Former NHL teammate works on hockey's 'secret' cure

on the icethey were important role players for the Washington Capitals.

When they came off the ice, they were just Chums.

Forwards Eric Fehr and Jay Beagle and defenseman Karl Alzner have been around since 2008 during the Capitals' “Rock the Red” era, when Washington's teams lacked star power, personality, and a playoff berth. We played together until 2015. Beagle and Fehr were depth forwards known more for their checking than their offense. Alzner was more prominently featured as the team's top “defensive defenseman” and saw a lot of playing time alongside star blueliner John Carlson.

The Chams did everything together on the road, from dinner to battling the boredom of long plane rides. Beagle said NHL players have a bond with their teammates in every locker room, but that bond felt different.

“When I really look back, those years with those guys were some of the best years of my life playing hockey and building friendships,” he said. “It was very special.”

Beagle was the only one still on the Capitals when they won the Stanley Cup in 2018. Fehr left as a free agent in 2015, and Alzner did the same in 2017.

“We were very tight,” Alzner said. “Then I realized that when we stopped playing together, we hardly talked to each other. I missed that.”

“Life catches up to you,” Fehr said. “I'm too busy.”

The Cham family was thus drifting adrift, until recently an unexpected event reunited them. Fehr, Beagle, and Alzner are all involved with his LactiGo, a much-talked-about muscle recovery and sports performance gel that has become increasingly popular among NHL players. Mr. Fehr is a member of his LactiGo board of directors, and Mr. Beagle and his Mr. Alzner are active investors. Mr. Fehr is also a director of Ethoderm, the company's pharmaceutical division.

They want this business to be rewarding, but being teammates again has been rewarding in itself.

“I feel like we're still playing together,” Alzner said. “I'm not talking specifically about hockey, but I keep the same cadence that I have when I talk to my current teammates. We had an opportunity to try and succeed on the ice, and we were able to accomplish it off the ice. That's pretty special.'' ”

NHL players always They are being sold an economic opportunity. Not all of them will work.

“When I first started my career, there were some guys in Washington, and they all put money into something and they all lost it. That was a good lesson right away,” Alzner said. “From there, especially after I stopped playing, I became a little less confident about what I put my money into. It's very hard to understand that. You can make money, or you can lose all your money. It may happen.'' ”

Fehr was the first to get involved with LactiGo. In 2017-18, when he was playing for the AHL San Diego Gulls, he was pitched a product he had never heard of before. His teammate Michael Riambas brought him LactiGo, and Riambas was using it to recover his tired legs.

“When you play professional hockey, a lot of these things come your way. People always bring something to you,” Fehr recalled. “And then I used it and I thought, 'This is crazy.' My legs were so loose, so it was great. I started sharing that with my teammates and guys.”

Fehr brought it to the Cham family. Mr. Beagle was skeptical until he considered the source.

“When you're playing, you get a lot of things thrown at you. There's a lot of weird, random things. This is something I tried because it came from Fehr,” Beagle said. “He's a very good person. Well, a good human being. So when he calls, you answer. And when he says something, you take it seriously. Because , because he lives with integrity.”

Alzner was about 31 years old when Fehr pitched him and was feeling the burden of being a veteran skater.

“My legs were starting to get…heavy,” he said. “The games were getting tougher and tougher. I didn't feel well and didn't want to go to practice. I needed a few practices to get back. When I went to skate in the morning, I said, 'Surprisingly, today… 'My feet are so bad.''' So I decided to give it a try. ”

Alzner was a person who would try anything. From cold baths to massage boots. He was recently thinking about his old teammates from Montreal and the players who used “pickle juice.” It was “literally just water mixed with menthol to make your feet sting.” Beagle recalls Alzner coming to his off-season workouts to follow every fitness and diet fad, from low-carb to skipping breakfast to all sorts of legal supplements.

So Alzner's interest caught Beagle's attention as well. Once the man, always looking for the next thing, settled on something, it caught the beagle's attention.

“If you don't know the guy, you really don't understand,” Beagle said. “But the fact that he's so excited about something and has been using it for so long is a testament to how good it is.”

Fehr said he inquired about investing in the company but was reprimanded by founder Kevin Atkinson. After about a year of pestering, Fehr was asked to help buy a partner company. He then formed another group to buy out another investor and was promoted to his one on LactiGo's board of directors.

Alzner expressed interest in investing, and Fehr put him in touch with Atkinson. But he needed to know more about how his LactiGo works.

“Originally it wasn't even about the company. It was like, 'My team needs to use this because we're not good,'” he said. “I'm one of those people who loves digging deep and understanding why things are the way they are.”

Alzner made things clear when he learned that his old teammate Beagle was also involved with LactiGo.

“When Beags gets involved, you know it's legal. Let's just say he doesn't actually invest in anything,” Alzner said with a laugh. “Beags and I went back a long time ago to what we always called ‘per diem management’ on the road. If you can save money in some way, you are saving money.”

With Chums reunited, the next step was to make the product a success.

The first step was to increase awareness of what players want to keep to themselves.

“Everyone who uses it doesn’t want their competitors to use it,” Beagle said. “And unless you're an incredible teammate, even your own teammates don't want to use it in training camp because you want to be better than them, right?”

“That's one of the biggest secrets in hockey, and that's our struggle,” Alzner said. “People want it for their own benefit and not to be used by others.”

boston bruins defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said he's always been a “very natural guy” when it comes to muscle recovery.

“I never put any ointment or anything on my feet during a game,” he said.

Shattenkirk played with Alzner in Washington in 2017. About two years later, while Shattenkirk was playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Alzner offered to try LactiGo.

“It definitely felt like there was something there. Something was different,” Shattenkirk said. “At first I thought it was a bit of a placebo effect, but the more I understood the science behind it, the more it all made sense.”

Veteran forward James van Riemsdyk became an investor after using the product.

“We had a few guys in Philadelphia, but basically the whole Toronto team was using it,” said Juan, now a winger with the Bruins who recently surpassed 1,000 NHL games. Riemsdyk said.

As Shattenkirk watched the U.S. Men's World Junior Team celebrate their 2024 championship, he couldn't help but notice the bright green-capped can of Lactigor on the locker room table. It was.

“I didn't know players that age could get tired on the ice, but it's nice to see other people believe in that,” he said.

When Shattenkirk signed with the Anaheim Ducks, he noticed teammate Vini Lettieri using it. This surprised him because he didn't know many other players like that.

Shattenkirk said he believes this is one of the best-kept secrets among players.

“It's not just about hockey; it's about all sports, in fact,” he said. “It took us a little bit longer to get over this disease because people who have had it don’t want to pass it on to other people. It’s like an ace in the hole.”

Fehr said that's the biggest challenge in bringing LactiGo to market. When athletes believe they have an advantage, they don't want to share it.

“It's like a secret,” he said. “We have UFC fighters using it all the time, but they don't want other UFC fighters using it either. So no one talks about it.”

Alzner likened it to being a hockey player and getting inside information about your opponent.

“If you watch a video of someone competing and see what that person is saying, you feel like you have an advantage. The truth is, you don't want to share your secrets with anyone,” he says. “Even on a team, sometimes you want to be better than your teammates, right? You want to be the guy who gets more ice time and things like that. It's like you think it's better not to use “be better than everyone else.'' ”

But another problem with athletes is their acerbic nature. Once you add something to your routine as soon as you succeed, it remains part of that routine. If its success dims, it suddenly becomes a candidate for deletion.

“That's the problem with hockey players,” Fehr said. “They'll go out there wearing this and feel the best they've ever felt. And if they're minus-3 the next game, they'll never use it again.”

Fer said: He and his other investors understand that. They played the game and had their own idiosyncrasies. In fact, they hope their NHL experience will help give confidence to athletes interested in their product.

“It's kind of a cool story considering there's a bunch of hockey players behind it,” Fehr said of Alzner and Beagle. “That's the best part of this whole thing. It's great to stay in touch with them, but it's also great to have common projects that we're working on at the same time.”

they were teammates. They were Chums. And now they're reunited in a way no one expected, and it feels like forever ago.

Alzner said there is a familiar rhythm to the players' business ventures.

“It feels like an NHL season, we're fighting hard to get this game to where we want it to be,” he said. “Just like any season, there are ups and downs. One week is great, then the next week is waiting for the next thing to happen. We went through the same thing as our teammates, but in a different way.”

Fehr said the dynamic between the three former Capitals teams is the same as when they were playing.

“Beas is a quiet guy, always thinking. Alzner is a sociable guy, so he's always making new connections and contacts. I do as much work as I can and then do what they do best. It’s like leaving it up to the people,” he said. “It's a great dynamic, and you've probably seen it on the ice.”

Alzner said the project allowed the trio to learn things about each other that they didn't know as players.

“It's fun to see how our brains work outside of the rink,” he said. “I think a lot of people go through different business ventures with teammates, and it doesn't always work out, and then things turn sour between teammates. But so far, this It's a very exciting experience. It's pretty special to do this with my teammates.” “