The Detroit Red Wings will have some special company with them on this leg of their road trip. The team will be bringing their fathers along to Chicago and Dallas.
“It’s a great opportunity for my dad and all the other dads to be able to experience what our day to day lives are like,” said head coach Jeff Blashill. “Certainly from a coaching perspective, you get real busy and you don’t get a chance to spend as much time as you’d want during the year, so it’s a great time to spend time with them.”
Blashill’s father Jim is on the trip. According to Henrik Zetterberg, Jim might have some pointers for his son.
“I don’t think Blash is going to have it easy this trip,” the Red Wings captain remarked jokingly.
Among the first time attendees will be Anthony Mantha’s father Daniel, and Andreas Athanasiou’s father Stan.
“He’s pretty excited, for sure,” Mantha said. “He’s been preparing. He’s just anxious to see how we’re flying out. Secondly, how it is around the rink. How we prepare for games.”
Last year, the Red Wings broke the annual fathers tradition and brought their mothers along for the trip instead. But now that it’s the dads’ turn again, Zetterberg said that things won’t be as quiet this time around.
“Now all the dads are back,” he said. “It was a lot quieter last year than it has been before.”
