LAS VEGAS — Throughout the course of Connor Zary’s childhood, there were plenty of signs the young man was driven to succeed.
But one faded sign, in particular, pieced together with a mishmash of white hockey tape, still hangs in the family’s Saskatoon basement as a reminder of just how determined he was.
“We have a weight room in the basement, and one day I go down and see he’s pieced together all these motivational sayings from famous athletes and taped them onto the wall,” his father, Scott, told Sportsnet.
“I said to my wife, Kathleen, ‘Look at this, this kid is serious about it.’
“Well, it turned out he pulled a fast one on us.”
We’ll let Connor take it from here.
“It would have been my first couple years of junior and I was in the basement, using a medicine ball, and I decided to throw it at the wall and it went right through the drywall — big hole,” chuckled the Calgary Flames 22-year-old winger, who immediately demonstrated the type of quick thinking that has made him a rookie sensation.
“So I went upstairs, got on the computer, printed out a couple hockey pictures of myself and a couple inspirational quotes, and I took some hockey tape and taped a nice square around it to make it look like it was motivation to keep me going.
“It stayed there, I swear to god, for probably two years before the tape finally fell off the one part, and there was the hole.
“He was pissed.”
Au contraire.
Dad couldn’t have been prouder.
“Good on him,” said Scott, a 20-year veteran of the Saskatoon Police Service, with a chuckle.
“To this day it’s still there, covering the hole. I’ll never touch it.
“It can be fixed any time, but that’s not the point.”
The point is, although the hockey world says no one saw Zary’s instant success with the Flames coming, there’s tangible proof of the hard work, ingenuity and playful deception behind it.
On a dads trip filled with endless stories about the passion and drive that has fuelled every player’s rise to the top, these are the moments to savour for people like Scott.
“I’m sitting with Lanny (McDonald), having a couple drinks yesterday, and I’m like, ‘Is this for real?’” said Scott, who watched his son play parts of four AHL seasons before getting called up this season to score in his NHL debut.
“It’s unbelievable to sit back and see him in this place now.
“But give him all the credit, he’s put the time and work in.
“Despite all the frustration in junior and the minors, and never really getting the taste, now he’s getting the taste and he hasn’t left.”
Second only to Connor Bedard in rookie points per game, Zary’s nine goals and 12 assists made him just the third Flames rookie in the last three decades to post as many points in their first 31 NHL games.
The other two: Johnny Gaudreau and Jarome Iginla.
“Did I see this coming?” pondered Scott.
“All those years on the backyard rink, all those years downstairs in the weight room working out, I wasn’t one of those parents telling him what to do.
“My neighbour was telling me the other day she can remember a day when Connor was out there shooting pucks with Kathleen, and Connor was yelling, ‘Dad, can you come out because mom can’t shoot straight?’”
Chuckling at yet another Middleton Crescent memory, Connor smiled.
“She never got better, I’ll tell ya that,” he said, playfully, crediting both parents and his brother for the endless support they continue to give him.
“They’ve always been there to help me, but it’s always been fun for me, whether it’s practice or shooting pucks in the backyard.”
While some questioned Zary’s skating as a first-round pick in 2020, no one questioned his leadership or character.
“It’s emotional for me to talk about, but a couple things my wife always said to him was, ‘Be kind and humble,’” said Scott, pausing briefly to collect himself.
“’It doesn’t matter how far you go in hockey, and it doesn’t matter what you do in life, but be kind and humble and work your ass off. Because no one is going to take that away from you.’
“And that’s why he’s here, because he’s worked and worked and worked.”
Speaking to his selflessness and leadership, Scott tells the tale of a window broken by an errant puck that his son took the rap for, only to find out many years later the culprit was Connor’s cousin Josh.
The fond memories prompted Scott to wonder what may be behind another poster Connor pinned up years ago, depicting Muhammad Ali hitting a heavy bag, with the words: “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and spend the rest of your life as a champion.’”
Flashing a big smile, he said, “I never did check behind that one.”
“When he was in elementary school, the teacher asked for a paragraph on ‘What you want to do in life,’” said Scott of his son’s focus.
“Connor wrote, ‘I’m going to play in the NHL.’
“The teacher says, ‘That’s fine, but have a realistic goal.’
“We still have it in the house, and I wish we could show the teacher.”
Instead, Connor has shown the world.
Well, he’s shown everything except that hole in the wall.
