Arniel and Hawerchuk: friends to the end
Scott Arniel still has a pretty clear memory of the first time he met Dale Hawerchuk, 41 years ago.
It was around a swimming pool at the Anchor Hotel in Cornwall, Ont. The two were getting ready for training camp after being drafted by the Quebec Major Junior League’s Cornwall Royals.
“There was this guy, a little skinny, scrawny guy, big head of hair, at the other end of the pool,” Arniel said Wednesday. “I went to introduce myself, and it was Dale. It was funny, the other guys kind of left, and we sat in the pool … got started with the conversation there. Just sat and talked in the pool for an hour or so, and that’s kind of where it started.”
That conversation between two players who’d quickly become linemates and best friends lasted through two national junior championships, through five seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, through the rest of their individual NHL careers — through life in general.
Recently, it was almost daily talks, Hawerchuk from his hospital bed, and finally from his home near Barrie, Ont., Arniel from the
NHL bubble in Toronto, where he’s an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals.
Separated by just 100 kilometres but unable to meet faceto-face, their last conversation was through FaceTime, Monday night. The night before Hawerchuk died.
“He gives me five minutes of how he’s feeling, and then he decided to tell me how we were supposed to beat the Islanders,” Arniel said. “And that’s typical. He had me laughing. We had our personal moment, which was awesome. That part I’ll remember forever. It’s extremely hard.”
It’s so hard because Hawerchuk and everyone around him had been so optimistic when he completed his first battle with cancer, back in April.
He’d initially felt unwell at his annual charity golf tournament in Winnipeg, of all places.
“He said right from the beginning, ‘I got this. I’m going to beat this,’” Arniel said. “Just like everything else, when he talked about winning or we talked about anything, he was going to do it. And he did.”
Seeing that photo of Hawerchuk ringing the Bell of Hope to signal the end of his treatments at the hospital in Barrie gave everyone hope.
But the disease came back. “The second one really kind of floored him,” Arniel said. “And obviously it was a lot worse, so it really set him back.”
Tuesday, it took his life, far too soon, at 57.
But No. 10 went out with a flourish.
The superstar who struck so many people with his humility reached out to a bunch over his final 72 hours, to say goodbye. And to tell them he loved them.
Serge Savard, Teemu Selanne, Jeremy Roenick and many others received a call nobody wants to get, but one everybody who got will cherish.
“He wanted to go out on his terms,” Arniel said. “And that was saying his goodbyes. I’ve had tons of messages from people that said they had a chance to talk with him, or they had a chance to visit him last week, or they had a chance to text with him. I’m sure that was special to him, but obviously it’s special to all of us that did get those messages.”
Arniel’s last conversation with Hawerchuk included plenty of reminiscing about their two Memorial Cup seasons in Cornwall, which Hawerchuk held so dear.
The same stroke of luck that brought them together in the first place — being drafted by the same team — brought them to Winnipeg together, in 1981.
How lucky is that, to be able to share a house as they did as 18-year-olds, so far away from home for the first time?
“We wish we could have brought some of that karma with us, the winning,” Arniel said.
“But to both go there at a very young age and being able to share it. … We got to do a lot together there and grow up together there. We both met our wives there, had kids and got married together, so a lot of memories to cherish.
“That was a real close group through those ’80s. Those are things he often talks about. It would have been so special to win a Cup there, as we did in Cornwall.”
In one of their last conversations, Arniel heard about the
Jets’ plans to hang his friend’s
No. 10 banner at True North Square, downtown. He heard about the plan for a permanent statue to memorialize the man who put Winnipeg on the NHL map.
“He knew how much he was loved in Manitoba, in a good way,” Arniel said.
Arniel received one last text from Hawerchuk.
It came Tuesday morning, very near the end.
“He knew it was coming,” Arniel said. “And at the end of the day he felt he was in a good place. And he’s at peace now.”
That night, after Hawerchuk was honoured before the game, Washington came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Islanders, 3-2.
The win allows the Capitals to live at least one more day in their Stanley Cup playoff series.
Every day, Arniel has learned, is precious.
“I think he was looking down,” he said. “And helping a little bit on some of those crossbars and goalposts.”