Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

With a bit of a break here, I’m going to catch up on some writing. There are two questions that I saw were asked quite a bit in my blogs so I’m going to try and answer them.
First, some of you were wondering about our equipment and how we choose what we use and what works or doesn’t. Well, unfortunately, there’s no real concrete answer for that. It’s such a personal preference and everyone is different.

When I first got into the League, I didn’t have any one brand preference but right now I’m head to toe in Bauer, which I switched to in the last couple years.
Reps from different companies are always trying to get players to wear their stuff and so we try it out and see if it fits what we need. There’s really no formula or right or wrong way to do it – it’s just about feel when you use it. They’re always coming out with new equipment so they’ll bring you things that they’ve created or readjusted and get you to try it and see if that’s a fit. It’s a constant process.

For sticks, we have our own patterns like what kind of flex you want, how stiff you want it, what kind of curve you want and sometimes you try different guys’ sticks to try and find something that works. Most guys have their pattern that they’ve used since junior. Everyone has their own preference on the way the stick should be made – it can be pretty much designed however you want but every stick has a different feel.

The difference between my stick this year and last year is maybe the difference between a BMW and a Porsche. In my case, I’ve been trying out equipment all year, trying to find that stick that fits but I actually went to a Burrows pattern in the last three months and see how that works (it’s working for him pretty good). He’s using it in Warrior and I’m using it in Bauer and obviously, it looks like the Warrior is having more success – it couldn’t be the person at all (haha).

I’m going to stick to this pattern, I like this pattern a lot but I’ll probably just make some changes in the summer: try to get a lower line so there’s more blade on the ice but everything else is good.

The second question that has come up frequently is has having a baby changed my approach to fighting in the game. But I don’t think either of those really relate because there are a million people after my job and I have to go out there and do my job to the best of my ability. When I’m on the ice, that’s my office and I have to work and when I’m at home, I’m a dad – they’re completely separate things so I don’t think it’s fair to compare those.

Like I’ve written in a previous blog, I’m not out there to just fight to hurt someone, I have a role to play. If there are certain guys getting run, I have to call them out and let them know, it’s just doing my job and I think that’s why I’ve been in the league as long as I have.

I think what a lot of people don’t understand is it’s tough to get a fight sometimes and in the post-season it’s definitely changed. For example, in the St. Louis series, I fought Wincester last year and had a pretty good fight with him and now I don’t think he’d want to fight again. Jackman, a few years ago, I broke his jaw in a fight so I got a lot of respect from these guys. With Crombeen, I called him out 5-6 times a game and he just didn’t want to fight.

It’s tough and the guys that you can fight aren’t playing, you need two people to fight. A lot of the tough guys don’t play in the playoffs and the nice thing is I can bring the energy and physicality to calm down the guys that usually play tough like Oshie, Crombeen, Wincester, who would give us a little more respect for the team when I’m on the ice because they know I can call them out. But I’d rather be effective bringing energy than starting a fight, if that’s more successful – essentially, it’s just doing what is best for the team.
But while we’re on talking about playoffs, as you know, the playoff beard tradition is strong and in our room, it’s no different. I think most of the guys do the beards and I ‘m doing that this year so the day before our first playoff game, I started growing out my beard. Hopefully it can get as big as Chris Mason’s.

I never let it grow out on a daily basis but when we won the Turner Cup when I was in the IHL, I didn’t realize I could grow a beard like that. It was really big but not quite as big as Chris Mason’s but for me, it was enough to look like a bush man.

There should be no trimming in between, what you see is what you get, you can’t trim it up. Some guys will trim it up but I’m a believer that it’s playoffs and that you should just let it be.