CALGARY — Dominic Hennig looked at his watch and it was 1:07 p.m.
Warmups were at 1:28.
Stuck in traffic and not moving an inch, Hennig, the Wild team services manager, looked at Travis Boyd and said, “Boyder, I think we got to hoof it.”
To say Boyd — the native of Hopkins, Minn., and former University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, will never forget his debut with his home state Wild is an understatement.
With his Wild bag over his right shoulder and wearing a suit and dress shoes with no socks, Boyd got out of the black SUV he was in with Hennig and began to sprint past a logjam of cars filing into the Scotiabank Saddledome parking lots so he could play Saturday afternoon against the Flames.
Cars honked their horns. Fans, who were walking in the snow and realized the person frantically sprinting was some kind of Wild player, cheered.
“Dom and I literally had to get out of our car service and run down the street,” Boyd said after playing 11 shifts during the Wild’s 4-3 shootout loss. “I had my bag on my shoulder and Dom was carrying my sticks for me, running through the snowy stuff in a suit and dress shoes on with a bag on my back.
“It’s funny looking back on it now and I’m sure I’ll look back on this day as a great day. What a crazy story and 24 hours, but I can say I’ve played a game for the Wild now. It’s childhood dream stuff.”
With Kirill Kaprizov and Marat Khusnutdinov hurt, Boyd was recalled from the Iowa Wild on Friday and would become the third player in three games to make his Wild debut. But there was no way to get him to Calgary until Saturday because a flight the Wild planned to put him on through Chicago was sold out.
So Hennig decided to route Boyd through Toronto on Friday and have him spend the night there after landing at midnight. This way he could clear customs in Canada on Friday night and not be further delayed on Saturday upon arrival in Calgary.
The 7 a.m. Toronto to Calgary flight landed at noon. It was so close to game time, that Hennig had the car service first pick him up from the team hotel so he could help Boyd get his bags and also bring him a pregame lunch to eat in the car. The snow was so fierce outside, that the GPS to the arena wouldn’t work on the driver’s phone.
Boyd got into the arena at 1:12 p.m., ran halfway around the arena to the Wild locker room and entered at 1:15. He somehow stripped down and suited up in time for warmups 13 minutes later.
GO DEEPER
His childhood dream: playing for the Wild. Former Gopher Travis Boyd could make it happen
“It’s been pretty wild,” Boyd said. “A lot of travel, not a lot of sleep and not a lot of time to warm up either. But I said it after the first: As a kid growing up in Minnesota I think everybody wants the chance to put on this Minnesota Wild jersey. It certainly was no different for me and if you would’ve told me at nine years old that this was how it was going to go, I wouldn’t have cared.
“I would’ve said I’m getting a chance to play for the team I grew up watching and cheering for. Crazy 24 hours but at the end of it, it was a very special 24 hours for me and I’m sure my family back home as well. Chills went down my spine just thinking about that first shift and realizing what was going on.”
Boyd, 31, has played in the NHL for eight seasons. Previously, he played for Washington, Toronto, Vancouver and Arizona.
Now he can say he played one game for his beloved Wild.
“It’s surreal,” he said. “Stuff you dream about as a kid, really. I could tell you a million stories of me watching Wild games and going to Wild games as a kid and to do it for real, and not a preseason game, it was a crazy 24 hours but at the same time, super special and I’m super proud. At the very least, if I never come back up and play again, I’ve played one game for the Minnesota Wild and that’s pretty cool to say for a kid from Minnesota.”
(Photo courtesy of Dominic Hennig)
