NHL teams
Emily Kaplan, ESPN 6y

Humboldt tragedy hits home for sister team in Saskatchewan

NHL

HUMBOLDT, Saskatchewan -- They were in the dressing room, getting ready for a playoff game. Down 2-1 in the Prairie Junior Hockey League finals to the Regina Capitals, the Delisle Chiefs were locked in. Some players were lacing up their skates. Others were in full pads. A few had already put on their helmets.

That's when the news began trickling in Friday night. A bus had crashed near Tisdale, Saskatchewan, about two and a half hours northeast of Delisle, and a group of junior hockey players on their way to their own playoff game had been injured. Not only that, it was a team the Chiefs knew well. The PJHL is the "B" junior hockey league in Saskatchewan. The Chiefs work closely with the Humboldt Broncos; the Broncos loan players to the Chiefs and vice versa, like a more active Major League Baseball club and its Triple-A affiliate. Often, Chiefs players practice with the Broncos.

"Everyone our team knows someone on their team," Chiefs GM Ryan Marushak said. "That's their buddies, their teammates, some of their best friends."

"If we didn't have a game that night, some of our players would have been with them," coach Eric Ditto added.

The story of the Delisle Chiefs is a microcosm of how the Humboldt tragedy is affecting junior hockey players across Canada. They are grieving with their peers and grappling with how to move forward. Long bus rides between small towns is a part of life for every youth hockey player in the prairie provinces.

The Chiefs learned more details of the crash as they sat in their locker room Friday night, half-dressed in their uniforms, in silence. The bus had collided with a truck carrying peat moss. There were fatalities. Helicopters were on the scene. Players were being airlifted out.

"When we started hearing more, we knew," Ditto said. Ditto gathered the team and said, "There are more important things going on right now than playing this hockey game. Whatever you need to do in your best interest is what you need to do."

The game was postponed. Some players left the arena with their families. Others had nowhere to go -- or nowhere they wanted to go. So they stayed together. About 10 players went to one teammate's house. They sat together for hours, waiting for news. When it came, it was devastating: 15 people -- including players, the team's coach, radio announcer, team statistician and bus driver -- had been killed, and more than 14 were injured, several critically.

The Chiefs' game against Regina was postponed until Sunday, then postponed again so that Chiefs players could attend the vigil in Humboldt. On Sunday night, 18 of the 23 Delisle players carpooled in five vehicles and drove two hours to Humboldt. 

"We've been trying to spend as much time together as we can as a team," 21-year-old captain Anthony Radke said on Sunday.

In Humboldt, the Chiefs joined thousands more who gathered in the Broncos' 1,854-seat home arena. Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was in attendance. Chiefs players wore their blue and yellow jerseys and sat together in the stands. During the ceremony, some of the players cried. Others smiled, which Ditto says was as much catharsis as it was a step forward in the healing process.

The Delisle team will meet on Monday for the first time since the tragedy. "Our league is based out of Saskatchewan, just like they are, and we go to the same lengths they do," Ditto said. "We know the roads they travel very well. I know that exact intersection [where the accident] happened."

Ditto is dreading the idea of boarding a bus again. He knows how heart-wrenching it will be for him and his players. But at the same time, he will remind his team that, despite the tragedy, "the bus is still a safe way to travel. We need to keep reiterating that."

There's another thing Ditto wants his team to remember.

"We love the game. That's why we go on these bus trips," the coach said. "We have to be there for each other and grieve and support this community. And we need to make sure we are grateful and enjoy every time we step on the ice."

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