There aren’t many stories floating around about today’s NHL crop that will hit you as hard as that of former Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes winger Bryan Bickell. Perhaps that’s appropriate, given the way the three-time Stanley Cup champion played the game.
The Bowmanville, Ontario native has been remarkably open about his battle with multiple sclerosis since being diagnosed in 2016. He shared more of his story on Monday via a candid piece for The Players’ Tribune, offering up a look into some of the hardest moments of his life alongside a few interesting stories from his playing days.
With that in mind, here are a few things we learned from the veteran’s moving piece:
1. Bickell battled through a torn MCL during the 2013 playoffs, making it through a lengthy tilt with the injury by stealing a teammate’s knee brace.
Said Bickell about the incident:
“During the 2013 Western Conference Finals against the Kings, I actually tore my MCL in Game 5. But I wanted to stay in the game, so I stole one of (Marian) Hossa’s stinky knee braces out of his locker without telling anybody. It didn’t fit right, so I had to rig it up with some hockey tape to keep it in place. But it worked just fine. We eventually won in double OT to close out the Kings.”
2. Interestingly enough, that wasn’t Bickell and Hossa’s most-intriguing run-in. That honour may be bestowed on their first meeting, back when Hossa was suiting up for the Ottawa Senators and Bickell was plying his trade as an equipment boy:
“My locker was next to Marian Hossa’s when I came into the league. He actually recognized me from like seven years before — when he was still playing for the Ottawa Senators and I was just a lowly equipment boy, doing laundry and filling water bottles in exchange for high school credits. When I got to the Blackhawks, Hossa liked to joke after games — ‘You know, Bryan, you can still wash my gear if you want.’ And honestly, after three-and-a-half seasons in the minors, I would’ve washed Hossa’s gear every night if it meant staying up with the Blackhawks.”
3. After a decade in the league and three championships, Bickell also has the unique distinction of being one of the only players to ever score on both his first and last shot in the NHL. The 31-year-old writes about scoring his first goal on “the first shot of (his) first pro shift.” After the exceptional career that followed, we all know how he finished it up – netting a shootout goal (the first of his career) against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“I skated down the ice and tuned everything out. For the next five seconds, everything was totally back to how it had always been. It was what I knew my whole life. It didn’t even matter if I scored — I was playing hockey again, and it was heaven. Ting. I scored. Off the post and into the back of the net. My first shot and my last shot in the National Hockey League were both goals. Even the Philly fans cheered for me.”
4. Bickell tugged on the hockey world’s heartstrings with that emotional finale. But there’s apparently an interesting backstory to that career-defining moment:
“April 9, 2017 was the final game of the season. We were playing in Philly, and for the second game in a row, we were tied at the end of overtime. The game before, Coach Peters had apologized to me for not putting me in the shootout. He knew this was my last ride, and our team was eliminated from the playoffs, so he felt bad. But there we were again, two nights in a row. Coach looked down the bench, but this time he stopped when he got to me and smiled. ‘Bickell. Tolchinksi. McGinn. Let’s go.'”
5. It was already clear when he returned for his first NHL game after his diagnosis, and it was fairly obvious when the veteran lifted the Stanley Cup for the third time, but after reading the details of Bickell’s battle to make it back to the big leagues, there should be no question – No. 29 is unquestionably among the greatest grinders to ever lace them up.
For a sport consumed increasingly with finesse, with hyper-elite skill complemented with All-World speed, there’s another aspect of the game deeply ingrained in its culture.
The battle. The grind.
Not just the fly-into-the-corner, paste-each-other-to-the-wall type of grind, but the life-long perseverance required to even get to that point. There’s something bigger there – some unspoken, non-negotiable price for getting the privilege to skate among the world’s best. To call yourself an NHLer.
Few navigated that path and proved their mettle like Bickell did.
In his own words:
“When you remember the career of Bryan Bickell, I don’t want you to think about the guy with M.S. I want you to think about the guy who loved this game so much that he stole Hossa’s stinky knee brace so he could play with a torn MCL. I want you to think about the guy who worked for it, and stuck with it, and won at it. I want you to think about the guy who retired on his own terms — and then moved through his 30s and 40s, into his 50s and 60s, into his 70s and 80s, like he skated through his 20s. By grinding, one day at a time.”
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