PHILADELPHIA — Before his first-born son was even 24 hours old, Tyer Myers was called back to neonatal intensive care in Winnipeg because Tristan Myers was suffering a pulmonary hemorrhage, bleeding in his lungs, and doctors were unsure if the baby would survive.
Tristan was born five weeks early by emergency C-section after Myers’ wife, Michela, feeling something might be wrong, underwent an ultrasound that showed the baby was not moving. On the road in Florida with the Winnipeg Jets, Tyler rushed home as fast as he could.
Tristan had lost 80 per cent of his blood before he was born. It was 12 days before Tyler and Michela could even hold him, and weeks before the baby was well enough to leave hospital and go home.
“He had a traumatic birth,” Myers told us Saturday night. “Basically, it led to him having cerebral palsy and bilateral cochlear implants, which allow him to hear. He had a little bit of a speech delay, but he’s thriving, and both his mom and I are just incredibly proud of him.”
And why is this important to know after Myers helped the Vancouver Canucks beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 in the 34-year-old defenceman’s 1,000th National Hockey League game?
Because before he played it, when Myers was sitting in the dressing room trying not to overthink his life path to this moment, Canucks staff rolled in a monitor and played a video that Michela had made earlier Saturday with Tristan, his little sister, Skylar, and their baby brother, Tatum. And Tristan, now seven years old, read the Canucks’ starting lineup and called out his father’s name.
In the dressing room, on the opposite side of the continent, Myers became an emotional mess.
“Yes, I was. To get the video of the starting lineup with the kids,” Myers said, pausing again to compose himself, “that was an all-time moment. I didn’t know it was coming. It really threw me for a loop. You know, it gave me an incredible amount of emotion going out onto the ice. I had to settle myself down a little bit at the start. And even throughout different times of the game, I had to settle myself down a little.
“Tristan did the whole read, which was very emotional just given what he’s been through. And to hear him. . . speak the way he does, let alone doing the starting lineup, it was pretty special.”
It was the idea of Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, who said he had the children of players record starting lineups when he was in charge of the Arizona Coyotes during the time of COVID.
“I had all their kids do it,” Tocchet explained. “But some of the guys, they actually played worse because they just wanted to go home. It was COVID.
“I think everybody got a little emotional (before tonight’s game). His son and his family doing it, it was actually pretty nice. It was really nice. And just to see Mysie, you could tell it was special for him.”
“I almost started tearing up, it was so emotional,” Canucks winger Brock Boeser said. “His family’s amazing. To get him all emotional before the game. . . he kind of made a comment that he didn’t really want that. But it’s all right. I think it’s just such a special moment for him and his family. I’m just so happy for him, such a great guy. And he has an amazing family, and it’s obviously a huge accomplishment.”
Tears and all, Myers did not play worse.
With his own mum and dad and stepmom watching in the stands, Myers logged 22:30 of ice time, helped kill all three Philadelphia power plays and made a beautiful blind, drop pass in netfront traffic to set up Boeser’s goal that made it 2-0 at 8:40 of the second period.
When Vancouver winger Kiefer Sherwood whipped in a wrist shot 50 seconds later from Teddy Blueger’s faceoff win, the game was essentially over. The Canucks were outshooting the Flyers 27-11, and Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen wasn’t allowing anything past him.
In just his third game as a Canuck, a little over a month after general manager Patrik Allvin signed Lankinen out of the free-agent bargain bin, the veteran Finn posted a 26-save shutout and helped Vancouver win its second straight game, impressively, after starting the regular season 0-1-2.
Lankinen has earned the right to keep starting until he falters and certainly should be in the crease Tuesday when Vancouver’s four-game trip ends in Chicago.
Saturday, however, was more about Myers than anyone.
After Boeser scored, the winger looked happier for Myers than he did for himself and insisted the assister be first down the receiving line at the Canucks’ bench.
“There’s just not enough I can say about him,” Canucks leader J.T. Miller said. “I look at Mysie as a really good friend of mine and, at the end of the day with him, hockey comes last. He is such a great person, a great teammate and a good family man. And he’s such a pro.
“He’s got a lot of body to handle (at six-foot-eight) and a lot of body for treatment and a lot of body to do this at his size. And to play as hard as he has for 15 or 16 years, it’s just awesome. And he’s playing really damn well, so he should be really proud. We’ve got a special group in here. I’ve been with him for six years now; we’ve been through a lot together. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
Miller, by the way, aggravated an undisclosed injury on the opening faceoff Saturday and finished the game but took no further draws. Asked what happened, he said: “I forgot my mouthguard for one shift.” So he’s not saying, but it will be surprising if Miller doesn’t play Tuesday.
That will be game 1,001 for Myers, one of those “glue guys” who help bind teams together. Tocchet called him the “voice of reason.”
“He plays off how I am, like, in the room,” Tocchet explained. “He’s good at cleaning up. If I get upset at the team, he’s a good guy, when I leave, to keep the guys together. Or vice versa. I just feel that he helps us out almost as a coach, because he’s an older guy (and) guys respect him. Like I said, that’s a helluva feat, 1,000 games.”
Born in Houston, Tex., Myers moved to Calgary at age 10 when his dad, Paul, who works in the resource industry, got a job there. Myers started playing junior hockey in Kelowna, where he met Michela, when he was 16 and moved his home there in 2010 after winning the Calder Trophy with the Buffalo Sabres.
Myers signed with the Canucks as a free agent in 2019 to play in his adopted home province.
He always figured to reach 1,000 games but, as he knows, things happen in life. Certainly, he never could have envisioned two years ago, during one of the darkest spirals in Canucks history, that the team would be aiming to follow a 109-point season by challenging for the Stanley Cup, and that he would be essential to it, playing some of the soundest, most consistent hockey of his career.
“I mean, we’ve been on a very low point in the spectrum and we’ve hit a very big high,” Myers said of the Canucks’ restoration under Tocchet and a coaching staff that includes Stanley Cup-winning defencemen Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar. “It has been a lot of ups and downs. I think a lot of people should just kind of take a look at our situation, our group — some of our individuals the last three or four years — and just realize that if you bury your head and keep working, try and bring your best every day, things can flip. I’m very happy with the position that we’ve come to as a team, very happy with the position I’ve come to with myself.”
And rarely more grateful for everything than he was Saturday.