Ask Gerv! No. 8

Have questions for Canadiens equipment manager Pierre Gervais? He's got the answers! Every week, Pierre will answer questions from fans submitted through social media. Here's the eighth edition of Ask Gerv!
To read the previous edition, click
here
.

1. Question from Danielle Lessard, via Facebook.
"Could you tell us what your three biggest challenges have been throughout your time with the Canadiens?"
I could say that being put in charge in 1997 was a big challenge for me. Eddy Palchak left me with some big shoes to fill, so it was a big undertaking.
The Olympics are always a big challenge and each season in and of itself is important because, just for training camp, there are 50-60 players who come and that's where it starts. Sometimes, we'll have three games in three nights, and since the players are split up, you could have one team playing here and the next day, it's another team playing somewhere else. I'm not the only one who has to figure out the logistics for training camp - far from it - but it's a challenge. All the equipment has to get to the right place. If one squad is playing one night in Ottawa, and the next night another group is playing in Quebec City and it's not the same players, everything has to be properly transferred overnight. The guys skate in the morning and sometimes when they're about to leave for Quebec City, for example, they may change which players get sent. One guy isn't coming anymore, someone else will go because of injuries… In cases like those, you're looking forward to getting to Quebec City to be sure you have everything, the jerseys and all, because it often happens very fast!

2. Question from Stephane M. Pichette, via Facebook.
"What do you do with used goalie equipment when it comes time to replace it?"
Any equipment we no longer need - whether for goalies or other players - gets sent to the marketing department, which holds sales for game used gear twice a year. Jerseys are sold separately.

Editor's note: The next used equipment sale will be in the fall, date TBD, and game-worn jerseys are for sale on
[canadiens.com
]
3. Question from Brianna, via Twitter.
"What is your schedule like?"
With the new collective bargaining agreement, we have four days off per month, which is lots of fun because I have a family, kids, so I can plan things out. Beforehand, the coach could have given us a day off on Sunday, but if the team had a bad outing on Saturday night, there goes your Sunday off! We also have the All-Star break and that's about it. Winter is just like the players for us, plus all the preparation work.