BRONCOS REMEMBERED
Gordie Howe and Evan Thomas will both be remembered as hockey players.
The comparison mostly ends there, but they will share another distinction.
Today, the Humboldt Broncos forward will join Howe as the only two people to have a memorial service held in their honour in the 30-year history of SaskTel Centre.
In September 2016, 61 members of Howe’s immediate and extended families attended a private interment ceremony outside SaskTel Centre. The ashes of the National Hockey League legend, who died that year at 88, were mixed with his wife Colleen’s in the base of the statue of Howe outside SaskTel Centre.
Later that same Sunday, the Saskatoon Blades played a Western Hockey League game following a 30-minute ceremony paying tribute to Howe.
If the Blades had intended to honour him with their performance on the ice that day, they failed miserably. The Swift Current Broncos pummelled the hometown team 6-0 in front of 6,349 fans.
Like all losses on the ice, that one seems insignificant in the wake of this month’s tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus. A collision on April 6 between the bus and a semi has left 16 people dead, including Thomas, who had played his first full year with the Broncos. The bus was headed to a playoff game in Nipawin.
Howe, who grew up in Saskatoon, accomplished more than anyone could have expected of his NHL career. He retired as the NHL’s career leader in goals (801), points (1,850) and games played (1,767). He still holds the games played title and only Wayne Gretzky has scored more goals.
Evan Thomas’s Saskatoon hockey story will remain mostly unwritten.
Thomas, who would have turned 19 in September, played two years for the bantam AA Saskatoon Outlaws before moving on to the Saskatoon Blazers midget team.
He then played two years for the midget Moose Jaw Generals. The WHL’s Kootenay Ice drafted Thomas and he stuck with the Cranbrook team through the fall exhibition season before returning to play his first full season in Humboldt. Evan’s dad, Scott, acknowledged his son had an “average” season in Humboldt, trying to adapt to the team after returning from Kootenay. In 48 games, Evan scored five goals and added nine assists.
Those are not the sort of numbers that would normally get you mentioned in the same breath as Gordie Howe. Howe lived the Saskatoon hockey dream to its greatest imaginable fulfilment. Thomas’s dream was snuffed out on a remote Prairie highway.
Scott said his son also excelled in baseball, but the pressure to focus on one sport prompted Evan to choose hockey.
Baseball. Hockey. Saskatoon. Moose Jaw. Cranbrook. Humboldt.
Scott said Evan bonded with his Broncos teammates so tightly he spurned offers to return home to Saskatoon this winter to watch the Super Bowl and for Easter.
Bonds were broken all over Western Canada with the death of Thomas.
As we get to know the people involved in this tragedy, it seems easier to explain why an online fundraising campaign has shattered all expectations, topping $10 million in less than a week. People with jerseys of any description donned them Thursday. Hockey sticks that may have been gathering dust for decades rest outside front doors across Canada and around the globe.
Today’s 1 p.m. service at SaskTel Centre could provide the largest venue yet for that empathy. Humboldt’s Elgar Petersen Arena seats 1,854 for hockey and was packed for a memorial service on April 8.
SaskTel Centre, which seats more than 15,000 for hockey games, will be set up as a concert bowl, meaning it can accommodate about 7,000. Arena officials say they have no idea how many will turn up, since there’s obviously no ticket sales, but Scott has invited anyone affected by the tragedy to attend.
Hey, 73-year-old pop star Rod Stewart nearly sold out SaskTel Centre on April 4.
Saskatoon Transit is planning special event service from downtown, which usually indicates a crowd of at least 5,000.
Like so much of the aftermath of this tragedy, a funeral at SaskTel Centre is unchartered territory.