DAVIES CHERISHES HOMECOMING IN LAVAL
Oct 19, 2023
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
Jeremy Davies doesn’t take this opportunity for granted. After spending his first three professional seasons in the Midwest, the Quebec native signed a two-way contract with the Buffalo Sabres during the 2022 offseason.
He went on to score more goals (11), play more games (66), and go further into the playoffs than he ever had in his pro career while wearing a Rochester Americans jersey during the team’s ride to the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. Still, those accolades come second to what means most for Davies: his family.
Since turning pro, Davies has been no closer than 13 hours from where he grew up. Driving home wasn’t an option. Flying wasn’t in the cards for the 26-year-old, either. Davies had to be more concerned with catching buses and planes with his teammates going from city to city. It’s life in professional hockey.
“I didn’t see my parents much those first couple of years,” said Davies. “Being with Rochester and playing in the North Division has been really cool. It’s been fun getting to be closer to home.”
And there’s no AHL arena closer to home than the one the Amerks are in this week. Place Bell, home to the Laval Rocket, is about a half-hour drive from Davies’ hometown of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue; a town of around 5,000 residents.
His parents and friends are planning to attend both games this week. They had to be happy with what they saw in the first outing.
On Wednesday night with the game tied, 4-4, Davies was on the ice in overtime. After firing a shot that found the post, the offensively gifted defenseman corralled the puck once more. Coming from behind the goal, Davies drove the puck onto Laval goaltender Strauss Mann, resulting in a ricochet from Mann to Jiri Kulich, who buried the game-winning-goal from the slot. Davies, with mom and dad in attendance, earned the primary assist to help the Amerks pull out the win.
“It was really cool. I had friends and family there. My parents, my aunts and uncles were there, and I had a row of friends sitting up behind the bench which was fun. I was pumped to win in overtime in front of them. I was able to go upstairs after the game to talk and see everyone. I can’t wait to have them all there again on Friday.”
It’s a business trip for the first-place Amerks, who currently sit atop the North Division standings with a 2-0-1-0 record through their first three games of the young season. It’s the first time in their 68-year history they opened the campaign with three straight games that have needed overtime to determine a winner.
Still, Davies can’t help but reflect on the memories made just down the road.
“The cool thing about my little neighborhood was that my friends and I were all growing up around the same time. There are so many memories of just walking or biking to school together in the morning, then walking home and throwing our skates on to go to the rink. We’d play lots of street hockey in the summer and mountain biking through the woods and bike paths. We would always go back there and make some fires to make food with. My buddies and I loved the outdoors.”
It's been a full-circle experience for a kid who grew up in a small Quebec town playing for the AAA Lac St-Louis Lions. Davies made an unprecedented jump, one he considers to be his first break in hockey, when he went from midget AAA hockey in Quebec to playing for Waterloo in the USHL.
“It’s pretty uncommon for a Quebec kid. I remember getting invited to my first USHL tryout. It was just an hour north of Chicago. My dad and I just hopped in the van and he drove 18 hours to get me to tryouts and after tryouts we drove 18 hours back, straight through the night.”
That 36-hour trek resulted in Davies playing for Waterloo and Bloomington during the 2014-15 USHL campaign. He continued with Bloomington the following season and followed his junior tenure with four years at Northeastern University, capping his senior season off with an NCAA Championship in 2019.
Since then, Davies has gone on to skate in 23 National Hockey League games, including a game with Buffalo last season. He’s played nearly 200 in the American Hockey League and enters Friday’s game in Laval just three points shy of 100 for his pro career.
Davies has many friends back home, some of which he’s making time to see this week. Many of his friends chose a life close to home. His next-door neighbor, one of his best friends who he grew up playing minor hockey with, is now a fireman in Quebec City. Davies could have taken a similar path. Instead, he chose a different road. He wanted to pursue hockey to the fullest. He wanted to play in the NHL.
He still remembers all the drives his father made for him to get to practice. All the pregame meals his mother prepared for him ahead of each and every game.
That small-town kid who grew up on the northern tip of Montréal has now worn the jersey of five professional teams (Nashville, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Chicago, Rochester). He’s played in major cities across North America. He’s been in the spotlight. He’s played on the grandest stage.
But behind all that, there’s still that kid with his skates on, hanging out with his friends in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.