Mitch Calvert
A fitting theme song for Mike McCaig’s first season in junior hockey has to be Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere.”
The 18-year-old Fort High graduate began the year with the MJHL’s Selkirk Steelers, then tried out with the Neepawa Natives, before eventually making the cross-country trek to suit up for the Restigouche Junior ‘A’ Tigers of the Maritime Junior ‘A’ Hockey League.
“I’ve had a pretty good view of everything, that’s for sure,” McCaig said from his latest billet’s home.
“It’s in northern New Brunswick right on the coast with Quebec, so I’m basically a stone’s throw away from Quebec so it’s primarily French people where I live.
“I butcher the French language,” he admitted. “I pick up a few words here and there, but I can’t put together any sentences.”
Obviously the adjustment to a new way of life away from the rink has been difficult, but it’s been made easier by the fact many of his teammates are in the same boat.
“We don’t have a lot of Frenchmen on our team,” McCaig noted. “We got a couple, but for the most part we have a lot of guys from Newfoundland, there’s a guy from California, me and another guy from Ontario, and some guys from New Brunswick.
“We’re a rebuilding team, a lot of rookies and young guys, but we’re really working hard and starting to do well in our games,” he added.
The Tigers currently sit in last place in the Roger Meek Division with a 6-33-2-1 record. But despite the struggles in the win column, McCaig is enjoying the experience and just trying to improve his game.
“Like all defencemen on our team, they don’t really have any great expectations for us, but they just like us to be smart, move the puck, or if we have no options, just to skate it out and get it deep,” McCaig said of his role.
“Sometimes I jump up with the puck and rush it into the other end and try and get the puck to the net, but other than that, I just try to play my position and look for the open man,” he added.
“[The] oldest defenceman on our team is 19, so we have a pretty young squad, but I’m kind of just playing things as they come this year.”
The opportunity to suit up for the Tigers practically came out-of-the-blue as McCaig received a call from the team asking him to join the squad.
“I don’t really know how they found out about me, to be honest, but they must’ve had a scout who was living in Manitoba who saw me [in the MJHL],” he explained. “I went there knowing I was going to make the team, so that was kinda nice.”
Still, McCaig was in for a rude awakening as his first game on Nov. 14 saw him have to drop the gloves.
“I hit one of their guys earlier in the game and he didn’t like it too much, so when we scored a goal, he came after me and jumped me from behind and we got into a bit of a line brawl there,” McCaig recalled.
“It was a pretty weird experience being my first game in the league, but other than that, nothing like that has happened since.”
The former Muskie scored his first goal in a Tigers’ uniform on Friday in a 4-3 win over the Halifax Lions, and now has three points in 20 games.
McCaig still is weighing his options for next season. He plans to further his education down the road, but hasn’t decided yet which path he’ll take in the fall.
“I’m just taking things as they come to me, and I may go and try to play junior hockey again but I’m really considering going to school,” McCaig said.
“I’m kind of all over the place at this point,” he admitted. “I’m a young 1990 [birth year], so it’s nice to have options and there’s still time [to decide].”
