He says he has no idea where it came from. He didn’t know he did it until a teammate told him about it. It was just pure emotion and excitement.
“Obviously I would have loved to have had a moment like that as an Avalanche when I was there,” he said. “It always bothers me that we never had success with the teams I was on, but I mean, my wife is from Denver. We have a lot of friends and family there, so it was cool to experience a moment like that on that ice.
Ashley says she jumped on the bed in her pajamas, then went to Beau’s room to wake him up.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, we won. We’re moving on to the next round,'” she said. “He just looked at me. I’m like, ‘Daddy scored!’ And then he high-fived me and went back to sleep. It was so cute.
One of the best parts about this is that Beau is old enough to appreciate it.
“He’s really caught the hockey bug this year, and the fact that he’s on this journey with me right now is really, really special,” Matt said. “Every morning he comes to ask me, if he didn’t stay awake during the match, how we did. Sometimes I have to tell him bad news, but when I get to tell him good news, it’s really fun.
Matt tries to keep this in perspective.
“Internally, inside our room, inside me, there’s this pressure and this desire to take this opportunity, and I think it’s something new for me,” he says. “I don’t think I handled it well at times, but I think I’m getting used to it. …
“The most important thing is you want to turn that pressure, the gravity of the moment, into energy and excitement and try to remember just being in the aisle when you were a kid. I mean, I can see my son doing this every day. He goes out and plays with his friends. He’s already talking about the Stanley Cup. He’s 5 years old. He doesn’t even really know yet what that means and what it is. This is how I grew up and now I live it.
“I have to, over the next couple of rounds, do a better job of really enjoying this. I think as a team we’re a whole, and the guys understand the opportunity we have, so it’s going to get harder and harder, and we’re looking forward to it.
