NHLers reflect on junior hockey’s bus culture in wake of Humboldt crash
Long before the chartered flights that come with life in the NHL, a 14-hour bus ride wouldn’t be out of the question for Morgan Rielly.
First in Grade 9 when we went away to boarding school in Wilcox, Sask., to pursue his hockey dream, and then in the WHL with the Moose Jaw Warriors.
“We drove to Kamloops, B.C., from Wilcox,” said Rielly, now a defenceman for the Toronto Maple Leafs. “We drove to Chicago. We drove all over the province of Saskatchewan, from Wilcox to Prince Albert. All winter. And then in junior we’re driving all over Western Canada on a bus.”
In the wake of Friday’s horrific crash involving the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Humboldt Broncos that killed 15 people and injured 14 more, NHLers took time to reflect on the countless bus trips they took to games in their formative years.