Embracing a challenge of another kind

MONTREAL - The Canadiens' South Shore clinic - a.k.a. "The Chop Shop" - isn't just a place of healing for the inevitable aches and pains that players suffer from during a long season.

Believe it or not, it's also the site of some serious team bonding every morning before head coach Claude Julien runs his players through a video session ahead of practice.
Bonding over what, you might ask? Crosswords and Sudoku puzzles, both of which have become popular amongst a select group of Habs this season.
Defenseman Karl Alzner is the man behind the initiative, having previously puzzled alongside former Capitals teammates like T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, John Carlson and Braden Holtby, while he was in Washington.

Over the past few months, Alzner's new teammates north of the border have followed suit. But he admits they were somewhat skeptical of the idea at first.
"The first couple of times I was doing them, nobody knew exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it, I don't think. I was doing crosswords on the bus or on the plane, and nobody really came to look or help with answers," recalled Alzner, who signed a five-year contract with the Canadiens over the summer. "But we went on the road one time and I saw Webs [Shea Weber] and Petey [Jeff Petry] start to look at a crossword and I was like, 'Yes! Finally. This is how it starts.' Then, we just started doing it together and helping each other out with answers. We're up to six or seven guys in the morning now."
Brendan Gallagher, Charles Hudon, and Daniel Carr also take part, cracking their fair share of jokes while trying to solve their clues alongside the rest of the group.
The Canadiens' training staff is involved, too, with massage therapist Claude Theriault printing off new puzzles daily, whether the team is at home or on the road.
"It's my morning ritual. I even found one in Russian for Nikita Scherbak. He wanted to try it," said Theriault with a laugh. "The guys are pretty funny in the morning. Everybody participates. It's funny to see them go at it and chirp each other."
Alzner is fairly serious about his crossword work, though, having sharpened his puzzle-solving skills over the years in the District of Columbia.
These days, you'll almost always find him with a newspaper under his arm when the team is travelling, eager to fill in some blank spaces.
"I used to go down the clue list and just read it question by question, which is what most people do when they start. But then you realize that it's better to do it in blocks," said Alzner, before shedding some more light on his carefully-honed strategy. "Depending on the crossword, you also see a lot of repeats and questions that are very similar, so you can get a few more answers that way. Once you figure out a crossword maker's train of thought, you can answer them better."
While the 29-year-old Burnaby, BC native ranks himself as a "mid-to-high" crossworder among the Canadiens, he can still be stumped from time to time.

"If you ask me questions about authors of books or actors and actresses, I'm usually really terrible at them," joked Alzner, who generally prefers clues that are a little bit more abstract in nature. "If you make me think outside of the box, those are the questions that I can get. When they give you a clue and it has a question mark, that usually means a play on words. I'm usually good at those."
Admittedly, the 10-year NHL veteran won't hesitate to turn to Google every now and again for a lifeline if things get too tough.
"I'm not ashamed to do that. You want to finish the crossword. That's the key. If you're just stuck, then what's the point? You might as well help yourself with one and then it can kind of open the door for the rest," explained Alzner, whose favorite crosswords are those that appear in USA Todayand The Washington Post. "I'm also a terrible speller, so that makes it really tough. Like, I'll have answer and nothing else will fit, so I'll look up how to spell a word and realize that I spelled it wrong."
There's a lot more to doing crosswords for Alzner than just improving his spelling, of course. He's a big fan of exercising his mind and putting himself to the test - while steering clear of his cell phone as much as possible.

"It's like golf for hockey players. It's an unbeatable game. It's always bugging you, always a challenge. Crosswords are similar because it's so rare that you can go from start to finish and complete a whole one without screwing up at all," explained Alzner. "Guys like to be challenged and they like it be a hard challenge. It's something that you kind of talk about throughout the day, while you're getting dressed, 'Oh, I wonder if it could have been this or that…' It's pretty fun."
For Alzner, the ultimate challenge is tackling crosswords in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times - especially on Sundays.
"Those are the top two. If I can get three-quarters finished, that's very respectable and I'll be happy. And that's a Sunday crossword. The ones during the week are much more manageable," concluded Alzner. "But I'm talking Sunday, the hard one, five stars. That's what you want right there."