Harrison Brunicke's Big Night in the Big Apple

Harrison Brunicke’s older sister Georgia just had a feeling.

“Four weeks ago, I was like, ‘Guys, I’m going to New York City for my birthday.’ I just knew,” she said. “And when he told us, it just made sense. I just knew that he was going to be playing at Madison Square Garden.”

The day after celebrating another trip around the sun for Georgia, the Brunicke family was in the Big Apple to watch Harrison make his NHL debut at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

“I was just thinking before the game, you know how hard this is? The odds of doing this? It’s just quite overwhelming,” Harrison’s mom Kim said.

“I sent him a text just before we left the hotel, and I was actually crying, and he’s like ‘Why?’ I’m like, it doesn’t matter, you can be a great person, a great athlete, a great hockey player. So much has to come together at the right moment for this to happen. It’s so many pieces, right? It’s just incredible. At the same time, it's incredible, but it’s not surprising, because knowing him, of course, this is possible for him.”

Harrison’s dad Dean had a similar reaction when his son FaceTimed with the news.

“Even saying this now, I’m getting goosebumps. You just see his smile, his happiness, then you feel it, you know?” Dean said. “You can be stoic, and you can think through it, and to try and really put your feelings on paper or get them across is more difficult. But when you see it reflected back in him, then I was just gushing. It was just awesome.”

Especially considering that Dean and Kim grew up in South Africa. After Harrison was selected by Pittsburgh in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft, they laughed when asked what they knew about ice hockey before relocating to Calgary when the kids were little.

“Nothing. Nothing!” Kim said. “I didn't even know what offside was… I remember going to my first few Calgary Flames games, and I couldn't find the puck.”

To go from that to having their son play at the highest level is quite surreal. Harrison is now just the second South African-born player in NHL history, after Olaf Kolzig.

“It's phenomenal. I think if you understand the culture in South Africa specifically, with all the troubles we’ve had, sports was one area that you could express yourself across everything,” Dean said.

“But then knowing that he's gonna be a good sportsman wasn't necessarily the challenge, the fact that he was playing soccer and hockey at the same time, because like, which one is gonna go? And he was like, yeah, I love hockey, and that was it... to me, it's a combination of my field hockey and rugby in South Africa, it's got that aggression plus the skill. So, that's why I'm just going, wow. Could there be a better sport, ever? It’s just the most exciting sport for me.”

At that point, Dean had to stop and chuckle.

“Harrison says to me, ‘Dad, I’ve got South African roots, but I'm Canadian.’”

That was evidenced by the Sidney Crosby Team Canada jersey Brunicke had as a kid, along with the captain’s Penguins jersey. Brunicke got to be part of the starting lineup with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and fellow rookie Ben Kindel.

“Just the fact that he can meet these great people, be humble through the process, and then get to know what class looks like and what quality is... to me, it’s not just about playing,” Dean said. “Being a management consultant, you're always involved with top performing teams and people and staff, and it's not just about the game, it's about the people you're meeting, the legends, the people off the ice. All that, to me, is really important.”

The night got off to a bit of a rough start with Brunicke getting called for hooking exactly 59 seconds into the game, but he turned it around as the game went on.

“Not a great penalty to start the shift,” Brunicke said with a wry grin. “I definitely think just as far as the emotions running and the atmosphere, there's definitely a little nerves. But I think once I settled in, took a couple hits and stuff like that, I felt a lot better about my game.”