When Tie accompanied Max on the Blackhawks' Dad's Trip last week, comparing the two Domi's to one another seemed inevitable. Both are known as undersized hockey forwards with sparkplug personalities who've seen their fair share of on-ice fights. Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews did just that when he sat behind the pair on the team's bus.
"[Toews] is like, 'Did you know this?' I'm like, 'Know what?'" said Max. "He's like, 'You just passed [your] pops [in career points]' … I guess he was looking at our stats, because we were right next to each other, which is hilarious."
Normally the parallels end there with descriptions of Max's playmaking abilities deviating from his father's ability to duke it out.
"We are very different players," said Max, "and I think [my dad] knows that more than anyone, especially me."
Those differences are thanks in no small part to Tie's discouraging Max from fighting on the ice because he didn't want his son to hurt his hand.
Max insists they're more similar if one looks beyond the penalty minutes.
"He actually does have some skill, I got to give him credit," said Max. "He has a lot more talent, a lot more skill, than anyone ever gave him credit for. He's the kind of guy that plays up through the lineup, which is very hard to do. He was always ready."
Max says he's paid the closest attention to his father's loyalty to his teammates.
"The main stuff that I got to witness was how he was as a teammate," said Max. "There's no teammate that'll say bad thing about him. So I've always tried to emulate those good sides of his game - whether it's the work ethic [or] the kind of the fearless mentality of 'I'm gonna go out every single shift no matter what happens to try to help my team win.' "
What makes Tie most proud is what Max does off the ice. Families continually come up to Max to tell him how much his memoir 'No Days Off' about overcoming Type 1 diabetes has helped their child. He also marched in the Montreal Pride Parade while a member of the Canadiens in 2019.
"The legacy he continues to carry," said Tie, "those types of things are memories forever. When he's impacting families like that, obviously that makes me proud."
