. St. Patrick’s Day was still weeks away, so what gave?

As Broncos captain Emma Wallis put it after the game, a 5-4 win for the “good guys,” the green tape is part of an annual, B.C.-based initiative called “Buddy Check for Jesse,” so-named for Jesse Short-Gershman, an avid hockey player who committed suicide at age 22, after struggling with mental illness for years.

“The way our coach explained it, Jesse was bullied a lot during high school, and the green tape reminds us to be kind to one another, and to reach out to our teammates to say, ‘hey, if there’s anything going on, let me know if there’s something I can do’,” Wallis says.

“This was our first game (using green tape),” pipes in fellow Bronco Kadence Morin, “and it’s our understanding all the teams in the league will be doing it, during (January).”

Wallis and Morin are both in Grade 12, were both taught how to tape a stick by their father, and both play “D.” That’s where the similarities end. Morin prefers black tape. Wallis goes with white, always has. Also, while Morin retapes her stick before every game, Wallis does so two or three times a month, at most.

“First, it’s because I’m a poor student, and can’t afford to buy a million rolls of tape,” she says, flashing a smile. Additionally, she likes to study the puck marks on her stick post-game, to see how involved she was.

“There are definitely a few (marks) from today,” she said, glancing down at her blade. “It was a good one, for sure.”

Over at Wayne Fleming Arena, home of the University of Manitoba’s women’s team, second-year captain Katie Chatyrbok motioned to a spot in the rink’s southeast corner, noting that’s where you’ll find her two hours before every home game, taping her stick.

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“It’s become a bit of a ritual to get here early, change into my warm-up gear, then sit in the stands, taping my sticks and doing some visualization, just to get ready for the game in my head,” she said, describing her tape job, which involves covering three-quarters of the blade with white tape, as “nothing too crazy.”

She always adds a final touch, before returning to the dressing room, to join the rest of the team. On the underside of the blade, on the end piece of tape, she uses a Sharpie to write the letters L and O.

“If I goof up on the ice, I can look down at my stick and tell myself to not view it as a mistake, but as a learning opportunity, so L and O,” she said, turning her stick around to show off the personal message.

“If I goof up on the ice, I can look down at my stick and tell myself to not view it as a mistake, but as a learning opportunity, so L and O.”–Katie Chatyrbok

Chatyrbok’s teammate Brenna Nicol has her own pre-game routine. She usually tapes her sticks in the hallway just outside of the dressing room, all by her lonesome. Her last step is to take a pen and write her linemates’ jersey numbers on that section of tape covering the shaft, near the butt end.

“This is from last game, so you can see I was on a line with Vanessa Klimpke and Jesse Haner,” she said, pointing out the numbers 25 and 23. “I always put our starting goalie’s number on there, too. It’s a good way to remind me who I’m playing for, and to make sure I’m always trying my best, for them.”

SUPERSTITION

The majority of hockey players tape their stick in the same, precise manner, game in and game out. That isn’t the case with Connor McClennon, who is currently in his fourth year with the Western Hockey League’s high-flying Winnipeg Ice.

Following a gruelling, Thursday morning practice at Oak Bluff’s RINK Training Centre, McClennon, who was held off the scoresheet in the previous night’s 4-3 overtime loss to Seattle, is still debating which taping style he’ll go with for the team’s next game. He has two ways of doing it, he explains: one where the blade is taped “sock-style,” with the tape covering the heel and extending all the way to the toe, and a second with tape covering half the blade, only.

“It’s become a bit of a superstition, but I tend to go back and forth between the two, depending on how I’ve been playing lately,” says the sixth-round NHL draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. He shrugs his shoulders when told he mustn’t have to choose very often, given he was currently tied for second in team scoring, with 51 points in 38 games.

Standing to McClennon’s right is centre Conor Geekie, who is also admittedly superstitious about how he tapes his stick. Only in his case, it’s the knob end he’s finicky about.

Geekie, who was chosen sixth overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2022 entry draft, wraps a roll of tape 55 times around the very end of the stick, and 48 times just underneath it. Not that he’s counting or anything.

“It’s something I started doing, to help me hold onto my stick better, when I was a kid,” says Geekie, whose older brother Morgan is currently a member of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. “I went to training camp with the Coyotes in September, and got ribbed about it pretty good, by some of the older guys. But since it’s something I’ve always done, I’ll probably keep on doing it.”

PERFORMANCE

Jets centre and 16-year NHL veteran Sam Gagner was taught how to tape a stick by his father, Dave, a pretty decent instructor, what with the elder Gagner having spent 15 seasons in the league himself, and registering 719 points along the way.

Starting in 2007, when he was a member of the Edmonton Oilers, Gagner taped his stick similarly before every game, covering the blade completely with black tape.

Only on Feb. 2, 2012, he ran out of tape, he says, standing in the hall outside the Jets locker room.

Sure, NHL players have access to all the free tape they could ever want, but with puck drop moments away, he figured he’d simply finish the job later.

“That was the night I got eight points,” he says, referring to a four-goal, four-assist performance that, to this day, stands as an Oilers record for most points in a game by a single player.

“I doubt the tape job had anything to do with it, but of course, I kept taping my stick like that for a while, because who would want to mess with success?”

“I doubt the tape job had anything to do with it, but of course, I kept taping my stick like that for a while, because who would want to mess with success?”–Sam Gagner

Like Gagner, Kristian Reichel of the Manitoba Moose was also taught how to tape a stick by his father, in his case, Robert Reichel, a veteran of 11 NHL seasons.

The reason he’s always gone with black tape is because his father instructed him it’s difficult for goalies to pick up a black puck coming off a black stick blade. That made sense to him, Reichel says, seated in the dressing room at the Hockey For All Centre, following Moose practice.

Standing nearby, Reichel’s teammate Arvid Holm laughs, calling the Czech Republic-born player’s claim, “the biggest myth in all of hockey, maybe.”

Holm ought to know; the 6-foot-5 native of Ljunby, Sweden, has started 18 games in net for the Moose this season, and currently boasts a tidy, 2.94 GAA.

“I don’t feel it hides the puck from the goalie, whatsoever, but if that’s what guys want to believe, power to them,” he says.

As for his own stick, Holm says it doesn’t matter one way or the other which colour of tape he reaches for. Check that, he says, glancing down at his goal stick. If the shaft is dark, he prefers black, and if the shaft is silver, like what he’s been using lately, white it is. You know, to look good when he’s stopping pucks.

The bonus about white tape, he quickly adds, is that he can usually tell if he made a lot of stick saves, from the resulting puck marks.

Kind of like how Gerry Cheevers painted stitches on his mask, to know how many times his head got in the way of a shot?

“Yeah, exactly,” he says, zipping up his equipment bag.

NECESSITY

Alyssa Whyte, a member of Manitoba’s provincial sledge hockey team who has also attended camp with the national women’s team, can’t imagine going without tape on her stick, despite having no firm evidence it helps her game, one way or the other.

“I’ve never not taped my stick so no, I can’t tell you for a fact it makes a difference. But because the puck gets wet and all, I don’t really see how you’d get a good shot off, without (tape),” she says, an hour before a Saturday afternoon game with her league team, the Wild Things, at the Hockey for All Centre.

“Also, our sticks are expensive,” she continues, pointing out sledge hockey players use a pair of sticks versus one, and a set of two costs around $300. “So yeah, the tape is there for protection, too.”

“I’ve never not taped my stick so no, I can’t tell you for a fact it makes a difference. But because the puck gets wet and all, I don’t really see how you’d get a good shot off, without (tape).”–Alyssa Whyte

Brothers Luke and Isaiah Armbruster play for the same, provincial sledge hockey team as Knight, and they also manage an Instagram page, to help promote the sport.

Isaiah, 18, and Luke, 19, use the same sort of poly-cotton cloth tape ice hockey players do, but they’re aware of a person from another team who uses sock tape, a far smoother adhesive, on his blade, instead.

They’ve never bothered to ask why, Luke says, but he guesses it could be because a sledge hockey player’s blade does double duty. It’s not only used to pass and shoot, it’s also the part of the stick they grip, while utilizing metal “teeth” protruding from the shaft end, to propel themselves along the ice, strapped into their sled.

“That’s probably why the tape on my stick looks so… well-used,” Isaiah says with a laugh, showing off a blade that could definitely use a new coating. “It wears out a lot faster because we’re constantly sliding our hands up and down.”

TRADITION

Jeff Einfeld’s sons are 18 and 20 years old, so you wouldn’t think he would have been too bothered when he learned Johnson & Johnson was discontinuing the sale of its talc-based baby powder, after it was determined the product contained serious contaminants.

Here’s the thing, though. For years, Einfeld, 55, had been rubbing baby powder on the tape of his blade, with the understanding the powder inhibited snow or frost from building up, meaning the tape should last longer.

“I started playing (hockey) when I was six or seven, and there are always seemed to be a few guys in the dressing room with bottles of baby powder, probably because their dad told them it was a good idea,” he says, mentioning he later read that Dale Hawerchuk and Wayne Gretzky used baby powder on their stick blades, so if it was good enough for a hall of famer, it was good enough for him.

Einfeld, who hits the ice a few times a week with his beer league club, Fistsablur, grabs one of four sticks he rotates through on a regular basis, to better describe his methodology. He wraps the shaft with any colour of tape save black, even red or purple, as he noticed black tape was eating away at the palms of his gloves.

He never used to cover the toe of his blade with tape, but started feeling compelled to, when the price of a new hockey stick went through the roof.

“During the course of play, from getting whacked or doing the whacking, the tip (of the stick) starts to get frayed and chipped, and the ref will tell you to retire it,” he goes on. “For that reason, I now tape over it, to hide the damage, and save myself 300 bucks.”

“During the course of play, from getting whacked or doing the whacking, the tip (of the stick) starts to get frayed and chipped, and the ref will tell you to retire it… For that reason, I now tape over it, to hide the damage, and save myself 300 bucks.”–Jeff Einfeld

One more thing: Einfeld commonly switches between defence and forward, and tapes his stick differently, based on what position he’s playing; less tape if he’s on D, more when he’s on the wing. Just don’t ask him why.

“Tradition, I suppose. It’s funny, because when you told me what this story was going to be about, I thought I’m either going to sound exactly like everybody else — how I have my own way of doing things, and don’t want to change — or like I’m totally weird. Here’s hoping it’s the former.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca