We had the chance to briefly meet and speak with the newest Houston Aero, Tony Hrkac, after Sunday’s Rockford game. And while he might be the newest Aero, he’s also, definitely, the oldest. The guy still looks good, and in his suit and tie, he still looks like he can lace up the skates and do a shift at full speed.
“I missed it a lot,” Hrkac said about hockey. “You miss the guys. You just miss going out there and competing. I was watching lots of hockey, and the opportunity came up, and I jumped at it.”
He arrived in Houston on Sunday, and he will still start practicing with the team when they return to practice in Sugar Land on Tuesday. Hrkac has been skating with the Concordia University hockey team, the team college team that he coaches. But it’s been nearly four years since he last skated in competition as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals.
“It’s going to be tough. At least I have a week of practice here that comes up. And I haven’t been hit really in three years, four years, that’s going to be a question. It’ll take a little bit of time, but a week of practice will help a lot.”
The Aeros are Hrkac’s sixth AHL stop, and he’s played 758 NHL games. In the NHL, he played with St. Louis, Quebec, San Jose, Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, New York Islanders, Anaheim, and Atlanta, and he played on Dallas’s 1999 Stanley Cup team. He will return to Concordia University as the team’s coach next season.
Monday, March 16, 2009
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1 comment:
So do we un-retire his journey when he returns to Milwaukee with the Aeros next Wednesday?
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