Emotional Elliott drawing strength from Humboldt tragedy
VOORHEES, N.J. » The man who figures to be the one as under the gun as anyone in the upcoming Flyers-Penguins playoff series was as calm and collected as could be in the Flyers’ locker room Monday afternoon.
Brian Elliott was playing the part of veteran, playoff-tested goalie perfectly on this pre-playoff practice day. He acknowledged the huge challenge ahead, facing probably the NHL’s most skilled offensive juggernaut while still trying to get into playing shape after a seven-week injury absence.
That this Monday was his 33rd birthday? Well, that wasn’t so much for public consumption. Especially since Elliott was so moved from the three-day-old news stemming from a remote part of North America that nonetheless continued to shake the hockey world.
“You’re going to get everybody’s A game and we better have ours,” Elliott said with a nod to the Penguins, who host the Flyers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday (7 p.m.) at PPG Paints Arena. “You have to go through it. If you haven’t been through it, especially with the big rivalry between these two clubs ... I’m excited to be a part of it.
“I’ve watched it from afar. It’s really fun to watch, so it’s going to be more fun to play. And uh, I think having some young guys that haven’t been through this kind of wringer, (know) it’s a privilege to play this game, to put on an NHL jersey. It’s also a privilege and a pleasure to play for a Stanley Cup, which everybody’s been going after since you were six years old, playing in the driveway.”
Elliott, his thoughts seemingly a bit scattered, then got to the point of his emotional monologue with a direct reference to the bus and truck accident in rural Saskatchewan Friday that took the lives of 15 members of the Junior A Humboldt Broncos, who were on their way to a league playoff game. Most of the dead were teens or young adults.
“I woke up this morning with all the news coming out of Saskatchewan ... we’ve all been those kids,” he said. “Riding the bus, having those dreams to go on and play. Now we’re living our dreams and those kids don’t get to go on and fulfill their dreams. So we have to treat it as a privilege. That’s how I want to go into this series, knowing that we’re here; that we’ve fulfilled our dreams to make it to the NHL and we all have one big dream to get that Cup.
“Every season’s new,” Elliott continued. “It’s not about redeeming. I’ve gotten close with these guys pretty quick. We count on each other day in and day out. That’s what’s fun about it, to have each other’s backs. To try to come up big for each other. That’s the biggest thing. It’s not a personal thing, it’s everybody for the team. That’s what’s good for our sport. We go out there and play for each other. You saw our captain (Claude Giroux) do that last game and hopefully we’ll all take his lead.”
Perhaps Elliott can see himself in a redemptive role for this series, however. Despite Giroux’s insistence Monday to the contrary, Elliott had some very shaky moments in his first game back against Carolina Thursday. But they won. Then Saturday he didn’t have much to do, in a 5-0 victory over New York that featured all of 17 half-hearted Rangers shots.
Now comes a much more meaningful and certainly more stressful challenge. Going from orchestrated practice sessions to facing a Penguins power play in a little more than a week? Yeah, that’s a challenge.
But perspective will help this moved, emotional and determined Elliott, a former ninth-round draft pick and draft day afterthought appreciative of his station in life rather than merely the state of his recovery.
“I don’t know anybody personally there, but I think we all see each other as one of those kids,” Elliott said. “We’ve all been in those buses. We’ve all gone on those road trips. Reading some of the stories and where they come from and their situations and their age. There’s one where a 16-year-old kid had just got called up and it was his big shot to play in the playoffs with the big team. That probably meant everything to him. It’s just really sad.”
As sad as the details were of the news that Elliott again absorbed on his birthday morning, the way he channeled it was at the very least, inspiring.