Photo: Instagram/@senators, Graham Hughes/AP/TT
Linus Ullmark has moved to the Ottawa Senators.
As soon as his four-year contract was signed, he wanted to celebrate with his two children – and offer ice cream.
Now he is being praised on Instagram for his admirable behavior.
The 2022/2023 season was Swedish Linus Ullmark31, the world’s best hockey goaltender. The Boston Bruins goalkeeper was then awarded the Vezina Trophy, the prize that goes to the NHL’s best goalkeeper. He is also one of only 15 goaltenders in history to score in an NHL game, the first from Sweden – the second Swede ever to Philip Gustavsson for the Minnesota Wild earlier this week.
Family fun time
However, it was only three seasons in Boston before he moved to the Ottawa Senators this summer. When the contract was to be signed, his family was there to witness the big moment. His wife Moa (previous Wikman) and the couple’s children Harry and Lily appeared to be celebrating dad on the Senators’ Instagram, as the club filmed the event.
– Dad, we’re going to buy ice cream!, daughter Lily says in the clip when everything is signed and ready.
– If you listened, mother said you would get ice cream? Okay, I’m just glad she didn’t say you were going to get pizza or something like that… because I also want ice cream, father Linus Ullmark replies happily and hugs his children lovingly.
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– Do you think I can… that I have money to pay for the ice cream? Do I have to buy it? Huh? So mother put me there?, he then says before thanking everyone who attended the press conference.
Getting love from the fans
Linus Ullmark has really been praised for his warm treatment of his children. He shows how a father should be with his beloved children. Now, scores of supporters have commented on the Ottawa Senators’ clip on Instagram.
“What a lovely dude,” writes one person.
“My love for this player knows no bounds,” writes another.
“Ullmark: Father of all times,” writes a third.
“Can someone please tell the little guy not to hug him so hard. We need him FRESH and not completely mashed,” someone comments a bit jokingly.
Perhaps Ullmark’s wonderful parenting style has something to do with his own father and his adolescence in Ångermanland? Then something traumatic happened to Linus Ullmark and his family. Something that came to affect how he looked at his own father, whom he loved so much.
“Thought about quitting”
Linus Ullmark’s own father Jan-Olof died in January 2021, when he was only 63 years old. After suffering a stroke many years earlier, the father was forced to stop working and instead started drinking. In 2014/2015, Ullmark’s last season in Modo, the alcoholism was at its worst – then Linus was about to give up his career because he was so badly affected.
– I didn’t know what to do. I thought about quitting. I was very close to quitting and just moving home. Then I came into contact with a psychiatrist who really helped me get through it, work through all my emotions, he told Sportbladet.
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When he later moved to the USA, the father and the rest of the family were forced to fend for themselves at home in Lugnvik, southwest of Örnsköldsvik. A few years later he passed away. By then Linus had built a new life on the other side of the Atlantic.
– I can’t say for sure when he stopped. Did he stop? I don’t know. I wasn’t at home that much. I have two children. Such things I can only speculate about in my head. I try to protect myself and say that he was recovering all the way until he passed. It’s what I live with. That is my truth, but he was never hostile or anything towards me or any of us as far as I know, he has said.
This is so nicely acted by Linus Ullmark. The love for his children shines through and he really beams catching up with them when they say they are going to buy ice cream.
This is how a father should be towards his children, such respect and love is wonderful to see.
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