Being on the bubble isn’t about the table-top boards being fought over in half of hockey fans’ basements. It’s not the Missouri 2007 national bubble hockey championships being hosted by the St. Louis Blues.
Life on the bubble is the stark reality for about 80 percent of NHL players. It means you can be sent up or down to and from the minors at any given moment, no questions asked. You may not even know why. You make a mistake on the ice, you think, is this going to be my last shift in the game? On the team? There are players nipping at your heels for a spot on the roster.
When you get the call, nobody tells you for how long. They just say get your stuff and go. RW Chris Clark says, “It could be that some guy came back that was hurt. You could have had a hat trick that night and they send you down the next day.”
Clark says you only pack for a couple of days. “You don’t want to come in with your six bags and hockey bags packed and say, where am I going to be living? You just be there, go under the radar, and play your best.”
G Jamie McLennan defines it as being mentally stressful. “There are 60 goaltenders in this world who get a chance to play in the NHL. It’s easier to make the NHL and harder to stay there. There’s always somebody coming for your job, especially when you’re a backup.”
It doesn’t matter whether you were a first- or eighth-round draft pick. “I was drafted in the first round and had high hopes for a while,” says D Philippe Boucher. “I made it at 19, got sent back to junior, and from there, it was a little more of a battle to stay with Buffalo. I had some success in Los Angeles. I missed a full year of hockey after six or seven years in the league. At that point, it became real hard to get my spot back.”
A lot of great NHL careers started out on the bubble before they discovered some semblance of stability — at least to stay in the league, not necessarily with one team. Then there are others who never get off the bubble or become career minor leaguers.
Being on the bubble is an emotional roller coaster. G Dwayne Roloson once described being sent down as walking out on a plank and having it fall out from under you.
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