After Ovechkin arrived and introduced himself, Trueblood asked if he could tie his skates for him. Although Trueblood plays for the Frederick Victory and Stars travel hockey programs in Frederick, Maryland, and can tie his own skates, his father, Jason Trueblood, explained, “He’s pretty particular about his skates.”
“He ties them, but he doesn’t like the way that he ties them,” Kristy Trueblood said. “So, I’m sure having a little NHL expertise on that today, he’ll never be able to do it correctly again. Never again.”
While skating with Ovechkin, Trueblood used the opportunity to pick his brain for “hockey tips.”
“Like how to get a better shot, because he has a really good slap shot,” Trueblood said. “He said, ‘Just shoot it’ and ‘work hard.’ That kind of stuff.”
Trueblood’s 6-year-old sister Evyn joined them with Ovechkin holding each of by the hand as they circled the rink.
“I think it just speaks to the organizations that they want to include the siblings,” Jason Trueblood said. “The siblings are kind of the unsung heroes of a lot of these stories that they have go through it to and a lot of them don’t understand it.”
Some of the children had not skated previously, so they used trainer stands to help them stay upright. Others were just as happy to be pushed around in a chair.
That was the case for Eliza Pierce, a 5-year-old being treated for precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who was paired with Capitals center Dylan Strome.
“It means a lot for her to have a day that’s all about her and getting to have fun and try something new with people that she’s seen on TV before,” Sammi Pierce, Eliza’s mother, said. “She’s having a blast.”
