As I head off to the NHL Combine, I just had a great interview with Tommy Bleyl, a fast-rising defenseman who has a chance to be a late first-rounder or early second. Either way, he grew up in Glenville, New York, and all native New Yorkers have one thing in common – we all have views on pizza. Bleyl is no different, and this season, he searched for it in Moncton, which is a city in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada.

“It’s pretty different,” he said nicely. “They have some different ways of making pizza. I mean, it’s not bad by any means. It’s definitely different and something that I had to get used to over the course of the year because, as a team, our trainers like to get us some meatlovers pizza after games, just, you know, just to get the protein and nutrients back in us.”

That’s a solid plan and a great way to get to eat pizza, but I’ve eaten pizza in Canada, and Tommy is right. It’s ok. But it doesn’t compare to New York. And that extends outside of New York City. I enjoyed the square pizza in Windsor.

“I always struggled to kind of eat that because it wasn’t anywhere near as close to New York pizza,” he admitted. “I kind of hoped it takes a little bit of getting used to. There are some places in Moncton that I sometimes go to to get pizza, like Boston Pizza.”

I stopped him there. I’ve eaten there. It’s Domino’s quality. 

We did continue on this food journey.

“I love pizza and tacos and stuff like that. I’m a guy who loves to have diverse meals. My grandmother is Korean; she makes a lot of dumplings and fried rice,” Bleyl stated. “I love my different meals from different countries. My other grandmother is Irish, and she’ll make Irish Soda Bread during St. Patrick’s Day or around that time, and I love that. They make cakes too. They both make really good food.”

His cheat meal circles back to the start of this conversation.

“When I take a day off, pizza and ranch are my go-to.”

He’s a likeable guy, and he’s a terrific hockey player. Let’s see who drafts him later this month.