Five favorites: Anthony Stolarz is a big goalie that loves his big pickup truck
Some of Stolarz best hockey memories came when he was a much smaller tendie
It's about time for another installment in THN Florida's Five Favorites series.
In case you've missed the first few posts and are wondering what the Five Favorites series is, here’s a quick reminder:
With the idea in mind of getting to know the Florida Panthers a little more off the ice, we’re going around the locker room and asking different Panthers players a list of questions about their favorite things.
So far, we've spoken to Aaron Ekblad, Evan Rodrigues, Nick Cousins and Anton Lundell.
This time around we're catching up with Florida goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
The New Jersey native has been nothing short of excellent during his first season with the Panthers, joining forces with Sergei Bobrovsky to create one of the best and most efficient goalie tandems in the league.
It's always fun catching up with Stolarz, so let's take a look at some of his favorite things:
Favorite pre-NHL memory: Probably playing in the peewee Colisee when I was 10 years old. It was a select team from New Jersey and we got to go up to Quebec and they played at the old Ramparts rink. We billeted with a family for a week, our parents got to go out, we bussed up, and basically you're playing in front of 10,000 people. You trade pins, each team has pins, you get to go to the snow park and go tubing which was a lot of fun. It was just something that, a kid from the U.S. going up to Canada and just being able to experience that and playing in front of a big crowd. I think our first game we played the home team so I think we had like 9,000 fans there. It was definitely something that I'll always remember.
Note – The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament was played annually at the Colisee de Quebec in Quebec City until the building closed in 2015. It's now played at the Videotron Centre, also in Quebec City.
Favorite hockey movie: Miracle. That's a tough one to pass up. Slapshot's not bad, but I like Miracle. The Mighty Ducks is up there, too. Happy Gilmore, maybe. (THN Florida: Is Happy Gilmore a hockey movie?) I think…it's half and half. I like golf too, so we'll group it in there.
Favorite arena to play in: San Jose. I play really well there. I don't know why, maybe it's the 7:30 starts, but I've always played well there, even in the minors when the Barracuda played there.
Favorite pregame song/music: No, no music. I just kind of go with the flow and try to be as relaxed as possible. I try not to do too much, not get into too much of a routine so if something gets broken or if something happens, you're kind of all over the place, so I like to keep it loose.
Favorite piece of gear/memorabilia: My first set of pads. They were Nike Bauer Vapors. About all my stuff was used up until then, but one year for Christmas, Santa brought me the pads. I always remember that and it's always special. I grew out of them pretty quick, though. That was the only crappy part.
BONUS FAVORITE
Favorite car you've owned: Probably the truck I have now. I have a Chevy Silverado, and I've had that thing for the last eight years and it's still running strong. Obviously I'm a bigger guy, so having the truck is always nice. It fits the gear and golf clubs, you don’t have to worry about anything else.
A big thank you (because he's a big guy) to Anthony Stolarz for taking a few minutes and having some fun with THN Florida.
There will be more Five Favorites posts coming, so stay tuned!
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