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A Mantha Family Christmas

December 24, 2017, 2:51 PM ET [9 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It’s where hockey started for Anthony Mantha, and it’s where he spends his holiday season every year.

“It all comes down to the outdoor rink, with dad, grandpa, sisters, and friends,” Detroit Red Wings right-winger Mantha said of growing up in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, Que. “I would live probably a two-minute walking distance from a nice little pond.

“We would bring our net and and stay on there for hours.”

Anthony, his sisters Kim, Elizabeth and Barbara, his dad Daniel and especially his grandfather Andre Pronovost would lace up their skates, grab their sticks and set out chasing that puck.

Mantha will never forget those days skating on the pond with his family . . . mainly because they continue.
“Still to this day, every Christmas, both families - my mom’s and my dad’s - meet up and we play hockey, a little pick up game,” Mantha said, proving you can take the kid from the neighborhood pond to the big pond but no matter how far he goes or how big he makes it, you’ll never take the kid out of him.

There is some real talent in the Mantha family tree. Beyond Mantha, who leads the Wings this season with 13 goals, there’s his sister Elizabeth, a defender who won a USport bronze medal in women’s hockey with the Montreal Carabins, and our course, his grandfather.

Mantha will be the first to admit that he was offered a bit of an advantage when it came to understanding what he was going to need to do in order to earn a career in the NHL.

That’s because his grandfather - Andre Pronovost, the man who would skate with young Mantha on the pond - was a bit of a legend in Montreal.

From 1956-60, the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup five years in a row. No other NHL team has ever done that, and Mantha’s grandfather played on the last four of those teams.

Pronovost, a left winger, scored 16 goals for the 1957-58 Canadiens, one fewer than Mantha scored for the Red Wings during the 2016-17 NHL season.

The men Mantha’s grandfather played alongside, the men who came to the house to visit and spend time with him and his grandfather, were living legends - Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Boom-Boom Geoffrion, and of course, the captain of those outstanding Montreal teams, Maurice (Rocket) Richard, the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season.

Mantha never witnessed any of these great men playing the game, but he knew of their exploits - obviously, due to his grandfather’s tales, and also because when you are raised in Montreal, you study all there is to learn about the tradition of the Canadiens.

“Being a French-Canadian, your idol is Maurice Richard,” Mantha said. “He’s probably one of the best players that played hockey. That my grandpa played with him, you know, it’s something he’d tell me stories about.”

Mantha’s grandfather would take him to the Habs games, fueling his love for the game even more.

“When I was younger, he brought me to the rink, brought me skating,” Mantha said. “From around the age of 8-9 to 15-16, he told me to just have fun. Those are the years that you need to have fun.

“Once I started playing junior, he was more talking to me about what I needed to do, probably more of this and that. He knew what the scouts were looking for.

“We would talk on how to get my game better. He’s just been great for me throughout the years.”

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