Paul Stastny shows amazing leadership and saves Christmas
Our friend at HouseOfHockey call Paul Stastny Santa Claus! Here's why:
Paul Stastny is an experienced athlete who understands being alone over the holidays. Stastny has spent holidays alone in the league and would not allow this to happen to one of his teammates. Nikolaj Ehlers.
Last week, Ehlers admitted he was struggling with the Olympics' cancellation. The cancellation devastated Ehlers, who was set to assist Denmark earn its maiden Olympic spot.
"It's tragic. It's something I'm currently processing "Ehlers
So instead of being alone for the holidays, Ehlers was invited to join the Stastny family. Paul's wife Haley wasn't satisfied with Ehlers' gratitude.
Haley wanted to make Nik's holidays unique so she did something unusual. She called Ehlers's Danish mother to discover out his favourite cuisine. Haley received the recipe and made it for Christmas dinner.
Nikolaj was blown away and shared this quote "I'll be forever thankful for that."
When asked about why Stastny replied:
"I knew he was supposed to go somewhere from Dallas. He was supposed to meet up with one of his cousins, or one of his buddies, and do Christmas with them. Then we were flying to Dallas, it would have been tricky to fly international. So I think he decided he was staying here. I asked him if he was by himself or not, and he was. We wanted to invite him over. For him, at this age, when you're that young and still a kid you want to be with family. I think Christmas is always a special time, especially with him being European, me being European, I think we both grew up with the same values, same principles. It was an easy invite. I love Christmas and I knew he would. I reached out to his mom to get different ideas, things they do differently, and try to make it a little more special for him. Him. I gave him a traditional Slovak American Christmas combo that my wife and I do. My wife made a pork roast and these special potatoes, and something he grew up with. It might have been harder. Work, dinner should have been at 6:00 and it might have been at 7:00, but in the end I think it turned out great. The kids had fun with him, he played with the kids. It was quite a special two nights."
This story of amazing leadership and humanity is an absolute gem especially in this time of negativity.
Credit: HouseOfHockey
