Bowed heads, broken hearts

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This article was published 12/04/2018 (2744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN — Before the goal horn blared, before the sold-out crowd roared, before the rollicking rhythm of pucks bouncing off boards, there was silence. For 16 seconds, it settled over the Virden arena like a misty morning fog.

Sixteen seconds. One for each of the lost, for each Humboldt Bronco who went to a game, and never came home.

In the minutes before the silence, the Steinbach Pistons and the Virden Oil Capitals huddled in the dim light of the tunnel, and bowed their heads. Outside, over the darkened ice, screens beamed a memorial video for the victims.

What went through the players’ minds then hung between them, unspoken.

It could have been any of them, the players knew. In the stands, their parents and billet families knew it too. That’s what made this week so hard: in the faces of the victims, they saw their own bonds, their own kids, their own loves.

So when the players emerged onto the ice, they did not go alone. They were surrounded by kids from local minor hockey teams, and also by some of their parents and billet families, by chaplains, first responders and the RCMP.

This is how the joy of junior A hockey returned to Manitoba: with a ceremony about what it means to be family.

It was important to do it that way, Oil Caps operations director Jamie Hodson said. When the MJHL resumed its championship series on Thursday, after a short hiatus to grieve the Humboldt tragedy, it wanted to make it right.

“We wanted to show that everything they’ve been through, everyone here is thinking about them,” he said.

By the time the night was over, the Oil Caps had won, rising 4-3 over Steinbach to take a two-game series lead. That’s the story of the game; but this is also the story of how a community prepared to best honour the moment.

One week ago, the mood in town was ebullient. Brandon’s Zach Whitecloud, a former Oil Caps defenceman, had just made his NHL debut with Las Vegas; the Oil Caps were preparing to battle Steinbach for the MJHL’s Turnbull Cup.

Then the crash, the unbearable headlines, and the playoff pause. As the days wore on, Virden’s mood turned from joyful to resilient. Families grew determined to honour the victims that were, they knew, so much like themselves.

“The part for a lot of us around here is, we just know that that team was playing for the right to play our team,” Virden Mayor Jeff McConnell says. “We were playing for the same right to get to that (Saskatchewan-Manitoba) tournament.

“We watch what they’re going through, and see ourselves in those positions. The president of the Broncos, he’s been incredible. We know the person here in the exact same position; he could be in that place, but for the grace of God.”

That sense of connection was woven throughout Thursday’s game. The arena was sold out, standing-room only, a turnout of 1,500 people that represented about half the city. They affixed green ribbons to their coats, to remember.

Nearby, volunteers sold green T-shirts bearing the Broncos’ logo, emblazoned #HumboldtStrong. Proceeds of the sales will go to the Humboldt team; by the time the puck dropped, they’d sold almost all of the 500 they’d made.

Still, the players had come to play a hockey game, and not a memorial. That was important, everyone around the league agreed: “I think it’s therapeutic,” said Cam McVeigh, whose son Riley McVeigh plays goal for the Oil Caps.

His wife, Shelley, agreed. Along with another son, the family had flown to Manitoba from Calgary to be here at the game; they needed to see the joy come back to the sport, too.

“You feel like you need to be here, definitely,” Shelley said, shortly before puck drop. “They need to get back to playing hockey. Those boys in heaven, they’re looking down saying ‘boys, don’t stop playing hockey, get out there.’”

Last week, as news of the crash spread through the tight-knit hockey world, the McVeighs were heartbroken. Partly, they had a connection with Humboldt; Riley went to a Broncos camp in 2016, and got to know some of the victims.

But mostly, they just knew that nothing but luck and a little distance separated their story, from the other.

“They lived lives like ours,” Shelley said. “They jump on planes. They drive to little towns to watch their kids play hockey… these kids don’t get there without a lot of love and support from their families.”

“So these people lived the same lives as we did, and their kids had the same hopes and dreams. They were all great kids, right? Going off to colleges, and all the same things our kid wants to do. I felt like I knew them.”

In that light, the McVeighs say, pausing the series was the right thing to do. In the days between, the teams rested. Players spent time with team chaplains, and with each other; the teams did a “great job,” the McVeighs said.

Still, on the way into Virden, the McVeighs passed an accident outside of Brandon. It’s a common enough sight, on prairie roads; now, it sent an extra shiver down their spine. Shelley had felt the same thing, packing up for the flight.

“I had this eerie feeling about packing up,” she says. “I kept thinking about those families that packed up to go to that game. There were families following the bus, and they arrived on that scene. And here we were, doing all that today.”

On the concourse, framed photos of each of the Humboldt victims gazed out over the rink. Beside the photos, on a condolence poster that will be sent to Humboldt, hundreds of people signed messages, both caring and poignant.

“Playing this series in memory of both of you,” wrote Steinbach forward Luke Bellerose. “Rest easy up there boys.”

Another wrote simply: “For the boys, we’ll play hard. For Tyler (Bieber, broadcaster), we’ll celebrate every goal call.”

The MJHL playoffs will steam ahead now; the next game is slated for Saturday in Steinbach. Whatever happens next, these days of grief and resilience will be remembered — and that, Virden mayor McConnell hopes, will give hope.

“I’m really hopeful we don’t lose this feeling of empathy,” McConnell said. “That term, ‘Humboldt Strong.’ That concept of moving our communities forward, and remembering what our communities are.

“We see what Humboldt is going through. We see how they are responding… I’m hoping that we can all remember that for a lot longer time, and how much community provides. And how much we can all lean on each other.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca