At first, Tyson Pollock thought his dad was pulling a fast one on him.
It was last Tuesday (June 14), and Pollock鈥檚 dad Brad, told his 12-year-old son that he had been chosen to skate onto the ice with the Vancouver Canucks for the national anthem prior to Game 7 of the NHL鈥檚 Stanley Cup finals the next day.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 believe him,鈥� Tyson admitted.
But his dad had in fact entered his son in a contest to see which lucky B.C. minor hockey player would receive the honour and Tyson鈥檚 name was drawn.
鈥淚 thought he was kidding, (but) I saw the book and then knew it wasn鈥檛 a joke,鈥� he said.
Tyson opened up the book his dad handed him, and on the first page it said 鈥楨very kid鈥檚 dream.鈥�
And there was not much dreaming going on the night before, as Tyson, with plenty of nerves, tossed and turned before finally falling asleep.
As for the big moment, Tyson said it was a pretty neat experience, standing in the tunnel, waiting to skate onto the ice in front of a full house at Rogers Arena, with millions more watching on TV.
鈥淚t was kind of nerve-wracking when you are in the tunnel, and everybody is yelling down at you, 鈥楪o Canucks Go鈥� and all that noise,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was fun.鈥�
He was decked out in his 91原创 Minor Hockey Association uniform. This past year, he was a right-winger on the peewee C team.
When he hit the ice with the players, Tyson said he was concentrating pretty hard on making sure he didn鈥檛 trip or accidentally bump into any of the players.
All he kept thinking was just how much fun this was and how many people were watching.
鈥淚 was smiling the whole time,鈥� he admitted.
For the national anthem, he lined up between right-winger Jannik Hansen and defenceman Sami Salo.
A couple players to his right stood his favourite Canuck, Ryan Kesler.
鈥淚 like the style that Kesler plays and that he takes his job seriously as being an assistant,鈥� Tyson said.
As part of winning the contest, Tyson also got to stay and watch the game, which he did with his dad.
鈥淚t was kind of disappointing how they lost,鈥� he said.
