Every person in the world is feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and hockey players are no exception. Now that so many countries are in lockdown, most sports events have been postponed, and people, including professional players, have to stay inside.
This is hard – especially for hockey players who wanted to show off their amazing skills. It’s also hard for people who were making plans to bet on hockey. After all, how can you make hockey bets if there is no unfolding event to bet on?
But there’s another concern – how are hockey players supposed to stay in shape while they have to lock themselves inside? Well, Wayne Gretzky has to answer that question himself, in a joint interview with Alex Ovechkin on Monday.
How do Hockey Players Stay in Shape During the Outbreak?
Wayne Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin had their first joint interview on Monday. In that interview, Ovechkin wanted to find out how Gretzky would maintain his good condition, if he had to play right now. According to Gretzky, all you have to do is find a pair of rollerblades and skate around the neighborhood.
He went on to say “I always tried to do the closest thing to playing hockey. I probably would have found a pair of Rollerblades or in-line skates, and I would’ve been skating around flat property around the neighborhood as much as I can. Because your hands and your shot and stickhandling, that’s never going to go away, but one of the things you lose quickly if you’re not skating every day, is that skating stride. So, if I was a player of today’s generation and we were locked out, I would try to find places to Rollerblade as much as possible.”
Well, that’s exactly what NHL players have been doing during this time. It became just like a trend, as in-line skating has been brought to the attention of the public lately. Nick Jensen, the defenseman of Washington Capitals, declared that one of his teammates wanted to get a pair as well, yet he couldn’t find any available right now. Apparently, they are all sold out.
The Look for Roller Skates
It seems that the search for roller skates has increased now that people have to practice social distancing and are looking for ways to pass the time. 250,000 people were looking up roller skates on Bauer over the past six weeks. Compared to normal, the company had a 723% year-over-year traffic increase on things related to in-line skates.
What’s great is that the company also sent out skates to some top-level athletes, about 75-100 people in total. These include Nikita Kucherov, David Pastrnak, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Patrick Kane, who are part of the top picks for the 2020 NHL draft.
Final Thoughts
Hockey players are keeping themselves in shapes with rollerblades. Although it doesn’t compare to actual ice skating, it’s still better than doing nothing. Hopefully, the players will be ready for when things are back to normal and you can bet on hockey online.
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