I really enjoy downtown Toronto. There is a great supply of restaurants and all kinds of food, whatever you want. That has been awesome. We have tried a different restaurant every night so far. We went to Cibo last night, an Italian place, and really enjoyed ourselves there. Yorkville is a great neighborhood that I had never been to before. It's busy here. You see all the people going through Union Station. It's a lively city and I like it.
If I was in Denver right now I'd have no family around. We'd be doing informal skates, getting ready for training camp, so obviously this is quite different.
I was back home in the summer for two months and got a chance to spend time with family and catch up with friends as well, but it's nice to have them here and honestly it's fun for them to be a part of something like this, to see how this whole tournament is being played. They get to enjoy all the festivities around, like the Fan Village.
One of the great things about it also is it gets my mind off of hockey for a little bit. That's not easy here in Toronto because wherever you go you really can tell there's a big tournament going on and obviously we're spending a lot of time at the rink trying to prepare for games, trying to do our best for that. It's been nice to have some family in town for some balance, to hang out with and spend some time with. If you're able to take some time to, say, go for a fika (remember I told you about that in a previous diary) with your mom and dad it's a nice change of pace.
It's also really great to see how it impacts them. All of these cool experiences that we go through, they really don't mean anything unless you have someone to share it with. Obviously you have your teammates to go through it with, but to have your family alongside with you, to see them in the stands enjoying themselves, it just adds to the whole thing. I think the NHL Players' Association has done a great job of taking care of the families and make sure they know what's going on.
