If you’re the type to believe in omens, training camp got off to a promising start for the Detroit Red Wings.
Well, at least it did for Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser.
Playing in the club’s annual golf outing at the Bear in the Grand Traverse Resort, DeKeyser recorded a hole in one on the 17th hole, an ace that earned him the lease of a Porsche for the next two years.
“I was going right at the stick,” DeKeyser said. “It was a pretty good shot. I didn’t know distance-wise if it was going to be there or not. So it landed like 12 feet behind the hole and started spinning back towards the cup and it missed the closest to the pin stick, you know how your write whoever had it last, missed that by like an inch and then the guys were like, ‘It’s rolling back, it’s rolling back!’ and then it just disappeared in the cup.
“I just flung my club to the side and kind of did a few laps around the tee box.”
Insisting he’s nothing more than a once a week player, DeKeyser used a nine-iron to ace the 152-yard hole.
“I golf a decent amount in the summer but that was my first hole-in-one, so it was pretty fun,” DeKeyser said.
He also won the longest drive competition during the event, earning a new driver for that performance.
“I’m hit or miss at golf, so I guess it was a good day,” DeKeyser said.
AA In Limbo
The stalemate between restricted free agent forward Andreas Athanasiou and the Wings continued through the first day of on-ice drills at training camp.
“Nothing further at this time,” Athanasiou’s agent Darren Ferris reported via text on the status of negotiations. Speculation is that the two sides are trying to hammer out a two-year deal, but that there is also a one-year extension on the table as a secondary option.
Minus Athanasiou, the Wings got down to business.
“I think everyone in this organization wants him to be on our team,” center Dylan Larkin said. “He does as well.
“He’s one of our best players. He helps us a ton. It’s just figuring it all out. I haven’t talked to him in terms of that but I know everyone here wants him to be a Red Wing and that’s where he should be.”
A Cup With Mom
There are countless tales from how players opt to spend their day with the Stanley Cup and they range from the humorous to the touching, but it’s doubtful few tug at the heartstrings in the manner that new Wings defenseman Trevor Daley opted to share Stanley after his second straight Cup triumph with the Pittsburgh Penguins last spring.
“I got it in Toronto and me and my son went to a hockey school and surprised some kids,” Daley explained. “And then I took it to my mom’s grave and it was just me and my son.”
Trudy Daley died of cancer on June 21, 2016, just nine days after Trevor won his first Stanley Cup. Accompanied by his son Trevor Jr., Daley brought Lord Stanley’s mug to his mom one more time.
“We sat there and we enjoyed it,” Daley recalled. “I told him a little bit about my childhood and where I grew up, because right across the street from where I grew up is where I buried my mom. That was pretty special. Then we had a little party with it after to kind of balance the day out pretty good.
Trevor Jr., 8, was willing to make the trip with his dad, but his sister Emery, 5, was more practical about the day’s plans.
“She didn’t want to go,” Daley said. “She said, ‘Grandma’s not going to be there so I don’t want to go.’”
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