GENE'S BLOG: Talbot Twins

It's 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. On a typical weekday morning, some people would be busy putting the finishing touches to their kids lunches or maybe they are dropping them off at school. They might be hopping in the shower before work. There's a chance they could be caught in morning rush hour traffic. A few people might even be sleeping in but that's not what the Talbots', Kelly and Cam, were doing on a not-so-typical morning. The goalie and his gal were at the hospital awaiting the birth of twins. A boy and a girl.

The fact the Talbots were having twins wasn't a surprise, or at least, not a huge surprise because they aren't the first one's in the family to have two babies at once. On Kelly's side, her grandmother is one-half of a set of twins. On Cam's side, he has cousins that are twins. It was bound to happen and it happened to Kelly and Cam. College sweethearts from when they first met at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. They had a family weekend at school. The athlete's brothers, sisters, parents come for a visit. Cam's teammate was Kelly's brother. They met, dated, married and on Wednesday became parents to a baby boy and girl.

Talbot has been preparing for this and maybe, better put, his wife has been. The doctor told them it was a set of the biggest twins he had ever seen. Cam's mother-in-law arrived to lend a helping hand and do what she could to make this as easy as possible. Even with everything scheduled to happen the morning of October 19th, a backup plan was in place. Kelly had phone numbers for three of the Oilers staff, including Pat Garland from team services and Stephen Lines, the club's massage therapist, just in case baby one and two wanted to make an early entrance into the world. Cam saying that if he were in a game and the babies were on the way he'd want to know - no ifs, ands or Talbots (sorry, couldn't help myself).
While the 29-year-old's wife was concentrating on delivering twins, the netminder was focused on delivering wins. He has clearly said whatever was happening at home that while he was at work, whether it was practice or game, his job was to stop pucks. He has two new dependents to take care of and about 20 more on his team. It was clear when you spoke hockey with the Oiler he would be focused with his answers and approach. When he was asked about his impending fatherhood you could see a smile forming and a twinkle in his eye. He's talked hockey his whole life, now this is a chance to talk real life, away from the rink.
There won't be much time to enjoy the birth of his two babies. It's back to the rink on Thursday and a date with the Blues. It will be his first game as a father. Win or lose, Cam knows he'll go home to a little boy and girl with his life having changed forever and for the better.