Washington Capitals forward Keith Aucoin returned to practice Friday less than two days after the birth of his first baby, Brayden Michael, with wife Maureen.
And from the sounds of it, Wednesday was a whirlwind day.
Maureen called Keith at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to tell him that she was going to the hospital. Keith then rushed up to Hershey Medical Center to join his wife.
"I broke a lot of speed limits on the way there and I think I made a lot of people mad cutting them off," Aucoin said with a smile. "I just wanted to make sure I got there and, luckily enough, I got there safe and sound."
Keith arrived at the hospital at 10 a.m. and Maureen had the baby at around 8 p.m. Wednesday, much earlier than the expected due date of March 9, but having his son on Leap Day was an exciting surprise.
"They gave us packets about special things about Leap Day," Aucoin said. "I think J. Lo [Jennifer Lopez] had [her] babies on Leap Day, so I was pretty happy about that, so it ended up being an amazing day."
Keith missed practice Thursday to spend time with his family, and they are going to join him in Washington Saturday. He also made sure to clear up one misconception about his son's namesake.
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"It's Brayden with a 'y,' so I think a lot of people think it's after [Caps goaltending prospect] Braden Holtby, but [he's] not going to be a goalie," Keith said. "Hopefully [he'll] be a power forward a lot bigger than me."
For the record, the diminuitive Keith is 5'8" and 171 pounds, so while Brayden might have big shoes to fill in regards to the statistical stature of his father, the same cannot be said about his physical stature.
Seriously, though, congratulations to Keith and Maureen.
