Catching Up with Mallory Souliotis

Not everyone has the luxury of working from home during this pandemic; some of us are working on the front-lines either in the hospitals or in grocery stores.

There are other occupations that have been classified as essential, and while playing hockey is not one of them, for Boston Pride's Mallory Souliotis her other job has been named as such. Souliotis works for a pharmaceutical company, EMD Serono, that produces drugs for cancer patients.

"We do a lot of lab work, so what we've done is we created rotating shifts schedule so we don't have too many people in the lab at once," Souliotis said. "Whether I am going in really early before 7 a.m., or sometimes I am working at home in the morning and then going in at 11 a.m. to do my lab work. We need to continue to work towards getting out drugs to the clinic."

With crazy hours, Souliotis has yet to perfect a schedule that benefits the best of both her worlds. Training has been difficult, but she has been trying to get in workouts at home.

"[I'm] trying to get creative with some at-home workouts to the best I can," Souliotis said. "[I'm] doing some yoga, a lot of body-weight circuits...running, roller-blading with my dogs, so that has been fun. Just trying to keep moving."

Now back in her hometown in Acton, Massachusetts, Souliotis and her family have found old Wii games and Game Cubes to occupy them. Souliotis says she even found an old NHL '04 video game.

"I was really bad for a few games, but we're getting better," she said with a laugh.

Along with video games, her family has been playing a different board game every week. This week, they have taken up the card game Cribbage, said Souliotis.

Souliotis said she is also taking classes at the University of Maryland where she is pursuing a Master's of Bioengineering, and that has kept her busy as well.

In terms of speaking with teammates, the Pride have been keeping in touch via Zoom meetings. But because of how busy Souliotis has been, she has not been able to join as much as she would like to. However, she has been talking to her teammates through alternatives.

"We have a group chat going," Souliotis said. "Everyone is supporting each other, keeping up with everyone."

But messaging and video calls can only go so far. There is a lot to be missed, especially when players see each other just about every day during the season. On what she misses the most, Souliotis says the loss of the social interaction is at the top.

"[Just] how much fun everyone has with each other," Souliotis said. "It's obviously a little different texting or FaceTime-ing. It's a little different than before practice, or at the rink, or during games. We do have a lot of fun, as I am sure a lot of people can see in the videos. But, that is definitely something I miss the most."

[Photo Credit: Michelle Jay/NWHL]