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Hands The Doctor Is In U i h l e i n h a s b e e n t h e s l e d team's doctor since 2012 when he was recruited by then-assis- tant coach and later head coach Guy Gosselin. One problem: Uihlein didn't know anything about the sport. "I said, 'Don't you want some- one who knows what's g oing on?'" Uihlein said. "And he said, 'Your emergency medicine back- ground would be good for these guys because of everything that they have been through and the different things you can do during a trip or tournament.'" D u r i n g h i s t e n u r e t h o s e duties have expanded to every- thing from nursing a sick player back to health to stitching up a laceration to making emergen- cy wheelchair repairs. "There's just no one better than him," said U.S. National Sled Hockey Team Head Coach David Hoff. "He's really good at what he does, and he's an even better person— that's what's really neat about him. He's a good doctor, takes his job real- ly, really seriously. I think our players really respect that part of it, too." Puck Passion Uihlein is well-versed as a pro- fessional. There isn't much he hasn't handled with his day job. The 50-year-old currently works at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee in the emergency department and in the Spinal Cord Injury Center Adaptive Sports Clinic within the same facility. After working with the sled team for a few years, Uihlein went back for a fellowship in sports medicine with an empha- sis in adaptive sports. He had found his passion for helping athletes with injuries. "What I wanted to learn more of was the ongoing care of these sports injuries and then through my additional stuff at the VA, I learned a lot about disability medicine as well," said Uihlein, who resides in Grafton, Wis., with his wife, Sandra, and teen- age daughters, Brook and Zoe. MARCH 2020 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 23 S TEVE CASH HAS SPENT MANY NIGHTS on the road, but there's one hotel stay that sticks with him. As a member of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team, Cash was rooming with teammate Billy Hanning while competing in a tournament in Calgary, Alberta in 2012. When Hanning came down with an illness, team physician Mike Uihlein—who the players dubbed "Doc"—gave his room to Cash so the star goaltender could stay healthy for the tournament. That's what Doc does best. "I don't know anyone that would bend over backwards in a situation like that," Cash recalled. "Luckily, he made sure that Billy was feeling 100 percent by the end of the trip. I think that's in a nutshell what Doc's about. You can always count on him." Since joining the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team in 2012, Mike Uihlein's duties have expanded to everything from nursing a sick player back to health to stitching up a laceration to making emergency wheelchair repairs.