HOCKEY NIGHT IN HUMBOLDT A COUNTRYWIDE AFFAIR
It’s an emotional day as the Broncos open their season, five months after tragic crash
On a chilly, overcast day in Humboldt, 160 nights after bus and semi collided at a rural Saskatchewan intersection, two groups of boys pulled on their jerseys and played hockey.
Before this wee miracle of a game, Humboldt Broncos players passed through a dressing room door with a sign above the frame — a message from Darcy Haugan to his team.
“It’s a great day to be a Bronco, gentlemen,” reads the sign, green with white letters. From that little message came a walk to the ice surface, a sold-out arena, a national television audience, a hockey game.
Haugan, the Broncos’ head coach and general manager, used that phrase almost daily before he died in the April 6 crash that killed 16 people on the Broncos’ bus.
A little more than five months later, the Broncos — rebuilt the best they could, in the tight time frame they were given — played their season opener against the Nipawin Hawks. The drive to the arena Wednesday night was immersive: Ribbons, sticks, a parade of signs, each bearing the image of somebody who died on that bus.
“I think it’s a miracle that we’re to the point where we’re getting a team together here,” says Broncos’ president Jamie Brockman. “To think that the regular season is starting, from where we were five, six months ago ... it’s quite amazing we got to this point.”
The Broncos placed an equipment order within weeks of the crash.
The man who distributed their equipment is Mark Doepker, the owner of Universal Sports, which is tucked into downtown Humboldt. Doepker is a season-ticket holder; he’s cheered for the Broncos since they formed in 1970.
Doepker went to Wednesday night’s sold-out game, of course, because where else would you want to be?
“Sadness and sorrow ... there’s anxiety, there’s enthusiasm,” he said in the afternoon, while working in his store. “I think you could just about cover the whole gamut of emotions. The tragedy, then getting the game underway — getting things off to a new start. There’s that excitement.”
The visiting Hawks, as one jokester said, were the Washington Generals of Wednesday’s game — the overlooked opponent; the team of which little was said. This night was about the Broncos, and their remarkable entry into the 2018-19 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League campaign.
But Nipawin is the best of all possible opponents, Broncos’ forward Brayden Camrud — a crash survivor — said prior to the contest. The Hawks were Humboldt’s playoff foe when the collision happened near Nipawin, and that place became a hasty gathering point through a horrible night.
“They did a fantastic job of honouring us, wearing our helmets, having a small tribute for us (in the wake of the crash),” Camrud said. “They showed up at the hospital that night in Nipawin, too, and a lot of guys took it upon themselves to go out of the way to do small things. Playing specifically against Nipawin is going to be special.”
Two players on that April 6 bus suited up for the Broncos Wednesday night. In the small team locker-room, Camrud and Derek Patter dress across from each other, each occupying the centre stall on his own side of the room, flanked by five on each side.
A new coach, Nathan Oystrick, walks on the floor between those two walls. New players populate the room.
“Nobody really knows what to expect, or exactly how to handle it. We’re just taking it day by day,” says Kyle Sargent, a veteran defenceman who was selected from the Yorkton Terriers in the SJHL’S dispersal draft, aimed at helping the Broncos rebuild their team.
Sargent says the dressing room has grown tight, quickly. Really quickly. It’s a good feeling in there, he says. He played against the Broncos last season, and he’ll never forget the night he heard about that bus in the ditch.
“When I got the call and the texts, all the rumours that are flying around, it was a terrible feeling,” he says. “I was sick to my stomach. It puts into perspective how short life is, and how much of a privilege it is to be able to wake up every day to play junior hockey and do something that you love. It put everything into perspective — play every game like it’s your last.”
But Wednesday’s game was his first — his first official match as a Bronco, his first game of a new season. Where the team goes, so go the fans. The local museum has an upstairs display, with a rotating collection of everything that’s been sent their way from one end of the world to the other. Traffic was especially brisk up there Wednesday.
There’s a signed letter from a Grade 1 class in Tuktoyaktuk; a hand-knitted Canadian flag from a 90-year-old woman in Swan River, Man., who suffered a massive stroke eight days after the Broncos crash. She made it known that she wanted that flag to go to the “hockey boys.”
That’s what the Broncos and Hawks skated into Wednesday night — unlimited good will and best wishes, from a country that wishes them nothing but the best.
And back home in Humboldt, they welcome the new season.
“You’re looking forward to it in the sense of getting everything moving again,” Doepker said. “I guess you’re never going to forget it. You’re never going to get over it. It’s never going to be gone. But I guess it’s one of those things — it’ll be nice to see everything start moving again, if that makes sense?”