09/05/2024
Johnny Gaudreau in 2016: “It was a regular Wednesday afternoon and my dad had called my mom at work. There was a lot of concern in his voice.
‘I just don’t think he has it. He’s not going make it as a hockey player. I don’t think he has it in him.’
My mom was silent on the other end of the line for a beat before responding.
‘Guy, he’s only three years old. Give it some time.’
I know the saying ‘I was born to become a hockey player’ is a little cliché, but I don’t know how else to put it. My dad owns a hockey rink and he was sharpening my first pair of skates while I was still in the womb.
He tried to wait out my infancy, but it must have been frustrating for him. When I turned two, he started trying to teach me how to skate. It didn’t go so well, given that I was still getting a handle on walking. So there’d I’d be in the middle of the ice, floundering around, while I imagine my dad was off to the side, shaking his head.
I guess he decided the reason I wasn’t doing double axels was because I needed motivation, so as a new teaching strategy he began throwing Skittles on the ice and getting me to chase after them. Out of necessity, I’d crawl towards each individual Skittle, desperately reaching. After a while, I guess my desire for sugar coaxed me to get up and start skating a few strides between them. In general,it’s not recommended you throw debris on the ice, but I guess there are some perks to owning your own rink....
As a kid I had the ice available to me whenever I wanted. During my formative years, I probably spent more time in skates than I did shoes. I had 10 or 15 close buddies, and we’d spend every possible hour we could playing shinny.I learned how to play the game during those hours upon hours when I was laughing and goofing around on the ice. When you’re among friends, you don’t worry about screwing up when you’re trying out moves. But I think once you get those reps in and aren’t self-conscious about screwing up, the difficult parts of the game become second nature. The flow of things seems natural. And you get to figure out on your own what you love about hockey.
For me, it was scoring goals. Always has been.”
Read his story here: playerstribu.ne/JGaudreau
📸: Getty Images
