Canucks' Garland shares story of son's birth and Jaws-inspired name

OTTAWA — As Conor Garland spoke happily Friday about the birth of his son this week, revelations emerged: Garland’s friend and Vancouver Canucks teammate, Quinn Hughes, will be baby Quint’s godfather; and one of Conor’s earliest memories from grade school was getting into trouble for uttering a famous profanity from the end of the movie, Jaws.

“Smile you son of a b----,” Garland recalled. “I used to quote the movie when I was five or six. I had a couple of chats with the principal because I used to say the famous line when he shoots the shark. ‘Smile, you son of a b----.’ I used to say it all the time.”

In the 1975 film, Amity Island police chief Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider) didn’t actually say the B-word as he fired a rifle shot from the sinking Orca, the boat of suddenly-deceased captain Quint (played by Robert Shaw), into an oxygen tank stuck in the flesh-festooned maw of Jaws, thus blowing up the most famous shark in history. 

But apparently little Conor Garland, having been introduced to the movie as a toddler, was quite proficient and prolific with the word.

At least we have greater insight into Garland’s rambunctiousness as a National Hockey League player.

“I grew up on the water,” Garland, who is from Scituate, outside Boston, explained when asked about the parenting he received as child. “We used to be at the cape (Cape Cod) with my grandparents, and the movie’s a big deal down there. Every Friday you could watch it at the drive-in. 

“I've always dreamed to be able to watch that movie with my son. It's my favourite movie, a big part of my childhood. So hopefully he feels the same. It was my favorite character ever, and I thought it was a unique name.”

Quint Garland, born early Wednesday after 26 hours of labour that did not prevent Conor from playing for the Canucks Tuesday night, was named after the character in Jaws — and not the Canucks captain, Hughes, who also has Quintin on his birth certificate.

“Yeah, all the guys are giving him a hard time,” Quinn said after the Canucks practised for Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. “But he named him after the movie, not me.”

Still, Garland plans for Quintin Hughes to be part of Quintin Garland’s life.

“Quinn will be his godfather,” Conor told us. “He'll be great to him. He'll be a big part of his life. (And Quint) will be a big part of his. He's one of my best friends. Quinn was great to me at times when I needed somebody, and that's why I picked him to be his godfather. You need somebody like that in your life.”

At the risk of what journalism professors used to call “burying the lede,” Quint and Meghan Garland are doing fabulously after the marathon birth in Vancouver, Conor said. 

The Canucks winger explained he took Meghan into hospital early Tuesday morning when her contractions were less than five minutes apart. With the Canucks playing Tuesday night and reeling from that morning’s news that centre J.T. Miller was taking an indefinite leave of absence, Garland went to Rogers Arena around 11 a.m. to talk to coaches and teammates and get a quick lunch.

With progress slow on the birth front, and a member of the organization whom Conor wished not to name arranging for their wife to stay with Meghan, he returned to the rink around 5 p.m. and played in that night’s 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers.

“There was a contingency plan; they knew I might have to leave,” Garland said. “My main concern the whole day was probably just my wife. I was thinking a lot about her during the game. The trainers had my phone. I think we had a text between the first and second period that her water had broken. So I had a little fear. . . but he (Quint) let me get the game over with.”

Garland said the whole day was fraught with emotion and admitted he felt a greater responsibility to try playing and be there for his teammates because his close friend, Miller, could not.

“I reached out to Millsy and told him, well, I'll keep that between us, but I reached out,” Garland said. “Obviously, I had to worry about myself and my wife, but I definitely wanted to play, especially with him (not there). I felt a little bit more urgency. It’s tough. Everybody knows about Millsy. He needs some time, and we just hope the best for him. And when he comes back, we'll be so thrilled to have him back.”

After the game, in which Garland scored and logged 20:58 of ice time, more than any other Canucks forward, he dashed back to the hospital to rejoin Meghan as they waited overnight for Quint.

Garland skipped practice on Wednesday but was on the team flight to Ottawa on Thursday. His sister and in-laws from Massachusetts have flown to Vancouver to support Meghan and Quint, and Conor can afford the overages on his cellular plan as he spends hours each day FaceTiming. 

Ottawa is the start of the Canucks’ longest road trip of the season, six games that end with a Dec. 3 contest in Minnesota. Quint will be two weeks old when his dad sees him again.

“It's the greatest experience ever,” Garland said, sounding like every new father ever. “I'm just so proud of my wife. She was just amazing. I've never seen her play a sport or compete in anything, but how she handled that, it shows that she's the ultimate human. She's the greatest. And Quint looks just like her, too.”

ICE CHIPS – Injured 40-goal winger Brock Boeser practised Friday in a non-contact jersey, his first full skate with teammates since being concussed by Tanner Jeannot’s illegal check on Nov. 7. . . Goalie Thatcher Demko also fully practised and had one net to himself for most of the 45-minute session. . . Minor-league callup Max Sasson practised at left wing on the fourth line beside Aatu Raty and Arshdeep Bains. Against the Senators, he will be the fourth American League prospect to play for the Canucks this season. . . Despite coach Rick Tocchet talking openly about splitting up struggling Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers, the defence pairing took a lot of drills together, although a rotation due to an uneven number of defencemen (seven) saw several combinations.