A new story from The Athletes Podcast

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And the Kings now sign a big guy like Pierre-Luc Dubois. You guys got a nice young roster coming in. What's expectations like here in Los Angeles, playing hockey, I'm sure there's mixed emotions. They got the Dodgers, they got the Rams. There's a ton of other attention on sports teams here. What's it like being a professional athlete in Los Angeles? Are you getting stopped as you walk down the- Like you said, all the sports teams, there's Hollywood right there, it's not like that. But as far as our expectations, I think everyone here wants to win a championship and that's what everyone has their mind on and certainly myself, I think. That's why I play, I want to win a championship and I don't think anyone in the locker room would say anything different. That's what we got our sights set on and clearly the management signing a big guy like Dubois and the young guys that are in this organization, it shows that they want to win as well. So that's the expectation and that's what we're all pushing for. Who are some of the jokesters in the D room? Who are the guys that are firing clappers above your head, ringing it off the glass that you might have to give a little hack to the back of the knees during practice? Well, Drew Doughty, he's not necessarily ripping them out the head, but he is certainly the jokester in the room. Yeah, any particular moments stand out over your past year that you'd like to share with the audience? I don't know, I don't know anything in particular, but he's just always got a grin on his face, always up to something, always doing something to make the boys laugh and yeah, he's a good guy to have around because no matter what's going on, he's got a smile on his face and he's making guys happy. So he's just one of those jokester types. He's been doing that since his Ontario Hockey League days and he's got a couple less teeth now, but I think that smile is probably what puts a smile on other people's face, right? And it's important to have guys like that in the D room. I know you were reading a book on breath and the importance of that. I think it was Ricky. Oh, I had the name. It was Gracie. Gracie. Gracie, there you go. Have you read James Nestor's book on breath? There you go. Is there a big nasal breather there? I try to be, yeah. I think it's an underutilized tool for everybody, but especially athletes. I kind of had a little bit of a breath coach for a little bit who was teaching me. She's a free diver and she was taking me through exercises and stuff on how to recover a little bit faster and how to essentially get a cardio workout without even standing up, just kind of pushing yourself with your breathing and breath holds and stuff. And I noticed a big difference, not only with endurance and cardio, but it kind of mentally, it kind of calms you down a little bit and it's a good mental reset. So there's all sorts of little tools and those books have been a big help too. The breath book by Hickson Gracie was the first one, was like my introduction to breath work. And I was like, wow, this is pretty crazy. He kind of like based his whole fighting on breathing and it was pretty incredible how far he took it. And so, yeah, I think it's just been a tool that I've learned about. And I think it's probably something that you'll never master. You can't master it, but you can get better at it and use it. And it helps a lot for sure. What other tools are you incorporating? Are you using a cold plunge or are you saunaing or you rocking norm attack or you hyper rice? Are you going full influencer route and go on everything in a while? Are you nasal breathing? Are you putting on mouth tape? I've gone through the mouth tape at night and I feel like it helps, but then I don't know, I kind of like do that in waves. Like if I'm not sleeping great, put mouth tape on it, I find I get a good night's sleep. So that's like something that I have used in the past and kind of, if I feel like I need it, I'll use it.

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