During their games in Detroit, a group of the players from the Whalers team went off to explore the city. The crew consisted of: Left Wing Markleesio Hopscotch, Left Defenceman Zebulon Leavitt, Right Wing Jason Desrouleaux, Center Daniil Nikiforov, and Left Defenceman Slimey Snail. When exploring Detroit, most people would be a little nervous with the stigma of the largely abandoned city. But for five men with a build that would rival the Stardust Crusaders, these players weren’t nervous. We spoke to Hopscotch about what these adventures through the city consisted of.

What did you guys do out in the city?
Hopscotch: Oh, me and the boys did some urban exploring.

What is that?
Hopscotch: It’s when you travel through abandoned buildings and look at some of the stuff left behind. We take pictures and some videos and then I post them online. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, it’s a big passion of mine.

Isn’t that technically illegal?
Hopscotch: Well it technically is, but for the most part we were just doing some minor trespassing. The authorities generally  don’t care all that much, they’ve got much more important things to worry about. If worst comes to worst we’re just told to leave.

What did you guys go see?
Hopscotch: We specifically went to some of the old car factories, y’know the old original Ford ones. We also went and saw an abandoned school.

How hard was it to convince your teammates to come with you?
Hopscotch: Oh well, Zeb and Slimey were both pretty much onboard when they heard me talk about it. Niki asked me if he could come after we went to the first two locations. Then, on our third trip, while we were driving the rental van over, Desrouleaux had been passed out in the backseat taking a nap, and he’s been urbexing with us ever since.

Did you feel at all nervous about going into those abandoned buildings? Did you meet any homeless people while you were there?
Hopscotch: I think we might’ve seen one or two homeless people, but we very rarely encounter them for long. My thoughts about that is that they’re just trying to live their lives, and they don’t want any trouble. All of the homeless people that I’ve encountered have just kind’ve backed off or were actually quite pleasant. And as for feeling like we’re in danger, I mean we’re all pretty big guys, and we’ve got two of the best fighters on the team. I feel pretty safe. But once again, we’ve been fortunate enough to never have had a negative encounter. Actually, I think I’ve had worse experiences with some of the construction workers that we’ve encountered. There weren’t any fights or anything, but they definitely were not pleased a good portion of the time. Well, except for this one time, where one of the construction workers recognized us. Turns out he was a Vancouver native, and is a huge fan of the Whalers. We got some access to some pretty awesome places because of that. that was a definite plus.

What is your favorite location that you have ever visited?
Hopscotch: (Laughs) Well actually I’m gonna be a little bit selfish here and not indulge the exact location because it’s actually in pretty good condition, and a lot of times when urban explorers indulge in locations, they always end up getting wrecked by people who are more inclined for vandalism, which then often leads to the place being torn down. What I will say though is that it is this massive office building, right? It’s just huge. And like there is this huge room that was originally used to store stock, and it was one of the biggest rooms I’ve ever been in. Then up some stairs there are these cool old offices just like, filled with papers and desks and stuff. There are some more offices which are cool, and this bathroom that’s just filled with a ton of dead wasps. I know that doesn’t sound uber pleasant but it was such a cool find. Then, down some stairs, there are these long hallways with like no windows that are lined on both sides with all of these abandoned offices and stuff, which is really really cool. And that place was just filled with old intact offices and stuff like that. And then there is this old vault too that me and some of the guys tried to open, but that didn’t pan out.

Why do you like urban exploring so much?
Hopscotch: I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but I just kind of love looking at things that used to have life in them, and imagine what life was like there. I’m really into this concept called liminal spaces. I’m not gonna get super into it because that would be like an hour long, uh, conversation, but yeah I just love the whole situation, it’s so cool to look at these abandoned places that people lived in and just sonder.

Do you think that going urban exploring has influenced your career at all?
Hopscotch: I wouldn’t necessarily say that it has affected it directly. It is pretty separated from my life as a player other than the fact that I’m now bringing some of my teammates with me, which has helped me get closer to them, which I guess can help out on the ice. But it doesn’t really have much more to do with that. I guess if I wasn’t playing hockey I honestly might just try and get my online channel more subscribers.

Alright, well thank you for telling us all about your time in Detroit, I didn’t realize it was such a huge passion of yours.
Hopscotch: No problem, I could literally talk about urbex for hours, so I’m glad to have been entertaining.

Well that’s all folks, that was our first segment of Urbexing with Hockey Players. I’m Paul Decker, and I’ll see you all… soon.