Like many hockey players during the season's pause, rollerblading has been a way to best simulate skating with ice rinks unavailable for use. New Jersey Devils defenseman Connor Carrick is among the rollerblading fraternity, taking up the activity under his condo in downtown Chicago.
One day, a woman walking her dog asked him why he was rollerblading and he explained he was a professional hockey player. Now, he has two young neighbors helping him stay in hockey form.
"She had a young son that played and she's like, 'Do you mind if he comes out and passes with you at some point,'" Carrick recounted on a Zoom call with reporters Monday. "I see no harm in that, so the kid came out from 20 yards away or whatever, passed the puck around and his friend that was two doors down so there's that."
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Carrick, a veteran of more than 300 professional games in the NHL and AHL, said playing with those two kids has given him a fresh outlook of the game during these uncertain times.
"It puts me back in touch with the 12-year-old that had this big dream to play in the NHL and has brought some beauty to it that otherwise, midseason, you're just pissed off you're taken off the power play last night," Carrick said. "You're just more stuck in the moment, which is great about that way of focus to what makes our sport, our craft so competitive and great and the product is so good on the ice.
"But for me, a lot of it's been really rewarding to have this distanced view from the game and really to miss it for an extended period of time. It has rekindled some of that fire because I've had a tough couple of years career-wise."
The 26-year-old is still trying to solidify himself as an NHL regular. Carrick's career-high in games played was 67 in 2016-17 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, over the last three seasons, the Orland Park, Ill., native has played in just 63 battling numerous injuries.
He did find some consistency before the season was paused, having played in 18 of the Devils' last 19 games and notched his lone goal of the season on March 6 against St. Louis. The team also found a similar level of stability. In December, the Devils replaced head coach John Hynes with interim Alain Nasreddine; New Jersey was 9-13-4 when Nasreddine took over and a 19-16-8 record after.
#NJDevils Connor Carrick, who is always thoughtful in his responses, reflected about how he would feel re: a return to play.
— Amanda "Social Distancing" Stein (@amandacstein) May 11, 2020
"You have to trust somebody to do something right on your behalf and I guess I would enter into that with a healthy sense of questioning..."
MORE: pic.twitter.com/8drGoAdrEo
"When he came in, we were really struggling. As a team with negative momentum...I think it's one thing to be doing poorly as a team, it's a whole other to be doing poorly on top of that," Carrick recalled. "We were in the face of some expectations that were high coming off the offseason so I think was Nas is really about is trying to build a process that led us to clearly identify what might give us success each night and then creating digestible points within our game that we can build confidence off of.
"I thought he was doing a nice job and it was our goal day-to-day to perform the best that we could. There was a great recognition that the way we were playing under John Hynes at the time was below the capability of the group and what we expected of ourselves. We maintained a culture even through those lows that we demanded better of each other. We knew it was going to come, coaching change or not.
"I was excited to see the last little bit there. I was finally personally playing my best hockey too prior to the season's pause. I was excited to see where we can get to, frankly."
It's still unknown whether Nasreddine will be the permanent head coach as interim GM Tom Fitzgerald has reportedly interviewed former Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant and Dallas Stars assistant coach John Stevens. Even with the bench boss uncertainty, Carrick is focusing on himself and how he can improve as a player.
"You know I had been a part of some coaching changes in my career and GM changes and things like that, I've changed scenery a couple of times," he said. "To be truthful, a lot of my professional process and progression has become focused on turning my focus inward and learning to — no matter who the coach is, no matter what rink we're playing, whether my ice time is good, ice team is bad, whether I got hurt — to be more consistent personally and emotionally."