Dan Falloon
It was one of those cases where the only thing missing was an official label.
Even though Lakers’ forward Tim Hennessey was promoted to alternate captain two weeks ago, head coach Wayne Strachan noted the St. Louis, Mo. native was performing the required duties well beforehand.
“He was pretty much included in all of the captains’ meetings,” said Strachan.
“He’s always been one of our leaders.”
Hennessey also is the only remaining 20-year-old on the team after the Lakers shipped off leading scorer Colton Kennedy and defenceman Conner Foster at the trade deadline, and is expected to pass along what he knows to the younger players.
“He’s our last 20-year-old left, and right from him joining the team this year—in training camp he was injured and gone for about a month—but as soon as he returned, he was a presence in the dressing room, presence on the ice,” Strachan lauded.
“He knows the way of the game and what it takes to play junior hockey.”
Hennessey was thrilled to be selected to fill the vacant position—left open when Tyler Stevenson was bumped up to captain after Kennedy was dealt to the Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League earlier this month.
He said the new title didn’t come as a surprise, though.
“I’m a 20-year-old, so leadership’s expected out of a guy like me, but it’s a big honour for sure,” Hennessey stressed.
“I kind of had a feeling.”
He made it clear he’s not going to be the one to give impassioned speeches between periods but instead will rely on teammates following his lead.
“I’m not a big cheerleader kind of guy,” affirmed Hennessey, who has three goals and three assists in 22 games this season.
“I just go out on the ice and let my play do the talking.”
If so, then Hennessey was screaming last Tuesday night when he scored the game-winner with just over five minutes to go in a 4-3 win over the visiting Sioux Lookout Flyers.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Lakers during which they had been outscored 24-9.
“I was waiting for the pass from [Mike] Jourdain and it just kind of came at the last second, and I let it rip and found twine,” he recalled.
“It was a pretty bad angle,” he admitted. “I got a little lucky, I guess.”
Hennessey’s junior career began in 2007 when he began playing for the Kemptville 73’s of the Central Junior ‘A’ Hockey League. From there, he was shuffled to the Cumberland Grads and Hawkesbury Hawks, a pair of Ottawa-area teams.
In 120 games with the three teams over two seasons, he notched 22 goals and 45 points while racking up 70 penalty minutes.
He was traded to Fort Frances over the summer—a move that came as a bit of a surprise to the Lakers’ elder statesman.
“It was right before [training] camp,” he remarked. “I got traded the day before I was supposed to leave for Hawkesbury’s camp, so it was a bit shocking.
“It’s a different league, but junior ‘A’ is junior ‘A’,” he reasoned.
In terms of competitive balance, the CJHL’s top two teams rank 11th and 12th in the country—just ahead of the SIJHL’s Fort William North Stars, who sat at 13th at last report.
Being nearly 1,500 km from St. Louis is nothing new for Hennessey as he’s been away from home since the age of 15, when he went to play Midget ‘AAA’ in Indiana.
“It’s really nothing new for me,” he said.
