The ice rink offered sweet release for Paul Ardire, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG, as credit markets unraveled last autumn.
Ardire straps on his skates twice a week as captain of two ice-hockey teams the bank sponsors at Chelsea Piers in New York. Dozens of traders, bankers and lawyers hit the ice at the sports complex to burn off stress in the wake of global credit markets' seize-up in August, and the ensuing loss of 91,000 jobs and about $400 billion of writedowns and credit losses.
"It's a great relief from all the pressures of Wall Street," said Ardire, 28, head of research on Deutsche Bank's senior debt trading desk. "I mention to the team before every game: 'Let's have some fun tonight. Remember, it's more fun when we win'."
The Chelsea squads are grouped in divisions from beginner to amateur to elite that are vying for trophies and bragging rights in playoffs that wrap up this month. Goldman Sachs Group Inc; Bank of America Corp; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; BNP Paribas; KPMG International; and Bloomberg LP also back teams.
"It's just good relief from work-life stress," said Steve Bell, 40, a KPMG partner in forensic practice who recently has worked on disputes involving failed leveraged buyouts and investigations of hedge-fund collapses.
While the league doesn't allow body checking, using physical force against an opponent, that doesn't cool the players' passion.
"We're out there playing to win," said Greg "The Ice" Milmoe, a partner and co-head of the corporate restructuring department at New York-based Skadden Arps, whose team is ranked third in Division 5. "And yet there's a lovely camaraderie on the bench and among the team."
Milmoe received an offer from the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames to become a 42-year-old rookie back in 1989 - thanks to a friend's practical joke. Milmoe instead helped his law firm win its first division title, the same year the Flames won their own first championship and the NHL's Stanley Cup.
At age 60, his contribution now is mostly with a checkbook, said Milmoe, who began playing hockey at age 6 in White Plains, New York.
"I joke that I used to play left wing," said Milmoe, whose office displays the $100,000 contract offer signed by the Flames' then-co-owner Norm Green. "Now I mostly play left behind."
Suiting up with a set of new hockey gear can cost as much as $1,500, Ardire estimated, with the latest composite sticks alone priced at $100 to $200. Players also need gloves, pads, guards, cages and uniforms, as well as skates.
Even chasing the championship isn't enough to take business off the minds of some dealmakers. When facing the Watchmen last month to win a place in the Division 4 playoffs that begin today, real estate brokers waiting for their turn to play took off their gloves to check their BlackBerrys, Andire said.
Players usually avoid shoptalk, said Ardire, who didn't know that three of his teammates were working on a deal involving a bid by Manitowoc Co, the biggest ice-machine maker in the US, to buy Enodis Plc until it was reported in April.
Using lawyer skills
Players may bring work to the rink in other ways. Don Lewis, an associate litigator at Skadden Arps, said he plays ice hockey the same way he approaches a case of securities fraud on Wall Street: by anticipating the opposing team's moves.
"Wayne Gretzky could see the game in slow motion, the same way a top litigator is seeing their adversary's move eight or nine moves ahead," said Lewis, 34. With that strategy, Lewis helped Skadden snag third place heading into the division's playoffs this week.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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