“Take care of your sticks and they’ll take care of you.”
That’s the advice that Marc Savard stresses to viewers in his YouTube videos where he recreates how various NHL players tape their hockey sticks.
The long-time NHLer, who announced his retirement in January, is obsessed with the finer details of a tape job and was known to retape the sticks of teammates if he was displeased with how they prepared it for games.
This leap into the world of YouTube was inspired by Savard’s Jan. 23 appearance on the “31 Thoughts” podcast with Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Savard told the story about how he would retape the sticks of former teammate Jason York. A few days later, he sent out a Tweet to his 57,000-plus followers asking if his they would want to watch a video of how he prepares his sticks.
There was plenty of interest, and “Taping Twigs with Savvy” was born.
“It’s amazing. We had no idea how this would ever go,” Savard told Pro Hockey Talk on Thursday. “Me and my wife just went upstairs in our game room one night and shot a video and 40,000 viewers later we decided to do another one. Now people are writing in what they want to see.
“It’s just kind of taken off. We’re having a lot of fun with it. We’re going to keep doing it until it runs out of steam, but right now there’s plenty more tape jobs to do so we’re looking forward to it.”
As of Friday, Savard has over 4,500 subscribers to his channel and has made eight videos featuring the tape jobs of current players like Connor McDavid, David Pastrnak and William Nylander, and ex-NHLers like Mario Lemieux and his former New York Rangers teammate Wayne Gretzky. The sticks used are from his personal collection, which were acquired during his career or through connections he still has in the hockey world. The McDavid, for example, he received from Milan Lucic and there’s an incoming John Tavares stick, thanks to Johnny Boychuk.
The increase in popularity has also earned Savard a sponsor in Howie’s Tape, who hopped onboard with the latest installment.
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The videos are simple. Savard takes the viewer through every roll of the tape job, from the knob to the shaft to the blade, and explains in detail the how and why of it all. The obsession dates back to his youth street hockey days when he would play goal. It wasn’t odd to find him in the basement painting his pads to get the right look. He’d focus on every aspect of his equipment, and eventually that attention shifted to his sticks, which continued as his hockey career took him to the NHL.
(He’s so passionate about it that he used to tape the sticks of every kid on his son’s hockey team.)
Savard has two simple rules for a great tape job:
• Keep the tape nice and tight -- a phrase you’ll hear him say often -- as you go around the stick. Make sure there are no crevices or wrinkles.
• When you find yourself with excess tape around the toe, trim it neatly with sharp scissors. That can make or break a tape job, he stresses.
Some of the tape jobs Savard saw up close and in person, like the Gretzky or Phil Kessel. Others are based off what he sees from watching a game on television. He picks up the finer details and is then able to recreate it as close as possible on the sticks in his collection. “I’m not always bang on but I’m definitely always very close if you ask players,” he says.
It’s not just fans who are watching. Players check out Savard’s videos as well, according to some notes he’s received since his first video hit Jan. 29. The entire process is also a family affair. His wife films each episode while his son runs the YouTube channel.
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So whose hockey stick tape job does Savard admire these days? For one, he’s a fan of Artemi Panarin’s look, which he featured in episode two. The Panarin, which is black tape along the blade and white tape on the toe, he also uses in men’s league. Then there’s Jamie Benn, whose tape job Savard likes because it’s simple, right on the middle of the blade, and Kessel’s for his candy cane look.
Which ones drive him crazy? For one, David Pastrnak’s — just look at it:
Then there’s McDavid. “His tape job is not that bad it’s just that he continues to do the same tape job throughout the whole game, which is amazing to me how he doesn’t in-between periods to retape it because it starts peeling up at the bottom. I don’t know how he uses it, but he does it.”
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When Savard announced his retirement in January, he also announced his desire to get into coaching, with junior hockey being his preferred starting point. There weren’t many gigs available in the middle of the season, so in the meantime he’s entered the world of broadcasting having appeared on Hockey Central at Noon on Sportsnet, Fan590 radio and he has a weekly spot on SirusXM’s The Power Play every Wednesday.
“I’m kind of going in the broadcast direction right now in hoping that something jumps up for me in the coaching area,” he said.
For now, Savard will continue answering requests and tape sticks in the fashion of current and former NHL stars. Maybe down the line he’ll get into other hockey gear-related topics, but he’s happy to share this passion with others and educate players and fans on the dos and don’ts of a fine tape job.
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.