Stories about the Kraken, eating habits, team meals, guilty pleasures.

ROAMING THE ROOM: Let’s Eat. 

Stories about the Seattle Kraken and their eating habits, team meals, and offseason guilty pleasures. 

Best type of restaurant to go eat on the road: 

Morgan Geekie: "I’m a big sushi guy. I don’t have one in particular but that’s my favorite kind of food."

Jamie Oleksiak: “I think Italian is kind of the go-to. Lots of guys are fans of steakhouses, but personally I don’t like red meat the night before a game. A nice pasta and salad are what I’m looking for.”

Jared McCann: “Geez, Maple & Ash is my favorite. There’s one in Chicago, Arizona as well.” 

Jordan Eberle: “Tough one. There’s a few for me - in Dallas – Nick and Sam’s, a steakhouse that’s pretty well known, great atmosphere and great food. I also love Jacob’s in Toronto. You can’t go wrong with a good sushi spot on the road, too.” 

Adam Larsson: “I’m big on Italian, or sushi kind of guy. Colorado, we went to this place called Quality Italian, it was really good. Akira Back in Toronto is a good sushi spot.” 

The one kind of restaurant you avoid, even if the meal was free: 

Geekie: “I don’t know, even if it was free, I’m not that picky. I’m not a big fan of anything very fishy, so I’ll stay away from oyster bars. You can get a bad oyster here and there. I never liked that very fishy taste.” 

Eberle: “Indian food or chinese food the night before a game. You don’t want to risk it.” 

Oleksiak: “I’m a big guy, I’m not too picky, you know what I mean? 

By rule of thumb, who should pay the tab when dining out with teammates? 

McCann: “Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle.” 

Geekie: “Everyone just puts a credit card in a hat, and normally we go around the table, and the last one in the hat is the one that pays.” 

Eberle: “It’s all about who you’re with. A lot of the times, if I’m with young guys, I’ll pay the tab. Lot of times, if you’re with older guys, you play the credit card game. That’s usually my favorite. It’s a crapshoot. Depends on the scenarios. Sometimes guys bet fantasy football for a meal.” 

Geekie: “I think you can normally play the game for it, the credit card game. If you have a lot of guys, you can split it. Normally just play the game, someone has to pay. It’ll come around and get everyone at one point.” 

Eberle: “I’ve lost the credit card game countless times in my career. Lots of times. They try to tell you it evens out over your career, but in my case it hasn’t.” 

Larsson: “Highest paid guy.” 

Oleksiak: “Tannie (Brandon Tanev). He’s usually the one who orders the high end food.” 

On a day when "calories don't count," favorite food in the offseason: 

Geekie: “Chick-fil-A, or Ben & Jerry’s.” 

McCann: “I love chinese food.” 

Oleksiak: “I like anything spicy. Some spicy barbeque, thai food. Anything spicy, I’ll go for.” 

Eberle: “You can’t go wrong with a nice steak. I love sushi as well. Tacos, that would be my three for sure.” 

Larsson: “Chips. I love chips. If we go other food, pizza.” 

Favorite meal in college, major junior, or growing up: 

Geekie: Kennewick (home of the Tri-City Americans) – "Costa Vida. Smothered burrito."

McCann: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (Soo Greyhounds) - “Favorite was Subway. I loved a nice footlong there. We had it more than five times a week. Pregame, postgame. It was good.” 

Oleksiak: “My mom always made us quiche in our household, or macaroni and cheese. KD and Ketchup. I know some people feel a type of way of ketchup on macaroni and cheese, but it’s a staple. It’s tough to beat. KD and some ketchup.” 

Eberle: “Postgame was always pizza or Subway. You didn’t get the treatment you get now. I loved a good footlong Subway sandwich. That was always a staple for me.” 

Larsson: “Home cooked meatballs and macaroons.” 

The “shoe check” is a customary team prank, well known in hockey circles for decades but is being phased out of the game as indicated below, where one bold and daring player tries to elevate the laughter of the dining room by sneaking undetected under the table, and randomly pick another teammate’s shoes and leave a mark of a gloppy, gooey sauce served at dinner on them (usually, ketchup or ranch sauce). 

When the perpetrator is finished with the prank, he sneaks back to his seat, undetected, and the entire team each rings their water glass with a knife, an audible cue to for everyone to check their shoes, and leaving the target exposed with a glop of sauce on his shoe (and everyone to laugh it off). 

A note of caution: like any prank, it can backfire. It’s been known that if a teammate delivering the prank full of sauce is detected beforehand by the target, that targeted teammate has been given privilege to instantly retaliate by splashing a glass of water to the prankster’s face. Prank over. 

Last time you saw a guy get shoe checked at a team meal: 

Geekie: “In the AHL. It was my rookie party. It wasn’t me; it was someone else. That’s the last time, it’s been awhile.” 

McCann: “Probably my rookie dinner in Vancouver. I saw someone get shoe checked and it did not end well.” 

Oleksiak: “I haven’t seen a shoe check in a while. It’s been a few years. Guys these days, their shoes are too nice these days. They’ll take it personally.” 

Eberle: “That custom’s kind of dying a bit. I haven’t seen one for many years. I actually kind of forgot about it. For sure, my first five to six years, it was a staple. Someone was always getting shoe checked. But I haven’t seen it for a long time.”   

Larsson: “That’s probably six or seven years ago, when I was in New Jersey. I feel that’s kind of slipping out of the league now.” 

Last time you saw it backfire: 

Geekie: "Same dinner. Literally right before, we got everything."

McCann: “At that dinner in Vancouver, and the guy – I forget who it was – he had a brand new pair of Louis Vuitton shoes and someone put mustard on them. It was not good.” 

Eberle: “It backfired on me. A couple of times. When I was really young (in Edmonton), one of our equipment guys shoe checked Dustin Penner. I saw it happen. ‘Penns’ was all over me about it, and so I told him it was the equipment guys. Those are the one guys you don’t want against you. I come to the rink the next day and my gym shoes were screwed into the floor. My gear was in a ball of sock tape.

I learned quickly; you always want the equipment staff on your side.” 

Larsson: “I’ve seen a lot backfire.” 

It's said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When you wake up you're eating ________:

Geekie: “Lately I’ve been on three eggs scrambled, tomatoes and garlic, mixed in. Four to five pieces of bacon and a coffee.” 

McCann: “I love bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon.” 

Oleksiak: “I usually don’t eat breakfast to be honest with you. I kind of feel I get too heavy after eating a big breakfast, and I save it for lunch and dinner. Growing up: quiche was a big thing in our household, that would be a big one for me.” 

Eberle: “Usually three eggs scrambled with some sort of vegetable in there. Depending on the day, start with a sweet potato or avocado.” 

Larsson: “I do not think breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I feel I’m so far from being a breakfast guy. I usually like to start my day off with a steady lunch.” 

Teammate with the biggest appetite:

Geekie: “Matty Beniers, that guy eats everything.” 

McCann: “That’s tough. We’ve got a couple of guys but it’s Matty Beniers. He’s a snacker.” 

Eberle: “Great question. I know Beniers eats a ton.” 

Oleksiak: “Lars (Adam Larsson) is a big snacker. I kind of feel he and I would give each other a run for our money.” 

Larsson: “Ryan Donato.” 

Teammate who could retire tomorrow and become a chef:

Geekie: “Chris Driedger, easy.” 

McCann: “Jordan Eberle. Or ‘Turbo’ (Brandon Tanev). He cooked for me in Pittsburgh one time and it was really good. He made a prosciutto wrapped sirloin – cheese, stuffed peppers, it was really good.” 

Oleksiak: (Pauses, smirks) “Turbo says he is, I’m not going to give him that satisfaction.” 

Eberle: “I know ‘Gordie’ (Yanni Gourde) is good on the barbeque.” 

Larsson: “I know Tanev is pretty good at cooking. Dunner is alright, or at least what he tells me. I’ve seen pictures but I haven’t tasted it yet.” 

Oleksiak: “I hear Matty B is practicing his cooking a little bit. Maybe if he sticks with it, he seems to be good at anything he does, right?” 

Favorite food from 32 Bar and Grill, or prepared by executive chef Ken Moriarty: 

Geekie: “He does a grilled cheese and tomato soup once in a while.” 

McCann: “I love the clam chowder. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” 

Oleksiak: “I’ve heard of the Big Rig Burger, that’s got to be my favorite.” 

Eberle: “When Kenny makes tacos, those are great. They make a nice clam chowder too.” 

Larsson: “I like the food we get here. It’s so tasty. I like our pregame meal. I’m a simple pasta, meat sauce kind of guy, a little bit of ranch on top of that too.”