Brad Larsen

Brad Larsen: Captain Of The Home Team

by Benjy Eisen

The Harley Davidson website offers the following bit of advice about destinations: “The best way to get there is to just go.” Brad Larsen would have to agree. He’s got a hog and he loves to ride. “That’s one of those things where you can really clear your mind and just forget about everything,” he says. In some ways, Larsen fits the image of the legendary outlaws long associated with the bikes. He’s been in his fair share of fisticuffs, he doesn’t back down, and of all the games out there, he plays perhaps the toughest of them all. But Brad Larsen is no Hell’s Angel. He’s a Hershey Bear.

In the book Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig draws a distinction between drivers and riders: “In a car, you’re always in a compartment and because you’re used to it, you don’t realize that through the car window, everything you see is just more than TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore.”

That would explain why a 1999 Softail Custom rider like Brad Larsen would be on a hockey team, would in fact, be captain of that team, and why he would constantly be driving it forward, always in motion, always hands on. He started playing hockey when he was 3, leaving home when he was 15 to pursue it as a career. Four years of cutting teeth in the WHL, each year showing concrete improvement. His first year he scored 15 goals, 18 assists. His fourth year, he scored 36 goals, 46 assists.

He came to the Hershey Bears in 1997-1998 after Colorado picked up his rights (The Hershey Bears are the farm team for the Colorado Avalanche). He earned 22 points that year. This year, with six games left, Larsen has already doubled that. And it’s his third consecutive year as team captain.

“I don’t look at it like since I’m the captain I’ve got to do something special,” Larsen maintains. “I try to play my game and work hard and that’s usually why you were made captain — because they like some of those qualities that you bring to the ice and that’s what you want to do every night. There’s different ways to be a captain. You’re just one of those guys that are relied on to be a leader.”

Going into the game this past Sunday at Hersheypark Arena, if there was one thing the Bears needed it was good a leader. The Bears had dropped four of their last five games. They were holding onto the last playoff spot by three easily squandered points. They were up against a team with a much better record.

It couldn’t have been scripted better. The game is tied at 1-1, just under halfway through. Larsen scores on a rebound, putting the Bears ahead. They fall behind again. Now, it’s third period and they’re losing by one. The Bears on the power play. Larsen stays in front of the net, sacrificing himself to heavy hitting in order to create possibilities. It pays off and he assists on a goal. The Bears go on to win it 5-3.

Watching the game, it becomes obvious why Brad Larsen is the captain. He plays a tough, physical game. He makes shots on goal. He looks around a lot on the ice, always aware of where the other players are. He passes to his teammates. He communicates with them throughout the game. Early on, when the Bears are behind, Larsen gets thrown to the ice. Rather than retaliate, he sucks it up so as not to penalize his team. Later on, when things are tied up, someone crosschecks him from behind, knocking him down. Larsen springs up and attacks, defending his honor. In the end, Larsen tallies one goal, one assist, two penalties. He is named one of the three stars of the game. It is a big game. Larsen responds by playing big.

“It seems like all the big games, if you’ve got a player like Brad Larsen it does something to give your team the edge. And I think that’s how you determine who your leaders really are. When the going gets tough, the tough players like Brad Larsen get going and they bring up the rest of the team with them” says Bear’s coach, Mike Foligno, explaining why he appointed him captain early on, when Larsen was just 21 years old.

But growing up, Larsen never wanted to be captain of a team. All he wanted to do was play hockey in the NHL. And he’s done it. His first game with the Colorado Avalanche was on a call-up in March of 1998. This year, he entered training camp with the Avalanche and got the call for nine games during the regular season.

“I’m close to living my dream” he admits. “My dream is to be a full time player in the NHL. I’m close, but I’m not quite there.”

He has already worn the uniform, been in the locker room, used the showers. Several times now, he’s been given just a couple hours notice before boarding a plane headed straight the National Hockey League. “You’re excited all the way there and as soon as you throw that Avalanche jersey on it’s just a whole different experience.”

Larsen is so close now to living that dream that it has got to be painful. Dentist office painful. It must be frustrating as hell to be called up for several weeks, as he was, to play nine games with what is probably the greatest team in hockey right now, in the greatest of the hockey leagues, stepping in for one of the greatest players (Peter Forsberg), and then getting sent back down. It’s like being given a taste of the apple but then being cast out of the garden … again. Getting there is the only reason Brad Larsen is here. He knows that’s how it has to happen. Perhaps he’d rather be in Colorado right now, but that doesn’t stop him from giving it his all night after night to make the win for Hershey.

“The better you do here, the better your chance of going up” he says, “so it’s one of those things where you work hard — and I’m a Hershey Bear when I’m down here, I’m not an Avalanche.”

It’s another lesson to be learned from riding a hog. On the road, it doesn’t matter where you’re going, or even where you want to go. The only way to get there is by passing through here. And the only way to pass through here is to keep your eye on the road.

Since joining the Hershey Bears four years ago, Larsen has seen the gates open for guys he’s played with, guys on the team, guys who, just like him, had the hunger and got to bite. “That’s what you want to see is guys moving up. It gives you hope,” he said.

“Serge Aubin is a classic case. He was close to quitting hockey and he was real frustrated with the game. He got traded to us, last year he had 40 goals and look at him now,” Larsen reflects, tracing Aubin’s inspirational run from Hershey to Colorado to his current position with the Columbus Blue Jackets, “There is a great example of a guy who just put his nose to the grindstone, kept working and now he’s in the NHL.”

So he’d rather be living in a house in Denver than in an apartment in Harrisburg. He’d rather be in the NHL than the AHL. He’d rather be an Avalanche, or a Flyer, or a Ranger or a Maple Leaf or any of them than a Hershey Bear. Yet the Hershey Bears have made him their captain for the past three years and, in turn, Brad Larsen has embraced both the team and the fans. It is a full two-armed embrace, even if he does keep an eye on the door.

After all, as all Harley Davidson enthusiasts know, it’s not always about the destination so much as the colorful roads that get you there. Brad Larsen is counting on that. And when he arrives, he’ll be able to look back at the roads that led into and out of Hershey and say, “Man, what a ride!”

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