What is that ?
Especially in the NFL, at the back of the players’ benches, you see like little posts with the top end ending in a circle, like with a kind of big cap. Some players put their helmets on these posts when not playing. I suspect this is to dry out the insides of the helmets, but I’m not sure.
Michael Morier
Reply from Nicholas Richard
Indeed, these supports on which the players deposit their helmet are used to temper these pieces of equipment. Either to dry them out, when there’s too much sweat, or to warm them up when it’s cold, like in Buffalo. More interestingly, the NFL benches are a production of the Dragon Seats company, which manufactures heated or cooled benches, allowing players to warm up or cool down between their presence on the field.
They are dressed the same!
PHOTO PETER NICHOLLS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Félix Auger-Aliassime shakes hands with Nick Kyrgios after a match in July 2021.
Are there rules dictating the wearing of the uniform during tennis matches? For some tournaments, I noticed that players, sometimes from the same match, are dressed identically, while other players wear different clothes.
Stephane Monarque
Reply from Nicholas Richard
Most players on the ATP and WTA tours are sponsored. Each cycle during the season, companies like Nike, Adidas or Yonex create new collections for a series of tournaments, for example the US Open series. So when they return to hard courts, at the end of the summer, the players are offered pieces and they are free to choose, among these clothes, what to wear, question of arranging shorts and t-shirts themselves. However, all players associated with the same brand receive the same clothing. So, for example, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, all Nike sponsored players, will wear the same collection. So it’s possible that if they clash, they’re wearing the same clothes.
Two-line passes
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
The Montreal Canadiens against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Center
The red line in hockey was abolished in 2005 for passes crossing two zones. Are there any statistics that show the number of passes between the two areas compared to the number of passes that take place before the red line? Can we also conclude that the game is more open and that there is more attack?
Claude Majeau
Response from Guillaume Lefrancois
Indeed, it was on the return to play in 2005, after a season lost by the lockout, that the “two-line” pass regulation, as it was once called, was adopted. However, it is difficult to measure the precise impact, since other regulations were amended at the same time. For example, the neutral zone was reduced by four feet and the bases were moved two feet closer to the boards. More subtle changes have been added (ban on returning to the bench after a clearance is refused) and, above all, the clash has been monitored much, much more closely. This prevented the stars from scoring goals by shooting two rivals clinging to their midsection, as the best of all time, Mario Lemieux, did. As for the number of passes crossing the two lines, they are not counted by the main reference sites.
The truth about locker rooms
I often hear that the visitors’ dressing room is smaller than that of the home team, and less convenient. Is this true, and if so, why?
Jean-Marceau
Response from Guillaume Lefrancois
It’s absolutely true and we have the best proof of it in Montreal, where the visitors’ locker room, already cramped, is separated in two by a massive concrete column. We can however believe that it is a phenomenon in the process of disappearance. In a poll conducted by ESPN in 2019, players named Edmonton, Vegas and Detroit as the three cities with the best facilities for the visiting team. However, it was then the three most recent amphitheatres of the NHL. And at a glance, the UBS Arena, inaugurated last season, offered more than reasonable facilities to the opponents of the Islanders. So it seems that the days when Scotty Bowman had, according to legend, the locker room of the opposing team painted the day before a game in the playoffs are over.
The line… dotted?
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Central Red Line at TD Garden in Boston. Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins and Carey Price of the Canadiens prepare for the game in 2014.
It has already been explained to me that in hockey, the red line in the center of the ice is dotted, because in the days of black and white television, it had to be distinguished from the blue lines. Is it true ?
André Beaudry
Response from Alexander Pratt
Yes. When introduced, in 1943-44, the red line was full. But in January 1957, The Press reported that the Boston Bruins changed his appearance for television. “The fence around the rink [du Garden] was painted orange, so viewers could see the puck very well. The red line in the center of the ice has been redone. It’s no longer an ordinary line, but a dotted line, again [au] benefit of the viewers, who will thus be able to make the difference with the blue lines. »