COMPLETED. A university student. A professional hockey player. They've proved they can be friends. Can they be more?
Although they're both in their early twenties and living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, their lives couldn't be more different. Cami...
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Nothing could have prepared me for watching Taylor Hudson play his first NHL game on live TV. You think I would have had at least a bit of preparation under my belt, considering that I saw him play a preseason game and had seen the guy in numerous settings at this point—which still freaked me out a little bit—like at the mall and the movie theatre.
None of that mattered. Watching him the night before was as surreal an experience I have ever had.
It was like my dad had changed the channel to SportsCast to watch the game but The Taylor Hudson Show was playing instead.
The reason why I found it so bizarre is because everyone knows that hockey is a team sport. Sure, there are star players on each team, but there is an understanding in the league that in order to win, the focus needed to be on the team and not on an individual. It was quite the contrast to a sport like basketball, where the Steph Currys and the Lebron James's all had multiple championships. In fact, in hockey, it wasn't uncommon for the best players in the league to be on non-playoff teams.
All that was to say that it's uncharacteristic for a hockey broadcast to focus on one individual over the team.
Except if, maybe, that individual was the first draft pick playing in his first NHL game.
And if said game was in front of the home crowd.
And if said individual was Taylor Hudson.
I almost felt bad for the guy with all the attention he was getting. The cameras didn't seem to stop following Taylor all night. In the warmup as he skated around the goalie's net. On his first shift at centre ice. As the last thing on screen before the broadcast cut to timeout. Even when he wasn't on the ice, the camera would pan to him at every whistle. Each time they did that, I prayed he wasn't shoving his finger inside his nose to pick a winner. Luckily—for him and every single viewer—he didn't do any of that. Sometimes his head was tilted in the direction of the player sitting next to him on the bench, listening to what the more experienced guy had to say. Or he was just staring at the ice with a steely gaze.
And if the camera attention wasn't bad enough, you should have heard the broadcasters. They had clearly done their research on him, talking about where he was from, some notable stats, and what the fans could expect from him. It was such an unconventional way to learn information about someone that you've already met.
Like, for example, how Taylor's parents look. Halfway through the second period, the camera panned to a trio of adults who looked to be sitting in the Gold section of the Modar Centre. A caption flashed on screen, which read Taylor's Family. It was sort of unnecessary, however, because the woman was practically an older, female version of Taylor. Straight black hair in a long bob. Minimal makeup on an olive complexion. She was beautiful. The two men, though, one of either side of her, I wasn't so sure about. Maybe one was his dad, but it was hard to tell. Both were tall and shared common features with Taylor.
