HOCKEY PLAYERS LOOK after their own. Take John Tavares, who, as a 19-year-old Islanders rookie four seasons ago, was taken in by Doug Weight, renting a ranch house on the vet's Long Island property.
Fast-forward to last season. Tavares, a Hart Trophy finalist and the captain of a re-emerging franchise, welcomed transplanted right winger Colin McDonald into his Garden City home. McDonald, on his third team in four years, became fast friends with Tavares, six years his junior, and they have the same living arrangement this season. "I've always been the clean guy with all the roommates I've had," McDonald says. "He's clean as well, so it makes for a nice setup."
Heartwarming story. But as common as these arrangements are in the NHL, not all have the same tidy ending ...
You should see his crib
Avs rookie Nathan MacKinnon, 18, can afford his own pad after signing an incentive-laden three-year deal that could be worth $11 million. But for now, he's living in the basement of teammate Jean-Sebastien Giguere's home. There's little doubt who's in charge. For Halloween, Giguere dressed as Prince William, with MacKinnon going as the royal baby.
Can I get the recipe?
In 2006 vet Sergei Gonchar took in fellow Russian Evgeni Malkin, then just 20. Malkin so enjoyed the Russian food cooked by Gonchar's wife that the Penguins eventually had to encourage him to get his own place to speed his American assimilation. "Sergei [would] teach me hockey, life, America. He is like [a] brother for me," Malkin said earlier this year.
It was fun ... For a day.
During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, then 43, hosted Sean Avery -- a notorious instigator both on and off the ice -- when they were playing for the United Hockey League's Motor City Mechanics. It took just three weeks before the three-time Norris Trophy winner kicked Avery to the curb. "He turned my house upside down," Chelios said.
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