The springtime air is crisp but the skies are clear. I hope we get a nice summer to match my sunny disposition lately. This is the first ever barbecue I’ve hosted, but all my other ideas for how to introduce the guys to Ellis never felt right. Dinner party: too formal. Meal in a restaurant: too loud and not private enough. There was Ellis’s plan of just never meeting them, but I’m pretty sure she was joking or that she was just still angry about them knowing. Though with her British humour, I can never quite tell.

Jack was on my side. Before me, he never really watched hockey, but I think having me in his life has brought out a love for the sport. He was most excited to meet Jackson Felix, the Spears goalie, and I had to be the one to tell him that Felix wouldn’t be attending. Actually, a lot of the team still only knows the bare minimum about our situation, there is no way I am letting it slip again.

Edge was right when he said Cassie was going to kill me when I told her I was going to be a dad. The PR department were easily placated once she heard how serious I am about Ellis and my family. Still, she told me to keep everything as low key as possible right now, more so for Ellis’s sake. Since she found out about Ellis’s fibromyalgia, she wants to make sure Ellis has as straightforward a pregnancy as she can. Coach Mitch agreed: he was openly happy for me but he knows that it is better to keep this as close to the chest as possible to make sure Ellis’s pregnancy is as stress free as we can make it.

Luckily for all of us, journalists don’t care as much about me now that I’m not partying like a rookie. But if even one reporter made Ellis uncomfortable, I don’t think I’d handle that well. Thankfully, there are so many more players going out drinking and getting up to mischief that it can be easy to slip under the radar. Especially now that I am an older player. There is always someone younger, more interesting. The last time I was really in the news was when I was traded home, but even then it was a case of welcoming me back more so than anything dramatic. When there are players on the team like Anders who feature in underwear campaigns I am not the person the press wants to follow.

Keeping her and Jack out of the limelight was Cassie’s advice, that was after she threw a pencil at me for not telling her as soon as it happened. Given the circumstances, I had expected her to at least throw a stapler so I will take that win.