This is Trevor Linden's final season in the NHL, even if he won't say so, which makes this week's fathers-sons road trip a poignant one for the proud man who raised himIain MacIntyre
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, February 21, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The lump in his throat is gone, but Lane Linden admits it was there the other day, and that tells you something about this trip.
Lane Linden, father of Trevor, is a no-nonsense kind of man from a no-nonsense kind of place. You get the sense the only manure he has ever spread was on the farm in Medicine Hat in southeastern Alberta, which he and Edna and their boys looked after while also operating the family trucking business started by Lane's father, Nick Vanderlinden, who emigrated from Holland in 1929 because the Canadian Prairies abounded in opportunity for those willing to work hard.
And, my goodness, how the Lindens could work. Lane has spent his life at it, raising crops, raising the business, raising the kids.
He continued to work so hard at it after the boys were grown that he says now he wishes Trevor could start his National Hockey League career over so Lane could pay more attention to it this time.
But time offers no mulligans. Trevor Linden, the 37-year-old Vancouver Canuck, can't start over. Maybe he wouldn't want to. Too many people met, too many experiences, too many games to blithely erase everything and start over.
No, this season is it for Trevor, even if he won't say so. Which is why his dad was moved close to tears the other day as he thought about his son and this opportunity, arriving just in time, to travel with him and finally share this part of Trevor's life before it vanishes.
"I got a little choked up," Lane Linden says. "It puts a lump in your throat because I know how hard Trev worked for this all these years, what this has meant to him. And it's probably the last time around for him.
"Sitting around the table [at dinner], looking at all these young players -- peach-fuzz on their cheeks and they shave once a week whether they need it or not -- it seemed it was just yesterday that it was Trev who was there. I just wish we could do it all over again so I could pay more attention this time. It has just spun by so quickly."
For the first time, the Canuck organization has invited fathers of players on to the road to glimpse the NHL life -- charter planes and morning skates, nice hotels and big dinners. But the rarest perk is the chance for fathers and sons to reconnect and relive, for two games at least, their shared hockey experience.
The Canucks won 3-2 in overtime Tuesday in Minnesota and play tonight against the Nashville Predators.
Most of the dads, of course, have already devoted a good chunk of their lives to watching their sons play hockey, stood in freezing rinks with bad coffee and bad team jackets.
"Here we all are at practice again, watching our kids," Willie Mitchell's dad, Reid, said Tuesday morning, when the Canucks' optional skate was suspiciously well-attended by players.
"I feel very fortunate to be here," Lane Linden, 65, says. "I don't know about the rest of the fathers, but for me ... it should be my wife who's here. She was the gal who made sure the kids were at the rink and had the equipment and all the rest of it. She's the one who really made it all happen. She made the opportunities available and she covered for me when I was busy trying to earn the money it takes to have three kids in rep hockey."
Some teams believe the moms should be there, and have organized mother-and-son road trips.
"My mom was the athletic one and the real sports-minded person," Trevor says. "She was a real good fastball player. Our coach quit our baseball team one year and she coached our te
am."I do have a great appreciation for both my parents, how hard they worked in the '70s during tough times. We didn't have a lot, but we never needed anything more, either. My mom bought my first pair of skates from a second-hand store, and it was the best present I ever got. My equipment was from garage sales; I didn't care. I appreciate the sacrifices they made."
Lane doesn't need to be much prodded to tell stories about Trevor.
Like how the family work ethic was instilled by Nick, who would collect his grandson at age seven or eight and the two would spend an entire day on the granddad's little garden tractor, tilling earth at a neighbour's house.
"Trev would love every minute of it," Lane says. "My dad, that's all he knew, was work. Our kids were blessed with that ability. They were never bored, not once. They always found something to do."
And Lane will tell you how Trevor applied that ethic to hockey.
"I remember one Christmas, colder than hell, and Trev wanted to go to the [outdoor] rink," he says. "I didn't want him to, but he wanted to go in the worst way. So I took him over there and put his skates on him. It was so cold, I went and sat in the pickup for a bit. And I thought: God, that kid must be freezing to death. So I walk out and look over the boards, and here he is, probably five years old, going around the rink shooting the puck against the boards and picking it up again. There wasn't another soul around."
Lane tells other kinds of stories, too. Like how Trevor, well known for visiting and befriending sick kids, maintains relationships with families who have lost the children that brought him to them. How Trevor has attended funerals for the children, has spoken on their behalf, grieved with the families.
"You try to do the right thing," Trevor Linden says when asked to explain himself. "I think our parents are proud of all three of us for trying to live our lives with integrity."
Lane speaks so plainly about Trevor that his son, only half-jokingly, says he instructed Canuck media relations staff T.C. Carling and Ben Brown to chaperone his dad and make sure he doesn't say the wrong thing to the wrong person. And, for godsakes, keep Lane away from Canuck coach Alain Vigneault, who has made Trevor a healthy scratch 15 times this season.
"You know, last year, my mom mentioned to me: 'Would it be possible for Dad to come on one of your road trips?' " Linden says. "I said, 'It wouldn't feel right, flying on the charter and everything.' But I knew it was something he wanted to do. So when this opportunity came up ... I don't get home as much as I should and we probably don't see each other as much as we should. So this has been fun."
"I just wanted to know something about it," Lane says. "It's just something I wanted to experience. My wife and I know this super ride is coming to an end for Trev. We've looked at each other like, 'What are we going to do when we don't have him to watch anymore?' I have no idea what the next chapter will be. And I'm not sure he does. But whatever he does, he'll do it with passion and flair and class and integrity.
"You ask me what I'm most proud of about Trevor? I'm proud of everything. I'm proud of how he has conducted himself as a player, and I'm proud of him as a person. I'm proud of all of it."
Lane doesn't need to be much prodded to tell stories about Trevor.
Like how the family work ethic was instilled by Nick, who would collect his grandson at age seven or eight and the two would spend an entire day on the granddad's little garden tractor, tilling earth at a neighbour's house.
"Trev would love every minute of it," Lane says. "My dad, that's all he knew, was work. Our kids were blessed with that ability. They were never bored, not once. They always found something to do."
And Lane will tell you how Trevor applied that ethic to hockey.
"I remember one Christmas, colder than hell, and Trev wanted to go to the [outdoor] rink," he says. "I didn't want him to, but he wanted to go in the worst way. So I took him over there and put his skates on him. It was so cold, I went and sat in the pickup for a bit. And I thought: God, that kid must be freezing to death. So I walk out and look over the boards, and here he is, probably five years old, going around the rink shooting the puck against the boards and picking it up again. There wasn't another soul around."
Lane tells other kinds of stories, too. Like how Trevor, well known for visiting and befriending sick kids, maintains relationships with families who have lost the children that brought him to them. How Trevor has attended funerals for the children, has spoken on their behalf, grieved with the families.
"You try to do the right thing," Trevor Linden says when asked to explain himself. "I think our parents are proud of all three of us for trying to live our lives with integrity."
Lane speaks so plainly about Trevor that his son, only half-jokingly, says he instructed Canuck media relations staff T.C. Carling and Ben Brown to chaperone his dad and make sure he doesn't say the wrong thing to the wrong person. And, for godsakes, keep Lane away from Canuck coach Alain Vigneault, who has made Trevor a healthy scratch 15 times this season.
"You know, last year, my mom mentioned to me: 'Would it be possible for Dad to come on one of your road trips?' " Linden says. "I said, 'It wouldn't feel right, flying on the charter and everything.' But I knew it was something he wanted to do. So when this opportunity came up ... I don't get home as much as I should and we probably don't see each other as much as we should. So this has been fun."
"I just wanted to know something about it," Lane says. "It's just something I wanted to experience. My wife and I know this super ride is coming to an end for Trev. We've looked at each other like, 'What are we going to do when we don't have him to watch anymore?' I have no idea what the next chapter will be. And I'm not sure he does. But whatever he does, he'll do it with passion and flair and class and integrity.
"You ask me what I'm most proud of about Trevor? I'm proud of everything. I'm proud of how he has conducted himself as a player, and I'm proud of him as a person. I'm proud of all of it."
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