Brothers: Matt and Kevin Gilroy
I’ve wanted to do something related to brothers (or sisters) for a long time, my first favorite player from the past was Maurice “Rocket” Richard whose younger brother Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard also played and my first “I want to bang my – or yours if I could get away with it – head into a concrete wall” player was Scott Niedermayer whose younger brother Rob also plays in the NHL (they don’t have nice descriptive nicknames and you don’t want to know my idea for an invention that would have worked as both a fan promotion and a way to keep Nieder from “sleepwalking” as Larry Robinson described his play). A nice, heavy on the pictures book came out a few years ago on the various brother and father/son, etc. combinations – Hockey Dynasties: Bluelines and Bloodlines.
There should be a fourth generation NHL player in the next few seasons – either Blake Geoffrion (Howie Morenz – son-in-law Boom Boom Geoffrion – grandson – Danny, great-grandson Blake) or Brett Hextall (Bryan Hextall – son Bryan Jr (and Dennis) – grandson Ron – great-grandson Brett).
Boston College had 8 or 9 brother combinations represented by atleast one brother a couple of seasons ago, but since there wouldn’t be hockey brothers without hockey moms, my first entry will be in honor of Peg Gilroy’s birthday today. Matt and Kevin Gilroy were able to play together last season for the Boston University Terriers, Matt as a Hobey Baker-winning senior co-Captain and Kevin as a freshman.
