Lloyd's most excellent adventure
Naujaat teacher spends holidays on dream hockey vacation
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
NAUJAAT
The stars aligned for Naujaat teacher and cadet leader Lloyd Francis to enjoy the ultimate hockey trip on his holiday break this year.
Francis is a huge Detroit Red Wings fan and he saw his beloved Wings play four NHL games and one Alumni Game. He also caught a game at the world junior hockey championship in Toronto and an AHL game in Winnipeg.
"I had to see the Red Wings play at Joe Louis Arena because this is the last season the Wings are playing there, and, growing up, I saw Detroit win four Stanley Cups there," he said.
He beat a blizzard out of Naujaat only a day late, and made it to his first game on Dec. 15 in Detroit, where he watched Detroit lose to L.A. 3-1, before hanging on until Saturday, when Detroit beat the Anaheim Ducks 6-4.
Making the game even more special was the fact his dad, Tommy Francis, flew from Nova Scotia to meet his son in the Motor City.
His dad is a faithful Montreal Canadians fan when it comes to the NHL ice wars.
"Dad even wore a Wings hat when he went to the games with me in Detroit, even though it was probably burning him a little bit," said Francis.
His dad's hockey preferences made for some interesting times growing up. Francis actually became a Red Wings fan while being mad at his dad as a kid.
"Detroit just happened to be playing Montreal at the time, so I became a Red Wings fan just to spite my dad," he said.
After proudly waving his Nunavut flag at two NHL games in Detroit and taking his dad to visit the Motown Museum, Lloyd visited family and friends in Cape Breton for a week before heading out on the second leg of his hockey fantasy.
He talked a friend from P.E.I., Caleb Daley, into accompanying him on a road trip and they headed for Ottawa to see Detroit play the Senators on Dec. 29, the very night Ottawa retired the number of long-time Senators star forward Daniel Alfredsson.
The next day it was off to Toronto, where Francis and Daley called in a favour with Ben Canning, one of the Ryerson University students who'd visited Naujaat to work on the community's greenhouse, who let them use his Toronto apartment while he was out of town.
"We let some people working on the greenhouse stay at our apartment in Naujaat, so, what goes around, comes around sometimes, I guess," he said. "That was really nice of Ben to return the favour like that."
The first stop in Toronto was the outdoor Alumni Game, a special treat for Francis, because Niklas Lidstrom, his favourite player while he was growing up, was playing.
"I didn't get to meet him, but he scored the first goal of the game and I was shown cheering on camera, so it was really cool to see that," said Francis.
After the Alumni Game, Lloyd and Daley raced from BMO Field to the Air Canada Centre to see the United States defeat Team Canada 3-1 in a round-robin game of the world junior hockey championship.
The following day, Lloyd had his picture taken with the Stanley Cup just before the first Centennial Classic outdoor game which pitted his Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Although Detroit lost, the Red Wings gave Lloyd a super-exciting 10 minutes of hockey at the end of the third period. And he almost missed it.
"Toronto were up 4-1 at the 10-minute mark of the third period and we talked about leaving a little bit early to beat the crowd," said Lloyd. "We decided to stay a little longer and Detroit kept applying pressure on the Leafs, eventually scoring with 1.1 seconds left on the clock to tie the game before losing in overtime. I was happy, even though Detroit lost, because it was an awesome comeback to see and Detroit did earn a point."
Scheduled to spend a bit of time in Winnipeg on his way back to Naujaat, Lloyd couldn't resist attending an AHL game between the Manitoba Moose and the Toronto Marlies.
Lloyd said his hockey vacation was an incredible experience.
He said although he saw four NHL games and a world junior game, the Alumni Game was the most awesome experience of them all for him.
"The AHL game was fun, and they were all really competitive, but you really can't compare it to the NHL. I had only been to one NHL game before this and I'm so happy everything just seemed to work out to make this possible for me," he said. "Now I'll have to nervously watch the rest of the NHL's regular season because Detroit's streak of making the playoffs for 25 straight years is in serious jeopardy.
"I'm only 27 years old, so I've never seen my Red Wings not make the playoffs in all the years I've been cheering them on."
