The 7th Player

Last weekend was an incredibly exciting weekend for our family! Austin was picked to play at intermission of the Mooseheads game with some of his hockey teammates from the Sackville Minor Hockey League.

Credit: David Chan

I was over the moon excited! for a few reasons

1. "Um HELLO!!! That's MY boy! -hockey momma proud moment
2. Austin was on cloud 9 and it was just so nice to see him so happy
3. Full circle moment. When G and I were dating forever and a day ago, we would go to Moosehead games all the time. One of my favorite things about going to the games was watching the little timbit hockey players. We were watching them one time and I looked at G all love struck and googly-eyed and said "Can you imagine if one day we had a little Timbit hockey player of our own?" (yup...we were mushy and gushy back then...that probably led to some sort of discussion about how many kids, how far apart, hockey or ballet for the girls....you know...those things you have time to talk about when you are all in love)

So we got tickets and were sitting in the same section as the team. Just before the first period the players were all coming to their seats but Ozzy was no where to be seen. My phone rang and it was G telling me that Ozzy had won the stick draw and was going to be the 7th player of the game! He got to skate our with the team and stand with them for Oh Canada. We still haven't been able to wipe the smile off his face.

The Moosehead players and the team that works behind the scenes at these games were amazing to our little hockey players. All of the players gave the timbits fist bumps when they came off at the end of the first period while the timbits were lined up waiting for their turn on the ice. Bobby Mac of Q104 was great with the kids, joking around with them before and calling the game as they played.

If you know my boy, you know that he wants to be a goalie. He dreams of playing the nets for the Boston Bruins, but he pretty much adores every goalie there is (except Montreal...we did teach the boy to have standards lol).  After being selected to skate out with the Mooseheads, Austin was waiting for the team at the entrance to the ice. Zachary "Zach" Fucale  (the Goalie) came out, looked at Austin and said "Are we ready to do this Austin?" My boy's jaw dropped and he just starred in awe as Fucale got into the zone.

Sorry it took me a week to post but it's been a little busy around our place. Ozzy is still talking about skating with the Mooseheads and tells everyone about it. What a great memory for our little guy!

*Oh the irony- Fucale was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2nd round (36th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.- such a nice kid...