TJ Oshie spoke to Jackie Redmond and EJ Hradek on NHL Now, Thursday.
Sitting upstairs in front of his computer, Oshie dished on what he’s been up to since the coronavirus pandemic suspended the 2019-20 season. Oshie spoke about teaching Lyla how to ride a bike (“She’d get mad when I let her go”); his favorite donut (“Gosh, you can kind of go across the board and it’s something I like”); and his newborn son Campbell (“He’s been awesome.”)
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"I got to work on my patty cake game."@TJOshie77 talks about getting to spend more time with his family during the NHL pause on #NHLNow.@Jackie_Redmond | @EJHradek_NHL | @Capitals | @ChipotleTweets pic.twitter.com/yOUCewZDYS
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) April 9, 2020
The full transcript is below.
Congratulations on your new son, Campbell.
TJ Oshie: “Thank you. We got Campbell, our first boy. He’s about three and a half weeks now. He’s doing great. He’s sleeping and pooping and eating. Kind of the only things he does at this stage, but he’s been awesome.”
You said you had your golf partner for life when the baby was delivered. I guess he’ll be out there with the little clubs as soon as possible.
TJ Oshie: “Yeah. He’s got pretty good grip strength already. I got him some plastic clubs already, but he’s not quite there yet. We’ll wait [until] two months and try again.”
I saw you were teaching one of your daughters how to ride a bike. What was your strategy doing so?
TJ Oshie: “I had to be a little delicate with the older one. She gets pretty nervous fairly easy. You can kind of see, I look kind of silly running behind her but that was just the first day without training wheels. She’s never really rode a bike before that with training wheels. I didn’t really tell her. She’d get mad when I let her go. She ended up figuring it out and I guess now four days in she can ride a bike on her own. She can stop. She can start. Everything. She’s a quick learner. I had to take it pretty easy with her. On Leni, with our middle child, I’ll probably just let her go and let her figure it out and let her fall and she’ll be fine.”
I guess you have to treat different kids differently because they have different personalities.
TJ Oshie: “Definitely. I think I’ve got mine figured out pretty good. I think that was the easiest way to handle it with Lyla and she’s been doing awesome now and wants to get out there every day.”
We’re all creatures of habit. Are you settling into this new routine of being kind of a stay-at-home dad?
TJ Oshie: “I’m getting more comfortable and understanding more what I have to do on a day-to-day basis, but it is tough. I’m sure players that retire feel this way too. There’s kind of this feeling there’s something missing. You’re not in the room with the guys competing every other night. That kind of side is missing so I’m trying to fill it with board games at night and playing video games again which I haven’t done for six or seven years. For me, you’re not lucky, but I definitely take a positive out of being here. The birth of the Campbell and being able to help out with the other kids around the house. We’ve been rolling with the punches and having fun with our time together.”
Are you doing handshakes with your kids to make up for the lack of pregame handshakes you do with your teammates.
TJ Oshie: “They do the patty cake thing with my oldest. She tries to get me to do that. I can’t really keep up with her. I’ll work on it. I’m used to different types of handshakes and hitting people with sticks. I gotta work on my patty cake game.”
Have you discovered things about your wife or your children or things at the house that weren’t really going on all the time?
TJ Oshie: “I guess not. When we have days off, I just stay at home and I’m around the house quite a bit. There is stuff over the course of a season, especially this season and last season has been really crazy travel-wise for the Caps. There’s stuff around the house that I’ve been putting off for a couple months that I’m finally able to get to. That’s been nice. I always appreciate it and respect it and love it for how good [Lauren] is with the kids on a day-to-day basis and now that I’m here doing it, you gain a lot more appreciation for the patience and the constant cleaning up after the tornados from living with them.”
What’s your favorite shootout move someone else has done?
TJ Oshie: “It’s easy. It’s Datsyuk’s backhand toe-drag goal. The hands part most NHLers can do. Probably not at top speed. The way he’s able to stay on his one foot on his inside edge and bring his body one way and bring his legs the other, that’s crazy crazy talent and something I still can’t do. It’s not in my repertoire. When I saw that for the first time when I was younger, I was in awe and still am.”
What is your favorite kind of donut?
TJ Oshie: “Yeah. That’s kind of caught up from my youngest daughter when she promised I’d get a donut if I scored that night. And I ended up scoring. I do love donuts. Cookies are probably my favorite ever since I was a little kid. I like most donuts. Gosh, you can kind of go across the board and it’s something I like. I’m not a huge chocolate guy, but if it’s on a donut, I can still get it.”
Give me a good little routine for youth hockey players at home that could do at home to help their game.
TJ Oshie: “When I was growing up in, originally in Everett, Washington, not a lot of hockey players there. We didn’t have a bag of pucks to stickhandle around so I’d just use either cracks in the streets or leaves that had fallen on the ground. I had made a game out of it, and would just stickhandle.The ball wasn’t allowed to touch any of the leaves or the cracks. I would flip it up or whatever. That’s kind of the first thing that sticks out to me. I would just go out there for hours. I was working on my game, but not really think about it. Just having fun and see how far I could get without touching anything. I think that’s an easy one. Obviously, you can’t get all the neighborhoods together so if you’re by yourself, and you don’t have all the tools, just take a ball out there. I like to do it with my rollerblades. I don’t have them anymore, but when I did, you go faster and faster and challenge yourself and see how far you can get.”
Headline photo courtesy of @NHLNetwork
