It’s been said “you can’t put an old head on a young body”. Nashville veteran defenseman Luke Schenn has gained a lot of wisdom over the course of his professional career that’s included the high of hoisting the Stanley Cup twice and the lows of being sent to play in the AHL by three different teams.

In a Nashville Predators season of missed opportunities and unmet expectations, perspective is everything. Schenn has had to lean on his experience and wisdom to navigate the challenges of this tough season.

“I try not to stress as much as I used to when I was younger,” Schenn shared.

His wife and three children help Schenn keep perspective especially during times like this.

“You can overthink things and stress, but then you’re at home with your kids and your family. I try to focus on them a little bit more and what’s going on in their life and take care of them.”

Schenn also meets regularly with a mental performance coach, practices visualization, and sets individual goals for each game.

The on and off ice lessons Schenn has learned over the course of nearly 1100 combined AHL and NHL games have changed the way he approaches the sport at the age of 35.

“You find you get to know your body the longer you go at it,” Schenn said.

“I lift more when I’m older now,” Schenn shared. “I lift on game day mornings. I want to feel strong.”

Schenn regularly receives treatment from the trainers, utilizes a cold tub, and focuses on rest and nutrition away from the rink. Prioritizing recovery is vital but not always easy in this life stage.

“It’s tough especially when you travel – when you travel home and you get in at two, three in the morning. I come home to three kids, and they’re up. There’s school in the morning,” Schenn said.

“Sometimes it’s a skill to find it when you don’t want to do it, to push through that. I just tell myself sometimes ‘mind over matter’. You can’t really make excuses. You gotta show up every day.”

“I think that a skill in itself – finding a way to show up when you’re not feeling it.”

Appreciating the value of recovery has been a lesson for Schenn at this point in his career.

“I never used to like days off at all because I’d come back and I’d feel a little sluggish and it’d take a little while to get going again. Now, the older you get, I feel like days off aren’t days off just because you don’t feel like practicing. It’s days off because it’s recovery, which I find is a huge benefit.”

Schenn knows the physical and mental work it takes to hoist the Stanley Cup. He won back to back titles as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021 alongside current teammate Steven Stamkos.

His focus is on what is happening right now in Nashville, but Schenn’s children help him remember the hard work that goes into winning the most difficult trophy in sports.

While Schenn doesn’t ever wear his two Stanley Cup rings (nor do fellow Cup winners Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, or Ryan O’Reilly), his children sometimes ask Schenn to take his championship rings out. The rings from Tampa Bay’s two wins come in cases with small screens inside that play the highlights from that year’s Cup run and celebration.

“They love watching the videos, so they’ll ask me once in awhile, ‘hey can we watch that Stanley Cup video’? It’s actually a really cool thing. You open up the box and the video screen turns on.”

“It’s a great keepsake,” Schenn said. “I’m obviously very proud of it. But it’s funny, you know. You always remember that you won the Stanley Cup, but until you go back and look at the rings, it brings back those memories. You get more proud. Not that you take it for granted, but you realize how hard it is and everything that went into it, and the adversity you go through along the way.”

“That’s what those rings are for. Not to flaunt or show off,” Schenn explained.

“It’s also for everyone else around you, too – friends and family. They’re obviously a huge part of it. It’s not just for yourself. It’s for everyone else that’s been along for the journey.”

Schenn admits to adhering to hockey superstition when it comes to Lord Stanley’s trophy. In 2019, Schenn’s younger brother Brayden won the Cup with the St. Louis Blues. When Brayden had his Day with the Cup, older brother Luke wanted to celebrate with him – but wisely.

“Out of superstition hockey players, a lot of guys, say ‘I don’t even want to touch the Cup til I win it’.”

“At that time I had just came back into the league. I was in the minors. I finished the year off in Vancouver,” Schenn explained.

Luke made a decision at Brayden’s Stanley Cup party.

“I drank out of it, but with a straw so I didn’t touch it,” Luke said. “I never did touch it.”

“And then fast forward a year, and I got to hoist it for myself the first time. That was the first time I touched it.”

The Schenn family became very familiar with the Stanley Cup as Brayden and Luke combined to win it in three consecutive seasons.

“To have it in our family back to back to back was special for our parents,” Schenn shared.

Even though his first day with the Cup in 2020 came later in the COVID pandemic, Schenn’s family and friends couldn’t help but celebrate in the traditional way.

“It was not the start of COVID. Everything had opened up in the States, but Canada was still months behind,” Schenn explained. “And I was like this is going to be a little bit weird because typically everyone at the party has a couple of drinks and they want to drink out of the Cup.”

“Because it was COVID I was like – I don’t know if people are going to do it. And it took all of 15 minutes for people to be like ‘Screw it! I’m doing it! I’ll never get the chance to do it!’”

“The next thing you know, no one gave a shit. Everyone was drinking out of it for the entire night.”

Schenn acknowledges the hard reality that this season in Nashville has fallen far short of those magical Cup runs.

“If you look at the big picture, it doesn’t look great,” Schenn said. “Obviously we aren’t pleased with the way we’ve been playing lately.”

Where does the team need to go from here to make something positive out of a disappointing season?

“We need to get back to playing with a desperate mindset and playing for one another in this room,” Schenn said.

“You look at standings and all that stuff, but at the end of the day we’re all NHL players and pros, and we’d better show up and show up to play like we’re in this position for a reason.”

Schenn will rest and recover over the NHL break while also keeping one eye on hockey at the Four Nations Face-Off.

When asked who was going to win the Four Nations tournament, the proud Canadian didn’t hesitate to answer. 



“Canada!”

As teammate and Finnish goaltender Juuse Saros walked by, Schenn just slightly amended his pick.

“Canada against Finland in overtime.”

Despite being teammates with players competing for Finland (Saros) and Sweden (Filip Forsberg and Gus Nyquist), Schenn remains staunchly faithful to his home country of Canada.

If Canada wins, will Schenn give his losing teammates grief about the tournament’s outcome?

“Absolutely.”