When one of your best buddies is on the ice to celebrate a big career moment, he’s not going to miss an opportunity to throw a quick chirp in first.
"I might have made fun of the speed with which the puck was moving or something,” grinned Dennis Gilbert about his pal Nick DeSimone’s first NHL goal Thursday night in a 3-0 win over the Ducks in Anaheim.
"I think he told me it was a muffin. I got lucky. It was a great play by Zar (Connor Zary). I think a lot of that kind of stuff,” confirmed DeSimone after practice Friday in Los Angeles.
The truth is, there’s no one who understands what that first NHL goal meant for DeSimone better than Gilbert – his fellow Buffalonian and childhood pal, who essentially grew up alongside him.
"I was so happy for him. He's been working so hard and he's been like one of my best friends but also a role model for so long for me,” said Gilbert.
“To see how long he's worked, through all of his American League games, and all of his off-seasons, to finally get a chance last year and then this year to come up and play well for the team and then to score, it's a dream come true for him, obviously, and (I’m) so happy for him and his family.”
At 29 years old, DeSimone may have waited a little longer than most to score that first one, but it was well worth the wait.
"It was awesome.” DeSimone said after the game. “Finally, get the first one out of the way – now everybody can stop talking about it and we can just keep going. Some of my buddies from back home telling me, ‘Why is it taking so long?’”
Well, his phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since then – those same buddies included.
"I’ve heard from quite a lot of people, still trying to get back to all of them today,” DeSimone said. “Everybody that's been there for me over the years. You know, I've played a lot of places, met a lot of good people, so it's really cool to share that with people I care about."
The reality is he’s been ready for this opportunity for a long time, and now he’s seizing it.
"You have to be. You don't get many of them. I always believed in myself and a lot of people believed in my too which was huge for me maybe when I didn't believe it for a little bit,” DeSimone said of his path that included over 300 AHL games.
“Well, first off, he’s definitely old – like he’s been doing it for a while and a lot of games,” said the 27-year-old Gilbert, who had to get another quick quip in there.
“But he's been an NHL player for a few years now, I think.
“You can tell it was more about just finding the right situation, organizational fit. A lot of it's just timing, it's luck you got to get a good bounce, or something happen at the right time and be playing good at the right time. But he's been ready for it for a while.”
Now, for the last five games. The Buffalo Boys have been paired together, giving the Flames some quality minutes on the backend.
Just like their days in the OJHL, with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, where they spent most of the 2013-14 season playing together.
“There's a picture that one of our buddies has, he posts every time we're paired together for the Flames. He puts that pair and then the pairing on the lineup (from back then). It’s pretty funny,” Gilbert explained.
