Home for the Holidays
The Medicine Hat Tigers have gone home for the holidays.
While some players like Redcliff’s Dylan MacPherson or Calgary’s Mark Rassell don’t have to travel far to be with their families for the Holiday Season, others will tack on thousands of kilometres to reunite with loved ones this Christmas.
“I’m pretty excited to see my family,” said Tigers defenceman Kristians Rubins, who travelled home to Latvia for the 10-day break. “It’s been a long time, a couple months, so I’m pretty excited.”
Rubins competed with his home country of Latvia at last year’s IIHF World Junior Championship — making the chance to spend this Christmas with his family all the more special. While Latvia won’t be present at this year’s tournament after being relegated last season, Rubins says he plans on setting his alarm early to catch some of the juniors while he’s at home.
“I’m going to try. It’s a nine- hour difference so I’ll have to wake up early and watch some games,” said Rubins. “It was a good experience and it’s still fun to watch too.”
Texan Tabby Max Gerlach is back in the Lone Star State with his family after rebounding from a nasty injury early in the season to enter the Holiday break with 18 points in his past 15 games.
“We’re pretty lucky to get a long break this year,” said Gerlach. “It’ll be pretty nice to get to spend about 10 days at home and then fly back on the 26th. Nothing extravagant planned but I’m going to spend time at home with my family and that will be really nice … It’ll just be my mom, dad and my sister there, and our two dogs. It’ll just be the four of us spending Christmas together.”
Edmonton product David Quenneville will be the only one of his brothers at home for Christmas this season, but considering he’ll get the chance to watch 21-year-old brother John play a handful of games with the New Jersey Devils alongside his parents, it’s sure to be a memorable break all the same.
“Him being there is real special,” said Quenneville, adding he’s looking forward to spending time with the rest of his family. “We have a ton of family and friends that I get to spend time with and my sister is there and we’re really close. Our young cousin will be there too and I think she just turned five. We still have a lot of fun, but obviously it’s not the same without Pete and John.”
The Tigers (18-14-2-0) return from the 10-day break on Dec. 27 to host the Lethbridge Hurricanes (15-162-0) at the Canalta Centre in one of six straight upcoming games against Central Division opponents. After going 5-8-2-0 over their past 15-games entering the Holiday break, Quenneville says the next six games will be crucial in adding some padding to their sixpoint lead on the top of the Central standings.
“We’ve got to be sharp and we’ve got to be ready to go,” said Quenneville.