During NHL training camps, players do everything in their power to make the roster for the upcoming season. Unless you’re an absolute superstar, there are no guarantees that you’ll be playing on opening night if you don’t perform well during training camp. But in 2000, a 21-year-old Joe Thornton came into the Boston Bruins‘ camp with a different approach…
The Players’ Tribune is home to many great athlete stories. Both current and former players publish their own views on careers, leagues, sports, or just life in general. Hal Gill, born in 1975, played in the NHL between 1997 and 2014 and racked up quite a few stories during his 17-year career. He also managed to earn himself a Stanley Cup ring with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. For The Players’ Tribune, he shared some of his most memorable moments from his long career.
Rookie camp shenanigans
In 1997, Hal Gill was a 22-year-old with no experience in the NHL. During his first training camp with the Boston Bruins, everybody wanted to prove themselves against the 6’7″, 240-pound defenseman.
“Every single guy trying to make a name for himself wanted to get a piece of me. I felt like I was getting into a scrap every day. I met my mother for dinner one night during camp, and she saw the black eye and the bloody knuckles. It was a… new experience for both of us. She knew I was going for it, and she was right out there with me,” he writes in The Players’ Tribune.
Joe Thornton ate a doughnut
But a few years later, he would be shocked by a future legend during training camp.
“Camps have changed a lot, but even back then we had the VO2 max test — which, for those fortunate enough not to know, is an exercise that basically tests how fit you are by pushing you to your limit. It sucks. In Boston, we did our test on a stationary bike. And, O.K., I have to tell a quick story about the bike.
In 2000, when Mike Keenan was our coach, we did all our testing in camp. I rode for about 13 minutes and I think I scored around 50 on the bike, which was below average. Right after I finished, this lanky, blonde-haired kid came in. It was a 21-year-old Joe Thornton. He sat on the bike… with a doughnut in his mouth… kind of smirking at me while he ate it. And he took his time eating that thing, too. Then he rode for about eight minutes and scored a 65 — which was really, really good. And now that doughnut-eating kid is on his way to the Hall of Fame,” he writes.
This funny little story just goes to show how much of a talented athlete Joe Thornton really was!
