Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

Darcy talks about his role on the team, and the mental and physical preparation needed to be ready to drop the gloves at a moment’s notice.

Braden’s just about 3 weeks old now and it’s amazing how quickly he’s growing everyday. Watching him get bigger everyday is one of the best parts of being able to come home every night. When we went on that last road trip, he was 6lbs, 5oz, and now he’s 7lbs, 10oz so it’s nice to see him fill out and become a (little) man.

Lisa’s mom has been in town the last couple of weeks and I think we got through the tough part. The first couple weeks are the hardest bring your child home from the hospital but my wife’s done just a tremendous job. In the first while, you have to breast-feed every three hours so there’s no sleeping through the night.

He’s sleeping three-four hours now, which is great so both Lisa and I get some sleep but there’s been an adjustment. It seems like Braden’s in more of a routine and he’s certainly enjoying his baths just before he goes to bed, so that helps.

As Braden figures out his schedule, we try to help each other out and figure things out but we’ve also got two dogs so I’ve been put on dog-watch. I’ve been trying to do the fun things with them and trying to keep them happy so they don’t feel excluded.

Frankie, our smaller dog thinks that the baby’s hers so she’s very protective and everywhere we go with the baby, she seems to be laying beside him, so every picture that we have, there’s a picture with Frankie in it.

My mom and some of the other guys’ moms came on the trip with us to LA and Anaheim and now that I’m a parent, it makes me appreciate trips like that so much more. It’s pretty neat having my mom with me on the trip. She’s from a small town and she’s never been down to LA so I think the ladies from the team that organized the trip just did a tremendous job keeping them busy and the moms all got to meet each other, which I know they enjoyed.

They have tons of stories from the trip and I’m sure some that they didn’t tell us but she was talking about how much she loved everything. From coming on the plane and coming to the games to going to the beach, they just enjoyed it so much.

This life’s about memories and those provided a lot of special memories for them. All the moms got lost one day and they were trying to find a cab, which almost made them late for the game – that was pretty funny.

I think I speak for a lot of the players, that our moms are very important in our hockey careers even though you hear more about the hockey dads. With all of the games and practices and a busy schedule there wasn’t enough time in a day, with my sister too, my mom was good enough to be a stay-at-home mom and raise us and take us to practices, make sure we had food and everything in between.

They were both pivotal so it’s nice to get to bring them on trips like that last one and let them see what all that hard work means at this level.

I’m not sure what Braden will turn out like when grows up or if he’ll be more like myself or more like Lisa but I think that I’m like both my parents. I think I get my good looks and interviewing skills from my mom – she likes to talk and she’s good at it. I take some of my dad’s personality, his wheeler and dealer characteristics, and his stubbornness but those aren’t always bad things.

Canuck enforcer Darcy Hordichuk was prominent Thursday when his bare-chested photo with new born son Braden appeared on the front page of The Vancouver Sun. Naturally, this did not pass without some serious ribbing from his teammates.

“Embarrassing,” said Ryan Kesler, who sits next to Hordichuk in the Canuck dressing room. “There should be a fine. For him to actually pose for a picture with his shirt off… You’ve seen his body, He doesn’t have the greatest body. It’s like the ‘before’ picture in the Jenny Craig commercials.”

“It’s embarrassing, for sure,” added Kevin Bieksa. “We said we should have air-brushed parts of him if he’s going to have his shirt off.”