In this photo: TSN broadcasters James Duthie (left)) and Bob McKenzie stand behind Lee-Gaye and Mike Hicketts, mother and father to Joe Hicketts, who is playing for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Montreal.
Mike and Lee-Gaye Hicketts are drinking it all in, with their son, Joe, representing Canada on the blue line at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Montreal.
“It’s a completely surreal moment,” Mike said.
“Just the excitement in the city and the further we go, the more exciting it’s going to get. It’s an extremely proud moment.”
The Hickettses were touring Old Montreal with the families of other Team Canada players and staff members when they spoke to KTW on Tuesday, Dec. 30.
It was freezing outside — “It’s probably frigging minus-40 . . . well, not quite that cold, but it’s cold,” Lee-Gaye said with a laugh.
Temperatures are set to rise tomorrow (Dec. 31) for mom and dad, who will watch from the stands in the Bell Centre when Canada squares off against the U.S. in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup.
Their younger son, 16-year-old Matt, will also feel the heat tomorrow, refereeing at the Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament.
Joe, 18, is no stranger to playing for Canada and his parents are familiar with watching him don the Maple Leaf, but this experience is a little different, a little more special.
“I’m just happy to be here and enjoy all this and I’m so proud of my son for being named to the team,” Lee-Gaye said.
“Having this experience is pretty surreal. The first game sitting in the stands, it was like, ‘Are we really here?’”
Both parents were asked about dealing with the nerves that come with watching their son play on one of hockey’s biggest stages, the hopes of a nation riding on Team Canada’s shoulders.
Each of them said they are handling it just fine.
“We’ve been through it before,” Mike said. “I don’t know if you’d say it’s a helpless feeling. You have all the confidence in all the boys that they’re going to do it.
“[Joe] came over expecting to be in that five, six, seventh defenceman role and he’s happy to do whatever he can to help.”
Canada is 3-0 heading into tomorrow’s tilt against the Americans. Joe has one point, an assist in Canada’s 8-0 shelling of Slovakia on Boxing Day.
Mike, Joe and Lee-Gaye Hicketts.
Up until Tuesday, the only goal the Canadians had allowed came when Joe’s defence partner, Samuel Morin, fanned on a clearing attempt and Artturi Lehkonen of Finland made him pay.
The rearguard from Kamloops did all he could to cover for his partner’s mistake, but he couldn’t get back in time to prevent the goal.
Mike and Lee-Gaye are staying within walking distance of the Bell Centre and are able to spend time with Joe each day.
“He’s having the time of his life,” Lee-Gaye said. “It’s great. The support that we’re getting . . . the Bell Centre is just going crazy.
“It’s an exciting time for them and for us.”
Lee-Gaye went to Montreal with several goals.
Two of them — sit at the TSN desk with James Duthie and Bob McKenzie and visit Old Montreal — have already been accomplished.
The third — coming home with gold — will be up to the players.
“It’s going pretty good so far,” Mike said.
“At the end of the day, we’re going on to the quarter-final and, then, hopefully, on to the semis and gold.”
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