Call it a nervous habit or a mid-game snack.
In lieu of orange slices, Alexander Radulov – apparently way more comfortable on a Kontinental Hockey League bench than a Nashville one – chews off threads of his towel and eats them.
Odd behaviour is fine when you’re the KHL’s all-time leading scorer (260 points and counting). Radulov, who also owns the records for most career assists (168), plus-minus (97), and points in a single KHL season (80), will have some elite company any day now.
But in the meantime “Rads,” who has six points in six games thus far, can have his league’s towels and eat them too.
The two-time Nashville Predator dodged a lockout early by signing a four-year contract with HC CSKA Moscow in July that pays him $9.2 million per season and includes the seldom-exercised all-you-can-eat-laundry clause.