NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers Tomas Mrsic, Brayden Boehm and Kurtis Smythe pose with teddy bears from the Tigers Teddy Bear Toss game on Dec. 3 at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Holidays have arrived, which means a bit of a break for even the busiest of hockey players and staff.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have a total of nine days between games, giving them a chance to head home and see family and friends they have not seen since training camp got underway in early September.
For head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins, who focuses his time and energy almost solely on making the Tigers the best they can be, there is the chance to attend to a chores list that piles up throughout the season and spend time with his entire family who will be together for the first time in a long time.
“We haven’t been together for a while, so that part is going to be great and it’s just lots of family time that we just don’t get all the time,” Desjardins said. “It’ll be really good and we’re looking forward to just enjoying the evenings to be able to sit and watch hockey and talk hockey at times and also watch movies and stuff like that.”
Desjardins works with his youngest son Jayce, the Tigers video co-ordinator, every day and will get to spend time with his other son Brayden, the head coach of the South Alberta Hockey Academy men’s team. Brayden says Christmas time brings an opportunity not only for the family to get together but to do so without hockey being the main focus.
“We’ll likely go to the farm and hang out at my mom’s parents’ and it’s nice for me, my dad and my brother just to sit around and maybe turn off hockey for a little while,” Desjardins said. “Just get a chance to see my brother, my grandparents and my sister who is home. So it’ll be really exciting for us to maybe just not be that hockey family for a little bit.”
He says he also enjoys seeing how excited his SAHA team gets as they figure out their Holiday plans with family.
“People forget how much these kids sacrifice to be here and the stuff they give up to be away for their family,” Desjardins said. “To be gone between the ages of 15-17 is incredibly challenging, so finally for them to get home and see family will be huge for us, so I’m sure it’ll be a big boost.”
SAHA forward and Tigers prospect Gavin McKenna went home to Whitehorse, Yukon for the first time since September and was already looking forward to getting outside with his family.
“We’ll probably be outside heading into the mountains, do a little bit of sledding and making campfires,” McKenna said.
Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer will be heading home to celebrate Christmas in his hometown of Brainerd, Minn. for the first time in a couple of years due to COVID-19. He’s looking forward to seeing family and sitting down for one of his father’s famous prime rib dinners.
The Christmas dinner is something Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow always enjoys but his favourite part of the Holidays, like many hockey players, is heading to the out door rinks. The net minder ditches the pads and straps up to face his brother one-on-one.
“I go for it and try to teach him things out there,” Langkow said. “Right now at least I’m still better than him as a player; he’s only 12, so I have to show him what I could do for as long as I can.”
