Remembering The Humboldt Bronco's and How The Tragedy Affected Me

15 killed in a crash in Saskatchewan on Friday evening. Another 14 injured. A bus carrying the Humboldt Bronco's junior hockey team collided with a tractor trailer. They were headed to play another team, just like any other weekend. 9 players, the head and assistant coaches, the team statistician, the play by play announcer, and the bus driver all had their lives taken after the crash.

Car crashes happen all the time, but this one hit the hockey community hard. Hockey players leave their parents to stay in another town, with another family, in order to improve their hockey career. This is routine. Hockey families are accustomed to this lifestyle, but no one ever thinks tragedies like this will occur.

Working for the Mustangs makes me feel close to this tragedy. Having Clayton's little brother playing for the team, makes me feel that much closer. These boys go off on bus trips almost every weekend that they aren't playing home games...and I never thought of this as a possibility. I can not imagine the horror and pain these families and town are going through. I even saw that one of the billet moms lost 3 boys in the accident. My heart is still hurting for all of them

The one wonderful thing that comes out of these terrible times, is the reminder that everyone in the hockey community is family. Whether you are actually affiliated with the Broncos or not, if you're a part of the hockey community, you felt affected by this in some way. You probably also feel some sense of wanting to help this team.

GoFundMe's have been started and already well surpassed their goal. I went to the Rivermen game on Saturday night and they honored the team with a moment of silence. During the Jets and Hawks regular last season game, they all wore "Bronco" nameplates during the entire game. On April 12th, students are wearing Jerseys to school in honor of the team.If you want to get teary-eyed, search "broncostrong" on Instagram and you'll see a slew of pictures of people placing hockey sticks on their front porch for the boys in heaven. And if you're looking for another glimmer of hope, one of the boy's that passed was an organ donor, and his organs are going to potentially save 6 people lives.

This won't be an easy one to swallow or forget. I'll go back to work for the Mustangs and get a little nervous every-time the leave for an away game. Hockey moms and dads, hug your players a little tighter tonight.