WORCESTER—Every goalie has a different reason for liking the position, a reason that makes sense to them, but perhaps nobody else.
For Railers’ rookie Tristan Lennox, it was an apparel thing.
Growing up in Cambridge, Ontario, he began his hockey career as a skater, not a goaltender. Lennox was a good skater, a good offensive player.
“That changed when I was about 10 years old,” he recalled, “because I always loved the gear. I was a good player, and my dad always gets mad at me when we talk about it because I was scoring like four or five goals a game.
“Then I just went up to him and said, ‘I like the gear and I want to be a goalie.”
That was that and here Lennox is in Worcester, the second-youngest goalie ever to play for the Railers. Jakub Skarek was 19. Colten Ellis was 21 years, 18 days, and Lennox turned 21 the day before he made his pro debut with Worcester on Oct. 22.
Cambridge is a town in that appendix of Ontario that points toward Detroit. Cambridge is closer to Hamilton than Toronto, but Toronto is the go-to place from Lennox’s hometown. He is a Blue Jays fan and follows the Raptors, too.
The Maple Leafs?
Yes, to some extent.
“I like watching them,” he said, “but I’m not hard core. I like them because when I was growing up my dad always had them on TV. He’s always loved them, always raved about those old Leafs teams with Wendell Clark and Doug Gilmour…guys like that.”
More than a Maple Leafs fan, perhaps, Lennox is a goaltender fan. His favorites are Martin Brodeur and the Bruins’ Tim Thomas. Adirondack goaltender Jeremy Brodeur is Martin Brodeur’s son, so Lennox got to meet him when the Thunder came to town earlier this season.
“Seems like a great guy,” was Lennox’s impression of the goalie who beat the Railers in overtime, 5-4, on Nov. 4. Lennox has never met Thomas, but liked his unique style.
“He’s just a freak athlete,” Lennox said. “I don’t know how he did it, how he kept the puck out of the net. He just did it so well.”
The Railers’ rookie is also a fan of Tuuka Rask’s but wasn’t able to say hello to him a couple of weeks back when Rask was at the DCU Center with the Bruins alumni.
Lennox looked into playing college hockey but chose Major Junior and spent parts of four seasons tending goal for Saginaw of the Ontario League. In 2021, he was drafted by the Islanders in the third round so the decision worked out well.
Lennox is off to a good start as a pro. His record going into the Railers’ upcoming three-in-three weekend is 3-2-1. He is coming off consecutive victories in Newfoundland, both by one goal. They were quite different scores, though, a 5-4 win in the first game and a 2-1 win in overtime in the second.
The transition to the ECHL has been substantial but not overwhelming.
“It’s a big jump for sure,” Lennox said. “I’m lucky enough that I’ve been able to experience it for three years now going to Islanders camp and seeing the speed, stuff like that. But it’s definitely different. The guys are bigger, stronger, faster, everything.”
Lennox’s family has been down to see him in Worcester already this season. He is lucky in that his dad loves renting cars and driving. It won’t take too many trips from Cambridge to Worcester before he knows exactly which New York Thruway rest area comes after Canajoharie.
Lennox has never looked back on making the switch from putting the puck in the net to keep it out and is doing the thing he likes best on skates.
“I think stopping somebody is more fun,” he said. “I know other people will say otherwise, but I think taking it away from somebody is better.”
Plus, you get to wear all that gear.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
