Ask Gerv! No. 4

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 fourth edition of Ask Gerv!
To read the previous edition, click here.

1. Question from Marie-Pierre Villeneuve, via Facebook.
"It would be good to get to know Shea Weber a bit. What is his routine, how is he with the equipment staff and what are some of his requests? We don't know a lot about him."
Shea Weber is a very classy guy. I've worked with him on Olympic teams, so I knew him before he came to Montreal. He's not very demanding; he does his own thing. He's calm, but he also commands respect. He's very polite. As long as he has everything he needs, has enough sticks and all of his things, he won't ask for much. He's very serious when he's getting ready for a game. He's very thorough. Even for a regular season game, you'd think you were in the Stanley Cup Final watching him get ready. He really takes it to heart. He's among the first to get to the rink.
2. Question from Dino Sartoretto, via Facebook.
"What is the team's budget for sticks?"
Budgets are confidential, but we tend to go through about one hundred sticks per player per year. It amounts to about one stick per game, plus training camp and all that. As for sticks for development camp, there's a separate budget for that.

3. Question from Jean-Marc Daudelin, via Facebook.
"What is your routine for game days? What time do you get to work, and what time do you leave?"
I typically get to work early in the morning. I like to work out, so I come for around 6:00 a.m. or 6:30 a.m. I work out, then I eat - we have a caterer here - and I like to take care of some of my own things before the players arrive. I get my skates ready, both for morning skate and for the game. Then, when the guys get in, there are lots of little things to do here and there - we get company reps who visit, things like that. When the guys get on the ice, that's when I can take care of all my paperwork: orders, bills, those kinds of things. I also take advantage of that time to get a jump on the week's schedule; I'll prepare our trip if we're going to New York, for example. We always try to stay a step or two ahead. During games, I'm on the bench and I'm already thinking about the next day and the day after that. That's how it is.
After morning skate, I leave here (Bell Sports Complex) around 12:30 p.m. and come back to the Bell Centre for 4:00 p.m. In the meantime, I run some errands, I go home, I rest, I take it easy.
After the game, I get home about an hour after the game. Pierre "Steamer" Ouellette stays later. His routine is very different than mine; we all have very different routines.
There are four of us. Typically, Pat (Langlois) comes here (to Brossard) with the equipment. "Steamer" stays there (Montreal) to finish the laundry, so that it's all ready for the next game.
On the road, it's the same thing, the same routine, but we don't do anything for the other teams, it's the other way around. But for me, the hours are the same. I get there early in the morning and I always go back to the hotel in the afternoon before heading back to the arena around 4:00 p.m.
I don't sleep a lot, but I catch up in the afternoons. I try to nap, because the nights can sometimes be short. We go to sleep late, we wake up early. But I try to stick to a routine, to get to bed early, to eat well and to work out because the schedule is tough. I'm 55 years old now; it's not like it was back when I was 25!