Deaths hit home for Senators’ Zack Smith
‘Familiar names’ from earliest playing days
BOSTON • This has been a difficult weekend for Zack Smith.
Friday, the Ottawa Senators centre woke up to the sad news that 17- year- old Jonathan Pitre, the young fan who fought a long and painful battle with a rare skin disease, had passed away.
Then on Saturday came the news that 15 members of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Humboldt Broncos f ranchise were killed and 14 others injured in a tragic bus accident.
Smith, 30, who was born in Maple Creek, Sask., is sickened by what happened in the accident and his heart goes out to the people in his home province because he knows what hockey teams mean to those small communities.
“It’s been a tough couple of days for the hockey world, a lot of people around the Senators’ organization and a lot of people back home in Saskatchewan and Western Canada,” Smith said Saturday afternoon.
While the Senators were preparing to play their final game of the season at the TD Garden, you could forgive Smith if he was distracted. He spent time in the morning taking a look at the Broncos’ roster to see if he knew anybody involved in the crash because while Saskatchewan encompasses a large area, it is small by nature. It’s the kind of province where everybody knows somebody who knows somebody and this hit close to home.
“There’s a lot of familiar last names with players that I played with over the years and I’m just kind of thinking of them. It’s just unfortunate and the more you talk to people, you know how much it touches the people, and how many people are affected by it. It’s a tragedy that goes beyond Saskatchewan, it pretty much affects the whole hockey world.”
Smith knows what hockey means in those tiny communities because there are a lot of nights where the rink is the place to be and it’s the gathering place for the town.
“A lot of those communities, places like Kindersley, Humboldt, Yorkton, Estevan, are SJHL-style towns, aren’t big centres but hockey is what they rely on and what they’re known for. Kids growing up around those areas, their dream is to play for those teams.”