Sports

Life on Ice

Competitive hockey players do it all for the love of the game.

A regular season for the Tulsa Oilers is 72 games – only 10 less than the NHL. Photo courtesy the Tulsa Oilers Being a hockey player in Oklahoma is no easy task. Like any sport, it takes time, dedication and skill to make the cut with competitive groups around the state. Oklahoma has an array of hockey teams in di erent leagues and tiers, although several have come and gone throughout the years. Two prominent teams are the Tulsa Oilers – part of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) – and the Oklahoma City Ice Hawks – part of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL).

“ e ECHL is the ‘AA’ level of professional hockey in North America,” says Zack Reynolds, broadcaster and director of media relations for the Oilers. e NA3HL, on the other hand, is a tier III junior hockey league consisting of 16 states, with players between the ages of 16 and 21.

“Several of [the Oilers] players are assigned directly from the Anaheim Ducks and the San Diego Gulls,” says Reynolds, with the rest coming from new and returning players of the NCAA or the Canadian Major Junior ranks. “Major Junior is the most common path of players to the [National Hockey League], but the NCAA is quickly carving a large portion of the NHL out.”

A regular season for the Oilers is 72 games, which is only ten less than the NHL. e NA3HL, a junior league, only plays 47 games.

“[Oilers] players are usually on the ice ve to six times a week, with the occasional full seven day week,” says Reynolds.

Generally, the Oilers average three to four games weekly, usually played from Friday to Sunday. If they aren’t playing a game, they’re almost certainly at practice running drills.

“Practices run about an hour and fteen minutes, but most guys hang on the ice afterward to work on individual skills,” says Reynolds. e Tulsa Oilers play their home games at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. e OKC Ice Hawks home games are played at Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Edmond. In the o -season, activities Know the Slang and career choices vary from BARNBURNER – A highplayer to player. scoring game “A majority of players return to their hometowns to work skills individually,” says Reynolds. BISCUIT – Another name for the puck Many may also take up intern- CHIRP – Trash talking ships or externships as a backup the opposing team plan to “set them up with some experience if they don’t make it DUSTER – A benchwarmto the NHL.” er, or someone collecting

Of course, to stay on the up dust on the bench from and up, players have to do plenty lack of playtime of strength training during and outside of the season. FLAMINGO – Lifting a

“Athletes do a lot of mainte- leg to get out of the way nance work to keep their joints in of a shot shape during the year,” says Reynolds. Weight lifting is chief among LIGHT THE LAMP – them. “Guys will do weight lifting Scoring a goal (the red individually throughout the light goes off when a season, both at the rink and at a score is made) series of gyms we have a deal with here in the area.” SIN BIN – The penalty box DREW JOSEPH ALLEN