Golden Knights Jon Merrill talks pause, playoffs and bubble life

Jon Merrill has had a lot on his plate the last five months.

The Golden Knights defenseman has tried to educate himself about the global COVID-19 pandemic that paused the NHL season. He’s worked to keep his game sharp so he can help his team win the Stanley Cup. And he’s had to entertain three young daughters while his fiancee finished up her master’s degree.

Merrill took time out of his hectic schedule to chat with the Review-Journal’s Golden Edge podcast Friday about his break from hockey, his expectations for the league’s “bubble” in Edmonton and much more.

Check out the full interview above, and read selected highlights below:

(On his “daddy daycare” during the pause)

My fiancee was finishing up her master’s program in the late spring there so pretty much all the parenting responsibilities fell solely on me. For a while there during finals time for her, it was daddy daycare around here. That would probably be my greatest accomplishment of the quarantine, is just surviving it. Everyone’s in one piece and got three meals in them every day. That was definitely my biggest accomplishment.

(On how he maintained his hockey flow during quarantine)

Just let it ride, baby. I think sometimes the best hair (is) touched the least. You just have to let that natural grease start to come in. Let the flow do what it wants. It’s definitely got a mind of its own up there right now.

It’s looking like you don’t care but you really kind of do care, is the look you’re going for for sure.

(On if he ever considered opting out of the NHL’s restart)

I wouldn’t say I didn’t consider it. I think any player that says they didn’t, I think they’re lying to you a little bit because you obviously weigh the options. I think it took a few months for me to really understand more about COVID. I think we’ve learned more about it throughout these few months here and how it’s transmitted and what’s safe, what’s not safe. We’ve all learned about social distancing and masks and things like that. Definitely early on I was against (returning). I was (like) ‘Man, we’ve just got to take care of our people and we’ve got to do what’s right’ and it just didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem like sports was something that was a necessary operation. But as it went on I realized we can do this and we can do this in a safe way. Once that was established, I was all for it. You know, let’s go play. As long as we can do it a safe way and it makes sense and things like that, I’m all for getting back out there and competing with the boys and getting after a Cup.

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.