Rangers and their dads bond on Father's Weekend trip
Chris Kreider of the Rangers celebrates his overtime goal against the Flyers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1. Credit: Jim McIsaac
NASHVILLE – After the Rangers blew out the Red Wings in Detroit in the first game of this Father’s Weekend road trip, coach Gerard Gallant joked that he wanted the dads to join the Blueshirts on every road trip.
And while he was (probably) kidding, it did seem on Saturday that the Rangers were a very relaxed team as they prepared for the finale of the trip, at Bridgestone Arena against the struggling Nashville Predators.
“It’s been a lot of fun,’’ Chris Kreider said with a smile when asked at Saturday’s morning skate about having the dads around. “It's been a good time. It’s good to spend time with them. I had a couple good dinners, and (enjoyed being) able to hang out with them and share some good moments.’’
The players and dads enjoyed a day off in Nashville Friday, and got to play a little golf on an unseasonably warm mid-November day. Naturally, it’s been a great experience for the 17 dads on the trip, too, to be able to bond with their sons and each other. For the Rangers, this is the first parents trip since before the COVID pandemic.
“It's great to spend time with the players (and) meet the dads,’’ John Goodrow, Barclay’s dad, said. “To have a win in such impressive fashion in Detroit made it a fantastic trip to Nashville. And then, (Nashville)'s been great, too… It brings back a lot of memories of the minor hockey days where you go to tournaments and the dads hang out and get a coffee and we watch our boys on the ice. It's fantastic.’’
Mehrdad Zibanejad, Mika’s father, got to read the starting lineup to the team in the locker room before the Detroit game, which was Mika Zibanejad’s 700th in the NHL.
“They asked me,’’ Mehrdad Zibanejad said of reading the lineup. “But I enjoyed it, and wasn't nervous, for sure.’’
His son scored two goals in an 8-2 Rangers win.
Mehrdad Zibanejad was an athlete himself, playing volleyball for the Iran national team and playing in Sweden as well, after moving there. He also played soccer at a high level. Initially, he did not want his son playing ice hockey because he didn’t enjoy the idea of freezing inside hockey rinks every day while watching his son play.
He got young Mika a tennis coach and hoped he’d choose that sport. But the Zibanejads lived within walking distance of a hockey rink, and Mika’s older half-brother, Monir Kalgoum, was a hockey player. Mika wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps, and kept pressing his parents that he wanted to play hockey.
“One day he said to his aunt, 'Please tell my dad I don't want to play (tennis), I want to go play hockey,' ’’ Mehrdad Zibanejad recalled. “And I gave up.’’
Growing up in Toronto, Barclay Goodrow never had to convince his parents to let him play hockey, though John Goodrow said his son and two daughters played multiple sports when they were young. John Goodrow had played college football for the University of Toronto and was drafted into the Canadian Football League. He opted to pass on the CFL and pursue a CPA license instead.
Still, sports were a big thing in the Goodrow household, and Barclay played soccer, rugby, and basketball, and ran track. In high school, he gave up the other sports to focus on hockey.
The elder Goodrow was on his fifth Father’s Trip, the first four coming while Barclay was playing for the San Jose Sharks. Mehrdad Zibanejad – who moved to the U.S. from Sweden after his son was drafted into the NHL by the Ottawa Senators, just so he’d be nearby and able to support him – was on his fourth Father’s Trip.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
