Senators AHL affiliate equipment assistant to work ball hockey tournament

There are two NHL teams vying for the Stanley Cup, the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning. There are two teams playing for the Calder Cup in the American Hockey League, Chicago and Springfield. So, you would think Chris Wilson would be enjoying the downtime.

Think again.
The equipment assistant for Belleville, the Ottawa Senators AHL affiliate, instead will be in Laval, Quebec from June 21-27, where he will be the equipment manager for the Canada men's ball hockey team at the 2022 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation (ISBHF) World Ball Hockey Championship.
"The expectations, and it would be my sort of the philosophy and what I take from working in the American Hockey League, is ensuring that when players arrive for game time, they can strictly focus on playing the game and competing to win," Wilson said. "That all the basic equipment needs are absolutely handled, so when they show everything is ready to go … [and] making it as much of a professional setup as we possibly can."
A normal AHL gameday at CAA Arena begins around 7:30 a.m. ET to prepare for morning skates, with injured reserve players going on at 9:15 a.m. and the rest of the Senators at 10. Afterward comes game preparation and its copious amounts of laundry, skate sharpening, equipment adjustments and repairs. The game itself brings more managing of equipment and afterward, it's a rinse and repeat of the pregame prep.
Though there won't be any skate sharpening at the ball hockey championship with players wearing sneakers and running on a hard floor while stickhandling an orange ball, there will be plenty of work for Wilson. Helmets will need screws tightened, uniforms cleaned, gloves repaired, and the locker room prepped.
But there is something Wilson doesn't normally have to deal with at a hockey rink, the heat. One of the biggest challenges he said he will be facing at Place Bell, where Canada will have a dedicated locker room, is keeping the temperature cool and the players hydrated for the warm-weather sport.
There will probably be a fan or two added to the decor, but aside from that the locker room will be tricked out just like the professionals who normally work with Wilson. He will have each player's stall decorated with a nameplate and a carpet square for their feet. When they first walk into the room, and before every game, the jerseys will be hanging and ready to go.
"There was a couple of things that I was kind of letting him know, we don't have to do that or don't go out of your way and he insisted that, 'Hey, no, we want to make the guys feel like they're professional hockey players,'" Canada men's team general manager Daniel Medeiros said. "So he's going above and beyond anything that we have in terms of expectations."
This is not Wilson's first go-around with the Canada Ball Hockey Association. He was an athletic therapist for the Under-18 team that competed at the 2016 ISBHF World Junior Ball Hockey Championship in Sheffield, United Kingdom.
A former assistant therapist for Belleville and Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League, Wilson has always had a passion for working on equipment, and he shifted to that side of things when the Senators moved their farm team to Belleville at the start of the 2017-18 season. Though Wilson would be interested in a full-time equipment manager position down the road, he considers his job with Belleville a "fantastic way to decompress" from his day job as a critical care nurse at Belleville General Hospital.
"Working in a stressful environment like the emergency department for 20 years, you see and deal with a lot of things and hockey has always been the outlet to kind of get away from work," Wilson said.
Beginning Tuesday, Wilson can unplug a bit longer than usual, albeit during a busy time. After weeks of preparation and ordering everything Canada needs to compete for its first men's world championship title since 2007, he'll be ready to go.
"It's an honor and a privilege [to work with the team]," Wilson said. "It's a special feeling and I'm really excited to go and represent Canada at home and hopefully bring home gold."