For the past two-and-a-half hockey seasons, Dawn and Pat Connolly have been suffering from empty-nest syndrome.
Their boys, Brett and Josh, left the city years ago to pursue their hockey dreams - Brett with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, Josh with the WHL's Kamloops Blazers - and that meant a lot of evenings gathered around the TV or computer screen to watch them play.
But now that the Prince George Cougars have acquired Josh in a swap of 19-year-old defencemen that sent Marc McNulty to Kamloops, the Connolly residence is once again a hockey home.
"It's been three or four years since they've had any kids in the house other than summers so the parents are excited about it, I know they're always bored with me and Brett not around," said Josh.
Connolly was originally traded Monday to Swift Current but that deal fell through and it worked out in Connolly's favour Wednesday when he learned he was going home.
"It's pretty cool," said Connolly. "I've been watching these guys play since I was a little kid and to finally be a part of them is cool. I've texted Brett a few times and he's pretty excited. It's kind of cool to be on the same team your older brother played on."
Connolly instantly becomes the third-ranked pointgetter on the Cougars roster with 34 points in 39 games. Four of his five goals have come on power plays. He's a great passer and an above-average skater who's not afraid to join the rush and coach Mark Holick intends to use him a lot trying to improve one of the worst power plays in the league.
The Cougars rank 19th out of 22 WHL teams with the man advantage, scoring on only 15.8 per cent of those situations. Connolly will also try to boost their abysmal penalty killing, which is dead-last in the WHL with a 72.3 per cent kill ratio.
The Cougars play tonight and Saturday in Victoria.
Connolly played two seasons with the Cariboo Cougars major midget team, where he was a teammate of WHL Cougars scoring leader Chase Witala in 2010-11. He also knows Cougars assistant captain Jari Erricson and forward Brad Morrison, who are both from Prince George, so it's not like Connolly will be walking into a dressing room full of strangers.
Connolly, Joseph Carvalho and newly-acquired Tomas Andrlik, who is injured, are the older veterans now overseeing a young Cougars defence.
Now that he's on a new team, one that has missed the playoffs the past three seasons, Connolly has only one goal in mind.
"Making the playoffs, first and foremost, is what I'm looking forward to," he said.