Paul Stastny saves Christmas
The hockey world has been full of a lot of terrible news over the past couple weeks. The NHL shutting down, the NHL pulling out of the Olympics and now the World Juniors being cancelled. But through all the terrible news there is an amazing story out of Winnipeg that truly warms the heart.
Paul Stastny is a veteran player and he knows what it's like to be alone for the holidays. Over his years in the league Stastny has spent holidays alone and he wasn't going to let that happen over the holidays to one of his teammates. That teammate? Nikolaj Ehlers.
Ehlers shared last week he was having a difficult time dealing with the cancellation of the Olympics. Ehlers shared that he was heartbroken by the cancellation as he'd help lead Denmark to their first Olympic berth.
"It's heartbreaking. It's something I'm still trying to process a little bit," said Ehlers.
So rather than being alone over the holidays Ehlers was invited to spend the holidays with the Stastny family. Ehlers was appreciative of the opportunity, but that wasn't enough for Paul's wife Haley.
Haley wanted to make the holidays special for Nik so she did something not a lot of people would do. She called Ehlers mother in Denmark to find out her son's favourite dish. Haley got the recipe and surprised Nik with the dish for Christmas dinner.
Nikolaj was blown away and shared this quote "I'll be forever thankful for that."
When asked about why Stastny replied:
"I knew he was supposed to go somewhere from Dallas. He was supposed to meet up with one of his cousins, or one of his buddies, and do Christmas with them. Then we were flying to Dallas, it would have been tricky to fly international. So I think he decided he was staying here. I asked him if he was by himself or not, and he was. We wanted to invite him over. For him, at this age, when you're that young and still a kid you want to be with family. I think Christmas is always a special time, especially with him being European, me being European, I think we both grew up with the same values, same principles. It was an easy invite. I love Christmas and I knew he would. I reached out to his mom to get different ideas, things they do differently, and try to make it a little more special for him. Him. I gave him a traditional Slovak American Christmas combo that my wife and I do. My wife made a pork roast and these special potatoes, and something he grew up with. It might have been harder. Work, dinner should have been at 6:00 and it might have been at 7:00, but in the end I think it turned out great. The kids had fun with him, he played with the kids. It was quite a special two nights."
This story of amazing leadership and humanity is an absolute gem especially in this time of negativity.
MUST READ
TRENDING NOW
