Hip-hop and rap music have never really been at the top Tucson Roadrunners forward Hudson Fasching’s Spotify playlist.
“I’m more of a country or rock kind of guy,” he said, earnestly.
But after what transpired this past Saturday at Tucson Arena, Fasching might be changing his tune just a bit.
Fasching said there wasn’t much different about his pregame routine this past Saturday, when the Roadrunners took on the San Diego Gulls at Tucson Arena.
Well, except that one thing.
“(Mike Carcone) took over as DJ in the locker room before that game,” Fasching said of his fellow Roadrunners forward living up to his initials as MC. “So (Carcone’s) claiming that was the secret sauce.”
And Carcone’s taste in music?
“It’s was a lot of rap,” Fasching said. “I was like ‘Really? These are the songs you’re putting on?’
“Sure enough, I had a really good night,” Fasching noted. “So now (Carcone’s) saying he has the rights to DJ for the rest of the season.”
Saying Fasching had a “good night” Saturday is an understatement. Fasching had one of the single top offensive night in team history in a 6-4 win over the Gulls.
Fasching’s five points are tied for most ever in a single game by a Roadrunner, and his second-career hat trick also ties him for a club record for most in a career. He managed a plus-five rating, and carted either a goal or assist on each of Tucson’s first five goals.
Fasching scored up close on a tip-in while while using his 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame to screen San Diego’s goaltender. Less than two minutes later, he bodied a Gulls attacker at center ice to steal the puck, skate in to the zone and bury his second goal of the game.
Later in the opening frame, it was Fasching who led a Tucson breakout into San Diego’s zone — strategically pushing the puck toward the net where teammate Cameron Hebig would pick it up and bury it.
Then Fasching wheeled his way around the back of for Tucson’s fourth goal of the night. And Fasching topped it off with his own blast from barely 10 feet out, burying his third goal and fifth point of the game before the second period had even ended.
“My biggest concern in the moment was just winning the hockey game,” Fasching said, referencing how Tucson’s 3-0 lead ended up 3-3 before the Roadrunners pulled away. “I think definitely it settles in a little bit after the fact. You wake and you feel good about yourself, and you’re confident in your abilities moving forward.”
Now in his sixth full professional season, with multiple call-ups to his name, Fasching has always believed he could work his way up to NHL regular status.
Last season pushed that at times, though. Fasching made only appearances all season — five with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and two with the Roadrunners.
The NHL put four-to-six-player “taxi squads” into play for its teams to limit up-and-down travel between the NHL and AHL clubs, and keep contact points to a minimum as the NHL season ramped up mid-pandemic. Other than two games in April, Fasching was part of the Coyotes’ taxi squad for much of the season. He was a healthy scratch for all but those few aforementioned nights.
“It definitely does wear on your mental toughness. As an athlete, you always want to be playing. Sitting on the sidelines all the time is not ideal,” Fasching said this week. “It was a weird experience, but all in all, we made the most if it.
“It helped me to get a good crew up there with the guys that were all there together.”
One of those guys wasn’t so much a teammate as the guy he now reports to again as Tucson’s head coach. Jay Varady, who coached Fasching in both of their first two years in Southern Arizona, spent last season as a Coyotes assistant coach. One of his primary duties: Working with the taxi squad as they practices, often after the main NHL club’s regular skate session.
“He took a strong role in that, so we spent a lot of quality time together,” said Fasching, who’s joked that he and Varady have been following each other up and down for four years now.
“Last year, his mantra was ‘just be ready,’” Varady said. “I thought ‘Fasch’ did a fantastic job at that. If you look at his NHL gams played, he was good. He was good in those games. He did his job. He provided support for the group when it was needed. And that’s what we talked about a lot of the time — just be ready for whatever’s next.”
While Fasching has been a consistent offensive — he ranks third on the Roadrunners’ career goal-scoring list at 39, and likely will finish the season in the top four in all-time club point production — Varady thinks Saturday’s could help Fasching make another great leap. Tucson (3-3-0-0) takes on the Henderson Silver Knights (3-2-1-0) Friday in Las Vegas.
“An example that we’ve have first-hand where you never know when it’s going to be your time — Michael Bunting,” Varady said, mentioning the longtime Roadrunners fan-favorite and scoring leader who broke out last season with the Coyotes in a midseason recall before signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs this offseason. “Michael Bunting just stayed with it. He kept finding a way. … his time came later than others, and here he is, on a one-way contract.
“That’s encouraging, and maybe a timing thing,”
Varady said usually for players like Bunting, sixth-year Roadrunners Dysin Mayo or Fasching, there’s one or two parts of their game that they need to develop to get that next look. Varaday said he’s seeing Fasching grow into more of a leader right now — and that was apparent Saturday.
“I think he felt responsibility. I think that’s why his performance was good on Saturday,” Varady said. “He wanted to make sure the team played the right way, and he did a lot of things himself to make that happen. That’s what leaders do.”
