"Light years more, it's crazy having him here and being able to point up to him at the end of the game and let him know that one was for him," he said after the game.
Dermott drove his dad Jim to tears after becoming the first of two Toronto Maple Leafs defensemen to score his first NHL goal in their 5-0 win against the New York Islanders on Wednesday.
"It was quite the night," Jim Dermott told NHL.com. "I'm reflecting back to the day after I got married, you're smiling for so many photographs and then all of a sudden you realize your face is sore."
Jim was at the game as part of the Maple Leafs Dads Trip, which started Wednesday and will continue with their game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, TSN4) before concluding on Saturday against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden (7 p.m. ET; NHLN-US, CBC, TVA Sports, CITY, NESN, NHL.TV).
When Travis redirected William Nylander's pass past Thomas Greiss to make the game 4-0, Jim beamed from a luxury suite while his son celebrated with his teammates. Jim even shed a tear after he appeared on the in-arena television when the sellout crowd at Air Canada Centre gave the father-son duo a standing ovation.
"It was pretty interesting to see him down that low," Jim said. "He's never been shy to be a little bit more aggressive in the offensive end but he's had a few opportunities this year to get a goal so I was trying not to be too excited about the opportunity. Once the puck went in, I had to double check it was actually him that put it in. The exuberance behind the net, I've seen some picture of that this morning, his face, he wears his emotions on his sleeve."
Auston Matthews was nice enough to fish the puck out of the net and salvage the souvenir that the Dermotts will undoubtedly cherish forever.
Dermott added an assist on Justin Holl's first NHL goal in the third period that made the game 5-0. Holl was recalled on an emergency basis after Ron Hainsey was forced to miss the game with illness, and unfortunately his dad was not in attendance. But Holl's goal came in his first NHL game, and he became the first Maple Leafs defenseman to pull off that feat since Ron Wilson in 1978, according to Sportsnet.
Dermott was named first star of the game, and Holl was No. 2. Safe to say, Wednesday was a good day to be a young member of the Maple Leafs.
"I sat beside Travis on the plane, we chatted a bit and had a bit of food on the plane and then before you know it we touched down in New York," Jim said about the flight to New York after the game. "We went right to the hotel and right to bed. It took a while to fall asleep but I did go to bed right away."
