Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, starters for the Tucson Roadrunners and Abbotsford Canucks lined up on their respective blue lines inside Tucson Arena. Sitting in the stands, Roadrunners fan Henrik Fenerty, 4, gave his dad, Brendan, a worried look.
“I’m not the singer of the family. My wife is the singer. There’s no songs except the Canadian national anthem that I know by heart. So I used to sing the Canadian national anthem before bed at night,” Brendan Fenerty said.
“And (Saturday), when they began to sing ‘O Canada,’” he added, “Henrik looked up at me kind of worried, like ‘Oh no, is it time?’”
Last weekend marked the first time in nearly five years the Canadian national anthem has been played before an American Hockey League game in Tucson. The AHL, like the NHL and ECHL, plays “O Canada” before games featuring Canadian teams.
The Roadrunners’ two games against Abbotsford were their first against a Canadian team since January 2017. Abbotsford is in its first season as an AHL affiliate, having moved there from Utica, New York, during the offseason. The club is located about 44 miles from its parent club, the Vancouver Canucks.
Fenerty, a New Brunswick native who’s pursuing a doctorate in geology from the UA, said the anthem was “really appreciated.”
“I haven’t been home in two years, so it was really nice to have that taste of home,” Fenerty said. “I’m sure it meant a lot not only to the other Canadians in the stands, but to the players as probably a bit of nostalgia for them.”
Fenerty’s right about the players. Some of the Canadian-born skaters on Tucson’s roster found themselves caught off guard when they heard the familiar tune start up.
Eleven current Roadrunners were born in Canada. So were associate head coach Steve Potvin, assistant coach John Slaney and director of hockey operations and video Jake Wagman.
When the teams lined up over the weekend, “I completely forgot (Abbotsford was) a Canadian team and organization,” said Tucson forward Mike Carcone, a native of Ajax in Southern Ontario. “So it was it was nice to be a part of that and hear our anthem.”
Multiple times this season, Tucson coach Jay Varady has noted his appreciation for the global dynamic present in his team’s locker room. Tucson’s 25-man roster hails from nine different countries; in addition to the 11 Canadians, the club has one player each from Switzerland, Sweden, Belarus, England and Finland, two from Russia and Czech Republic and five from the United States.
Yet it’s been a while for some of those involved with the Roadrunners to stand at attention for the Canadian anthem.
Roadrunners' Michael Carcone, a Canadian native, was caught off guard — and pleasantly surprised — when "O Canada" was played last weekend.
Roadrunners forward Hudson Elynuik, originally from Calgary, Alberta, played with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies most of the past three seasons. Home or road, he heard a rendition of it every night with Toronto.
So it was noticeable when he came to Tucson this season and the Roadrunners didn’t have any Canadian teams on their schedule until last weekend.
“I heard it all the time the last few years. But yeah, we’re pretty far south here, so it’s nice to hear,” he said.
Forward Bokondji Imama, a native of Montreal, said it’s been five or six years — “I think it was going back to juniors,” he said — since he’s heard his home country’s anthem before a game.
That’s saying something. Imama has played in 165 AHL games, the majority of those with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, one of the Roadrunners’ chief Pacific Division rivals. In none of those did either Ontario or Tucson face a team from Canada, home or road.
Hearing “O Canada” “means something,” he said. “The home country will always be the home country. It doesn’t matter where you are going in life, that’s always going to stay the home country.”
The Roadrunners will hear “O Canada” twice more this season. Tucson makes a return visit to Abbotsford on Dec. 22-23.
