By Jane Stevenson, Postmedia Network
toronto24hours.ca/

When former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi is your dad and you’ve decided to pursue hockey, that could be seen as some mighty shadow. But Max Domi, 21, a 5-foot-9 forward with the Arizona Coyotes since 2015, seems to handle the burden — if any — well when he comes back to The Six. “[I’m] definitely not royalty [here] but it’s fun — I love being in Toronto,” said the Winnipeg-born, T.O.-raised Domi. “I grew up here so this is home for me.” We caught up with the younger Domi, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 12, recently at an Ascensia Diabetes event in Toronto where he’d partnered with Contour Next on a new web platform for people with diabetes.

HOCKEY IN THE DESERT: “There’s a huge attention-grabbing aspect to the Coyotes. They’ve always had fans but it’s unfortunate where our rink is [in Glendale]. But overall the fan base is unbelievable there. They’re loyal fans. They’re great people. It’s fun to be a part of. I mean I would never want to leave there. I enjoy being a Coyote; it’s a special organization. [The rink] is a bit of a hike but we still get great crowds and that’s the only flaw. That’s home for me now and I enjoy every second of it.”

RETURN TO THE SIX: “Just in the summertime, I’m here for a couple of months back and forth between Toronto and Muskoka so I get a fair amount of time in the city. All my buddies are here. It’s amazing how much you start missing things [like] Burger Shack is a place, on Oriole Parkway and Eglinton. I grew up at Avenue and Lawrence so it’s right around the corner from us. I went to UCC, so whenever it would be like a half day, me and mom would always go to lunch there when I was a kid. There’s still stuff like that when you drive past there, it brings you back down memory lane.”

WALKING THE WALK: “My partnership with Contour Next was pretty unbelievable. They set up a pretty good platform for us to have a good voice and for us to get the message out there. And that’s what it’s all about, so [I’m] having a lot of fun with that and just trying to spread the word and educate as many people as possible on what it’s like to be a Type 1 diabetic.”

COYOTES CRYSTAL BALL: “Hopefully [we’ll be] making the playoffs and then once we get to the playoffs, the sky’s the limit from there. Just got to get there and that’s the tough part. And then the real challenge starts once you get there. Winning a Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in sports to win.”

FATHERLY ADVICE: “[He taught me] just to be a good person and work as hard as possible. If you can do those two things everything else will take care of itself essentially. Work ethic is something pretty easy to do. If you want something you just got to go and get it. And I told myself I was going to play in the NHL so I just had to do whatever it took to get there and now I’m there so it’s just a matter of staying, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a challenge and when you challenge yourself it’s always sort of satisfying, when you climb over that hump and you achieve whatever you set out to achieve.”

EARLY DIAGNOSIS: “The first question I asked was if I could still play hockey and as soon as the doctor said I could, it was bring it on … He answered that it was a walk in the park. [But] It’s a very complex disease, there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it, a ton of variables, and you’ve got to be pretty educated on yourself and understand how your body works. So I’ve learned about it and just being a professional athlete, it really helps me out quite a bit.”

NO HOCKEY HEADACHES: “This last year I didn’t miss a single shift because of the blood sugar going low. And I can say that pretty proudly because it’s not easy to do that. My training staff are the reason why I can do it. The doctors we have on staff and, especially my teammates, those guys are number one, and they take care of me just like anyone would.”