Today is Father’s Day. While we are only five days away from the draft, with defencemen re-signing (Vatanen) or are taken off the market (Hamonic, Barrie), I want to dedicate this post to all the father’s out there. I can thank my father as being the guy who really jump started my love for hockey.
My Dad
Growing up, my dad was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. My dad grew up in the Original Six Era and it only made sense that the Maple Leafs, like many western Canadians, became the team of choice. Yes, he was around the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, being in 1967 at the ripe young age of nine. His favorite player back then was Dave Keon: he loved everything Keon did. Keon was not the biggest guy on the ice (he stood at 5’9) but he did everything: he was an exceptionally fast skater, great defensively and led the Leafs in scoring.
My Dad stopped cheering for the Maple Leafs when Dave Keon had his nasty divorce. Harold Ballard would force Keon away from the Maple Leafs and to the WHA. My father never cheered for the Leafs again. He would root for the local team, the Edmonton Oilers, in the other league: the WHA.
Fatherly Impact
My father became a father on June 24th, 1989 when he and his wife (a Montreal Canadiens and Sabres fan) had me. It was around when I was four years old that I started to follow hockey, or at least that’s what he told me. My earliest hockey memory was the 94-95 Cup Final where New Jersey defeated Detroit in a sweep. I was six years old then.
It was around that age where I became obsessed with hockey, an obsession that continues to this day. I was trying to decide a favorite team and was looking in the newspaper. There was one team that really stood out: it was big, red and on fire. A flaming C! It looked so cool!
My dad intervened and rightly so. He told me I wouldn’t want to cheer for that team, but should cheer for a team we have here in Edmonton. My six year old self was blown away: Edmonton has a team?!?
That’s when he introduced me to the Edmonton Oilers. That was my team from then on.
Dad and NHL 96
As a kid, you can figure out that my dad had a huge impact on me as a hockey fan.
I remember it was my seventh birthday and I opened my present: A Sega Genesis with NHL 96! You can guess what my father and I did: We (okay him) hooked it up to the giant 10 inch TV. We would play always as the Detroit Red Wings vs the New Jersey Devils. Why those two teams? At the time, we did not know we could change teams. Let’s just say I was blown away when one kid at my birthday party changed to the Boston Bruins in the play now screen.
He would always beat me in NHL. I remember one time before he got home, I decided to load up my Edmonton Oilers with Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Steve Yzerman, Bill Ranford, Joe Sakic. I remember doing this, because one time I accidentally moved Gretzky to Anaheim. I couldn’t read the manual so I had my mom read it to me while I was sitting on the kitchen floor.
I was so pumped to beat him. Yet, my father knew better: he would go to a setting for default rosters. I was foiled.
My best moment was the day I finally beat him. I was the Washington Capitals. It was overtime and I was in the slot and he actually pushed me out of my seat. In a Bobby Orr Fashion, with Joe Juneau, I scored the goal while on the ground. It was like winning the cup.
Dad and Hockey Nuggets
My dad took me to my first NHL hockey game in 1997. I remember it was January and it was cold. It was against the new Phoenix Coyotes, my second favorite team at the time. I was the only kid who wore a Coyotes hat in Edmonton. We sat in section 236. I got to see Jeremy Roenick! I was wearing the jersey I got that christmas, a navy blue Edmonton Oilers jersey (which is still in fairly good shape). I can’t remember the third period, because it was past my bedtime and I was asleep.
My dad also took me to an old timer’s hockey game where Bobby Hull was featured. I was in Grade One and when I came up, Bobby Hull called me Red. Apparently, Mr. Hull talked to me for a good five minutes. My dad remembers it vividly and I can ask him more about it than ever.
My dad would make the ice every winter in our backyard. I remember after meeting Bobby Hull, I pretended to be the Golden Jet when I skated with my dinkey plastic stick. In our basement, my dad would set up some hockey nets and we would play hockey down there. When I beat him one on one, I ran around holding a picture of the Stanley Cup from a book I had.
As I grew older, my passion for the game exceeded my father’s. I’m now the one telling him who the Oilers might get and might not. Yet, we still find time to watch the occasional game. On November 3rd, for the first time ever, My dad, my brother and I all went to a hockey game. We wanted to see Connor McDavid and we did: we got to see him break his clavicle.
Closing
In closing, I’m lucky to have my dad influence me. If it were not for him, I would not have been such a big hockey fan. He guided me to cheer for the Oilers and fueled my passion for the game, amongst so many other things. We might not always see eye to eye, but he’s been a great influence.
Happy Father’s Day Dad.
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