SUNRISE, Fla. — The playoffs are a voracious beast. Never satisfied until a title is won, they can swallow a player’s entire world, demanding the type of 24/7 commitment that pushes all other priorities out of the way. Professional athletes know the drill, willingly cocooning themselves from distractions big and small, relying on family that understands the sacrifice and forgives the selfishness.
But babies? Babies know nothing from playoffs. When they decide it’s time to enter the world, they are going to enter the world.
When those realities intersect, and a player in the midst of a playoff run learns that a baby is about to arrive, a decision has to be made.
Brandon Carlo made the right one Monday. And in supporting him every step of the way, the Bruins did too.
And so Carlo was able to be there with his wife Mayson for the birth of their second child, son Crew Corbett Carlo, in the wee hours Monday morning, sometime around 3 a.m.
From the heady aftermath of the Bruins’ Game 7 win over Toronto Saturday night at home, to the postgame news that Mayson had gone into labor, to the long night and day watching and waiting by Mayson’s bedside, to an overnight visit from a doctor ready to help quicken the pace (“We were flipping her around, putting her upside down, whatever we could do to get that baby out of there,” Carlo said), to seeing the fresh smile of his first son, Carlo probably could have flown to Florida on the strength of his own adrenaline.
The Bruins had a better idea. Ownership arranged a private jet, a 2 p.m. departure that allowed for a short midair nap and then touchdown in Florida, just in time to play Game 1 of the second-round series against the Panthers. If you saw what happened next, then you know the truth in Charlie McAvoy’s declaration: “Dad strength is unmatched.”
While McAvoy was still flying high from the Bruins’ 5-1 blowout victory when he met the media Tuesday at the team hotel, he was just as buoyed by the performance of Carlo, who scored a goal with 21 seconds left in the second period, an everlasting tribute to his cherished new child.
It was a perfect, poignant ending to what Carlo describes as “24 hours I won’t forget.”
As if his teammates would let him.
There was David Pastrnak, ensuring that someone grabbed the puck so Carlo could save it as the best birthday present ever. There was Derek Forbort, the first to envelop his fellow defenseman in a hug and part of a widening circle led by captain Brad Marchand. There was goalie Jeremy Swayman at the other end of the ice, raising his hands to the rafters.
“I don’t celebrate often,” Swayman said, “but it’s so incredible what he did today. Just the attitude that he brought, he was so excited. I can only imagine what it’s like leaving your little one and your wife at home right after.
“And Mayson’s a big part of this team too, because of that, allowing him to come and be here and supporting him. And it’s just one of probably the most memorable moments I’ll have with this playoff run, no doubt about it.”
Carlo, still humming hours after the game was over, now owns this lifetime memory, when for one momentous day his own family was wrapped in such a blanket of love from his hockey one. He felt it through the arena ice.
“I don’t know why, but I always just turn back to the bench and look at all the faces of the boys, and that always gets me just so fired up,” he said. “I’m not a guy who scores very often. So just the faces of happiness when the guys are supporting me like that — it means so much. I feel so blessed to be a part of this group.”
There is no rule book for these situations, no in-house policy that requires a player to make one choice or another. Time thankfully has seen an evolution in outdated attitudes that the job should always come first, with growing understanding even when it doesn’t quite work out the way it did for Carlo. On the same night, during the NBA playoffs, Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert missed Game 2 against Denver when high winds and weather delays made it difficult to fly after his son’s early-morning arrival.
No doubt, some neanderthals will criticize him. But I’m with Gobert. And had the same happened to Carlo, the Bruins would have been with him too.
“Ask anybody here, and family is the most important thing,” said McAvoy, one of the team’s alternate captains. “We get to play a game for a living, and that is a huge blessing. But your family comes first, and if he wasn’t able to make it last night, no issues for us.”
Morgan Geekie, whose quick response after the Bruins fell behind, 1-0, in the second period set the stage for the goal-scoring onslaught, missed a playoff game last season (when he was with Seattle) for the birth of his and wife Emma’s first child, daughter Gabby.
“I didn’t score in the same game as my kid was born, but I kind of had the same-ish experience last year,” Geekie said, “and the highs and lows and the adrenaline that he had going for him. We’re all super proud of him.”
Imagine the story Carlo gets to tell Crew someday, about the 24 hours from birth to playoff goal, about the energy he carried from Mayson’s strength, from Crew’s arrival, from a growing family with big sister Wren, and about the hockey family that couldn’t wait to welcome him back to the ice.
“When you have incredible experiences in life, like the birth of a child, it’s amazing the energy it gives you,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “That’s why I knew when he got here, we were going to put him in the lineup.
“The birth of my kids? It’s like winning a championship. You have adrenaline like you can’t believe for three days.”
One look and you’re hooked forever. As Carlo put it, “To see his face and just have a healthy wife and a healthy baby, I couldn’t be more happy.”
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.