TORONTO — With a heavy heart and a new lease on his life as a Maple Leaf, Mark Giordano scored a goal and pointed through Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena roof, way up to the heavens.
To Dad, who loves watching hockey.
The oldest player in the NHL had scored 156 goals before this one, which got the ball rolling in Thursday’s 5-1 blowout of the Washington Capitals.
But this was Giordano’s first since crashing headfirst into the end-boards and wobbling off the ice with a concussion a month ago. His first since his family’s favourite hockey team traded for two defencemen, pushing Giordano farther down the depth chart.
Most important: This was Giordano’s first goal since the death of his father, Paul, on Feb. 16, mere hours after Mark arrived on the scene still dressed in his game-day suit.
That one was for Paul.
“Just something I promised I would do after my dad passed away there if I scored. The way it was going, it looked like it might not happen. But it was nice to get that one,” Giordano explained postgame, the player-of-the-game belt sitting in his stall.
“Nothing too big, but pretty special for me.”
Paul Giordano’s obituary is typeset against a faded image of the back of his only son’s No. 55 Maple Leafs sweater.
“He was an avid hockey fan and could often be found cheering on his favourite team from the comfort of his living room or enjoying the thrill of watching a game live at the arena,” reads the passage posted by the Westminster Funeral & Reception Centre in North York.
Paul loved his coffee and his Proline and his five grandchildren.
“But what truly defined Paul was his kind heart and infectious sense of humour. He had an uncanny ability to bring laughter into any room he entered. His jokes were legendary among family and friends and could brighten even the darkest of days.”
Spend slivers of time in the orbit of Mark, and it doesn’t take a sleuth to recognize those traits as hereditary.
Giordano is quick with a laugh, a good-natured chirp to a teammate, and always makes time for arena staff and what must be repetitive questions from reporters.
Hard not to imagine Paul playing a top-pair role in that execution.
“Oh, man. I mean, he was just a jokester. A great guy. Funny. Easy to be around,” Giordano said, still pouring sweat from his first game in a month.
“So, we miss him. It was obviously tough, a little bit for the family, but I think we rally around each other like we have always.
“When something like that happens, you see how many people really, truly care about you. On the hockey side, people reached out from all over the place. Means a lot to me, for sure.”
Giordano and the Maple Leafs rallied from Tuesday’s debacle against New Jersey, sweeping the playoff-hunting Capitals in clinical fashion, allowing nary an odd-man rush and keeping the league’s hottest power-play off the board.
Thing is, Giordano wasn’t even supposed to dress Thursday. Were it not for Timothy Liljegren deciding his upper-body injury was too severe to play through on game day, Giordano might still be stuck on long-term injured reserve.
“Funny how these things work out.” coach Sheldon Keefe said.
“As we know, Gio is the ultimate professional. He’s worked extremely hard to get back and be ready. He’s been through a lot. And for that to go his way, post and in and all that, it was great.”
Added Joseph Woll: “Yeah, it’s pretty special. I know I was smiling when he scored. And whether or not he’s in the lineup, he’s a huge part of this team. So, it was great to see.”
Who knows how or how often the Maple Leafs — a team that has now used all nine of its NHL D-men since the trade deadline — will deploy the 40-year-old come playoff time.
But for Giordano, to not only play again after leaving mid-game with what some at least wondered might be a career-ending head injury, but to score in return? Well, that feels like a small gift from the hockey gods to a man who’s poured his soul into the game.
“It meant a lot,” Giordano said.
“You know, there’s been moments where it’s been real tough on the family side of things. But I’ve been having a lot of fun being here at the rink around the guys,” Giordano said.
“Man, it’s crazy. Because one week you can get down and you can feel like, ah, maybe I’m not gonna get that opportunity anytime soon. And then it changes real quick.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• Feeling ill, Auston Matthews skipped morning skate and didn’t arrive at the rink until warmups. Still, he notched an assist, went 12-for-17 in the faceoff dot, and led all skaters with 10 shots and 14 attempts.
Clearly, the man with 59 goals wanted to give Alex Ovechkin a front-row seat for No. 60.
“He was shooting from everywhere. I think our last shift, he had three or four,” winger Tyler Bertuzzi says. “It’s going to come.”
• Raised on the Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry, Nick Robertson shares the same agent as Crosby, Pat Brisson, whom he remembers pestering with questions about the Pittsburgh Penguins captain.
On nights like this, Robertson is still in disbelief that he gets to face his heroes.
“It’s surreal,” Robertson says. “Ovi and Crosby were the two big guys growing up. I remember seeing Ovi play Sid in Washington when I was younger, and I was wearing a Crosby jersey. And everyone was booing me walking around.”
• Connor Dewar scored his first goal as a Maple Leaf, a grinding backhander in the paint.
“Quite honestly, one of my favourite goals for the season,” Keefe said of a rewarding workmanlike fourth-line shift started by Ryan Reaves.
“That’s a coach’s goal.”
Dewar says he enjoyed a sigh of relief upon seeing the puck go in and then getting roughed up by Reaves in congratulations.
“I’ve never gone through a trade before, so I didn’t know what to expect, really,” he says. “But I’m starting to settle in and feel comfortable here.”
• Ex-Leaf Rasmus Sandin admits he was a tad disoriented walking into Scotiabank Arena for the first time from the visitors’ entrance and finding his way to the smaller dressing room.
“I loved my time here in Toronto,” Sandin says. “Nothing but great memories. Toronto will always be a special place for me and my family. It’s where I started my NHL career and made a lot of good friends and had a great time here overall.
“The organization is a first-class organization, and fans are great and loved my time. But, at the same time, that’s a little bit in the past now too. I mean, with the Caps now and loving my time there.”
• Bertuzzi’s first 51 games as a Maple Leaf: six goals. Bertuzzi’s last 19 games as a Maple Leaf: 12 goals.
“Puck luck is a big, big part of it,” Keefe said.
“Like, today he gets one from below the goal line. I mean, he couldn’t get one from above the goal line, wide open, on an empty net.”
