1. BlueJackets.com: Did you play any other sports besides hockey growing up?
Damon Severson: “Yeah, pretty much everything that I could play growing up, I did. There was really not much to do other than sports, and I wasn't a gamer, like an Xbox or PlayStation guy, so I played everything I could. I was always outdoors. Hockey was No. 1. Baseball was a big one for me, it was No. 2. Football was No. 3, I would say, and basketball was No. 4. So, I played everything high school-wise, and then once hockey took over the later years of high school, I had to slow down. I still played baseball in the summer until I was about 18, I would say, and then kind of had to focus more on hockey.”
Did you consider playing any other sports professionally?
“After high school I actually had to make a decision. It would have been right around when I was drafted to New Jersey. I was basically baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter, and I chose hockey over baseball mostly because I was a little bit better at it and I'm Canadian, and I just wasn't sure about the baseball route. I didn’t want to play 162 games a year, so I’d rather take half that. Being from Canada, it’s like hockey is the game. So, my coach told me, ‘I got you a college scholarship lined up and everything,’ and I'm just like, ‘No, don't worry about it. I appreciate that, but I just I'm going to stick to hockey.’”
2. What sports do you like to watch now?
“I watch hockey obviously a lot. Being in the States now regularly for the past 10 years, football is obviously big on Sundays. I watch with the guys or whoever, get together with friends or family. And then I do watch a lot of baseball in the summer. Toronto is Canada's team. They're always on TVs throughout the whole country. So, whether it's like an afternoon or whatever, middle of summer evening around dinnertime just having it on in the background, so I don't watch it religiously. But I enjoy watching, and playoffs is the biggest thing for sure.”
Any favorite football teams?
“I wouldn't say like teams. I’m not a favorite team kind of guy, I'm like a favorite player type of guy. I'm a big fan of watching (Patrick) Mahomes. I like him obviously, he’s super electric. When I moved in here to New Albany one of my neighbors, he's from Maryland, so he's a big Ravens fan. And so I've kind of, just to have good banter back and forth with him, I’ve become a little bit more of a Ravens fan. I like Lamar Jackson too, he’s a good quarterback. So, I more or less watch for players rather than teams.”
3. What has it been like since coming to Columbus?
“Off the ice has been easy. It's been great, super friendly people. Like I said about my neighbors, they made me very welcome. My wife and I have a small dog and he just kind of buzzes around the neighborhood and meets other people and other dogs, so it's been super easy off the ice. On the ice, obviously there was a transition, getting used to new teammates and systems and all that stuff. The first few games were not my best, and then I picked it up from there. Then recently coming off the injury, just trying to get back up to speed and everything. So, on the ice has been a lot more of an adjustment than off the ice, which is great. But now it's just a matter of helping the team win some more games for sure.”
4. Do you have any hobbies outside of hockey?
“A little bit. When we bought the house, it came with a basketball hoop in our driveway, so I shoot hoops every once in a while. I just love being outside. Obviously now it's cold, but we were fortunate pretty much up until this last week here. The weather's been fine, so I do stuff in the yard, clean stuff up, just little things here and there. My hobbies are being outside in the yard with my wife and the dog. She always gives me a hard time because I'm always like outside leaf blowing and making sure the driveway is always clean and making sure everything looks good. So, I'd say nothing crazy. I mean, just watch a lot of sports. I watch hockey. We go to lunch. We have a few of our lunch spots. Brassica is one of them that I really enjoy.”
5. I’ve heard you have a bit of a squirrel issue. Can you elaborate?
“Yeah, so the way our house is set up, we have like, pretty much the main point (of) the house, and there's like a different staircase that goes into our guest suite. And the only people who stay there are guests. So, we had a bunch of people staying with us at the start of October, November and the start of December. And then for the past month or so we haven't had anybody staying there. So usually when people are staying with us, my wife will go up there and clean stuff, and she heard squirrels. So, we got it checked. Yeah, there were squirrels that were getting into our one little pipe, and something was unhooked. I didn't want to go up in the attic to figure it out. So, I've yet to hire somebody to come do it just because of the holidays and everything. I literally just have to make a call, whether it's an exterminator to get rid of them -- which I don't really want to do because they’re not doing anything wrong, they’re just trying to find a warm place to go for winter -- or else I just have to basically put a cap on where they're getting in. As long as they're out, and then I cap it, then they won’t be able to come back in.”
