Dennis Cholowski knew they were talking about him.



The Red Wings defenseman, a rookie at the time, had just upgraded his car from a Honda to a Volvo. So when he heard “somebody got a new car today” from his teammates, he understood the implication.



“I’m going, ‘Do I have to put money on the board for that?’” Cholowski recalled. “I mean, I just bought the car. I have to put more money (up there) now?”



In short: yes. Getting a new car is among the many reasons an NHL player is expected to put “money on the board” — a time-honored tradition in which players write a dollar amount up on the whiteboard before a game in an effort to fire up their teammates. If the team wins, the player makes a contribution of that amount into the team’s general event fund. It’s a tradition that exists throughout all levels of pro hockey, but it reaches new heights in the world’s best...