Soccer Helps Golden Knights Prep For Games

Each player in the NHL has his own routine on gamedays. They do different stretches, eat specific foods and follow unique superstitions.
Regardless of what each individual player on the Vegas Golden Knights does to prepare for a game, many of their pregame paths cross an hour before puck drop in the soccer circle.
Hockey players are competitors and, even in a friendly game of soccer, there are rules that are taken seriously in pregame soccer. No player is allowed more than two touches of the ball at a time. If you play a bad ball to someone, you're out. If you miss a good ball played to you, you're out. If there's controversy over a ball, the players involved go head-to-head in rock-paper-scissors to determine who is eliminated. Players are knocked out one-by-one until one player is left. Much of the game is about strategy, even the tiebreakers.
"I always go random on that and hope for the best," said defenseman Colin Miller. "Actually, if it's against [Nate] Schmidt, he always goes rock so that's an easy one to win."
Miller, who missed 13 games due to injury, was absent for an entire month of pregame soccer. He said returning to his pregame habits was refreshing as he warmed up ahead of a two-assist performance in Vegas' 7-3 win against Pittsburgh on Jan. 19.

"It was excellent, I didn't really miss a beat," Miller said. "Those are the things you miss when you're out of the lineup."
While Miller was missing from the soccer circle, some of the informal rankings in the circle shifted. Ryan Reaves has been picking up victories left and right, and he said he's become one of the best soccer players on the team due to recent performances.
"I've been hot on the soccer," Reaves said. "[Pierre-Edouard] Bellemare and I have been having some battles lately. I'd say Belley is the best, but maybe I'm number two."
Reaves and Bellemare are often the last two players standing. Bellemare said that he prefers competitive rallies while Reaves admitted to just trying to keep himself alive as long as possible.
"Belley could be a pro soccer player," Reaves said. "He's got some slick moves. I don't have any of that, I just try to keep the soccer ball up."
Those "slick moves" that Bellemare possesses come from years of kicking the soccer ball around when he was growing up in France. He sees being French as an advantage in the soccer circle that helps him stay among the best ballers on the team before games.
"It's not fair, it's in my blood," Bellemare said. "I'm from France so I got the soccer skills for free when I was born."
Bellemare's skills in soccer are helpful in the friendly competition, but he said the goal of the game is to get his body ready for the real competition on the ice.
"I don't play soccer just for nothing," Bellemare said. "I try to move as much as possible. Usually when I come back to the locker room, I'm pretty sweaty and that's what I'm going for."
Brayden McNabb plays soccer before the game as well but admitted to not being one of the better players. He relies on deception to eliminate players to get as far into the game as he can.
"I get in trouble when I try to do too much, but my game has come a long way," McNabb said. "I try the no-look move a lot - they call me 'No-Look Nabber.'"
Trickery is also a key component to Schmidt's game in the circle. His strategy is one more of distraction than deception and he finds success in the games when his teammates are laughing instead of kicking.
"My move is the jump-flying-chest or the jump-one-foot while yelling yahoo!" Schmidt said. "Who is that? Toad, from Mario Kart? Yahoo! That's what it is."