Drew O’Connor’s Penguins debut was brief — and improbable

Five minutes before 7 p.m. this past Tuesday, the doorbell rang at the O’Connor home in Morristown, N.J. Drew O’Connor’s parents, Shawn and Meagan, and his older brother, Jack, were in the living room watching the Penguins pregame show, waiting for Drew’s NHL debut, against the Bruins in Boston, to begin. It was a special night, and they weren’t expecting visitors.

“We were like, Who’s here?” Shawn said. “Nobody comes by during COVID.”

They heard a cheery voice outside: “Congratulations, from the Penguins!”

Meagan answered the door and saw that the delivery driver had left a feast on their front porch. There was a platter of food, bottles of wine, a bouquet and a handwritten card. It was “thrilling,” Shawn said, and the timing perfect. As the puck dropped for the opening face-off, he read the card.

Shawn and Meagan: Congratulations on Drew realizing his lifelong dream of playing in the NHL. All of those early-morning practices and weekends away at tournaments will pay off tonight. The Pittsburgh Penguins organization appreciates all of the sacrifices made by you and your family to help achieve the incredible feat. Enjoy the game. We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh in the near future.

– The Pittsburgh Penguins

Drew O’Connor signed with the Penguins last spring. (Bruce Bennett / USA Today)

For the first two weeks of the season, Drew O’Connor was as close to being an NHLer as he could be without being one. He lived the NHL life. He had a locker in the Penguins’ dressing room. He practiced, attended games and flew on the team charter. And yet, the 22-year-old forward was on the cusp of the NHL in a way that hadn’t existed until this year: the taxi squad.

O’Connor skated each day with the four- to six-man taxi squad and sometimes stayed to practice with the players on the Penguins’ active roster, too. Taxi squad players arrived early to each game, on standby in case of injury or a positive COVID-19 test. They worked out during the first period, then watched the rest of the game from the press box — some of the only “fans” in the arena.

“You don’t think about it much on the ice,” O’Connor said, “but especially in an empty building it feels like you’re right there, seeing and hearing everything.”

O’Connor is part of a rookie class breaking into the NHL in a strange season, amid a pandemic. He’s living at an extended-stay hotel just steps from the Penguins’ practice rink in Cranberry. Instead of team dinners and hangouts, the focus is on isolating and staying healthy. O’Connor watches Netflix and reads books. He talks to family and friends by phone. He goes to bed pretty early.

O’Connor was just getting used to this routine when Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan met with him after a practice last week. It was a short conversation in the hallway outside the dressing room at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Sullivan told O’Connor he’d be playing in Boston the following night. Have some fun, Sullivan said. O’Connor nodded.

“I was trying to hide my excitement a little bit,” O’Connor said, with a laugh.

He fished his phone out of his locker and spread the news.

“He sent a text, ‘Playing tomorrow,’” his mother, Meagan, said. “That’s it.”

In a way, it’s the worst time for the best day of a hockey player’s life.

O’Connor grew up on skates, flying around on ponds and outdoor rinks across New Jersey, and dreaming of playing in the NHL. He never would’ve guessed that when he made it, no one — not his parents, his three siblings, his aunts, uncles and cousins, his friends, or any fans at all — would be there watching. He skated the pregame rookie lap and saw rows and rows of empty seats.

You could forgive O’Connor’s frustration. However, he has none.

Because he and his family had long ago let go of that NHL dream.

“We hadn’t imagined this (debut) for years,” Shawn said.

Reality had intervened in high school. O’Connor was skilled but small — looking nothing like the 6-foot-3, 200-pound forward he is today. “People who knew me back in high school are surprised to see me now,” O’Connor said. His ice time waned at Delbarton School, a private school and hockey factory, and so he left the team to join the New Jersey Avalanche. His goal was to play Division I hockey. But no one offered. O’Connor’s hockey options dried up.

“I was certainly not on anyone’s draft radar, either,” he said.

After graduating from Delbarton, O’Connor sat down with his parents to plan for the future. He had been accepted to a few colleges in the Northeast, and he thought about trying out for Hobart’s Division III team. O’Connor, though, wanted one more shot. He and his parents decided to take one more year, defer his college acceptances, and see if anything came along.

A couple of months later, before O’Connor’s second season with the Avalanche, a Dartmouth assistant coach noticed O’Connor at a showcase event. That set the wheels in motion. Dartmouth offered. O’Connor accepted. When O’Connor moved to campus in the summer of 2018, he still wasn’t thinking about the NHL, but NHL teams were starting to think about him. He grew into his frame and had 38 goals and 59 points over the next two seasons.

The initial attention from scouts, Shawn said, “was a shock to us.”

Have we mentioned that ROOKIE Drew O'Connor has 15 goals? Well he does. It's because he does things like this… pic.twitter.com/YIxMpKr0y9

— Dartmouth Men's Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) March 10, 2019

Last spring, O’Connor was one of the most coveted college free agents available. The Penguins, in need of prospects, made their sales pitch to O’Connor, his family and his advisor. The Dartmouth season ended March 7. O’Connor signed a two-year, entry-level deal with the Penguins on March 10.

“The unbelievable players they have here, the best players in the world, made it a good place for a young guy to come in and learn from them,” he said. “That was a great opportunity for me. And they’ve had so much success with college guys in the past — free agents and draft picks that they’ve given a really good chance to. I saw that as a possibility, having a similar path as them.”

O’Connor planned to play the last 11 games of the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Then, six days after he signed, the season was suspended.

In the second period of his NHL debut, O’Connor skated to the bench after celebrating Jason Zucker’s goal and heard the public-address announcer credit O’Connor with an assist. O’Connor was pretty sure this was incorrect. He took a seat, and the teammates and coaches around him congratulated him on his first NHL point. O’Connor still thought it was a mistake.

He didn’t realize until later, when he saw a replay, that the puck had deflected off of his skate, two touches before Zucker’s wrist shot.

“Not the prettiest assist,” O’Connor said, laughing, “but I’ll take it, I guess.”

O'Connor (first NHL point!) ➡️ McCann ➡️ Zucker ➡️ 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YYjDcXVK9U

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 27, 2021

At home in Morristown, his parents started getting texts from friends. “Did Drew get a point on that?” “Drew just got an assist!” Shawn, Meagan and Jack weren’t sure, either. They didn’t want to rewind and watch the play again, since they might miss what was next, and so they looked at a box score online.

“We were kind of holding our breath,” Meagan said.

Then the texts really poured in. O’Connor’s cousin, Luke, had his tweet shown on the broadcast. O’Connor’s sisters wanted to know how to get their tweets on there, too. Siblings sent around clips of O’Connor’s interview, and videos of his nieces and nephews jumping up and down whenever Uncle Drew was on TV.

“It was maybe more exciting than being in the rink,” said Shawn, adding that there were 35 members of the extended O’Connor family at a Dartmouth road game at Princeton a couple of years ago. “Your phone is just buzzing.”

Sure, O’Connor would have loved to have them all at TD Garden last week.

“But I think they made the most of it,” the rookie said.

O’Connor battles with Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lauzon in his second NHL game. (Paul Rutherford / USA Today)

The morning after O’Connor’s debut, his dad headed to the basement to work out. It’s a hockey shrine down there, he said. Across from the workout equipment are rows of O’Connor’s trophies lined up. His old hockey jerseys hang on the wall. Shawn turned on the TV and flipped to NHL Network, like he has each morning for years. This time, it was more than background noise.

When the screen showed O’Connor, big No. 10, standing in front of Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask the previous night, Shawn stopped exercising and pressed “pause” on the TV remote. He ran upstairs to find Meagan and Jack.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Shawn said. “I said, ‘You guys gotta come down here!’”

The strangeness of this NHL season hasn’t stolen how special this moment is for their family. When talking on the phone with his parents, O’Connor is chipper. He’s having the time of his life. This isn’t a typical first NHL season, but others have had it much worse. He’s healthy, and he’s still playing hockey. (His Dartmouth teammates had their 2020-21 season canceled.)

Even though O’Connor was reassigned to the taxi squad Tuesday, it likely is only a matter of time before he gets called back to the active roster again. As for his family, they look forward to watching O’Connor play in person someday soon.

Seeing O’Connor in a Penguins sweater on NHL Network already is more than they ever thought was possible for his hockey career.

“How could you not feel grateful for that?” Shawn said.

(Top photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)