Back on ice: Broncos greet new season
HUMBOLDT Elgar Petersen Arena is not a cavernous place, and its closed-in hockey acoustics make a struck puck sound like a gunshot.
Twenty-two boys breezed around that ice Tuesday morning, most of them brand-new Humboldt Broncos, making quite a racket. Two of those noisemakers — Brayden Camrud and Derek Patter — had seats on the team bus when it collided with a semi on April 6, killing 16 people.
They’ll pull on Broncos jerseys and skate for everybody on that bus Wednesday night, when the team hosts the Nipawin Hawks in a nationally televised season opener that has drawn massive media attention.
“I don’t really have any feelings (about the season opener),” Camrud said Tuesday, then he elaborated.
“I’m trying to block all of them out,” he explained. “It’s exciting. At the same time, it’s scary, it’s overwhelming, it’s going to be sad — we’re paying tribute to the boys. It’s a lot of things. When the puck-drop happens, I’ve got to dial all of it out, and I’ve just got to play. I’ve got to be a good player. Once the game is over, how I feel emotionally, I’m just going to let loose, and whatever happens, happens. But I still have a job to do, and I’ve got to make sure I’m 100 per cent for my team coming into the game tomorrow.”
Camrud suffered a concussion in that crash, went through physiotherapy, and had chiropractic and massage treatment on his shoulder and neck. He spent his summer getting mentally and physically ready for another Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season, and when the team convened a few weeks ago, everybody got into the business of blending.
Camrud flashed his progress when he collected four points — two goals and two assists — in the Broncos’ 7-4 pre-season victory over the Melfort Mustangs this past Friday.
He’s an assistant captain this season, as is Patter and incoming veteran Michael Clarke. There’s no captain, because the late Logan Schatz held that position last season, and didn’t get a chance to complete the job.
But the team is not shy of leaders — it’s a job Camrud, for one, is eager to accept — and new head coach and general manager Nathan Oystrick said the team’s fast cohesion has been a wonder.
“(New assistant coach) Scott Barney and I have been talking about it for the past week — how close this group has become,” Oystrick said. “We’ve never seen anything like it in our lives. He played 19 years professionally, I played 10, junior and college before that. And I’d never seen a team come together this quickly. They are a tight-knit group in there, and now the job is to make sure it stays tight-knit.”
The Broncos went 1-3 during the pre-season. Their fromscratch rebuild, compounded by deep grief, carries no prior blueprint. But multiple people around the team, including both Camrud and Oystrick, say they expect to be competitive this season.
“You’ve got to make sure you’re mentally and emotionally checked in every single night,” said Camrud, who collected 16 goals and 26 assists in 57 games last season, before posting eight points in nine playoff matches. “You’ve got to be there for your team. I’m using the guys that were here last year, all the parents, everybody who’s ever supported me, as my fuel. I’m doing it for them. And I need to do it for the guys who are on the team this year, because they’re coming up as young guys. We’re all young men, and I’ve got to do my best to groom them and lead the way.”
That’s a lot for a guy who turned 20 this summer to place on his own shoulders, especially when you consider what he’s endured in the months since the crash.
And on Wednesday night, for three hours, they’ll try to forget everything but hockey — push the lights, the cameras, the memories to the side, and focus specifically on what’s happening under the rafters at Elgar Petersen.
After the game, they’ll honour the people on that bus with a ceremony, and Camrud will
I’m using the guys that were here last year, all the parents, everybody who’s ever supported me, as my fuel. I’m doing it for them.
embrace those memories again.
“I think about a little bit of it every single day, whether it be the accident itself, or how guys are doing, how my parents might be feeling,” Camrud said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to make sure everybody’s doing well. You’ve got to check in, and be a great human. This year, my responsibility is to be a leader for these new guys we brought into our team, and I’m going to be the best guy I can.”
Game time in Humboldt is 6:30 p.m.