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Adam Erne’s awkward call-up moment

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by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 2, 2017


BRANDON, Fla. – Adam Erne picked up his phone and quickly answered without thinking who might be on the other end.

Erne had just called his dad, Erik, and when he didn’t pick up, left a message for him to call him back.

So when his phone rang a few minutes after leaving the message, Erne just assumed it was his dad getting back to him. Only it wasn’t his dad on the other end.

“If (dad) doesn’t answer me he usually calls me back right away,” Erne said. “So I didn’t even look at the call, I just pressed answer and I don’t remember exactly how I answered the phone, but I answered it like it was my dad so I was probably like “Hey, what’s up’’ and it turns out to be Mr. Yzerman. I thought, “oh (crap)’.”

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That’s how Erne’s phone call, telling him he was being called up to the NHL for the first time, started out.

“I don’t think (Yzerman) really noticed,” Erne said of the greeting he gave.” Me, I would have answered the phone a little differently if I had known it was him and I guess you answer the phone a little differently when it’s your dad as opposed to Mr. Yzerman. Then I looked at my phone again and I noticed it was him, so I was a little shocked.”

That initial shock turned in to a different sort of shock – the excited kind when he was told he was being called up. His thoughts immediately went to his parents.

“I think this is a much of an accomplishment for them as it is for me,” Erne said. “They put in a lot of years and a lot of money for me to be able to be here. It’s obviously a lot of work on my part, but I think a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff goes unnoticed. So it was good to call them and let them know that I got called up. Hopefully I can get in a game, but either way they are excited for me either way.”

Erne was on the ice for practice on Monday and was called up due to a lower body injury suffered by Brian Boyle during Saturday’s victory against Carolina.

While Boyle appears doubtful at best to be able to play, Ryan Callahan appears close to returning to the lineup as he took part in a full practice on Monday, taking Boyle’s spot on the line with Valtteri Filppula and Jonathan Drouin. Though Callahan has been close before, a return on Tuesday against Winnipeg (Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM, 7:30 p.m.) seems a strong possibility.

“He’s definitely day-to-day now and that day-to-day could turn in to playing (Tuesday),” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.

Erne, meanwhile, was working primarily on the fourth line with J.T. Brown and Yanni Gourde during practice. But if he does get in the lineup, Erne is a prototype power forward, a bigger frame who is difficult to move from the front of the net area with good hands around the crease.

“He’s one of these young guys who’s getting his chance now,” Cooper said. “He’s developed in the American League and it’s hard to find those guys who are big, strong, can skate and possess skill. He’s honed his game down in the American League, he’s earned his call up and that’s what we are hoping to see if he plays.”

It likely helps Erne to be able to look around and see many of his teammates from Syracuse dressing in the locker room with him, including Matthew Peca, who has played on the same line with Erne throughout most of the season.

“I texted Peca as soon as I got called up and said they can’t separate us this year,” Erne said.

Erne is one of nearly a dozen Syracuse players to get called up at some point this season due to a plethora of injuries suffered by the Lightning throughout the first half of the season. But as he saw others get the call, he never felt slighted in any way that he had not gotten the chance until now.

“We have a lot older guys that they know what they bring to the table every night. It’s something that I had to take longer to earn their respect in that manner that I can bring it every single night,” Erne said. “And that’s the one thing in Syracuse, we have a really, really, really good group of guys, we are all supportive of each other, there’s no jealousy in the locker room. That’s the one thing, when you deserve your chance to get called up, you’re going to get called up.”

Now Erne hopes that turns in to his chance to suit up in his first NHL game.

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