Matthews, Marner, Marleau reconnect on video call with season paused

Patrick Marleau was self-quarantining with his family Monday when his wife, Christina, excused herself.

"We're missing a couple kids," she said, "so I have to go find them."
The Marleaus were home in San Jose, where Patrick played forward for the San Jose Sharks from 1997-2017 and again this season before they traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 24.
Two of their sons were in the room. Two weren't.
The funny part was that two others who might as well be their sons were on screen in a video call arranged by the NHL.
There were Toronto Maple Leafs forwards Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews, Marner in his hometown of Toronto, Matthews in his hometown of Phoenix, each wearing a baseball cap backward.
Marner's phone kept ringing at one point.
"Sorry, Pat," Marner said.
Sorry, Dad.
With the NHL season paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, this was a chance for them to catch up, recall how they grew close in the first place and share a few laughs.
RELATED: [Marleau, Matthews, Marner formed bond in two seasons with Maple Leafs]
Marleau signed with the Maple Leafs as an unrestricted free agent July 2, 2017. By the start of the 2017-18 season, he was 38 years old. Marner and Matthews each was 20.
At first, Marleau kept to himself. He had never joined a new team before in the NHL and wanted to ease into the locker room.
"He was pretty quiet the first couple weeks," Matthews said. "He didn't nearly talk to me at all. He was avoiding me."
Marleau said he took a liking to Marner and Matthews. By his recollection, he barged into their hotel room on the first road trip and suggested they hang out.
Matthews remembered going to dinner, coming back to the room and finding Marleau with Marner.
"You were in Mitch's bed …" Matthews said with a laugh.
"Yeah," Marner said.
"… with Mitch and waiting for me, and we were going to watch, like, a movie," Matthews continued.
The movie? Well, it was a Disney movie, of course. "Cars 3."
"That was kind like of a tradition," Matthews said. "Every road trip, we'd put on a movie and order dessert."
Like father and sons.
The first time the Marleaus invited Marner and Matthews to their house for dinner, their biological sons played mini-sticks with their adopted sons. Each time afterward, Marner and Matthews brought extra shorts and T-shirts.
"We knew we were going to get all sweaty playing mini-sticks for hours," Marner said. "I think that's kind of just really where the relationship started, is when we started going over there and hanging out with all the kids, just kind of feeling that really we were part of the family."
Matthews said the relationship evolved quickly over Marleau's two seasons in Toronto.
"Obviously the boys are a blast to hang out with," Matthews said. "I think they liked hanging out with us. We always had a good time. Mini-sticks got intense."

Apple Watches kept the game time, in a sense.
"That's intermission, when something gets broke," Marleau said.
On the call Monday, the family played a version of "The Newlywed Game," in which they would answer questions about each other. It was obvious how well they knew each other and enjoyed spending time together.
Most likely to binge-watch the TV show "Love Is Blind"? Matthews.
Most capable of living on pizza alone? Marner.
Perhaps the most meaningful nugget, though, was a rule Marleau, Marner and Matthews had when they went to dinner together.
"You couldn't touch your phone," Marner said. "If you touched your phone, you had to pay the bill. It was more so that we could kind of just enjoy the presence of each other more, I think just talk about other things, other than just being right down on our phone looking at Twitter, Instagram or texting people. It was a fun way just to be more interactive with each other."
The exception was for Marleau to answer calls from his family.
Being present with family and friends is so important, especially in times like these. We must practice social distancing to stop the spread of the virus, but no matter our physical distance, we don't need to be distant. We shouldn't be distant. When together, we need to put away our phones. Now that we're apart, we need to pull them out and reconnect.
"I think it was really nice to have [Marleau] around on and off the ice and just kind of have somebody to have good conversations with and just a [sounding board] on different things as far life goes and hockey goes," Matthews said.
Matthews and Marner, each 22, stay in touch with Marleau, 40.
"I know that if I ever kind of need something or want to bounce something off somebody, he's a guy that's obviously been through a lot," Matthews said. "I know that he's a close friend of mine and that he's always going to give me an honest feedback and his opinion."
That's bigger than hockey.