Baby boom keeping Wild players busy away from rink

It's been a busy season for a handful of current and former Wild players. And that doesn't even count the stuff happening at the rink.
Wild players have experienced a baby boom of sorts this season, with as many as seven current or former players and their wives having children born since the beginning of September.

The trend began a couple weeks before training camp, when former Wild forward Chris Stewart -- now with the Calgary Flames -- and his wife Holley, gave birth to a son, Cannon, on Sept. 2.
Then, it was Jason Zucker and his wife, Carly, who
welcomed son Hendrix
on Oct. 27.

Hendrix's arrival was timely; born on a Friday, the Wild was not playing a game that day and was in the midst of a six-game homestand.
But not all timely births are created equal.
Less than two weeks later, goaltender Alex Stalock was preparing for a start against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Around 3:30 a.m. on morning of Nov. 8, while he was fast asleep north of the border, Stalock's phone rang. It was his wife, Felicia, who was
ready to give birth
to the couple's second child -- a girl they would name Selina.
By the time the road trip came along, the nerves for Stalock has begun to ratchet up. The Wild left the Twin Cities on Sunday, Nov. 5 and would not return until late the following Saturday.
It was quite clear -- likely, in fact -- that Stalock would get sent home from that trip. It was simply a matter of when.
"It was a little bit scary, heading out on the road. You get nervous for your wife," Stalock said. "Obviously, we've got family close, which is huge, but it's funny how it works out. Thank God I was only an hour-and-a-half flight away, where I could get back at a decent time."
The 90-minute flight home seemed a lot longer.
"I was staying in touch with them the whole time," Stalock said of his family. "It sounded like it was moving quickly, but I never really thought I would miss it. I knew once I got home, I could go straight to the hospital."
Being a dad already, Stalock wasn't nervous about that part. His son, Simon, arrived a couple of years prior. If he were becoming a father for the first time, he said he likely would have handled the flight home much differently.
"That eased the flight a little bit and the nerves, for sure," Stalock said.
Next up was Stalock's goaltending partner, Devan Dubnyk, whose wife, Jenn, gave birth to a son, Dawson, on Jan. 15.
Like the Zuckers, Dawson's arrival couldn't have come at a better time; Jan. 15 was the first day of the Wild's NHL-mandated five-day bye week.
Instagram from @ddubnyk40: Dawson Paul Dubnyk born on Jan. 15, 2018, 9 lbs 13 ounces
That allowed dad plenty of time in-season to get acquainted to the new guy.
"Perfect timing," Dubnyk said. "We had the whole week. It flew by, but it was nice to kind of take it easy and spend some time with him ... not that he wants to hang out with me anyway."
A little more than a month passed before the next birth, when Theodore Jean-Paul Parise came into the world on Feb. 17.
For father Zach, welcoming his third child was relatively easy; his wife, Alisha, gave birth to twins four years ago.
Ironically, the one obstacle Parise had this time was his own good health.
When Emelia and Jaxson were born on Jan. 8, 2014, Parise was recovering from a broken foot. While he was hobbled, he wasn't with the team on a road trip when the twins were born, which allowed him to be a part of the process at home.
"The team was out west and I couldn't play," Parise said.
While Parise would have rather been on the ice, the unfortunate setback at work made things less stressful at home. Because it wasn't a month after their birth that Parise, by then recovered from his injury, left for two weeks to play in the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
"Luckily I was there for right away," Parise said. "It was a bit of a crazy first couple of months after that."
Six months shy of his 30th birthday when the twins were born, Parise said the experience changed him immediately.
"Your priorities change, just like that," he said. "Your daily schedule totally revolves around them, their schedule and what they do. It's the best."
Recovered from a back injury by the time Theodore came around in February, Parise was immediately forced to leave his comfort zone. While his son was born earlier in the day, Parise was on the ice that night when the Wild hosted the Anaheim Ducks.
Hockey players are creatures of habit. But on that day, any semblance of his normal pre-game routine was completely out the window.

"All the hockey takes a backseat to being a parent, being a dad," Parise said. "Now you have to figure out how you're going to manage the three at home while still trying to get enough rest, prepare yourself to play. But you figure it out, and you realize that, if I don't nap on a game day, it's going to be fine.
"But when you don't have any kids, and you don't have that responsibility, you really get set in your ways. It's what you do for nine years. It takes being a dad to realize that you don't really need all that."
The Parise addition is the most recent, but it may not be the last.
Ryan and Becky Suter are expecting their fourth child in May. Marcus and Natascia Foligno are due April 28.
The Folignos are the rare exception to the Wild baby boom; they are having their first child.
"It's been pretty crazy, coming to a team and having so many guys have births right before you," Foligno said. "It was neat to see them go through it all and it's great to have them here."
While Marcus will be a first-time dad, he has experience around younger kids. His older brother, Nick, captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets, has two children of his own.
Still, having fellow dads around every day has been helpful as he preps to take the fatherhood plunge himself. He hasn't been bashful about asking for advice.
"I pick their brains a little bit about what the day was like, what sleep is like after the baby is born," Foligno said. "They all keep saying, 'It's an unbelievable experience and it's something you can never imagine. It's one of the best feelings in the world.'
"It's time for me to grow up, anyways. Why not have a kid?" Foligno, 26, said with a laugh. "It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm ready for it and excited for it."
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, himself a father of four, said he's never seen anything quite like the Wild's expansion this season.
When he was coach of the Washington Capitals, he mentioned that many of the guys that were a part of his team's core -- Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom among them -- were on the younger side and not quite at that stage in their lives.
In Anaheim, he had a team where many of the established players were veterans with families of their own.
His players this year seemed to have timed things to coincide with the season. And while that may present the occasional issue when trying to fill out the lineup card, it jives perfectly with a family-first philosophy Boudreau has preached at every one of his previous coaching stops.
"I've got four of my own, so I'm pretty understanding," Boudreau said. "I think it's really important. We want to be a family in here, but you've gotta take care of your family. It's the most important thing in your life, so it always needs to be the most important thing in your world."
Related:
- Zuckers welcome son Hendrix - Dubnyk earns surprise start in place of Stalock - Watch: Parise on birth of son Theodore