1-On-1: with Curtis Douglas

Roadrunners Forward Curtis Douglas joined Jonathon Schaffer and Kim Cota-Robles on this week’s Happy Hour Show. For the complete conversation and to hear about Curtis’s love of Taylor Swift, download this week’s show below.

Listen to “Big Curtis On The Mic” on Spreaker.

Is there any talk in the locker room about scoring the Teddy Bear Toss goal? If you score, do you have a celebration in mind or is that something you think of in the moment?

I think it would be all in the moment; I think it’s cool when you get a decent number of bears too, it makes scoring that goal pretty special. There hasn’t been much talk yet, but I’d assume on game day it’ll get a little more heated.

Egor was talking about playing your game and the points will come, and your name got brought up. How do you keep your head up when you’re playing so well and maybe the points aren’t quite rolling in yet?

Yeah, it’s part of the game. In the role that I play, you’re not going to score every night. It was really nice to get that one off the back and get the first one and just kind of not worry about it. But I feel like my game as of late has been pretty solid and even though the points weren’t coming, I felt like I was in a position where they could. It could happen at any moment. It’s just the law of averages, you keep your foot to the pedal eventually it starts going your way, and this weekend it did a little bit, which was nice. I have to give credit to my teammates, Barron, Matika, Drew and a couple of other guys we got to play with, who played great as well. It’s just kind of coming together and we’re having more fun and we’re focusing on the process. Now the other part is starting to come so hopefully I can string some more together here.

What’s it like playing with the same line as last year with Travis Barron and Hunter Drew?

It’s awesome, it’s a privilege. I mean, they’re awesome people. I think I’m lucky every day to be on the ice with them, and we’re really close off the ice, they are some of my best friends. So, it’s pretty special, I’m trying not to take any of the days for granted and just continue to have fun with some of my best friends. When you get to hug them on the ice, it’s even more fun, so when the puck goes in, it’s pretty special. Like I said, just trying to take it day by day.

When did you kind of find your roll on the ice? Was there a time where you had to shift rolls to suit the team better or anything like that?

Fortunately for me, I’ve had some great mentors and great coaches growing up. Since I’ve been young, it’s been pretty ingrained in my mind, the kind of role and player that I’ve got to be to make it to the next level. And like I said, I’ve been fortunate enough to have people that have really believed in me and it’s been a privilege and really special, I couldn’t have done it without them and hopefully the next step, I’ll be able to credit to them as well. So, since I was probably 13 or 14 I’ve always kind of had in mind what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be, and I’m just kind of continuing to try and grind every day and continue to get better and hopefully take that step eventually.

Your fights have looked very planned recently. What’s said before those? Do you guys plan it out a bit?

It depends on the person. The first one in Calgary this past weekend was pretty spur of the moment. Someone got hit in the corner, that was a little bit questionable and I didn’t love it, so that was kind of just standing up for one of my teammates. Then the other one was just that I didn’t like the way our team started the game, and I thought maybe we needed a little bit of spark. So, it’s kind of just seeing if there’s anyone there and trying to do something to help the team and that’s kind of how it went. A couple words, but most of the guys are pretty professional about it and know that it’s just business and there’s nothing really too harmful about it, it’s not like you’re trying to kill each other. We’re doing our job, so that’s about it.

Is hockey fun or serious?

I think when people get too serious about it, it gets less fun. At the end of the day, we’re grown men playing one of the most fun games in the world. When you stop seeing it like that, is when you start to see less success, I think. My approach is that I think the more fun that I’m having, the better I play to an extent and I’m having a pretty good time now.