Thanksgiving is typically a holiday spent with family digging into traditional feasts and huddled around the couch to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and some NFL football.
This Thursday, ASU hockey will be over 2,000 miles away from spending the holiday in a hotel with each other.
“I’m going to miss eating turkey with my kids here,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “But I’ll be with 27 of my other kids eating turkey so it’s a good consolation.”
The team has a feast planned out at the hotel they will be staying at to make sure this holiday feels as close to home as they can. The team has reached out to the players and coaching staffs’ families to invite them to join the team in the holiday festivities.
Goaltender Joey Daccord’s hometown is about 40 minutes away from where the team will be staying and is happy to be having his family there for the weekend.
“It’s the perfect scenario basically,” Daccord said. “I’m fortunate enough to be able to be close enough where all my family and friends can come, but I’m also with my team playing games right after Thanksgiving.”
ASU has a few European players on the roster who aren’t used to the Thanksgiving holiday, but after celebrating the holiday a few times both Jakob Stridsberg and Filips Buncis have said it’s a holiday they will be bringing back to their home countries.
“Over the years I’ve been learning a little bit of the history behind it to know why it’s such a big tradition, but so far I’ve really enjoyed it,” Buncis said. “Like it would be weird if I missed Thanksgiving.”
In Stridsberg’s native country of Sweden, they have a holiday similar to Thanksgiving, but perhaps a change in cuisine.
“It’s friends and family, eating good food; pretty much the same thing.” Stridsberg said. “I’m not sure if they sell as much turkey as they do here though.”
While the two are a long way from home, that doesn’t stop them from joining in with everyone else in embracing those who they are fortunate to surround themselves with.
“If I was with my family right now back home, I would make them at least do something that’s related to Thanksgiving…” Buncis said. “…Being together with family, I couldn’t do that for the last couple years but I would be with my host family and my brothers on the team so that will be nice.”
