CANTLON’S CORNER: The Humboldt Tragedy
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The eyes of the hockey world are now focused on Humboldt, Saskatchewan, whose population of 6,000 was stunned by the frightening tragedy of the horrible bus crash that happened on Friday afternoon. The crash came 30 miles north of Tisdale, SK on Highway 35, in the Northeast corner of the province, closer to Manitoba.
According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and their Saskatchewan office out of Regina, around 5 pm local time, a semi-tractor-trailer barreled into the team bus of the Humboldt Broncos. The team was en route to play Game 5 of their Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) semi-final playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks. The SJHL is one of ten Canadian Junior A leagues. That level is just a step below the Canadian major juniors that see so many get picked up to play and study at US colleges while some others go to Canadian college hockey.
15 people were killed, but the RCMP did not release the names of the victims pending family notification. The vast majority of the injured and dead are minors among the players, coaches, and staff of the team. 14 were transported to several hospitals with various injuries with three people in critical condition.
The photos of the crash site are truly horrifying. They show the explosive nature of the impact of the crash. AAmong those who perished are 10 players, the head coach, the assistant coach, the team statistician and its longtime radio announcer. The hockey community from the NHL, AHL and all around the world have shown support and solidarity to the awful nature of this tragedy. These were mostly just kids ranging from 16-21 years of age.
It is bound to be a long road to recovery for those affected by the experience from those who survived to those first responders who came on the scene.
For the province, the accident harkens back to another horrible junior hockey bus crash that happened on December 30, 1986. That crash killed four players for the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the Swift Current Broncos who were in their first season of Canadian major junior. That team featured NHL Hall of Famer Joe Sakic, former NHL’er Sheldon Kennedy, and former Wolf Pack head coach and current Las Vegas Golden Knights assistant coach, Ryan McGill.
The Humboldt Broncos have an affiliation with Swift Current.
Pack head coach Keith McCambridge played four years for the WHL Swift Current team. He started with them five years after the crash. It’s something everybody remembers and having been in Saskatchewan he understands the community better than the most.
“Those small towns in that province and throughout Canada that’s your weekend. You go to your local community rink and cheer for your hometown junior team. You’re going to watch your son or daughter and their friends, your neighbor’s kids play hockey.
“As a Dad, I can’t imagine what the families and the billet families are going through. It’s unbelievable and unimaginable to me, and of course, the thoughts and prayers of myself, the coaching staff and the players here and the entire organization are with them.”
The awful legacy of the Swift Current, SK bus crash must be exceptionally challenging for McCambridge having been part of the organization’s history.
“That is a major part of the team. They wear a four leaf clover patch on their uniform (for the four players who perished). In fact, one of Lindy Ruff’s brothers (Brent Ruff) was one of the four. Anytime you pass the bridge outside of Swift Current where the accident happened, you are very aware of it. In this tragedy, it is very, very hard to put into words the magnitude of it.”
There was another tragic junior hockey bus crash in Quebec in the early 1970’s. Read about that HERE.
It also is a reminder of the awful bus crash back on February 19, 2009, when a former AHL team, the Albany River Rats, who were coming back from a game in Lowell, MA, another former AHL city got into an accident.
The River Rats second team bus, a replacement bus used in the place of the first one that conked out across the Mass Pike near Pittsfield, MA (a 40-minute distance from Albany) saw two players seriously injured.
Nicolas Blanchard suffered a life-threatening stomach injury when the guardrail they hit crashed through his window. Forward Casey Borer suffered a fractured neck and team broadcaster, Gavin Newkirk, (now with Texas Stars), had glass shards in his back. Ex-Pack forward Dwight Helminen had foot lacerations from broken window glass.
Albany’s first game back was in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers. The team received an extended standing ovation from the crowd that Sunday afternoon.
“It was so surreal. I went from the back of the bus to the front. I wasn’t wearing my shoes trying to help my feet. They always bother me after a game,” Helminen said at the time. “I didn’t realize until we were out of the bus and on the median grass area what had happened to me. The doctors said I was very lucky that no major arteries got cut. It’s not pretty, but what Blanch (Blanchard) and Casey had happened, it really is a miracle none of us died.
“Thankfully, Geordie Kinnear (Albany’s assistant coach) got us the hell off the bus and away from it. We saw a semi-fly past our bus which was sideways across part of the road….way too close for comfort.”
Current Wolf Pack Dawson Leedahl (Saskatoon) and Brendan Kotyk (Regina) are Saskatchewan natives.
Four former Pack players hailed from the province in Steve MacIntyre (retired), Dane Byers (played with Manchester England-EIHL this year), Wade Redden (retired and current Assistant Director of Player Development-Nashville) and Tanner Glass currently playing with Calgary. 18 players from Saskatchewan in total have played with the Wolf Pack/CT Whale in 21 years.
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