Penguins forward was raised to keep grinding
By Jason Mackey
April 10, 2019
Jared McCann #19 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on February 19, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Penguins defeated the Devils 4-3.(BRUCE BENNETT/Getty Images North America)
When Jared McCann was 4 years old, his mother, Erin, would enlist his help at the grocery store.
If Erin McCann couldn’t find something, she’d send Jared on a mission that wouldn’t end until he either located the item or asked someone to point him in the proper direction.
Now, nearly two decades later, those trips serve as an important example of what makes both McCanns special. Jared, a speedy forward the Penguins acquired in a Feb. 1 trade, has figured out a way to mesh on this team.
Erin McCann, meanwhile, refuses to let an ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis slow her down, an every-day fight that pushes her youngest son to strive continually for more at hockey’s highest level.
“She’s been a big inspiration in my life,” Jared McCann said. “Looking at how she handles herself every day and what she has to go through with the MS, not being able to walk sometimes, it humbles you. It makes you realize there are a lot bigger problems in the world.
“I’ve always felt that I have the greatest job in the world, but she reminds me of that every day.”
You won’t find many more likable players inside the Penguins dressing room than McCann, a talented skater and goal-scorer who has provided an injection of life into the team.
Cast in several different roles here, the 22-year-old native of Stratford, Ontario has found a way to make it all work, a combination of enthusiasm and ingenuity that would make his mom proud.
“I think he’s seen me work hard, deal with everybody and with my MS, just staying positive,” Erin McCann recalled by phone last week while driving to Pittsburgh with her husband, Matt, for the Penguins’ final two games of the regular season. “I’ve always been that way. You have to be. You don’t feel sorry for yourself.”
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