Rangers Dads Enjoying Awesome Road Trip With Their Sons

TAMPA - With the Rangers' dads joining their boys on the team's two-game road trip to Florida, the fishing boat they took out together on a sundrenched Saturday morning was all about fun and relaxation and building on their common bond as hockey dads out on the beautiful open water. Catching any fish? That would be just the bonus.
Turned out to be one big, mean-looking bonus.
With the mahi-mahi biting (including one that managed to escape the boat itself), it was Scott Pionk, Neal's dad, who reeled in the catch of the trip, about a five-foot barracuda that weighed in around 40 to 50 pounds. "Did you see this fish? I mean it was really big," said Patrick Shattenkirk, pulling up the photo on his phone. "It's the biggest fish I've ever seen up close. Look at the teeth on this thing!"

The Rangers and their dads have put together a special and memorable weekend with the 2018-19 Dads' Trip through the Sunshine State, and there is just one more order of business to attend to. Following a full team dinner with dads on Sunday, the trip will wrap up with a game on Monday night against one of the NHL's big fish, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Count Chris Strome among those eager for the challenge: When Ryan's dad was asked at the outset of the trip what he was most looking forward to, he declared: "Four points."
Strome is one of the newer Ranger dads - his son was traded to Broadway less than a month ago, on Nov. 16 - which has been one of the joys of the trip, too, so many new faces in the traveling party with some of the more veteran dads sprinkled in, so many new friends made within the Rangers family, from around the continent and across the ocean.
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When it comes to that ocean, and the award for most distance traveled when the dads convened for this trip at practice on Friday at the MSG Training Center, Rostislav Chytil surely wins it, coming from the Czech Republic, while Patrick Shattenkirk certainly brings up the rear - Kevin's dad didn't even have to leave Westchester County. He should be able to make between one-third and half of the Rangers' home games - "just a Metro-North away," he said - but being on the road with his son has given him and other dads an eye-opening window into the daily routine of their sons' jobs as NHL players.
"Not bad work," he said with a smile. "This whole thing has been great. It's been great to meet a lot of the dads and to reconnect with Big Daddy, Kevin Hayes. The fishing trip was great, and just the way the whole thing's been organized, it's been completely first-class."
As for the award for whose dad has been having the most fun, the nominees are numerous and it is a wide-open field. It mostly depends on who you ask.
Patrick Shattenkirk didn't hesitate: "Kevin Hayes," he said of his friend of two decades, since their sons (including Jimmy Hayes) were involved in youth hockey together. "I just think Kevin Hayes is always having fun. Big Daddy has a good time no matter where he is."
Meanwhile, Kenneth Claesson, who traveled from Stockholm, wore a smile so wide at practice on Sunday that he may clinch the prize, and his son Freddy, who notched a goal and an assist against the Panthers on Saturday, weighed in: "I think he can be the MVP of the dads here. I'm really happy he's stepped forward."

"We have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs," Kenneth Claesson said of his time with the dads he has met. "The game (Saturday) was super, and Freddy scored. It was top-notch. It was perfect. I didn't see that coming."
Claesson said he takes about two trips a season to watch his son play in person, but that he'll watch just about all of Freddy's games on TV - they start at about 1 o'clock in the morning in Stockholm. "In the middle of the night," he said, "so it's rough. When the game is over I go into work. That's hard.
"It's better in the weekends," he added, "because then you can sleep in the morning."
Scott Pionk, meanwhile, was more noncommittal about which dad was having the best time. "It's hard to say," Neal's dad said. "But the Canadians never get cheated, I can promise you that."
"This is absolutely awesome," Pionk added. "I was just telling one of the dads, all we're doing is mucking around all day, and then we're watching a hockey game at night. It doesn't get much better than that."
All of the dads feel the balance, every moment they look on, of seeing a son who has come a long way from youth hockey, but also that ageless feeling of a father watching his boy play. Scott Pionk stands in the somewhat unique position of actually having been his son's youth coach, in Minnesota, from the time Neal was 5 until he reached about 13. "It's a little bit of each," he said. "I'm just so proud of him. He's giving his best effort out there and he's playing well. Sometimes the coach in you is thinking, 'Do this, don't do that.' But the dad in you takes over."
"I'm still a dad," Patrick Shattenkirk said. "All the positives and negatives of being the dad, and all those feelings that you have when you watch him play. It's the same with Barbara," Kevin's mom.
The dads, though, are not the only ones who have been treasuring this road trip together, far from it. "It's great, what the organization does for us. It's just a great opportunity to have them here," said Peter Lundqvist's son Henrik. "It's almost like you want to give them as much as you can to give back for all the years they supported us, driving to practice, being there when we needed them. I'm very grateful for what the organization is doing. They've been such a big part of all our lives to get here. It's awesome."

"He was super excited, even before the game. And of course when I scored, that's really special for me and for him and for my family," Freddy Claesson said of Kenneth. "I'm really happy he's here and enjoying this. He's never been in Florida before, so he's super excited and happy."
So one correction: There actually were two more orders of business to attend to. Prior to Monday's game, some of the dads were heading out in the morning for a round of golf on a championship course. Then it was off to the rink to join in on the pregame team meeting, after which they had tickets to an NHL game where they would cheer on their sons.
"Dream come true for us dads," Kenneth Claesson said. "It's been fantastic."
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