Martine Auclair Vlasic: This week we see one side of the hockey world that they don’t talk about too much: the long road trip. We also get to hear Martine talk openly about their struggles in having children. She has talked openly about not having kids yet and how hard it is. A personal aside, there is something really weird about asking people why they don’t have kids yet. Martine seems to put a lot of pressure on Marc to win, but she does seem to care about him quite a bit. One thing that wears on me with Martine is the fact that she demands so much from him on hockey. I will give her credit on one thing: she understands that she can take her time going to San Jose if the Sharks have a road trip at the start of the season and did just that.
Erica Lundmark: We start to see how her and Jamie function on two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Erica’s dad comes and helps her out when needed, sometimes her kids have to come with her to open houses on the weekends and they put up lemonade stands to support a charity that fights childhood cancer. Erica points out that one of the downsides of kids growing up in a locker room is her kids think that the only job out there is playing hockey. Erica is careful to point out there are other careers and that is evident with her support in helping their oldest try and get into modelling/acting which is something he wants. Erica is clearly stressed by not having Jamie at home and is even willing to keep on doing this for years, but it is clear that she misses having a partner to deal with having three kids
Mari-Pier Morin: MP drives me crazy because she knows that Brandon treats her really badly and that she does most of the work in their relationship. That said, she needs to lay it all out for him because she tells everyone else how she feels, but is seems like she has never told Brandon that this is how she feels. MP is good at focussing just on her work when she needs to, but at some point she needs to deal with her personal life and realize that she needs to deal wit the problems that she has noticed in how Brandon treats her. Brandon has not really talked to her since she left Toronto and this seems to be an ongoing issue that he refuses to deal with. Oddly enough, near the end of the episode she starts talking like this relationship is over.
Catherine Laflamme: Alex Letang is adorable and is good at playing mini-sticks with his dad. We then get to hear about how all the injuries weigh on Catherine. When she sees Kris (Letang) get hurt, she worries until she hears what has happened. Alex always tells him not to get hurt when he leaves…which reminds me of when my mom used to play water polo and would go play in tournaments. Then we get to see how much Catherine cares about Halloween and she makes sure her and Kris go all out. Now here is a major difference between NHLers and us other humans: they get a professional photographer to come by and take some quick pictures before the team party. Finally, we hear about how she has had two miscarriages since having Alex and how hard it was on her because they really want to have more kids.
