A Different Grip | THREE THINGS

Every hockey player has their own intricacies.
Whether it's a pre-game routine, a pre-game meal, a specific way of putting on their equipment, it's all part of a process of readying themselves for a big game. The equipment players use is not immune to these intricacies and details, whether it's how you cut your stick, how you tape your blade, or how many sticks you have ready, everyone is different.
Take a close look at Dawson Mercer's stick and his stick stands out in a way that most don't.
Where Mercer grips his stick with his left hand, at the top of the shaft he doesn't use your regular hockey tape. Instead, his shines a little brighter under the lights of an NHL arena, as the first-year player uses electrical tape for his grip, instead of hockey tape, something he's been doing since he was a little kid learning to play the game.

2. Same Gloves From the Start

One of the benefits of using sleek and shiny electrical tape? Mercer says his gloves don't wear out the same way others do. The smoothness of the electrical tape means his gloves don't end up ripping on the outside palms, where you'd normally see hockey gloves worn out because of the roughness of the hockey tape and the friction created by gripping the stick.
In fact, Mercer, 51 games into the NHL season - and with many practices in between - is still using the same pair of gloves that he was wearing in the summer, which happens to be nothing new for the 20-year-old.
"Growing up you didn't have to get new pair of gloves every time, it didn't wear out your gloves, and I love that I have the same pair that I started the year off with, that I had in the summer. So I don't switch very often so that's a great aspect."

3. Special Delivery

Electrical tape on a stick is certainly not the norm, so Mercer stays prepared. When he arrived in New Jersey, he made sure to pack extra rolls of his favorite tape from back home in Newfoundland. And while hockey players are very set in their ways, the rookie does leave himself a little wiggle room, knowing the tape he likes to use isn't always available.
When he joined the Devils, he was extra appreciative of the equipment staff in trying to find the closest electrical tape as possible to the one he's most often used.
"It's a 3M, a good shiny one," Mercer shared, "It's close to mine."
And then with a big grin, he says:
"The next bit of family members that come are going to take a bit from home. It has a little bit of a change."
Mercer brought several rolls with him to New Jersey and uses his tape rolls for the top layer on his tape job, and the one that is close to his as the inner layers, "just to make sure I don't run out."
It's not too often that he's worried about it though, because he rarely has to retape his stick because of the tape he uses. Only if it starts to get a little loose, he'll restart the tape job, but before a game?
"It's just the blade for me, the top I don't have to change at all."