Making it to WJHC a real road trip

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/12/2010 (5719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Cody Eakin is a star with the Swift Current Broncos. In October, the redhead from Winnipeg came within a whisker of sticking with Alex Ovechkin and the NHL’s Washington Capitals. And these days, Eakin is living the dream with Team Canada’s juniors.

It’s all good. But for every young Canadian on the ice there’s a story, a journey, that has been years in the making. Sure, they’re just teenagers, but not one of them has arrived in Buffalo without sacrifice.

And just getting here, to the pinnacle of their dawning careers, must feel like reaching the summit below the peak of Everest.

“You talk about how nice it is and how well you’re treated, but what you leave out when you’re talking to people back home is how hard it is,” Eakin said the other day. “It’s all business. The pressure is there. The opponents are there. You put a lot of pressure on yourself and you want to be ready.

“Just the expectation of Canada’s hockey team… you don’t want to disappoint. It’s hard.”

It’s not discussed much because the WJHC is in many ways a celebration. It’s Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s the Russians and Swedes. It’s a hoser’s heaven.

But it rarely comes without first tasting disappointment and heartache, without leaving home as a 15- or 16-year-old kid, without having your parents saying “Goodbye, take care” and hope for the best.

“It’s very tough for the family,” said Eakin’s father, Grant, who himself left St. James to play three seasons with the WHL’s Lethbridge Broncos back in the day. “That was my life, taking him and his sisters to practices and games.”

But Cody couldn’t wait to leave the nest, to follow his dream. Maybe hoping to someday be drafted by the NHL, like his father (128th overall by the Cleveland Barons in 1977) and his uncle Bruce (204th by the Calgary Flames in 1981).

In fact, Bruce Eakin, a pretty-boy playmaker who once amassed 125 assists for the Saskatoon Blades, was a member of the gold-medal winning Team Canada juniors in 1982.

Turns out, Cody Eakin is Darwinism at work. Uncle Bruce had all the flash. Father Grant — who went on to a rather notorious career with the Winnipeg Police Service in the 1990s — was also not to be trifled with in junior: 40 goals and 179 penalty minutes as an 18-year-old.

Indeed, to this day, the father playfully admonishes his son, who scored 47 goals last year, for referring to him in interviews as a “grinder.” Cracked Grant: “According to my son, I was a gritty player who didn’t have too much talent.”

Uncle Bruce had all the touch, not to mention the world junior championship ring from ’82, before going on to play a handful of games in the NHL and a bunch in Europe.

“I’m not as tough as my dad,” Cody said, when asked if he might be the sum of his uncle and father’s parts. “But I think I definitely got the best of both worlds. A little bit of skill and tenacity and hard work.”

Which brings us back to the journey. Making the Broncos. Getting drafted by Washington (third round, 85th overall) last June. Getting cut by Team Canada last December. Getting sent back to junior by the Caps this October. Finally donning the Maple Leaf in Buffalo.

All the while, riding the buses. Practising, practising. Hockey and school. All the drama any teenager lives through. The pressure, the scouts. Everybody watching, always wanting more.

“You get off the bus from Edmonton at four in the morning, go to school at 7 (a.m.) and that night you play,” Grant said. “Kids can get worn down. Weaker. So there’s a lot of room for failure or drop-off. There’s a lot of things they have to overcome that people don’t see. It’s an incredibly hard road.”

Perhaps that’s why the world juniors, for many of these players, may end up as their most cherished hockey moment, short of hoisting a Stanley Cup. And not because the entire country is watching, but their family, too. Buffalo is crawling with Eakins.

Grant and wife Myrna and the siblings. Bruce is up from Florida with his kids. About a dozen friends have travelled from Winnipeg.

“Twenty years down the road, looking back,” the father said. “I think if he had the choice of playing limited in the NHL or playing in this… he’d say it’s unbelievable to play in the world juniors.”

Not just for the players, either.

“You come to the rink in Buffalo and there’s 18,000 passionate people from Canada,” Grant said. “It’s overwhelming. I teared up about 10 times in a minutes just watching the people chanting and cheering. And how proud they are of these boys even though they don’t know them. It’s very heartwarming as a parent.”

Yes, they’re everyone’s boys now.

But only a few among the sea of red know of the roads travelled.

Sure, it might be ecstasy now. But easy? Not even close.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca