National Post (National Edition)
Rink rat Carrick returns to his roots
CHICAG O • Connor Carrick knows the inside of the United Center better than any Maple Leaf.
His Mom and Dad, Jory and Deb, run a food and concessions company that services many of Chicago’s sports venues and concert halls and so Connor and friends were frequently around the arena, which opened around the time he was born in 1994 in the southwest suburb of Orland Park.
“It was a business started by my grandfather on my mother’s side,” Carrick said. “They’ve been selling beer, T-shirts, that kind of thing, for 20-30-40 years. They also do some business at Soldier Field (home of the football Bears). It was great because you could walk around the United Center concourse and talk to everyone you knew.”
But only once has Carrick been on the other side of the glass to play an NHL game, in his brief tenure with the Washington Capitals before last year’s trade with the Leafs rescued the hustling defenceman from the Caps farm team in Hershey. On Saturday, Carrick will be back home and feeling much more confident about his career prospects as a member of Toronto’s starting six.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Carrick predicted as the Leafs headed here to wrap up a three-game road trip. “I’ve talked to my family about making dinner plans and stuff. They’re funny though, they want me to be with the (rest of the Leafs). I’m trying to find a way to spend the day with them and they want me to be with the team.
“But it will fun to be back there and be recognized. At that first game I played, I probably recognized 40 to 50 people behind the glass in warm-up.
“I don’t know how many it will be this time.
‘It’s going to be a special night for my family to walk around and say ‘hey, my son’s out there.’ ”
Connor was with the Caps during their Father’s Day trip, where each player had to give a little speech about their old man during a team dinner. Carrick told of long drives to play in minor league tournaments in Detroit and Toronto. Jory would do some mental arithmetic to pass the time, figuring the cost of hotels, tourney entrance fees, food and gas, then divide it all against Connor’s playing minutes.
“I don’t know if I’m worth more now or I was then,” Connor joked to the Washington Post.
But Carrick isn’t in Mike Babcock’s lineup for sentimental reasons. Almost from the moment he arrived, the 5-foot-11 offensive defenceman has stood out. When the Leafs missed the playoffs again, he went down to the Toronto Marlies and led the AHL in playoff points with 18, upstaging William Nylander, who was supposed to be the team’s offensive catalyst. Teams such as the Albany Devils detested playing against him.
This year, Carrick has a goal in four Leaf games and the team’s best Corsi rating at 56.8 per cent heading into the weekend. But he can’t afford to rest on his achievements, this year and last. He was as miffed as anyone that the Leafs took third-period leads into Winnipeg and Minnesota and lost earlier this week. Their overall record is 1-1-2, despite Auston Matthews leading the NHL with five goals.
“When you have a 4-0 lead (as the Leafs did over the Jets), you just have to manage the game better. You have to understand that certain areas of the ice at certain times, you have to control. You can’t let good players feel good about themselves (Patrik Laine of the Jets for example). That’s what it came down to.
“You want to close the opportunities you get in this league, make sure you finish, stomp on the other team’s will so to speak. It’s hard to get the full two points in this league and you just don’t want it to slip away. We want to reverse that trend.”
In front of his own crowd, Carrick will be keen not to disappoint on Saturday.