Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

1 on 1 with Darcy Hordichuk and Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun.

Q. Early in September, our paper ran a sports front photo of you and your fluffy little Shih Tzu dogs Franklin and Chandler. As the new tough guy on the Canucks, did that draw some reaction?

A. The reaction was the boys were a little hard on me in the dressing room because they really didn’t know me yet. It was fun. You don’t get to be on the front page of the sports section in Tennessee too many times. In Nashville, it’s a little tougher to get recognized but here everybody knows the game and loves the game. I was happy to share the photo with my dogs.

Q. You have you own website, www.darcyhordichuk.com, which chronicles your exploits in hockey. How did it all come about?

A. It goes back to my Orlando Solar Bear days [2000-01] when the team folded. The lady who was in charge of the Solar Bears website had nothing to do so she got my domain name and ended up starting the website because people were always calling her to see how I was doing. It kind of snowballed from there.

Q. Are you still working with that lady and how much time do you spend on your website during the season?

A. No, I’m not with her anymore. Another company kind of ended up revamping it a little bit. Actually, it’s not a company but somebody who does athletes’ websites. I work on it when I have some down time — we do Q&As and we’ve got a blog going and some of my fights — but it’s been tough lately because I’m still trying to get my furniture to Vancouver.

Q. Your first NHL coach with the Atlanta Thrashers was Curt Fraser, who was originally a Canuck and also wore No. 24. Did Curt ever tell you how tough he was?

A. No, he never talked about himself too much but I heard stories. Everybody I talked to said he was a guy who could hurt you. It’s funny because my first couple of years with him in Atlanta, there wasn’t too much of a system for me. It was just kind of run around and kill guys and do whatever you want. I think that was kind of his style and he saw a little bit of himself in me. Curt’s a great person but I’ve lost touch with him now.

Q. You’re from a Ukrainian background and you love your perogies and cabbage rolls and borscht. Is your wife also of Ukrainian descent?

A. No, she’s got some Swedish in her and some Irish. She’s an American, from Fresno, California. I met her in Phoenix when I was playing for the Coyotes.

Q. Have you managed to convince her of the delights of Ukrainian food? Is she a fan?

A. Oh, yeah. That’s one of the things you have to do if you want to be a Hordichuk. You have to like my Baba’s cooking. [Baba is grandmother in Ukrainian.] It’s tough on my wife because I want her to make the perogies and borscht and she can’t do it quite like Baba. The standards are pretty high.

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