Most especially in Canada, “hockey is absolutely central and integral to lives of boys and their dads, and much of what happens between them begins to unfold the very first time a young father leads his little one out onto the ice,” we learn in Roy MacGregor’s The Home Team: Fathers, Sons & Hockey. “Hockey is the vehicle through that complex relationship, and it is also the expression of that relationship.”
Leave it then to a Canadian on the hockey beat here in town, Comcast Sportsnet’s Lisa Hillary, to recognize a great story in the Capitals’ hosting 15 fathers of team members on a three-game roadtrip last month. Hillary accompanied the team and the dads on a unique, 4-day trip that many of the players called “an opportunity to give back.” The result is a three-part series, “Fathers, Mentors, and Friends,” that debuts this Wednesday, March 12, during ‘Sportsnite’ at 6:00. It documents Caps’ dads as “driving” forces, sacrificing catalysts, understandably proud parents, and best friends.
“Thanks Dad for all the 5:00 a.m. drives to the rink when I was a kid — I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you,” one Capitals’ player said on the trip.
If you viewed on TV any of the three games the Caps played in Atlanta, Miami, and Tampa Bay on the trip last month, you were certain to see Comcast cameras pan in on the dads all seated together each night — all of them wearing the sweaters of their sons. Hillary’s series details the interactions and events that occurred between games and at the end of the trip. Cameras followed the dads and their NHL sons on airplanes, in locker rooms, even into the Florida Everglades and a dangerous encounter with an alligator.
“Watching your own child on the ice surface in a country where one game matters above all else is a torturous, rapturous experience,” MacGregor observes in his book. Thanks to Lisa Hillary and Comcast, this week in Washington we’ll get to share in the rapture: a healthy dose of big-leaguers expressing big-time gratitude to their dads.
“Fathers, Mentors and Friends,” on Comcast Sportsnet’s ‘Sportsnite’: March 12, 6:00 p.m. — Part I; March 14, 6:00 p.m. — Part II; March 18, 6:00 p.m. — Part III
4 Comments
Hope they do the same for the mothers because there are just as many moms taking the kids to the rinks, putting on their gear, tying the laces, signing them up for powerskating, taking them to off ice training.
Homages to the entire family unit are not uncommon in hockey’s literature — at least one such is displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame — as the sacrifices made by them in surrounding a child’s devotion to hockey are often enormous, but fathers and sons within that pursuit do indeed enjoy a distinctive bond.
Makes me sick. I wish my father had been more supportive of my youth hockey career. I could be wearing a caps uniform and making some big money. Oh well. Just kidding.
FYI, the Wild had a Mom’s trip this season following the Dad’s trip last year.
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