HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

me know when I was doing something wrong. When I needed to be held accountable, he made sure that I was held accountable but it wasn’t like he was yelling at me. He kept reminding me that I needed to get my motor going and keep my legs moving.

“I always enjoyed him as a coach. He believed in me and gave me a lot of opportunities when I was in Providence. I don’t have anything bad to say about him at all.”

Czarnik’s stay in the Bruins organization ended in Providence. He played 10 games in Boston during the 2017-18 season but ended up spending most of the year in the AHL. “It was frustrating because I felt like I was ready to make the jump,” said Czarnik, who ended up talking with Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. “He told me that I would have to go through waivers and they didn’t want to lose me. It’s an answer you don’t want to hear, but it’s honest. I respect him for telling me.”

Even so, Czarnik was ready for a fresh start.

“I wanted to see what else was out there,” said Czarnik, who decided to test the open waters and become a free agent again. “I felt like I owed myself the opportunity to go into free agency and see which teams were interested.”

He signed a two-year deal with Calgary, where he played a career-high 54 games during the 2018-19 season. Over the last 26 games, he tallied four goals and eight assists.

“There was some initial adversity, with not playing every game,” he said. “But over the last three months, I got into a groove a little bit. I started playing with the same guys where you can build that chemistry. I think the year ended up well.”

The following season, 2019-20, he was scoreless in the Flames’ first five games, then scored a goal in back-to-back games after breaking the streak with an assist. But his good fortune was stopped by a high ankle sprain that kept him off the ice for several weeks. By the time he was ready to return, his replacement, Calgary second-round pick Dillon Dubé, was playing well enough that Czarnik ended up spending the rest of the COVID-shortened season in the AHL with the Flames’ minor league affiliate.

“Injuries happen and things happen that you can’t control,” he said. “We had a good team and I ended up having a good time in Stockton.”

Still, Czarnik was ready for another change of scenery. This time, he headed to New York, where he spent the entire abbreviated 2020-21 campaign on the Islanders’ NHL taxi squad.

“I ended up practicing almost the whole year,” he said. “I played only four games, so it was one of the hardest years of my career. I felt like I was just ‘there.’ You’re not doing anything, but they are keeping you there just in case. It was weird and crazy at the same time.”

Thankfully, Czarnik and his wife Rachael found comfort in the birth of their daughter Colette in December of that season.

“Lou Lamoriello, one of the best general managers in hockey, is very family-oriented, so I was allowed to stay until the baby was born,” he recalled. “I missed a week of camp, but I had to leave my daughter when she was two days old, which was hard. It was definitely a long year, but having our daughter made everything better.”

Last season was another whirlwind for Czarnik, who split the year between the NHL and the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. He appeared in only 11 games with New York, recording two goals and three assists in limited NHL action. “I was just sitting and I wanted to play, so they put me on waivers,” said Czarnik, who was claimed by the Seattle Kraken.

Czarnik appeared in six games with Seattle before he found himself on waivers again, this time being reclaimed by the Islanders and finishing the season in Bridgeport.

If he felt like a yo-yo, it was nothing new, and a feeling he has learned to endure.

“It never gets easier. You just get used to it,” he said. “You don’t even know where you’re going to be half of the time. I don’t know how my wife and daughter do it. I thank God every day they stay with me. It’s a hard life for them. It’s not easy, but they’re hanging in there. They’re still supporting me and that’s all I can ask.”

Needless to say, Czarnik and his wife were beyond thrilled when he signed a two-year deal with Detroit this past offseason. Both of their families still reside in the Detroit area, where they bought a house shortly before COVID.

“It was awesome – I’ve always wanted to come here,” he said, beaming like a cat that just caught a mouse. “We tried before I signed contracts with Calgary and New York, and it just didn’t work out, but it’s something that I always wanted to do. Being able to come home on off days and being close to family is great. To be a part of the organization – and to

already have played some games in Detroit – is a dream come true.”

After scoring a hat trick in his second game with Grand Rapids on Oct. 15 against San Diego and recording five goals and five assists in his first eight games with the Griffins, Czarnik made his Red Wings debut on Nov. 6 at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers. In his second game, he scored his first goal for Detroit in a 3-2 shootout loss against the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena.

“It was my daughter’s first game since I came to the Red Wings,” he said. “She only stayed for the first period because it was her bedtime, but she was able to see my first goal which she might not remember because she is still very young – she’s almost two now. But it’s a moment that my wife and I will always remember.”

Czarnik made the most of his 9:29 in ice time. He capitalized on a nifty pass from Dominik Kubalik as he was driving the net after coming off the bench at the 16:29 mark of the first period. “My wife told my daughter that Daddy just scored and one of her favorite words is ‘goal,’ so she raised her arms and said ‘Goal!’ So that was really cool.”

He looks forward to keeping the momentum going. As far as he’s concerned, the path is simple.

“When I’m moving my feet, everything opens up,” he said. “I feel confident with the puck and when I’m confident, I’m able to create better plays, take better shots, and force more turnovers. When my feet are moving, I can disrupt a lot of stuff and that leads to generating more offense.”

He knows his hot start won’t likely last, but that shouldn’t change the way he plays.

“Unless you’re Connor McDavid, it’s hard to get points every single game,” he said. “You’re going to have games where you feel better and you’re not going to get a point and you’ll have games where you feel terrible and you get two or three points. I don’t think the points matter. It’s how you play night in and night out.”

Size, of course, is always a factor, but the only difference it makes is in how he approaches every game. Some people might think “small,” but he likes to think “big.” It’s a tall order for any player to contribute consistently, but he contends that he is up to the challenge. He intends to keep pouring his heart into every game.

“When you’re smaller, you just have to work harder and smarter than everyone else,” he said.

Czarnik played four years at Miami (Ohio) University, where he served as a captain his last two seasons.

Story by Mark Newman BON VOYAGE

When Francis Pare left Grand Rapids after helping the Griffins win their first Calder Cup, it marked the beginning of an incredible journey that would take him to places he could never imagined. A decade later, the ever-popular Pare is ready to start a new adventure.

While Francis Pare was spending five seasons with the Grand Rapids Griffins, he had one destination in mind.

Like any hockey-playing French Canadian, he dreamed of playing in the NHL. And though that day never came, he never could have imagined the extraordinary life that awaited him as a hockey globetrotter.

His talents would take him halfway around the world and back.

His hockey career had him packing his bags for places as distant as Belarus, Croatia, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, and Switzerland. In the decade after leaving Grand Rapids, Pare played for a total of 11 different hockey clubs – some good, a few not-so-good, but every one of them an adventure.

“I’ve been a world traveler, that’s for sure,” said Pare from a hotel in Paris on his way back to his home in Quebec City. “I’ve had to ask for a new passport every three or four years with all the visas – from places like China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia. I certainly have put a lot of miles on my body.”

And it all started because of Grand Rapids.

In 2012-13, Pare was in his fifth season with the Griffins. The team had failed to qualify for the postseason three consecutive years and Pare was eager to return to the playoffs for the first time since his rookie campaign of 2008-09.

“When I think about that season, it still gives me goosebumps,” Pare said. “We had a little bit of everything. In Jeff Blashill, we had a really good coach who brought everyone together. We had strong leadership with so many good veterans, along with some great up-and-coming talent like [Gustav] Nyquist, [Tomas] Tatar, [Tomas] Jurco, [Riley] Sheahan, and others.

“Looking back now, their careers all went different ways, but at the time they were all solid players. And of course, we had some amazing goaltending from Petr Mrazek. Everybody accepted their role and everyone wanted to win for Grand Rapids. Nobody was worried about who was going to get called up or get sent down. It was like everyone was playing for a bigger purpose.”

Grand Rapids was where Pare’s pro career began after then-Griffins general manager Bob McNamara took a chance on the undersized center from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League – a little-known player who had remained undrafted because of his size.

“When I came to GR that first year, I didn’t speak a word of English,” Pare recalled. “Five years later, after winning the Calder Cup, I was giving a speech in English at the baseball stadium in front of a few thousand people. I arrived as a kid and I left as a man. The whole experience made me into the person I am today and I will be forever grateful.”

Pare would be the first to admit that he had lessons to learn as a young hockey player. He cites the positive influence of longtime Griffins equipment manager Brad Thompson as one example.

“When I first got to the city, I could be grumpy or in my own bubble sometimes and Brad came to me and said, ‘Frankie, you’ve got to change your attitude. It’s not right.’ Now he could have said, ‘I don’t like that kid’ and he could have let me die in the East Coast League. Instead, he took me under his wing, and I think that’s why the Griffins have had so much success over the years. They treat everyone like family.”

Unable to crack the Red Wings’ roster during his five years with the Griffins, despite racking up 102 goals and 237 points in 363 games for

Pare became a Calder Cup winner at the end of his fifth season in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids – totals that still rank second, third and fifth, respectively, in franchise history – Pare decided to try his luck overseas. He started the 2013-14 season with TPS Turku in Finland, where he got to play with a 16-yearold kid named Mikko Rantanen.

“You could see he was a good player as a teenager, but I never thought he would become one of the top 10 players in the world,” Pare said. “But, wow, that kid worked hard. He was always staying on the ice, spending more time in the gym, and doing extra. He didn’t take his talent for granted. Playing pro hockey in his hometown in Finland wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted more and he finally became a Stanley Cup champion with Colorado – what a great story.”

Of course, Pare was already a champion, which is why the Metallurg hockey club in Magnitogorsk purchased his contract from Turku midway through the season. Mike Keenan, who won a Stanley Cup in 1994 with the New York Rangers, was looking to bolster his roster with proven winners, and Pare fit the bill.

It was a good move for all involved. In 21 playoff contests, Pare tallied seven goals, which was fourth-best on the team as Metallurg won the Gagarin Cup, the trophy presented to the winner of the KHL playoffs and named in honor of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.

Winning back-to-back championships became the consummate calling card for Pare as his agent – a Belarusian named Dmitri Yernomin – was able to parlay the achievement into gainful employment for the next decade.

“He has been amazing to me because he took me to places that I could never have imagined, coming from a family that had almost zero money,” Pare said. “He allowed me to travel the world and open my mind and experience things like the Russian culture. I spent the best years of my life overseas because of him and I’m really grateful that my life put me through his path.”

Pare spent the better part of six seasons in Russia, including the city of Yekaterinburg – hometown of current Griffin Kirill Tyutyayev – which was one of his favorite places where he played. He spent the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons with the Automobilist

Pare led Zagreb Medvescak in scoring during the 2016-17 season.

hockey club there, recording 64 points (2737—64) in 107 games – his best back-to-back years in the KHL.

“Yekaterinburg is a really nice city but it’s close to Siberia, so it’s very cold in the wintertime,” Pare said. “There’s always a stretch of two or three weeks in the middle of the winter when you can’t even walk outside because it’s minus 30, almost minus 40. But it was such a cool experience playing there and the people there were so warm.”

His next two seasons were in Belarus, where he played for Minsk Dynamo, a team that included several imports. Teemu Pulkkinen, who played for the Griffins from 2012-15, was a teammate during his first season in Minsk. In his second year there, he shared the ice with Adam Almquist, who was also a member of the 2013 Calder Cup team.

“It was almost like an AHL team where we would go for dinner together almost every other night,” Pare said. “Teemu hadn’t changed his game. He was still a sniper, still taking snapshots from the red line, and it was fun to play again with Almy because we always stayed in touch.”

Pare played long enough and in enough places that it seemed like he was always running into someone with a Grand Rapids connection. When he led Zagreb Medvescak in points during the 2016-17 season, the top goal scorer on the team was Alexandre Giroux, who had spent his rookie pro season in Grand Rapids 15 years earlier.

“Big G,” as Pare calls him, was a prolific scorer in the AHL, recording back-to-back 60-goal and 50-goal seasons with the Hershey Bears between 2008-10. “To score that many goals in the AHL, you have to have super talent and it was cool to learn from him about how he saw the game,” he said.

Croatia is another country that ranks high on Pare’s international itinerary. “We had a lot of guys from the AHL who just wanted to have a good time,” he said. “There was no pressure, no drama like you might experience with some teams in Russia. It was a year where I had to be focused and everything just clicked.

“It’s not a big hockey country, but in the summer, Croatia is a hard place to beat. Zagreb is an amazing city with amazing fans. It almost seemed like nobody worked. Everybody was on the patio, enjoying a little espresso in the middle of the day, watching football games. It felt almost surreal.”

Last season, Pare spent time in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was able to play with Cory Emmerton, who played parts of six seasons (2006-11, 2013-14) with the Griffins. “There have been so many great players who have come through Grand Rapids, so it’s cool to catch up with guys as you’re traveling overseas.”

Over the years, Pare had to change his playing style almost as much as he changed hockey sweaters. If there is a secret to being able to adapt to new cities, new countries, and new teams, it’s to not get too comfortable wherever you may be.

“The main thing is to stay open-minded – and travel light with only a couple of suitcases,” he said. “You’re going to encounter different players, different coaches, and different styles. Every country has a different style of hockey. I would say it takes a month, sometimes two, to adjust completely to the way they play and to understand how they see the game.

“It’s unpredictable. Sometimes you’re playing for championship-caliber teams that are so good that if you don’t win by three goals, it

Pare played in three different cities in Switzerland: Geneva, Lausanne and Visp.