Cunningham needs our help today
Hockey’s ultimate teammate and good guy collapses at centre ice
Craig Cunningham helped save my life. I am certain of that. In October, 2010, I was diagnosed with cancer and admitted to Vancouver General Hospital. Cunningham, then with the Vancouver Giants, came by to visit one afternoon, along with then-teammates James Henry and Brendan Gallagher, and strength coach Ian Gallagher.
It was a day I needed an emotional boost. It gave me the push I needed and kept me going for quite some time.
Cunningham needs our help today — lots of it.
Cunningham, now 26 and a centre in the Arizona Coyotes’ farm system, collapsed at centre ice Saturday night before the opening faceoff in an American Hockey League tilt between his Tucson Roadrunners and the Manitoba Moose.
According to a report from the tucson.com, “he appeared to convulse after hitting the ice. Medics worked on Cunningham, who was lying on his back, and cut away his jersey. They performed chest compressions before moving him off the ice and into an ambulance.”
The Coyotes issued a statement later that the Trail native had suffered “a medical emergency,” and was “taken to a local hospital where he is receiving medical treatment.”
Details after that are sketchy, but you get the idea. He is in harm’s way.
Looking back, it was a wonderful surprise when those Giants showed up in my VGH room that day. On the flip side, though, that’s exactly who those three guys were then (as well as Ian) and continue to be to this day.
Cunningham may be the most popular player ever with his peers with the Giants. He has this infectious enthusiasm.
He was a 16-year-old rookie in Vancouver’s Memorial Cup host year in 2006-07. He didn’t score a goal in 48 regular-season games. Every time he got close, though, the Vancouver bench would go absolutely bonkers.
He, of course, went on to produce 97 points as a 19-year-old and ended up moving to the NHL. It remains one of the great stories in the team’s history.
He’s a former Giants captain. He’s captain in Tucson, marking the third straight season wearing the ‘C’ at the AHL level.
I was always fascinated watching Cunningham in the warm-up with Vancouver. He seemed to have a buddy on every other team, and he often spent a good chunk of his pre-game prep time standing chatting with an opponent at centre ice. And, keep in mind, he had an edge to his game even back then, so it wasn’t like he’d be overly kind to rivals when action began. He’s that guy.
To borrow a line from Ray Ferraro, the NHL player turned analyst who is a mentor to Cunningham: “When I first met him, he was five or six and I was drawn in by his energy right away.”
Cunningham is one of three brothers. They lost their dad, Alvin, when Craig was just shy of his sixth birthday.
He’s an easy guy to root for. He could certainly use your prayers and your thoughts now.
Milan Lucic, who played with Cunningham both with the Giants and Boston Bruins, may have said it best when Cunningham was about to play his first NHL game in Vancouver with Boston in February, 2015: “You see how far he’s come, from the one year I played with him in junior to who he is now as a person and a player, and it’s pretty awesome.
“Every guy who ever played with him will give you the same feedback. They will talk about how good a teammate Craig Cunningham is.”