Folksy nicknames part of hockey culture

ice since he was a kid growing up in Quebec — was, of course, already taken.

“Dubi told me I couldn’t be Dubi anymore,” the 19-yearold said with a laugh, recalling an early meeting with veteran forward Brandon Dubinsky (aka: Dubi).

“It was kind of an order: ‘You have to find a new nickname.’”

A nickname is all but a requirement — and a rite of passage — for any Blue Jacket.

Besides Dubi, the team has many other nicknames that adhere to the pattern of shortened last name plus a “y” sound on the end, including “Andy” (forward Josh Anderson), “Bjorky” (forward Oliver Bjorkstrand) and “Korpi” (backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo).

And “Bob” has become a brand all its own for Sergei Bobrovsky, the Jackets’ beloved goalie.

“Bob? I don’t think he ever envisioned himself being that,” said forward Nick Foligno, the team captain. “I think a nickname can really define you.”

Foligno can’t remember who coined his moniker, “Fliggy,” but assumes it was fellow forward Matt Calvert: “He just can’t call anyone by their first name,” Foligno said.

Neither can other players, coaches or anyone else within the organization, really.

Nicknames are common not only at Nationwide Arena but throughout hockey in general, according to those in the sport. And they’re used not only on the ice by coaches and players but also on TV broadcasts and by other members of the media.

“It’s folksy, and it’s accepted — that informality,” said Karen Davis, director of communications for the Blue Jackets, who has worked in and around the National Hockey League since 1994.

Her nickname around the Shooter Lukey Jenns arena? “KD.”

For Coach John Tortorella, nicknames are a must.

“I have to call their names out on the bench all night long for line changes — like, for instance, with PierreLuc, I’m not going to say, ‘Pierre-Luc, you’re up,’” Tortorella said. “I have to say this in split-second intervals.

“I mean, you should hear us talking on the bench. There are no first names. There are really no last names. There are just nicknames.”

Tortorella is “Torts” and

always has been (unless his wife or mother is addressing him).

“It’s part of the sports culture, the locker room, and I live in the sports world. It’s been my job my whole life.”

Most of the time, he said, he lets the players dictate the nicknames, but he sometimes devises his own.

Dubois? The coach calls him “Luc” or “Lukey,” whereas Dubois’ teammates call him “PL” or “PLD.”

Boone Jenner is “Jenns” to Tortorella; to the rest of the locker room, he’s “Bam Bam,” inspired by the Flintstones character.

“The trainer Mike Vogt gave it to me my first year (2013),” Jenner said. “He said it’s like me in the forecheck.”

Nicknames, Jenner noted, might change throughout a player’s career on the ice.

“Growing up in hockey, sometimes you get the ones where you have to be on the team to understand,” he said. “There are other ones where you can kind of figure out with last names. It’s just something that sticks. ... It’s easier to remember than first names.”

Jody Shelley, a former Blue Jackets left-winger and current TV color analyst, uses the Twitter handle @ShelleyHawk45, which is an extension of his nickname and sweater number during his playing days in Columbus, from 2001 to 2008.

Several teammates gave him the moniker “Hawk” and still call him that.

“They made the observation that I was always circling the Arena District and knowing where to go,” Shelley said. “Who would get us in? I had the hawk’s eye on the situation for the guys.”

For some players, Shelley said, a nickname is earned.

“You make your teammates your own,” he said. “I think it makes you part of your own group.”

Foligno said he never liked the nicknames he had while playing for the Ottawa Senators: “Nicky” (“My sisters call me that”) and “Gino.”

He’s fond of Fliggy, though.

“It’s definitely a rite of passage for a lot guys coming to new teams,” Foligno said. “It’s the first ice-breaker. You get a new guy on the team, as soon as you call him by his nickname, usually it’s, ‘All right, you’re one of us.’”

But for forward Artemi Panarin, who was traded to the Jackets from the Chicago Blackhawks during the off-season, his new teammates kept the nickname his former team had bestowed upon him because it was so fitting.

So “Bread Man” (a reference to Panera Bread), he remains.

Dubois, meanwhile, might still be looking for a nickname to stick, but most of his fellow players have settled on one.

During a break from a recent practice, Dubois asked defenseman Scott “Harry” Harrington what the others call him.

“PLD,” Harrington replied without hesitation.

Welcome to the Blue Jackets, PLD.