John Carlson scores day after wife gives birth to second son

It has been a memorable weekend for John Carlson.

Capitals coach Barry Trotz told reporters Saturday morning that Carlson’s wife, Gina Carlson, gave birth to the couple’s second son Friday night.

Carlson celebrated Saturday by scoring Washington’s first goal of their Game 5 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“It was pretty cool. A pretty cool couple of days,” Carlson said. “Everything worked out great. Everyone’s healthy and that’s most important.”

Carlson said the baby was delivered around 8 p.m. Friday. He insisted he got a full night’s sleep before the game.

“My wife is great. She knows we’ve been through this and it’s part of what we do and the time of the year.” Carlson said. “Some things you can’t time and that’s one of them. I was just happy that we were home. They’ve got great nurses at the hospital at Sibley. We made it work.”

Carlson went to Kettler Capitals Iceplex for the team’s morning skate as normal but also spent some time with Gina at the hospital before the game.

The baby boy has yet to be named. “We’re just calling him Junior right now,” Trotz said earlier in the day.

Did Carlson have any ideas while at work Saturday night?

“That certainly was not on my mind during the game,” he smiled.

Instead, he was occupied with the task at hand, and Carlson delivered on a first-period power play with his team in an early 1-0 hole. Evgeny Kuznetsov maneuvered out of a double-team on the boards and passed the puck back to Carlson at the blue line. He skated to the high slot and fired off a slap shot that left Matt Murray looking.

It was Carlson’s third goal and 11th point of the playoffs, as well as his 16th career postseason goal. He tied the franchise mark for most postseason goals by a defenseman, held by Kevin Hatcher.

But not all the news around Carlson was positive. Trotz revealed after the game that Carlson was being evaluated after taking a high hit to the head from Jake Guentzel late in the game.

“I know the standard’s been set, so I’m gonna leave it up to the league,” Trotz said. “You know, it was a head shot in my opinion. Unsuspecting high hit.”

Carlson declined to talk about the hit, only saying “I don’t know” what happened.