Many years before Scranton, PA, Steve Carell was stopping pucks as an ice hockey goaltender while enrolled at Denison University in Granville, OH.
Like Paris Hilton, Avril Lavigne, Keanu Reeves and more, Carell's pre-celebrity hockey exploits were sparingly catalogued via the player database of EliteProspects.
Now, a new feature in The Athletic paints the greatest picture of Carell's puck pursuits yet, through interviewing the actor's former teammates, friends and faculty members.
In the piece, Carell is characterized as a "solid, traditional-style goaltender" who kept his hockey bag and "sweat-soaked leather pads" under his dorm room bed. An end-of-season summary written by coach Seth Patton is also cited, calling the freshman Carell "the backbone of the defense."
The Athletic feature also includes some player statistics missing from that aforementioned EliteProspects profile. In his sophomore season, Carell made 305 saves across 29 periods played, good for save percentage of .866 that the publication notes "might not sound great by NHL standards, but for club hockey, it was respectable."
Some truly unvarnished locker room recollection also finds teammates recalling how hairy Carell was. A particularly hilarious anecdote from former teammate Bill Eaton involves watching Carell star in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, exclaiming to his wife (and the rest of the theatre) during the memorable waxing scene, "Oh my God, that's real!"
While his teammates knew of his involvement in acting and improv classes at Denison, Eaton told The Athletic, "We didn't know he was funny because we were idiots," later adding, "We weren't the kind of guys who would go to something cultured."
Carell would later lace 'em up for some hockey hilarity on both The Dana Carvey Show and The Office, which you can revisit in the players below.
In 2013, Carell told ESPN of his playing days, "I was a goalie. At a certain point, you either have to commit to that as a potential career or let it become a fun hobby. That happened in high school. I had to think about whether I was going to a Division I college hockey program and fight for a job of a goaltender or do something else. Instead, I went to a Division III school and played throughout college. It was for fun and not advancing myself."
Earlier this year, Carell appeared in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, while his 2022 included executive producing and starring in The Patient, and reprising his role as Gru in Despicable Me prequel Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Last year, Canadian musicians revealed their favourite sporting activities for Exclaim!'s Show & Tell feature.
Like Paris Hilton, Avril Lavigne, Keanu Reeves and more, Carell's pre-celebrity hockey exploits were sparingly catalogued via the player database of EliteProspects.
Now, a new feature in The Athletic paints the greatest picture of Carell's puck pursuits yet, through interviewing the actor's former teammates, friends and faculty members.
In the piece, Carell is characterized as a "solid, traditional-style goaltender" who kept his hockey bag and "sweat-soaked leather pads" under his dorm room bed. An end-of-season summary written by coach Seth Patton is also cited, calling the freshman Carell "the backbone of the defense."
The Athletic feature also includes some player statistics missing from that aforementioned EliteProspects profile. In his sophomore season, Carell made 305 saves across 29 periods played, good for save percentage of .866 that the publication notes "might not sound great by NHL standards, but for club hockey, it was respectable."
Some truly unvarnished locker room recollection also finds teammates recalling how hairy Carell was. A particularly hilarious anecdote from former teammate Bill Eaton involves watching Carell star in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, exclaiming to his wife (and the rest of the theatre) during the memorable waxing scene, "Oh my God, that's real!"
While his teammates knew of his involvement in acting and improv classes at Denison, Eaton told The Athletic, "We didn't know he was funny because we were idiots," later adding, "We weren't the kind of guys who would go to something cultured."
Carell would later lace 'em up for some hockey hilarity on both The Dana Carvey Show and The Office, which you can revisit in the players below.
In 2013, Carell told ESPN of his playing days, "I was a goalie. At a certain point, you either have to commit to that as a potential career or let it become a fun hobby. That happened in high school. I had to think about whether I was going to a Division I college hockey program and fight for a job of a goaltender or do something else. Instead, I went to a Division III school and played throughout college. It was for fun and not advancing myself."
Earlier this year, Carell appeared in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, while his 2022 included executive producing and starring in The Patient, and reprising his role as Gru in Despicable Me prequel Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Last year, Canadian musicians revealed their favourite sporting activities for Exclaim!'s Show & Tell feature.
