Sean McDonagh has “a thousand questions” he’d like to ask his son Ryan, recently named the 27th captain in New York Rangers history, about life in the NHL.

But there are more important things for a father and son to talk about, and their chats are a chance for Ryan to leave work at work.

They talk about Ryan’s two brothers and about Ryan’s wife Kaylee, his high school sweetheart whom he met at Cretin-Derham Hall, and about his grandparents and about whatever else is going on with the family.

Their conversations are more the father-son type than the fan-pro hockey player type.

“Everybody thinks it’s a lot of hockey talk, but you know what, we really don’t talk hockey,” Sean said.

Of late, there’s been plenty to talk about Ryan’s performances.

He was a big part of the U.S. Olympic hockey team in Sochi last February, he helped lead the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Finals a few months later, and, three weeks ago, McDonagh, at age 25, was named Rangers captain.

To each of these accomplishments, Sean has the same response.

“The dream just continues,” he said, a phrase he uttered six times in a 20-minute conversation with the Pioneer Press.

Even before being named captain, Ryan had become the face of the Rangers. That only intensified when the “C” was stitched on to his sweater.

But even as the country’s biggest city looks at Ryan as the face of its NHL team, his parents still see the same mild-mannered child they raised.

“We were shocked when he got the captaincy because he’s not an out-front person,” Sean said with a laugh. “He’s a stand-in-the-back-of-the-room guy that does his job and moves on. And I’m sure Zach (Parise) and Mikko (Koivu) are, too. There’s not too many people in hockey that really like to talk to you guys (in the media).”

To that, Sean, who seems to be an easygoing father with a good sense of humor, laughed.

Monday, Sean and wife Patty will watch Ryan’s Rangers host the Wild, though they’ll watch from different rooms — Patty upstairs and Sean downstairs.

They haven’t forgotten about the elbow Matt Cooke, then a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and now with the Wild, delivered to Ryan’s head in March of 2011. But they still watch plenty of Wild games and were pleased by Cooke’s transformation, which came after his 17-game suspension for elbowing McDonagh.

“The Matt Cooke stuff is gone — hopefully,” Sean said. “It looks to be gone, at least. It was disappointing, though. Thankfully, Matt Cooke got rid of it, though his reputation won’t ever be the same.”

Cooke’s addition by the Wild did nothing to temper their love for the team.

Sean’s father had season tickets to North Stars games, and Sean has been watching the Wild since their inception in 2000.

“My favorite team is the team my son plays for,” Sean said. “And my second favorite is the Minnesota team.”

Ryan and Kaylee recently purchased a house in Shoreview, about five minutes from his parents’ place in Arden Hills. With the Rangers, though, he’s a long way from his Minnesota roots.

“It’s definitely two very different lifestyles and different atmospheres,” Ryan said. “It’s an exciting city to play in as a pro hockey player with a great fan base and energetic crowd. It makes it a lot of fun. And then to have the downtime of the summer in a very relaxing atmosphere in Minnesota makes for a great mixture for us and works out well.”

Ryan’s parents cherish trips to Madison Square Garden, where their middle child has become a star.

But the youngest son, Quinn, is a sophomore at Mounds View High School, and Sean and Patty still have plenty to keep them busy in Minnesota. Sean is a golf superintendent in Roseville and Patty is a teacher.

Seemingly every week, someone asks Sean if he’s headed to the Big Apple to watch Ryan.

“Um, no,” he tells them. “I have other sons. We can only go so much. Everybody says, ‘Oh I’d go to every game.’ Really? Let’s be honest, it gets a little tiresome. It’s a lot of work to go to a game in New York. We have a blast when we go and it’s a dream, but it’s still a lot of work.”

When Ryan’s back home in the summer, he often skates with Zach Parise and other Minnesotans. He sees Wild defenseman Ryan Suter at alumni events for the University of Wisconsin and hung out with both players in Sochi during the Olympics.

But when he’s back, he especially enjoys seeing his buddies from high school.

When they’re all together, Ryan, despite his six-year contract worth more than $28 million, blends in with his old friends.

“Beside the physical shape of them,” Sean said with a laugh, “you can’t tell.”

Follow Chad Graff at twitter.com/ChadGraff.