More anonymous stories from inside the NHL bubble

In case you missed it earlier today, we published a second hand report via ESPN's Greg Wyshynski and Emily Kaplan about life in the NHL's bubble as told by nine anonymous players. You can check out that article here.

For more entertaining anecdotes from this ESPN article, read below. Or scroll down further for the link to the full article. 

On preferential treatment for some teams over others:

"Some teams like Florida really didn't have much in the way of this or that [in the bubble]. But Montreal, in their little practice area, had wraps and smoothies and everything, ready to rock and roll. That's a team that's got deep pockets," he said.

 "I think some other teams had different setups, and I'd be a little disappointed in [team redacted] if that's the case because that should have been thought of," one Eastern Conference veteran said. "If there was a place for us to always have meals available, a majority of the guys would have taken advantage of it, just to be around each other. It's not going to kill you."

On not having family members in the bubble:

"I think they just didn't want to risk the bubble being broken by a random person being brought in and risking it," one veteran player said. "But it felt like they promised that and then pulled it away."

"Even if they did get the government sign-off, they were making it so difficult for everyone," a Western Conference player said. "Let's say a family has two kids, 2 and 4, and you're going to make them sit in a hotel room for four days and only have room service? And on top of that, you need to either drive to Edmonton or fly private for, like, $50,000? It was very unrealistic. There were other ways they could have done it. They could have taken control over the situation, but frankly, they didn't because they didn't want the families there."

On the bait and switch of being promised team outings, only to have them taken away:

"They promised us excursions: 'Oh, we're going to have fly fishing and golf, a golf course just for us -- you can go whenever you want -- and a field,'" a Western Conference player said. "We went to the field one time. It was a fight to even golf once. And please let me know if you talk to anyone who went fly fishing."

"In the little brochure they sent, there was a picture of a man fly fishing in the mountains, and one of the guys was like, 'Where did they get this picture of the mountains? The mountains are three hours away,'" a Western Conference player said.

On the NHL not footing the bill:

"I don't mind getting the odd meal, but they should have provided an area where you were provided a meal no matter what," an Eastern Conference veteran said. "As much as I know we're getting paid, it's expensive, especially in Canada. It really added up for a lot of guys. I'm in a different place than a lot of our players, but for our younger guys that are just starting out in their careers, that can get away from you quickly."

"Guys checked out, and their room service bills were in the thousands. Thousands," an Eastern Conference player said. "It was just ridiculous. It's like you go to a resort and you swipe this card, and then you see your bill at the end and you're like, 'What the f---?' Some guys were really burned by that. So that was something I wish the NHL or teams would have thought of more. I wish meals would have been available."

On drug use in the bubble:

The only thing that you really saw advertised was guys that were into their gummies or edibles. And that was usually just used in their rooms," one Eastern Conference player said.

"Weed gummies were there, drinking was there, but I think when it came down to it, people were trying to perform the best they can," a Western Conference veteran said. "I don't think guys were drinking to party -- certainly not in excess. When guys were taking weed gummies, it wasn't a 'Let's get high as s--- and do nothing all day.' It was more of a recovery sense or to fall asleep after a game. Instead of falling asleep at 4 or 5 a.m., guys could fall asleep at 1 a.m. so they could get seven hours of sleep."

For the full article from ESPN, click below: