Hockey Tape Rituals and Superstitions: What Players Do

Taping a stick takes a few minutes. For a lot of players, those minutes are part of getting ready to play. The habit rarely changes, and when it does, there is usually a story.

This article sorts the documented rituals by when they happen. For the famous older stories, including Gretzky’s baby powder, see hockey’s strangest tape rituals. For individual players, see player stories.

Game day: same time, same way

The most common ritual is the simplest. Tape the stick the same way, at the same point in the day, every game.

• Sidney Crosby told CBS Pittsburgh in 2017 that he tapes his stick a particular way at the same time before every game. A 2016 CBS Pittsburgh piece listed constant retaping of his stick among his habits.
• Connor Bedard described a game day that never changes when he spoke to NHL.com in March 2023, before his draft. He named one stick habit: “I always put my stick in the same spot, same way, before taping it.”
• Emily Clark of Canada’s women’s team listed fresh tape before every game as part of her routine, along with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, in a 2018 Canadian Press preview of the Pyeongchang Olympics.

One Crosby detail is often repeated: that he retapes if anyone touches his stick after he has finished. A 2021 DK Pittsburgh Sports column mentions it, but as something the columnist had heard, not something Crosby said. Treat it as unconfirmed.

Between periods: change the tape, change the night

The intermission is the only time in a game a player can start over.

• Tim Stützle fumbled the puck through two periods against Boston in October 2025. Assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson had been after him to change his tape. Before the third, he wrapped the whole blade in white, heavier than usual. He scored twice in a 7-2 Ottawa win, TSN reported.
• Auston Matthews scored his 59th goal of the 2021-22 season late in the second period against Detroit on April 26, 2022. According to the Real Sports auction listing for that stick, he stripped the blade tape off during the second intermission and retired the stick. He wrote the date, the opponent and his number on the knob.
• Zdeno Chara took the opposite view. He told NHL.com he gave up blade tape for a stick-on grip partly because it saved him from retaping between periods after slashes tore his tape.

Playoffs: a new look for a new season

Playoff hockey feels like a different season, and some players treat their tape that way.

• Ivan Demidov wrapped his blade in black from late in Montreal’s 2026 first-round series against Tampa Bay. For Game 5 of the second round against Buffalo, he went back to white. He scored his first playoff goal in a 6-3 win. Asked whether the tape made the difference, he said maybe, The Canadian Press reported. Teammate Juraj Slafkovsky said he preferred the white.
• Leon Draisaitl was caught on camera holding a lighter to his stick tape during Game 1 of the 2024 Western Conference Final. Asked about it by broadcaster Gene Principe, he said he had done it for a while for grip, because plain tape gets fuzzy, and admitted he was a bit compulsive about it, NHL.com reported. That one is more habit than superstition. Before you copy it, read heat guns, lighters and wax safety.

Slumps: someone else’s tape job

When a player is not scoring, changing the tape is the cheapest thing to try.

• Jonathan Huberdeau was struggling in Calgary when assistant coach Marc Savard started taping his sticks, in black, in late 2023. Savard told Flames.com that changing his own stick or tape colour used to help him when he was in a slump. Huberdeau had an assist the first game and scored the next.
• Ryan Johansen tried it the other way. Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull gave him taping tips at a summer golf event. He went about 15 games without a goal using their method, switched back to his own half-blade white tape job and scored in his first game back, he said on the Predators’ podcast in 2022.
• Jan Drozg, then a Penguins prospect, copied Artemi Panarin’s two-tone look before the 2019 World Championship and had four points in his first game with it. He told DK Pittsburgh Sports the tape does not help him on the ice and that it is mostly mental.

Debuts and rookies

A first game is a natural time to settle on a look. Cole Hutson made his NHL debut with Washington in March 2026 with a full black “sock” tape job on an all-white stick, RMNB reported. At development camp in 2024 he had used the reverse, white tape on a black stick, and marked his tape with a puck, a trick he picked up from teammate Ryan Leonard. His coach, Spencer Carbery, said he could not see a function for the full sock but that players tape however they like.

Dressing-room traditions for rookies, such as rookies taping veterans’ sticks, are often mentioned in hockey talk. We could not find a reliable source documenting one, so we do not describe any here.

Why the rituals last

Nobody in these stories claims the tape itself scores goals. Drozg said it is mostly mental. Demidov would only say maybe. What a ritual does is give you the same few minutes before every game, with the same result in your hands.

If you want your own

• Tape at the same point in your routine, for example right after you arrive at the rink, so it never feels rushed.
• Keep one job. Pick a blade style and stick with it long enough to know whether it suits you.
• Allow one change. If a game is going badly, a fresh wrap between periods is legal and costs a few minutes.
• Stay safe. Never tape over a cracked blade or shaft, whatever your routine says. Replace the stick.

You can try a look before you tape it in the Tape Lab.