Predators centre from Metro Vancouver facing off against team he once idolized
As a young hockey player growing up in North Vancouver, Colton Sissons was a die-hard Canucks fan. Twelve years after being drafted by Nashville, the Predators centre is facing off against the Canucks during the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in his career.
“Playing against the team I grew up idolizing is a pretty cool experience, so it’s awesome that we got matched up in the playoffs,” he said after Tuesday’s game day skate.
The Canucks-Predators round one match up is a dream come true for Colton’s parents Doug and Debbie.
“We were excited solely due to the fact we would see Colton here for dinner at our house on Friday night and be able to see him a couple of times during the week,” said Doug, who still lives in the North Vancouver home where Colton grew up.
Doug says his son is living his childhood dream playing playoff hockey at Rogers Arena – even if it is for the visiting team.
“There was a ton of nerves going out onto the ice the other night. But once the puck drops and you make contact with that first guy in a Canucks jersey, the jitters go away and you get down to business,” said Doug, who watched game one in the stands with Debbie. “It’s a tough situation, my wife and I were a little bit out of place the other night, to say the least, with all the fans.”
Doug says he and Debbie watched the game incognito, rather than wearing gold Nashville Predators jerseys. But there is no question where their allegiance lies.
“We are just devout Preds fans, that’s it,” said Doug.
Colton said the love for the Canucks in the Sissons' household died when he became a Nashville Predator. “It’s been gone for quite some time now. Yeah, probably since 2012 when I was drafted. Those days are over,” said Colton.
“It was so exciting when he got drafted by the Preds, and then he’s just taken off from there,” said Doug. “He’s been a very reliable two-way player, one of the best in the league on face-offs, and his leadership has grown there dramatically as well.”
Colton’s Nashville Predators got to the Stanley Cup final in 2017, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Doug knows his son’s team is the underdog against the Canucks, and most other playoff teams this time around. But he’s confident they have a shot.
“Oh I believe it, 100 per cent.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Custom baseball card released of Blue Jays fan struck in the face with foul ball
Liz McGuire, the Blue Jays fan who was struck in the face with a 110 m.p.h. foul ball last week, has been pictured on a custom baseball trading card applauding her fandom to the game.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
As Canada warms, infectious disease risks spread north
Cases of Lyme disease have now increased more than 1,000 per cent in a decade as the warming climate pushes the boundaries of a range of pathogens and risk factors northward.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
NEW 'Language is identity': Indigenous Ontario legislator to make history at Queen's Park
Decades after being punished in a residential school for speaking his own language, Sol Mamakwa will hold the powerful to account at Ontario's legislature in the very same language past governments tried to bury.
Experts seeing 'more and more' hate content created by artificial intelligence
B'nai Brith Canada flagged the issue of AI-generated hate content in a recent report on antisemitism.
The dreams of a 60-year-old beauty contestant come to an abrupt end in Argentina
A 60-year-old woman saw her dreams of becoming the oldest Miss Universe contestant in history melt away in a haze of sequins and selfies Saturday at Argentina’s annual beauty pageant.