Waterloo Wolves are Leafs for a day at the ACC
WATERLOO — Andrew Yang acknowledges that he’ll likely never play in the National Hockey League.
But last Thursday at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, he and his Waterloo Wolves bantam white Minor Development team came about as close as possible to that reality.
“It’s still kind of surreal,” said Yang, 14. “As a team, at our level, we’re not making it to the NHL. That potential is already gone. So this is the closest we’ll get to being an NHL player. I have that realization now that people do this as their job. I knew it, but ... I have a better sense of what it’s like to be an NHL player.”
The Wolves joined the Clarington Flames girls bantam team at the ACC for a full day as, in essence, members of Toronto Maple Leafs. The teams earned their special “Be The Leafs” day by winning the Storm The Centre contest presented by Under Armour and the Leafs. The contest, also held by the NHL teams in Montreal and Edmonton, attracted more than 120 Ontario bantam entries for the Toronto edition. It required teams to participate in a variety of online challenges to showcase their skill, sense of fun and determination to skate on ACC ice.
The Wolves got there by, among other features, shooting a ‘stick cam’ video during a practice, conducting team player interviews and showcasing their family and fan support. The results for both teams can be viewed at stormthecentre.ca under the Toronto Maple Leafs logo.
The reward was a full day that had the players suit up at personalized dressing room stalls. Also included were an on-ice training session with former Leafs’ goalie Curtis Joseph.
There was a sports nutrition tips talk, social media dos and don’t session, an information chat on team and franchise-building with Toronto’s assistant GM Kyle Dubas and another with former Leafs’ forward Darcy Tucker.
The day culminated in a splitsquad game between the combined teams for the Armour Cup, complete with an NHL-style laser light show and video board player introductions that capped what Yang described as a “slow motion” walk down the tunnel, soaking it all in, to the ice.
“That was a weird feeling,” Yang said with a smile. “You didn’t want to fall down when you were introduced. You didn’t want to be ‘that kid.’ ”
Everybody managed to stay on their skates, which figuratively speaking never touched the ice, so energized were the players.
“Everybody was skating at 110 per cent during the drills,” said Wolves’ coach Brad Heard, who got caught up in the excitement himself.
“You pinch yourself,” he said. “I was coaching behind the Leafs’ bench, so I’m thinking this is where (Toronto coach Mike) Babcock stands, where Pat Quinn stood. You come out of that hallway to the ice and you’re passing by photos of all these legends like (George) Armstrong, (Frank) Mahovlich, (Punch) Imlach . ... I went out and stood on the Maple Leaf at centre ice.”
Heard coached the ‘white’ team in the game, won by Yang’s ‘blue’ team, 6-2.
The game was tighter than the score indicated, tied 2-2 after two periods before the blues scored the winner and then added three empty net goals.
“That was great, to beat my coach,” Yang said with a laugh. “The girls on our team taught us the play that won the game, between periods. The social dynamic was good; we had to help each other.”
But the game wasn’t the point of the exercise. The overall experience was. And it’s given the Wolves, already a good team with a 19-3 overall won-lost record, including two tournament wins, a boost with which to finish the season.
The team returned to Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario league play with wins at Sarnia and London over the weekend.
“Not many people of those who fill that building to 20,000 fans get to do what we just did,” Heard said.