Keeping it simple, unfortunately, isn’t always so simple.
Just ask any young defenseman trying to make an NHL roster or navigating the league for the first time. Thomas Hickey, a first-round draft pick (fourth overall) in 2007, opted for a new approach to prepare for what could be a make-or-break Kings’ training camp.
He stayed home in Calgary and decompressed with family and friends, taking his skate off the all-hockey-all-the-time pedal.
“I was down here all last summer [in 2010]; the strength coach here is very good,” Hickey said after practice in El Segundo on Thursday. “He knows what he is doing. But, for me, I felt I needed to be home and refresh the mind. The work load was the same, but it’s just a different style of doing it.
“I love playing hockey and being at the rink. But to really appreciate it, you’ve got to take time away. Before too long, you’re hungry to get back to the rink and you wish training camp was a week away. I felt that way quite early in the summer.”
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