Stacy Barber will be sitting in the stands at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night as a very proud Hockey Mom when her son makes his Canadiens debut against the Penguins (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) .
The Canadiens called up Riley Barber from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Sunday and the first person he called to share the news was his mom.
“At first I didn’t realize it was in Pittsburgh,” Stacy said in a phone interview Monday afternoon from Michigan, where she is a power-skating instructor with PowerTech Specialists . “I looked at the schedule and it was like holy cow! That’s amazing.”
Stacy is from Pittsburgh and that’s where Riley was born and became a huge Penguins fan. He was in the stands when the Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final.
“That’s what’s going to make it extremely special for him, I think, is because we get to go home and see everybody and everyone will be there,” Stacy said.
Riley’s dad, Don, will also be there Tuesday night. Don played 115 games in the NHL with the Minnesota North Stars, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and San Jose Sharks. He also coached the Pittsburgh Hornets youth hockey team that included his son and future NHLers J.T. Miller (now with the Vancouver Canucks) and Vincent Trocheck (now with the Florida Panthers).
Riley played at an age group higher than he was in Pittsburgh and at 12 his family moved to Michigan so he could join the Detroit Little Caesars Hockey Club. Riley later won a gold medal with Team USA at the World Junior Hockey Championship and played three years at Miami University in Ohio, but his hockey roots are in Pittsburgh, where his mom taught figure skating, power skating and a Learn to Play Hockey program. She first put Riley on skates when he was two.
“He was a little bit of a terror, so I put him on skates and he stood up right away,” Stacy recalled. “I’d take him to public sessions and I thought it was awesome because he’d spend like two hours while I read a magazine running himself into the wall, getting up and running into the wall again and getting up. And then he’d nap for like three hours. So I thought it was like a godsend.”
At four, Riley joined his mom’s Learn to Play Hockey Program and would spend four hours straight on the ice with her.
“He didn’t want anybody to know he was my son,” Stacy said. “He never called me mom, never asked for anything. From the time he started, he loved it.”
Riley was selected by Washington in the sixth round (167th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft but only played three career NHL games with the Capitals during the 2016-17 season. The 25-year-old forward signed with the Canadiens as a free agent on July 1 after posting 31-29-60 totals in 64 games last season with the AHL’s Hershey Bears and had 6-12-18 totals in 21 games with the Rocket this season.
“It’s exciting,” Riley said after practising with the Canadiens Monday in Brossard. “Every time you get that call it’s a great one. I’m just looking forward to playing and proving that I belong here. I think it’s a different feeling this time being called up. I think the first time you get called up you’re a little starstruck and all that. Now it’s more I’m just very calm and ready to take advantage of it.”
Riley credits his mother for his skating ability and his father for his hockey IQ.
Riley’s mother admits it has been tough watching him stuck in the minors for the last five seasons and hopes this might be his big break.
“I see guys playing (in the NHL) that I think he’s better than sometimes,” Stacy said. “But it’s part of the life, right? It is what it is and sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes all the stars align, sometimes they don’t. You only have control over your effort and your work ethic. Other than that, there’s not much you can do. It’s also a life lesson, right? I always try and look at things like later on in life this will play out somehow to help him down the road.
“Of course you’d always like to see your kid live his dream out,” she added. “People talk about it all the time, like: ‘Is he not playing? Is he not up?’ I look at everybody and I go: ‘My kid has accomplished more in hockey than I ever imagined in a million years.’ So to me, if he plays in the NHL it’s icing on the cake for me because he’s accomplished huge goals. I think this would be icing on the cake for him and he deserves it. He’s worked really hard. You know these kids give up so much growing up … they really do. They live a different life.
“It sure would be nice to see.”
Related
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
