After the end of the Capitals’ season, Daniel Winnik and his wife Taylor packed up their belongings and began a cross-country drive back to their permanent residence in San Francisco.
Daniel and Taylor were “depressed” about how the season ended — a Game Seven second-round loss to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins — but by the end of their long road trip, they couldn’t stop smiling about the newest addition to their family.
Mario and Sonny, the couple’s two bulldogs, have a new brother and he’s rather adorable.
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“I’ve been beating Dan down for a third dog for two years,” an excited Taylor said in an interview a day after they received the new pup.
The cute bulldog was bred by The Bulldog Connection, a celebrity dog breeding company in South America. The Winniks’ new english bulldog is the son of Google and Storm, two of the most beautiful bulldogs in the world.
“I couldn’t be happier for this boy, he has found the perfect family,” Jonathan Andres, owner and operator of The Bulldog Connection, wrote on Instagram. “His daddy is an NHL player and his mom has the perfect eye for puppies. She spoils her dogs, perfect home for my baby!”
But getting the pup, who was tentatively named Stanley before the playoffs, took some logistical ingenuity. The Winniks worked out a plan with Andres where they would drive to Las Vegas on May 23 and pick up the newest member of their family at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“He was flown in from Chile by Andres’ nanny,” Taylor said. “We flew him there so it was a shorter flight time for the pup.”
While the new bulldog has been accepted into the family lovingly by Mario and Sonny, the pup still does not have an official name. The Winniks planned to name their new bulldog Stanley only if the Capitals won the championship this year.
“We want to get to know him first before naming him,” Taylor said. “Though, I have to admit, he does look like a Stan. But yes, no name yet! We can’t decide. It took us two weeks to name Sonny.”
Having a third pup is enriching what is already a very full life for the couple, but they face uncertainty headed into the summer of where they’ll land next year. Daniel is at the end of a two-year, $4.5 million contract which he originally signed with Toronto. 11 of the Caps’ 22 roster players are free agents this summer. Despite the 32-year-old forward scoring a career-high 12 goals this season, he understands he is not the top priority for the Caps heading into July 1, the first day of free agency.
Daniel Winnik on his future with the team – "I don't know, the teams got bigger concerns than me." The life of a fourth liner I guess.
— Tommy Chalk (@Tommy_Chalk) May 12, 2017
But at the potential end of their short tenure in Washington, Daniel and Taylor became beloved by the Capitals community. Caps fans on social media rallied around the play-on words of In It To Winnik whenever Daniel scored a big goal or made a big play. Meanwhile, Taylor, a talented photographer, raised $67,000 for charity after snapping the shots for the 2017 Caps Canine Calendar.
Regardless of what they name the new pup, the timing of when they acquired him will always be the same – towards the end of one of their most fun stops in Daniel’s hockey career. Hopefully, as time passes, the loss to the Penguins will become secondary to the special times they had with other Caps players, their wives and girlfriends, and fans in the nation’s capital.
And maybe that could inspire the new name. Because if you ask me, he looks like a George or an Abe.
5/30 Update: The Winniks have named their new bulldog Jim. “Dan just randomly came up with it a few months ago and it was a complete joke,” Taylor said. “Then we met him and couldn’t stop calling him Jim. He’s just a Jim.”
“I guess we just like our bulldogs’ names to sound like middle-aged men,” Taylor said jokingly.
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