Though football grew to be his bread and butter, Rob Gronkowski played hockey throughout his youth in Williamsville, New York (located just outside Buffalo), once claiming to have scored as many as nine goals in one game. The Bucs tight end recently had a chance to lace ‘em up with the Tampa Bay Lightning—last year’s Stanley Cup champs—joining brothers Dan and Glenn on the ice at Amalie Arena for an impromptu shootout.
Showing noticeable rust, Gronk was stonewalled on each of his attempts, failing to sneak one past Bolts goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. There’s no shame in being vanquished by a Vezina Trophy winner (awarded annually to the league’s top net-minder), though judging by his relative unease skating, the Pro Bowler should probably stick to his day job as Tom Brady’s go-to red-zone target.
Gronkowski, who says he stopped playing hockey in ninth grade, also tried his hand between the pipes, standing in net against forwards Steven Stamkos, Alexander Killorn and Patrick Maroon. The 32-year-old again looked pretty stiff, though by virtue of his sheer enormity, the 6’6,” 265-pound Gronk did luck into a handful of saves.
Gronkowski gave professional wrestling a whirl during his short-lived retirement in 2019 and has also teased a post-football boxing career, but hockey doesn’t appear to be in his wheelhouse. Not that it wouldn’t be fun to see Gronk throw hands with NHL enforcers like Zdeno Chara and Radko “The Butcher” Gudas.
As for the Lightning, the Bolts will be looking to take a 3-0 series lead when they host in-state rival Florida for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday in Tampa.
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