Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

We’ve got two days between games and seeing as I have a little time, I might as well get some writing done.

Even though we’ve been at home for most of the last month, it seems like we’re on the road quite a bit because our trips so far have been quite lengthy. I don’t mind road trips but being away from my wife and my dogs can be difficult too.

As much as travel can be a toll on the body, getting to hang out with the guys on the road and getting a chance to do things together makes it much easier. I mean, we don’t always all go out together but there’s always a good number of us at one time so it’s fun.

Being with Vancouver is different than, say Nashville, because we’ve got such long road trips, we get more time on the road and a little more time to see the cities (but between games and practices, it really is just a little more time). In Nashville, we’d get to St. Louis or Detroit, we’d get in at around dinner time, eat, and then play the next day.

I think starting out on the road like we did definitely helped with the bond of the guys and we’re a really tight-knit group and it shows on the ice too.

My roommate right now is Mason Raymond and I’d like to spill some secrets about him but he’s really just a good kid. He’s got a lot of energy and he’s an easy guy to get along with so I can’t complain.

Although I’m sure if you ask him about me he’d complain about my snoring. I’ve caught him a couple times trying to wake me up when it happens but when you get your nose broken a couple of times, it’ll happen. If I do catch him trying to wake me up though, I come out swinging – good thing it hasn’t happened too many times (so far).

But sometimes I think he’s walking on eggshells around me and maybe he’s got to step up to me once in a while and say no to me but I think the intimidation factor just overwhelms him – just kidding! We get along great, right Mason?

Thinking about it now, Mason reminds me a little of Alex Radulov, who I played with in Nashville because they’re both really young. When Alex first came over from Russia, he said he had never been to Disneyland so when we were on a trip to LA, I took him there and we spent the whole day there. Our hotel was pretty much right next to it so we did all the rides and saw the characters – he was like a kid in a candy shop. I think he was maybe 19 or 20 at that time. Having grown up in Canada (or for anyone in North America), I think we take for granted moments like that and he really appreciated getting to go there.

Next week will be my first trip back to Nashville and I’m excited to go back there to see some old teammates and friends so it’ll be good. Vancouver’s a great city and believe me, I have zero complaints but I miss some of my friends and my neighbours. We had a nice house with a firepit in the backyard with a bocce ball court so that was nice.

I think our dogs, Chandler and Franklin miss the backyard the most. There’s no backyard where we’re living right now, just the street and a little landing strip of grass on the side walk but luckily there are a lot of good dog parks for them.

My dogs were named after cities that we lived in, so it’s Chandler from when we were in Arizona and Franklin for when we were in Tennessee. I‘m not sure if we’re going to continue the naming tradition for little boy, it might be hard. We’re not too sure about Van or Couver for a name but we’ll see.