Family feeling from Raiders bus makes Humboldt Broncos tragedy tough to stomach

Some old Raiders items with a picture of the Broncos centre ice logo.

    I always thought I had the coolest seat on the Prince Albert Raiders bus.

    I sat next to Dave Manson, who was the Raiders assistant coach. To the outside, he is still regarded as one of the most feared players to ever lace up the skates in the NHL.

    While there were a few times where I would jokingly do something to get him fired up, the majority of the time was spent talking about everything in life. The impression of feared NHL heavyweight was replaced by seeing someone who as a great guy with an incredibly huge heart.

    We were two rows back from the front of the bus, and we had a card table to ourselves. I always thought that was a sweet perk.

    I covered the Raiders for three seasons from 2001 to 2004 for the Prince Albert Daily Herald, and during the last of those three campaigns, then head coach Peter Anholt and then general manager Donn Clark gave the invite to have me tag along on the bus to cover road games. At the time, myself and then Raiders play-by-play voice Brian Munz were the only two full-time media staffers covering sports in “Hockey Town North.”

    I tried to make the in division games that could be covered on day trips. I accompanied the Raiders on the playoff run that unfortunately only lasted for two trips in the first round.

    Anholt always told everyone you will make your best memories on the bus. When I left Prince Albert to cover the Medicine Hat Tigers for the Medicine Hat News before the start of the 2004-05 WHL campaign, I always looked back on those Raiders road trips fondly.

    The biggest thing that stuck in my mind was that there were no secrets on the bus. After a short time, you quickly begin to know the players, coaches and staff better than your own blood family members, and it feels like they know you better than their own blood family members. We all likely knew things about each other our blood families didn’t know about us.

    The Raiders were focused on winning, but that team was likely the most sociable bunch I ever dealt with on the WHL circuit. You wanted to hang out everywhere with them. The Raiders always had the reputation of having guys that were viewed as the greatest sociable guys on top of being one of the most physical teams in the WHL.

The inside of a Raiders program from the 2003-04 WHL season.

    I always seemed to cycle to the back of the bus to hang with veteran defencemen Luke Fritshaw and Chris Schlenker along with then skilled sophomore power forward Kyle Chipchura. They were all characters who had character. They always seemed to be my dinner companions too during stops at restaurants.

    I remember Travis Young always being composed and his composure might only be surpassed by the surreal calm of netminder Rejean Beauchemin.

    Seth Leonard, the team’s 50-goal man that season, and checking forward Justin Cruse always seemed to provide good humour. I was on the trip where Cruse famously shoe-checked Manson.

    I could go through the whole roster that season including the likes of captain Jeremy Colliton, Mike Gauthier, Jeff May, Brett Novak, Jordan Morgan, Brandon Peet, Dane Byers, Evan Schafer, Aki Seitsonen and everyone brings back a good memory. You also can’t forget everyone’s best friend in trainer Duane “Puff” Bartley.

    Those guys do become your family. Back then, I wasn’t that much older than the players, and a bond formed over the fact that we were all still young. We took on the world with a youthful energy.
    While there was a lot of fun with jokes, card games and movies, there were conversations about subjects in the news or authors of books, which you wouldn’t think happens on a hockey team bus.

    That is what for me makes Friday’s accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus so hard to stomach. While on the way to play the Nipawin Hawks in a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game, the Broncos bus collided with a semi-truck just north of Tisdale.

    I remember all those bonds on the Raiders bus and identify with how tight Humboldt’s hockey team must have been. The Broncos are one of the elite and storied franchises in the junior A ranks, so I believe the bonds on that club would be really strong.

The Broncos logo all set up for Sunday night’s vigil.

    It is conceivable I crossed paths with members of the Broncos somewhere in hockey, but I do not have any memories of the players in captain Logan Schatz, Adam Herold, Conner Lukan, Evan Thomas, Jacob Leicht, Jaxon Joseph, Logan Boulet, Logan Hunter, Stephen Wack or Parker Tobin. Same goes for head coach and general manager Darcy Haugen, assistant coach Mark Cross, play-by-play voice Tyler Bieber and bus driver Glen Doerksen.

    Stats expert Brody Hinz did like my Twitter posts about the Raiders the odd time.

    All of those names make up the 15 deceased.

    Two players have been released from hospital including forward Nick Shumlanski, and 12 are still in hospital including four in critical condition.

    As time moves on, I keep finding out I am friends with someone who was friends or family members with one of the deceased or survivors of the crash. It makes what happened hit a little more at home.

    Even with that said, I still can’t imagine what everyone connected with the Humboldt team is going through. I went to the vigil on Sunday night in Humboldt and to the one on the University of Saskatchewan campus on Monday afternoon. I believe being there to offer support helped, but I am still wrapping my head around the enormity of everything.

    I think back to the days on the Raiders bus, and I know I would have been absolutely gutted if a bus crash happened and half of everyone on board was no longer with us. As that season went on, I needed those guys.

My father Dan Steinke, left, passed away during the 2003-04 hockey season.

    I was back home with my parents in Regina for the WHL Christmas break, and my dad, Dan Steinke, was admitted to hospital just as that break was ending. He passed away due to cancer on January 4, 2004. I ultimately missed most of the first three weeks of the second half of the season.

    Anholt was in touch with me through everything when that happened. The first game I worked after my dad’s passing was on Jan. 10, 2004, and because of the bus bonds, the Raiders were waiting to be a support system.

    They won a tight 3-2 outing over the Moose Jaw Warriors, and it felt like they had some extra jump in their step to help what I was going though.

    Later on in playoffs, we went out to Winnipeg for Game 6 of a best-of-seven first round series against the Brandon Wheat Kings, who were leading the set 3-2. The Wheat Kings were forced out of their home rink due to annual Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon.

    As usual, the Raiders went up the day before the game, and I had an important blood family issue to look after, when I arrived in Winnipeg. On the trip down, everyone on the bus new my situation.
    When the bus arrived in the Manitoba capital, I left to address the issue. I didn’t see everyone until the next night’s game at the storied Winnipeg Arena.

    In the last playoff game ever played at the Winnipeg Arena, the Wheat Kings claimed a 4-1 win to take the series 4-2 bringing the Raiders season to an end.

    Anholt took losing hard, but he always answered post-game interview questions honestly. With a season ending loss, emotions around the Raiders dressing room were low.

    After I interviewed Anholt, he asked how things went on the blood family front. I said they went well.

    Anholt smiled and said, “That’s good. Family is important.”

The 2003-04 Raiders are pictured on the right.

    Family is important, and the family formed on the bus is just as important. I learned that from my experiences on the Raiders bus.

    At the moment, the survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash are missing a huge chunk of that bus family here in the physical world. Among the larger hockey family, people might not have a full realization of the hurt, but everyone knows it is there.

    We just hope we can play a small part in helping on the recovery trail.

    On a spiritual level, my gut tells me those that have passed on from the crash are still there to provide help to their family members on the Broncos bus who are still in this physical world. The bus family will always be there for the survivors of the Broncos bus crash as they work to find a new everyday normal and continue to be “Bronco Strong.”

    Finding the new normal won’t be an easy road for the survivors to travel, but they will have lots of help along the way.

    Editor Note - A day after this column was originally posted, Broncos team athletic therapist Dayna Brons passed away due to her injuries from the team’s bus accident. The total number of deaths from the Broncos bus accident stands at 16.
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