For six years, Jay Beagle had the same flip phone. For Beags, it represented the core of his personality: simple, concise, and rugged. Beagle is not like Alex Ovechkin. He does not need to wear two pairs of competing pants or a Mercedes that has an illegal tint and no front plates. Instead, Beagle turns up to Kettler in a Chevy pickup. He wears camo hunting shirts. He wins faceoffs. Sometimes, usually accidentally, he scores a goal.

But in October, Beagle gave up on part of that life. “Flipper,” as his flip phone was known, died. In its, place, he got an iPhone. For years, Beagle looked down upon a hyper-connected life. But these days, he’s a father. On the road for much of the year, Beagle wanted to be able to watch his son, who was born last summer, grow up through pictures and videos taken by his wife and videochat with them using FaceTime. So he got an iPhone. He doesn’t know which model.

“I’m not sure,” Beagle said when I inquired what exactly he had purchased. “What’s yours?”

I showed him my iPhone 6.

“No, no,” he responded as Braden Holtby began laughing in the background. “Mine’s not that big.”

Beagle then paused, seeming to reflect on his new life.

“But I have an iPhone,” he yelled with a mixture of triumph and distain, “because Flipper died after your interview! You cursed Flipper!”

Beagle, however, refuses to let Flipper out of his life. It sits on his mantle at home, occupying a place somewhere between a coffee table novelty and an urn. As for the iPhone, his feelings are tepid.

“I like it,” he said. “I liked Flipper better. It’s not that good for calls. Like, I can’t hear that well. The simple thing is texting and making phone calls and both of those are not as good as Flipper.”

Finally, the question turned to what apps Beagle had installed on his phone. He gave me a wink.

“What’s an app?” he asked.