Brett Harrison is like most professional hockey players because he wanted to make chicken and pasta for his pregame meal.
However, there were problems in his first year as a pro.
Early last season, Mason Lowrey, Harrison's roommate at the time with the AHL Providence Bruins, was watching TV on the couch. Harrison told Lorey about his plan. Lorey approved.
So 20-year-old Harrison asked a question.
“How do you make pasta?'' Harrison asked his roommate.
“Please boil the water,” Lorei replied. “Please put it in the water.”
Harrison replied, “How do I boil water?”
From crawling to walking
NHL teams pay attention to nutrition. The Minnesota Wild has oatmeal bars, and players can customize their bowls with berries, honey, and nuts. After their morning skate, Bruins players eat lunch at the practice rink and leave with to-go containers for their post-nap meal.
Young athletes, in particular, often have higher caloric needs than veteran athletes and cannot do without adequate regular supplementation. That could mean the difference between making it to the NHL or not.
“That's a big part of any team right now,” Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito said of proper nutrition for up-and-coming players. “When, where and how you nourish your body is important.”
In some ways, the transition from amateur to professional hockey is seamless. New York Rangers players, for example, play, practice, train, and sleep just like they did in college and juniors.
But when it comes to cooking, players can sometimes feel like they've been thrown into the deep end of the pool. Although teams provide breaks before and after skating, players are alone when they leave the rink, sometimes for the first time in their lives.
Consider that Harrison, a 2021 third-round pick of the Boston Bruins from London, Ont., played parts of three seasons in the OHL. Harrison lived with a billet family while playing for the Oshawa Generals and Windsor Spitfires.
“He cooks most of the meals, three meals a day,” Harrison said. “We didn't have to do too much there.”
Brett Harrison needed some extra cooking lessons when he started playing professional hockey. (Eric Canha/USA Today)
Fellow Bruins prospect Trevor Kunter played three seasons at Boston College. Kuntar, a 2020 third-round pick, was known as the guy who ate chicken and rice every day in B.C.'s cafeterias.
But unlike Harrison, Kunter grew up as an ordinary cook under the watchful eye of his father, Les. Now in his second year as a pro, Kuntal is on autopilot in the kitchen. Breakfast is eggs or overnight oats, lunch is a burrito, and dinner is chicken and rice or salmon and mashed potatoes.
Kuntal proves it's possible. But players who never bought groceries, prepared food or cooked food as teenagers may feel like a fish out of water in their first year as a pro. There are only so many times you can attack Chipotle.
“A lot of young guys are immature,” Panthers forward AJ Grier said. “Just try your best at cooking, because it's easy to just go out and buy something or keep eating out. Some people do that.”
“Like Jake DeBrusk,” Grier continued, destroying his former teammate's chops. “I don't even know how old he is — 29 or 30? I don't know if he's made a homemade meal in the last 10 years.”
With services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats now readily available, it's never been easier for players to order their favorite meals. But eating out is expensive, and it's hard to know what's in something you don't make yourself.
Consider the following ingredients: Potassium lactate, sodium diacetate, tapioca dextrin, and potassium sorbate listed on the chicken nugget meal kit box. The product is made by Luntables, a brand that Bruins nutritionist Julie Nicoletti said was once a staple in the rotation of prospects.
“A lot of the young kids don't know how to do it,” Bruins guard Hampus Lindholm said. “Then they go back and order McDonald's.”
Lindholm, a native of Helsingborg, Sweden, was drafted sixth overall in 2012 by the Anaheim Ducks. From 2012 to 2013, the 18-year-old Lindholm played for the Norfolk Admirals, then Anaheim's AHL affiliate. When one of his young roommates celebrated a birthday, Lindholm baked a cake.
“They were so surprised that I built it from scratch,” Lindholm recalled of his teammates. “Where I grew up, cooking and baking is very normal.”
It was also common for the average grocery store chicken breast size in Sweden to be small. When Lindholm went to the poultry department in Norfolk, the breasts were so big he thought the Swedes were using a different chicken.
Looks like young players can learn something new at the supermarket.
cook for others
When Harrison, Lorey and roommate Frédéric Brunet moved into their Providence apartment last season, Target was their first stop. In my first year as a pro, I needed pots, pans, utensils, plates, and cups.
After some initial confusion, the roommates settled on a system. Lorey, who grew up as sous chef for her mother, Terry Weiss, is in charge of protein. Brunette salad. Once Harrison mastered the art of boiling water, he began working with pasta and rice.
Tuesday was taco night. My roommates chopped and sautéed onions and peppers, then added ground chicken and turkey to the pot. They customized the dish with guacamole and sour cream.
Harrison was especially excited when Lorei made turkey burgers. Harrison insisted on guacamole and peppercorn dressing.
Lorei liked the chicken cutlets and penne with spicy vodka sauce. He also looked forward to a bowl of turkey with rice, spinach, avocado, and Harrison's favorite peppercorn dressing.
It might have been even more difficult if the players had lived alone. However, by cooking for their friends, Brunette, Harrison, and Lorey were able to establish themselves in the kitchen.
“Now he's a good guy,” Lorey said of Harrison, who used to be a clueless cook. “He's settled down now. He's cooking a lot more than just noodles.”
Socializing with others helps a lot.
Mason Loley is blessed that his roommate “makes a lot more than just noodles.” (Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
a helping hand
Pavel Zaša was 12 years old when he moved to Liberec, about three hours north of his hometown of Verke Mežižić, Czech Republic. His father was also named Pavel and moved with him. While Zaka was training, practicing and playing, his father was busy in the kitchen.
However, when Zaka played for the OHL's Sarnia Sting at the age of 17, father and son went their separate ways. Zaka's billet family was Danish. They didn't cook the meals his father used to make.
“I wasn't used to eating hamburgers three times a week,” Zasha said.
Zasha became close friends with teammate Patrick White, who lived with the same family. White loved being in the kitchen and eventually took over the role of breakfast.
“He was good. He actually tried to do healthy things at times,” Zaka said. “He even showed me how to turn on the dishwasher and dryer.”
By the time the New Jersey Devils drafted Zaka with the sixth pick in 2015, he was ready to live on his own. Still, 19-year-old Zaka was no Julia Child.
One night, following the advice of his mother Ilona, Zaka put the chicken and potatoes in a glass dish and put it in the oven. Then Zaka went to watch TV.
The next thing he heard was a smoke alarm.
Zasha didn't know how to turn it off. All he could do was open the window and wait for the smoke to leave the apartment. The chicken and potatoes could not be saved.
“It was bad. We went to dinner,” Zasha said. “It wasn't the best. I stopped cooking for about a week. Then I tried it again.”
That season, Zaka was lucky enough to live two floors below teammate Vern Fiddler. By then, Fiddler, 36, had played in more than 800 games in the NHL. Veterans taught newcomers how to shop, cook, clean up, etc.
“The first year is the hardest,” Zasha says. “But it becomes easier when you have good influence.”
Some of the same young players who know exactly where the puck is are getting lost in the kitchen. But they can't stay without bearings for long.
“It definitely took an adjustment and I had to keep learning,” said 21-year-old Bruins prospect Ryan Mast. “But whether you're a hockey player or not, you have to learn how to support yourself.”
(Top photo courtesy of the Bruins, photo of prospect attending a training session with a nutritionist and photo of cooking pasta: Stefano Guidi / Getty Images)
