For Blackhawks’ Connor Murphy, father-son bond has defined NHL experience

The Hawks defenseman and his father, Gord, a longtime NHL player and assistant coach, have a connection that has shaped both their hockey paths.

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Connor Murphy has six NHL seasons under his belt now — four with Arizona, two in Chicago — but he’ll need eight more to match his father Gord’s long career.

Courtesy of Murphy family.

Gord Murphy, behind the bench of the Philadelphia Flyers for four years, and Connor Murphy, defenseman for the Coyotes and now Blackhawks, have “faced” each other eight times in the NHL to date.

Connor’s record: 5-3.

“For whatever reason, every time we played against them, something would happen,” the Hawks rearguard said.

Twice, Connor Murphy scored — a rare occurrence for the defensive defenseman. Once, he fought — an even more rare occurrence. Every time, he would take every opportunity to stare down his dad on the opponent’s bench, attempting some friendly family gamesmanship. Rarely, however, would he catch his dad’s eyes.

“I wouldn’t use the phrase that I was trying to avoid it,” Gord Murphy laughed. “It just probably didn’t work out.”

For the Murphys — one of a small group of living father-son duos in which both enjoyed lengthy NHL careers — sport has served as a lifelong connection.

That bond has helped Connor manage the pressure of being a first-round pick, the transition involved with his trade to Chicago in 2017 and the struggle to overcome his back injury of a year ago. It’s also given Gord insight into the new generation of NHL players he guides and a fallback when the league’s inescapable coaching change serpent strikes.

And it dates to the latter half of Gord’s own 14-year professional career, when Connor and older brother Tyler grew up in the neighborhoods and locker rooms of two unconventional hockey markets — south Florida and Atlanta.

“It was a different path than how I envisioned my children growing up, and how I could get them out on a backyard rink or an outdoor rink down at the schoolyard,” Gord Murphy said. “It was just the garage, or in their bedrooms until they broke something, and then back out in the garage.”

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Connor Murphy with father Gord and mother Nicole in 2016.

Courtesy of Murphy family.

Hockey and Connor Murphy weren’t immediate companions. His parents remember, with mixed feelings of lingering embarrassment and nostalgic hilarity, their youngest flunking his first Learn to Skate class, more out of a lack of interest than anything.

That initial hiccup didn’t interrupt his blossoming youth career for long, though, and by the time Gord retired and took an assistant job with the Blue Jackets, Connor’s skill was obvious. Not hurting his progression was his weekly exposure to the NHL lifestyle, both in person — he’d collect sticks from the Jackets’ practice rink trash can, saving gems from the likes of Michael Peca and Trevor Letowski — and from afar.

“He would have video in the kitchen and as we were watching TV, he would call me and my brother over and show us what he was working on,” Connor Murphy said. “As a kid, you don’t realize details of the game; you just play. But then when I saw him working on stuff, you learn there’s a lot of little parts of the game that you don’t see until you’re at a higher level.”

Through nightly video sessions in the Murphys’ suburban Columbus home, Connor memorized the intricacies of what it took to be a defenseman in the NHL.

“I’d see guys like Brian Rafalski, and how they could skate with the puck with their head up, and pivot, and use the ice to make plays,” he said. “It was just little things like that.”

Now six years into his own NHL journey, Murphy isn’t quite on track for a Rafalski-esque career, but he’s racing towards making his father-son pair only the 17th in league history to play 500 games apiece. (If he ends up exceeding his father’s 862, they could rank sixth all-time).

Both Gord and mom Nicole were in attendance at Connor’s first game in Phoenix in 2014, when he first began the trend of scoring nearly every time his parents are present.

“It just seemed to go so fast,” Gord Murphy said. “In that very moment, you have the memories of him being a young player and going off the ice because he didn’t want to learn to skate. It felt like, in the blink of an eye, we’re looking at him out on the ice for his first NHL game. The emotions can be somewhat overwhelming.”

Connor was re-assigned back to the AHL immediately afterward, so when the Murphys sat down for a late postgame celebratory meal, they did so with their first-time NHL-er’s full equipment bag in the back of the rental car.

It’s that type of family support, through the constant travel and instability of the top-tier hockey circuit, that has kept both Murphys sane through their respective NHL journeys.

When Connor was traded to the Hawks, Gord advised him about how to balance the added scrutiny, social media backlash and historical context that comes with playing for an Original Six franchise.

When Gord molded prospects coming up through the Flyers’ system, Connor advised him about the perspective of his generation of players — “How they interpret certain situations when coaches talk to them, how they hear it, how they translate it,” Gord elaborated.

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Murphy’s ice time increased by more than three additional minutes per game in his second season with the Blackhawks.

Getty

And when Connor missed the first two months of the 2018-19 season, and then Gord lost his job as part of a sweeping overhaul in Philadelphia while Connor was rehabbing, the two helped each other along, turning what could’ve been one of the Murphy family’s most trying times into one of its best.

They were together for Connor’s sister’s graduation from nursing school, for Christmas, for the Winter Classic at Notre Dame. And they were together, period.

“It was a blessing that we were able to be there for each other, spend time together,” Gord Murphy said. “I’d never really been able to do that. We made numerous trips to Chicago, spent time with him, and it was very therapeutic mentally for both of us.”

Gord said he hopes to get back into an NHL coaching role at some point, but there’s no rush. This newfound togetherness is worth savoring for now.

The whole group reunited in Ontario last weekend to visit mother Nicole’s side of the family. Connor is planning to host a family week in Chicago later this summer, too.

And even once the two find themselves in opposing roles on opposing teams again — even once the eye-avoiding and gamesmanship resumes — both know that that closeness, forged by more than 26 years now of father-son hockey bonding, won’t go away.

“In warmups, we [will] just look at each other and give a smile and a wink,” Gord said. “And then the game starts and we’re both doing our job.”

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