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"Sometimes at night I can hear the ice crack
It sounds like Thunder and it rips through my back
Sometimes in the morning, I still hear the sound
Ice meets metal. Can’t you drive me down to the Big League?"
Tom Cochrane released this song in 1988. It was a huge hit in Canada because it resonated with so many Canadian families. I mean, when you think of it, every hockey parent secretly dreams of their child beating all the odds and making it to the NHL. So much work and luck and determination and opportunity have to combine for it to happen that it seems like an impossibility. This song exemplifies all the pride (and sorrow) of a Canadian parent. This song also had a major impact on Craig and me too.
There are at least three different examples that I can think of that this song was involved in when it came to Zack’s hockey life. You may or may not believe these stories but they are true and they help us to believe in a faith that can only be described as destiny.
The first occasion of this song actually resonating with us was on a trip to Amherst, Nova Scotia, on a Friday night to watch Zack play for the Amherst Ramblers. He was in his second year with the Ramblers and he was having a pretty good year as their captain. It was right before Christmas and we were looking forward to a lengthy holiday season of both our kids being home and spending time with us as soon as this weekend’s games were done. We are driving by the windmill farm right before you exit into Amherst and “Big League” comes on the radio. Craig makes a comment about how much he likes this song and just then, I get a text from Zack that he has been called up to play with the Moncton Wildcats over the holidays because a lot of their players were going to the World Junior Championship. We immediately get excited and start talking about possibilities if he has a good showing. Craig makes a comment about Big League being a lucky song and that to Zack, major junior would be his Big League. Well, he scored in his first game with Moncton, just as I had explained in my previous post. We were so thrilled leaving the rink that night with our two car loads of familly and friends, and on the way home to PEI, guess what song comes on the radio? Yep, it was "Big League".
Fast forward to a year and a half later: Zack has been traded to Gatineau Olympiques. He is now a 20 year old overager. We are hanging out in the kitchen, I was probably cooking something and Craig makes a comment to me about what we were going to do for weekend entertainment after this year as Zack would be finished with his Junior career and his hockey future was anything but certain. Maybe he would play University hockey….maybe he would just be done of hockey….but then, in the middle of this conversation, Big League came on the radio. Craig laughed and said how much of an amazing coincidence it was that this song came on when we were talking about Zack’s hockey career. We thought to ourselves that we were just hypersensitive to it because Craig always pointed it out when it was on the radio. Just then, my phone rings and it’s Zack…he’s very excited and saying that he was just invited to go to Anaheim for their NHL camp! He is explaining that someone was injured and he got to fill in the injury spot. None of us had any idea what that meant…just that he was going to be on the ice with real bona fide NHL hockey players! Craig and his friend Wayd decide that if Zack makes it to main camp (he was just invited to their prospects camp), that they were going to go down and watch.
Of course, he makes it to main camp and Craig and Wayd are off to California! I get a call from Zack two days after Craig has been down there and he’s talking in his excited voice saying that he has good news. He was offered an AHL contract from the Ducks! I didn't have a clue what that meant but he told me that he was talking with Doug Shepard, his agent, and that nothing would be decided yet. I can’t tell anyone because I don’t know anything. We are in a waiting game but still very excited. I call Craig and he says he will explain everything he knows when he gets back the next day but it looks good for Zack to be playing professional hockey! The next day, Craig calls me and I am a little worried because I knew at that time he should be driving from the Halifax airport to PEI. He is bawling his eyes out! I said, “Oh my God, what’s wrong?” He explained that he was sitting on the side of the road beside the Amherst windmills because the rain was so heavy that everyone had to pull over….he then said “Listen to what’s on the radio right now” He turned it up so I could hear it…..it was “Big League”! The first place we thought this song had any significance was also the very place that we realized that our boy was going to play in the Big Leagues!