To hear his teammates tell it, defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk is the Blackhawks’ Mr. Sunshine.
“You never hear anything negative come out of his mouth,” forward Andrew Desjardins said.
RedEye put that positive disposition to the test. To no one’s surprise, the 25-year-old made every situation tolerable, except maybe one …
You get a flat tire.
“Put that AAA card to use that you have in your wallet bulkin’ it up. … If you can’t use that, you can put your handyman skills to the test and see if you know how to actually change [a tire].”
Your name is misspelled on your jersey.
“That’s been the case [before]. Obviously there’s a bunch of little stuff with my name [that can cause mistakes], whether’s it’s the space between the van and the Riemsdyk [or something else]. You can always keep the misspelled [jersey] as a little souvenir.
“I have a name bar or two whether it be from college or the teams I played on growing up. It’s always cool to have.”
Note: Nothing like this has happened since van Riemsdyk put on a Blackhawks uniform. “They’re awesome; they never mess that up.”
A teammate takes your stick accidentally.
“Maybe they can put it to better use than I can, score a few more goals. There’s a lot left in [the stick], so if they have it, they’ll find success with it.”
A restaurant doesn’t have your favorite meal.
“That’s on me. I should have looked it up before and seen what they got. But that gives you a chance to try something new.”
The NHL moves the Stanley Cup Final to Australia.
“Never been there before, so you can see some new stuff. I’ve heard a lot of positive things. It’s always nice to see different parts of the world.”
Someone mistakes you for your older brother, James. (James van Riemsdyk is a forward with the Toronto Maple Leafs.)
“That’s not bad. Maybe I’ll just play along with it and give them my best James Van Riemsdyk signature or whatever it may be.”
Coach Quenneville wants you to take faceoffs.
“I don’t know why that would be, but I would gladly do them. In high school we used to have the defensemen take some faceoffs here and there in some certain situations. You’ve watched it long enough that maybe you could hold your own. I obviously wouldn’t do too well against all these great centers here, but yeah, just try to hold your own the best you can.”
A referee sends you to the penalty box for something you didn’t do.
“I don’t know if there is a positive spin to be put on that. You don’t want to be in the box for anything.”
@redeyesportschi | chsosa@redeyechicago.com
