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caltroit_red_flames · 02-14-2021, 01:00 PM

Honestly we never really paid much attention to the fans. They're more of a distraction than anything in my opinion, which might suck for them to hear but now we can just stay focused on the game instead of any boo-ing that might happen during the game. The cheering is nice but boo-ing just kinda throws you off.

We get pumped before the game the same way we always have. Smelling salts, loud music, and the taste of victory.

The real weird thing has been getting used to the card board cutouts of fans. It might make the stadium look a little nicer on camera but personally I don't look up past the boards anymore because I find it creepy to have inanimate pictures of fans surrounding us. It might be the most surreal thing about this entire situation.

There is one person who is loving this though. Eko Van Otter always had a sort of stage freight considering he spent most of his childhood growing up in a river in the woods. Now he's in front of all of these people. It's still a little jarring for him so these past couple of seasons have been a little nicer for him.

***sve7en*** · 02-14-2021, 01:26 PM

Getting pumped up for games in the COVID era is definitely harder. The rumble of the arena when you're in the locker room is impossible to replace. For the Los Angeles Panthers, there is a contentious battle for Playlist control, with the old guard of Winter, Fox, and Slothface wanting more rock and roll while Groot, Keith Lee, and Jimmy Wagner are bringing in a lot of their favorite songs from their time in Carolina, specifically a lot of Wagner's favorite dancing songs he first grew to love when arriving in the States.

Once on the ice, that energy is hard to maintain, especially over a long regular season. Some of the team have intrinsic drive, but for the Jimmys they've fueled themselves with an internal completion in a battle of the Jimmy's that the rest of the team is trying their best to stay neutral in.

151 words

Allegiant · 02-14-2021, 01:38 PM

This isn't an easy one to answer. Empty arenas aren't as much fun as a full arena, but right about now a full arena wouldn't stay fun for more than a week or so after the first event. As much as it's easy to understand why things are the way they are, it's much harder to replace the energy in the building. You try different things -- music in the locker room, pre-game rituals, even bringing in a few game consoles to get some competition running between the players between practices. But ultimately, nothing really fills the void.

Maybe the most useful thing that the Citadelles have begun doing is to incorporate that deafening silence into their strategy. It sounds odd, but mindfulness and meditation have become far more common over the past few years, and with the intense stress that comes with a global health crisis, they've become even more important tools for coping. For at least some of the Citadelles, the silence of the arena has become a backdrop to brief, pre-game meditation to get one's mind clear of distractions. Sounds stupid. It kind of is. But it helps with focus, and if you can't rely on hype from a crowd, maybe laser focus is the way to go.

Out of Toast · 02-14-2021, 01:42 PM

Getting hyped and ready for a game before going out into an empty arena is a lot easier then you think it would be. Sure it's amazing going out opening night to a stadium full of yelling fans and all the opening ceremonies but you can't forget that we all grew up playing in front of either empty stadiums or just our dad in the crowed yelling at us about how bad we are doing. This season though to get the guys pumped before going out we watch videos that our fans have made of our best plays last season and take turns jamming to our favorite songs in the background of them and cheering to whoever is making the highlight play of that specific part of the video. All in all it's pretty easy to hype up your own team before a match because end of the day it doesn't matter if we're playing in front of 10 people or 100,000 people we're going out there and playing the same game we know how to play.

Zema · 02-14-2021, 02:03 PM

Having no fans as you debut into the big leagues is of course not a great way to start things off. Good for me is all of my awesome team mates with their great way of warming up and getting us pumped!

Ahead of the season opener, the entire team decided to take a walk around Boston together. We tried keeping our distance of course, but mostly just enjoy the nice outdoor and fresh air into our lungs. After we got back to the arena well ahead of the game, we decided to just discuss among us about the upcoming season. I was one of 4 new players that are making their first SHL games after being moved up from the J, and we got to take turns talking about our expectations. Team leaders such as Jakub, Frans, Pricer, Slap and Gudmundur all chimed in to try and ease us into things and understand it is okay to be nervous.

A 5-2 win later vs the Panthers followed up by another win vs. San Francisco and our season started out beautifully.

eMLBCommish · 02-14-2021, 02:35 PM

To say it hasn't been an adjustment to having the seats constantly empty has been the understatement of the century. It's like being back in 6U hockey practices that take place on a Saturday at 5:30 AM all the time now. I think it's been quite the distractor from the normal routine and I think has attributed to my early season struggles so far. For whatever reason, I'm not as pumped up on making a huge play on the road and being energized by all the boo birds that are out there. Equally, when we score a huge goal at home now, it doesn't have the same feel when the goal horn plays and the music goes, but you don't hear any of the cheers from anyone that helps you build that momentum further. This pandemic has been hard on me, keeping me from my family and them from coming to my games, I'm not married and had a relationship that ended over the offseason due to just losing interest in each other being stuck with them all the time and realizing we don't have as much in common as we thought we did.

This whole thing sucks, and I hope we get back to normal soon.

**JaytheGreat** · 02-14-2021, 02:51 PM

While I wish there were fans at the game the fact they are not in the building with us doesn't really change much for me. I'm used to it, before coming over here to play hockey I played in Russia and the only fans that came to the games were player's family. Even in the higher up leagues there are less fanfare in those leagues then there are here. One thing I have noticed is that it has been effecting the younger players, they have been used to playing in packed stadiums in the J. As one of the older players and one that wears a letter I've had to be a little bit more vocal in the locker room then usual. I like to lead by example but without fans it's easier for some of the players to lose focus, so that means keeping the team focused on what's going on at all times. So far we haven't had any problems and hopefully the more we get used to this the more we settle down and play our game.

Rest In Peace Dangel

1st SHL Goal - S52 Game 1 vs Tampa 3. New England Wolfpack , Jakub Bruchevski 1 (Eko Van Otter 1, Delver Fudgeson 2) at 8:10

Scarecrows

MrStennett · 02-14-2021, 03:03 PM

PBE PT Affiliation

mastersheep · 02-14-2021, 03:42 PM

The Platoon fans have been missing in action due to COVID, but our locker room has been crazy fun. While it’s been odd, we have to remind ourselves just to treat every game like we would a road game. We have some really good hype men in Adam Friedland, Valentin Kalashnikov, and now the rookie Teddy Park has joined us from his junior team in Kelowna. These guys are awesome whether it’s picking out the best music or coming up with wacky pre-game rituals. It’s all been like a wild party and we probably look pretty silly flying out onto the ice pumping our fists to Mongolian throat singing on Mondays as Daniil Nikiforov and Kalashnikov have managed to get into the PA system and blast the music throughout the arena with Adam Friedland saying “sex” over top of it. Another little event before our matchup with Texas included Friedland, Park, Kalashnikov, and Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette mini-sparring in front of the team to determine who would be the first one to take one for the team. Surprisingly, the rookie had better skills than the vets and Park ended up winning and then got his first career fight in the game later that night.

Sean · 02-14-2021, 04:32 PM

Tony Pepperoni spent $100,000 of his own money to get 20,000 different photoshopped cardboard cutouts of Jean-Paul Boivin (@Nokazoa) put in every seat of Rogers Arena (I think that's the name of Edmonton's arena). Before every game, Pepperoni runs into the stands to pick out one of his favourite creations and runs to the locker room ready to give an impassioned speech.

"There are 20,000 of theses guys out there in the stands tonight, I don't want to let a single one of them down, I love this man and every man like him in the stands. Let's not do it for us, let's do it for him".

I'm fairly sure they laugh at the picture of JPB with a cigar and eyepatch and prey they aren't laughing at my speech, because that comes from the heart. So far, we've done pretty well to start the season so I think it's working out pretty well. Only time will tell.

[172 words]

EDM All-Time Leader in Goals, Assists and Points

**bk1689** · 02-14-2021, 04:38 PM

Here in Calgary we are lucky. We are such superstars that the city has decided to let us bend the rules a tiny bit, and by a tiny bit I mean a lot. We are the only team in the SHL that has fans in our games. We play every home game to a full house which we are really hoping will give us quite an advantage over the course of the season. Even though some teams and members of the league have complained about it and have tried to get it overturned, it doesn't look to be ending anytime soon. Some may point to the numerous breakouts occurring at our games as us just contributing towards the pandemic, but we continue to maintain our stance that our fans are smart enough to stay home if they have 5 or more symptoms of covid. We shall see how the rest of the season goes.

raymond3000 · 02-14-2021, 04:51 PM

Season fifty eight of the Simulation Hockey League has begun, and if the first part of the season is anything to go by, this season is shaping up to be a memorable one as league parity appears to be at an all-time high since the major changes in season fifty three. Unfortunately, there will once again be no fans in the stands to watch these games in person as the global pandemic still rages on. How do these professional hockey players, so used to playing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans, deal with silent arenas? Well, the Texas Renegades are just going about their business as usual and sticking to their usual routines of blasting music in the locker room before the game to get pumped up. Of course, having no fans sucks the energy out of a building, but these players are professionals and know how to get ready for a game, with or without fans.

MP7 · 02-14-2021, 04:53 PM

There is no way to replace a building full of fans, that get excited and chanting your name after you scored a goal. So what could we do to replace it? I guess it’s impossible, but in Texas we have come to a solution of the problem. We made a completely new staff member rule. It’s called the “Fan-O-Meter” by the players. The guy has a pretty hard job. He has to replace the missing audience in the building. He is standing a little bit beside the player bank, half way into the players tunnel and has to cheer for his team the hole game. Chant the players names for good actions on the ice. To be honest, it was very irritating for the first games. But we got used to it and now the team feels pretty familiar with him. It’s a pretty strange thing, but he does a good job and the players get a small boost when they here him screaming their names.

Halkohol · 02-14-2021, 05:14 PM

Well, the falcons are maybe a weird bunch. Still, we would never change our ways. In true falcon fashion we form up in a circle and start yelling... SKREE SKREE SKREE SKREE SKREE echoes through our locker room. Flapping our arms and imitating the great falcons to stay true to our branding. Now, of course this isn't the only thing we do to hype ourselves up. Every week we select a head falcon to lead the "pumping". Their mission is to get us hyped, ready and 100% focused through various means. We have had things that are calmer, such as meditation and yoga to relax and let our minds be empty before going into the game. We have had things to get the blood pumping, such as an arm wrestling competetion. To not lose the contact with our fans, before each game we draw a random phone number to call from a list where anyone can send their phone number before the game. The lucky person gets a call on speaker phone with the locker room before the game where they can hype it up together with us players.

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Huck24 · 02-14-2021, 05:17 PM

In New Orleans, Specter home games have become quite the ritual for the hockey fans from the Big Easy. One might mistake the vibes and atmosphere the same as they'd experience during the Mardi Gras festivities. With COVID now being part of our everyday lives, everyone has had to adapt, including the New Orleans Specters players. They have come accustomed to arriving to the arena, seeing a huge celebration in the works, that would start outside the rink and flow right into the arena, really giving the home team a special boost. After the first few games played to an empty arena, the players and management knew it wasn't the same at all. So, they figured this wasn't going to cut it, and began to start pumping some of the fans pre game tunes through the arenas sound system a few hours prior to the game. They also made creole style food for their pre and post game meals to try and bring some of those familiar smells back for the players. It will never make it feel the same, and the players, like everyone else, can not wait to return to what it was like prior to COVID arriving. Until then, the Specters organization and fans will keep doing everything they can to keep on going and at the same time, stay as safe as possible.

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