© 2024 ALLCITY Network Inc.
All rights reserved.
Babies onboard: The Utah Hockey Club's family ranks swelled in the past year
In hockey terminology, Claire Crouse was “in one.” She had checked into the University of Utah hospital the night before and her water broke early so she was in a lot of pain. As she sat on a large ball to help relieve that pain and speed the birth of the couple’s first child (Isabel), Lawson was innocently filming the moment for memory’s sake, trying to elicit a smile from his wife.
As the magical moment drew near, the doctors and nurses opened an entirely unexpected line of questioning.
“They’re super excited for hockey here in Utah, and it’s really cool to see,” Claire said. “But I’m not kidding here. As I was pushing her out and I was in between pushes, they were asking me if the team had been named yet!
“Mind you, they were trying to distract me, which was fair, but it was so funny. Here I am in Utah. Never imagined this was where I would be giving birth to my first child. I’m taking a break between contractions and pushing and they’re like, ‘So does the team have a name yet?'”
When the Utah Hockey Club finally selects that nickname, it can expect several new fans to wear the logo. In the past year, eight teammates (two are no longer with Utah) and their spouses have welcomed newborns into their families.
In addition to the Crouses, the current ones are Vilma and Juuso Välimäki (Nooa); Marissa and Alex Kerfoot (Carerra); Jackie and Nick Bjugstad (Ciella); Adèla and Liam O’Brien (Leilani); and Jordan and Ian Cole (Hayden).
Former team member Travis Boyd and his wife, Kelsey, welcomed a baby boy (Kylo) in April. Travis Dermott and his wife, Katerina, also welcomed a baby boy (James) in December.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Bjugstad, a 13-year NHL veteran. “I’ve been on teams with like 30 kids and I’ve been on teams with only five or six, but I’ve never seen so many babies born so close together. It’s kind of telling as to where the team is heading. We’re young, but we’re getting older; we’re maturing.”
(Photo courtesy of of Nick and Jackie Bjugstad)
Other than the Bjugstads and Coles, all of the Utah babies were their parents’ first child so there was a lot of intel being passed around — and a lot of reassurance.
“Watching all the guys, month by month, having their kids and then seeing them at the games, you definitely saw a lot of tired eyes,” Bjugstad said, laughing. “When you’re a new dad you have no idea what’s coming — at least I didn’t — so they didn’t even know what to ask me. They’d ask me a few questions but more of the questions were for my wife. They go to her for more of the detailed stuff.
“Obviously, there’s way more work on the wives’ end, so we all appreciate them, but I guess my biggest thing that I tell guys is when that first baby arrives, there’s nothing like it. It changes your life forever. It’s an emotion and a feeling that you can’t really describe to other people until they have kids. Once they do, they experience this overwhelming joy.”
The O’Briens and the Kerfoots had their babies within a few days of each other in late May, affording them a unique opportunity to share relevant information.
“They’re at the same stage so going through it together and asking each other questions and bonding over it has been fun,” O’Brien said.
“It makes you appreciate your parents a little bit more because you realize how difficult it is to raise a kid — especially early on — but then when she smiles at you it’s a pretty special feeling. Nothing else in the world matters.”
The O’Briens chose the name Leilani simply because they liked it, but they also chose it for its versatility.
“It translates into Czech as Leilinka,” said O’Brien, whose wife is Czech. “You can call her Lonnie. You can call her Layla. There’s a lot of things that you can do with it.”
O’Brien prefers the English sounding names while his Czech slowly progresses.
“I’ve got the Duolingo going because I want to learn it,” he said. “She’s gonna grow up speaking it for sure so I don’t need mom and daughter talking behind my back.
“But it’s a difficult language. I’ve been on Duolingo for like [four] months now and I know some stuff. I might have to start chatting with Veg [goalie Karel Vejmelka] at the rink; me in English, him in Czech.”
The Kerfoots did a lot of research before Carrera was born, which is what you would expect from a pair of Harvard products.
“We took a few online birthing classes beforehand through the hospital [Shea Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona],” Alex said. “We had a bunch of books we were reading, too, to try and figure everything out.
“Having kids in this day and age, there’s just so much information out there so you can prepare yourself as much as you want, but at the end of the day, you still encounter problems so I think that everyone just has to figure it out for themselves and we’ve been going through that process.”
The Kerfoots had Carrera in the offseason, affording Alex the opportunity to be with her for a long stretch before the season began.
“I try to do as much as I can, but there is a significant difference in what the dads can do and what the moms can do,” he said. “My wife is breastfeeding so she’s basically got a mini-attachment to her body every day, all day. You gain so much respect for moms everywhere, and it’s been awesome to see my wife in this role; just watch it firsthand.”
When Juuso Välimäki found out that Vilma was pregnant with Nooa, he spoke to the ultimate dad about what to expect.
“Shane Doan told me when the season was still going that it was going to be 100 times harder than you think, but it’s going to be 1,000 times better than you think,” Välimäki said. “I think that sums it up pretty well because it’s been the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to us, but at the same time, I never really thought it would be this hard
“When he’s hungry, we’re eating, and when he’s grumpy, we’re trying to make him happy. There isn’t the same kind of planning in our days anymore. He’ll kind of decide what we do. When he is awake, he’s very alert. When his eyes are open and he’s just looking at you and you’re just looking at him, there’s nothing else you really need in the world.”
Välimäki said fatherhood has altered his perspective on life.
“I remember hearing from some of the guys that the things that you thought mattered before don’t matter anymore,” he said. “I’ve always been kind of an over-worrier, or sometimes too focused on hockey where sometimes it’s been hard to leave it behind.
“Now it’s so much easier. You’re not so focused on little things or pissed off or irritated by some things. They seem so small compared to this. You go home and you don’t really think about that stuff anymore.”
Newborns do come with challenges. There’s sleep deprivation. There’s constant service required. And sometimes the service is stinky.
“[Leilani] has been dropping these massive farts and then she looks you in the eyes and smiles,” O’Brien said. “It’s hilarious. She’s a total goof.”
Then there is diaper changing. Lawson Crouse thought he was prepared for it. He was not.
“She had some jaundice so she had to get rid of a lot of Bilirubin in her and those ones were pretty stinky,” he said. “I was trying to do it, but I had to tap out and get Claire in there because I have a bad gag reflex. As soon as my mind started thinking about it, I was choking on my own tongue.”
For every drawback, there are 10 positives to draw Utah’s moms and dads back in.
Both sides enjoyed planning their nurseries, although Utah’s players admitted that the wives made most of the choices.
Utah’s moms are organizing stroller walks, Santa photos and get-togethers. Utah’s dads are just happy to escape the grind of the NHL season.
“You’re in the room with a bunch of alpha males all day and there’s a lot of chirping and that kind of stuff going on,” Bjugstad said. “Then you come home and there’s just so much love with all the girls. They just put a smile on my face. It’s such a joy to be a dad.
“I’m still a little nervous for the teen years and they’re not super into hockey, but that’s actually kind of fun, too. They don’t really care what I do. It’s like whatever to them. They want to be figure skaters or gymnasts or we do a lot of hiking here in the mountains. There’s no hockey so when I come home I am able to shut it off.”
There are also moments of pure comedy with babies. Like Leinani’s farts. Or Nooa’s recent habit of slapping things around on his play mat. Or the first time that Butter Pig Crouse met Isabel.
“He surprised me because I thought he was going to pack his bags and leave or he was just gonna pee everywhere and be really spiteful,” Claire said. “But he loves her. He can’t get enough of her and he’s a little bit protective. When we first brought her home and she was crying, he started crying right with her.”
“He was trying to notify us that something was wrong,” Lawson added, laughing. “We’re like, ”Yeah, Butter, we can hear her, too.'”
“They couldn’t harmonize at all,” Claire said. “It was brutal to listen to. She’s screaming. He’s screaming. It was sensory overload and I’m thinking, ‘This can’t go on.'”
Top photo of Isabel Row Crouse courtesy of Claire and Lawson Crouse
Scroll to next article
