Imagine being Martin and Monika Honzek during Saturday’s pre-game introductions at the Saddledome.
With music thumping, a smoke-machine pumping and 19,000-and-some light-up bracelets flashing in unison, they watched their 19-year-old son Sam step onto the ice, the rookie left-winger raising his stick to acknowledge an adoring crowd. As his name was announced, the C of Red roared.
Honzek’s proud parents must have been pinching themselves. They had arrived the previous day from Trencin, Slovakia, where Martin works as a police officer and Monika as a hairdresser and where both had been awake at 4 a.m. to watch his NHL debut earlier this week in Vancouver.
