Canadian junior hockey players do team-building in Petawawa

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On a wall of the Silver Dart Arena in Petawawa hangs an encased Team Canada jersey full of signatures from the members of the squad that won the 2009 world junior hockey championship in Ottawa.

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Under the sweater, there’s a gold medal and a complete, printed list of the players — including future National Hockey League players like John Tavares, Jordan Eberle, Alex Pietrangelo, P.K. Subban, Jamie Benn, Evander Kane and Tyler Myers — who defeated a Sweden team led by Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman and Jacob Markstrom by a 5-1 score in the final.

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If you asked those Canadian players now, they would surely tell you they came together on a team-bonding trip to CFB Petawawa a few days before the tournament began.

Just as it was hoped they would.

“Here we see a real sense of having to do a job when you’re out of your comfort zone, and that’s what makes an ordinary athlete into a good athlete: guys who can operate when that pressure is there,” the late Pat Quinn, then coach of Team Canada, told the Ottawa Citizen at the time. “Those are the ones who rise to the top.

“We’ve had a good time here, and our kids have really enjoyed it. Now it’s time to take those principles and put them to work, and hopefully we’ll become a good team.”

No doubt, those players would look back and say the trip to Petawawa was the experience of a lifetime, the same way members from this year’s Team Canada talked about their four-day visit to the same base earlier this week.

There they saw how true heroes live and what they do as protectors of our country.

There the players became united as one.

“For sure, it brought our group really close,” Canadian forward and assistant captain Calum Ritchie said. “You see how the guys in the military act … those are some of the most unselfish people in the world, and that’s a big quality that we want to have as a team: being unselfish and wanting each other to have success, and just focusing on the team first, ahead of ourselves.

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“Learning from those guys is a great experience for all of us.”

The most eye-opening moment of this week’s trip was a speech by retired Master Corporal Michael Trauner just before the team returned to Ottawa.

In 2008, Trauner was conducting a foot patrol in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb went off.

He lost both legs.

He had 25 broken bones in his left hand, and his right hand was only held in place by the glove that melted to his skin.

During his recovery, he medically died twice, but was brought back to life.

He was bedridden for two years following numerous surgeries.

But, with an almost inconceivable display of intestinal fortitude, he battled back to not only carry on with life, but to train and become an athlete.

After accepting a challenge from Prince Harry a year earlier, Trauner won two gold medals at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto.

“When he talked about his experiences, it was pretty motivating for all of us,” said forward Gavin McKenna, the phenom from Whitehorse who turned 17 on Friday. “It kind of makes you appreciate how lucky we are because of what those guys do.

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“It was unreal for him to have the courage to talk about that stuff.”

The most exciting part of the visit was a mission the hosts put together to show their visitors what they would go through in battle.

They outfitted the players in fatigues, gave them unloaded rifles and, after a simulation on a Chinook, put them in two of the helicopters and sent them out to recover a box in a field while firing blanks at them.

That mission, the players agreed, was an experience they’ll never forget.

“Oh, God, that helicopter ride was unbelievable,” said assistant captain Tanner Molendyk, a defenceman who skates like Paul Coffey once did. “They’re just like flying through the air at probably 50 feet above the trees, and you’re sitting in the plane, trying to throw up because it’s so scary. I mean, the plane’s completely sideways, and all the army guys are just laughing because they know the guys want to throw up. It was a good time.”

One player actually did vomit into a hat.

“Flying in the helicopters was the best part,” defenceman Oliver Bonk said. “I think that was a memory of a lifetime.

“It was so insane. They opened the back door and I had the first seat looking out. So they’re flying, they’re doing these hard bank turns and stuff like that. You’re wearing just an airplane seat belt, and you’re sitting on this long bench with like, 15 guys in one row, 15 down another. You’re just buckled in and just enjoying the ride.

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“It was sick.”

Said McKenna: “It was almost like a rollercoaster, and I love that type of stuff. It’s pretty crazy what those guys go through and how they do their battles and stuff. And, for us to kind of get a little taste of that, it was super cool.

“I thought that was some of the best team bonding I’ve ever been a part of. I think it brought our team very much closer. It’s been huge for us.”

It wasn’t just the players who were thrilled with the trip.

“One of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had,” said Peter Anholt, a member of Canada’s management team. “I always did respect the military, but my respect for them went up 1,000 per cent, and that says a lot because I have such respect for them for what they do and how they do it.

“It was also the respectfulness that they treated us with, and the Chinook, and going on the mission, doing the stuff the military does. It was absolutely unbelievable.

“Everything we talk about now is military-based.”

The players wear the memory now with the word HOLDFAST on the back of T-shirts they wear under their jerseys.

What does it mean?

“Be strong together,” Anholt said. “Hold your ground is probably the best and easiest way to say it. Don’t retreat.”

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Current head coach Dave Cameron was an assistant on Quinn’s staff in 2009.

This trip to Petawawa, he said, accomplished its purpose.

“Great team building,” Cameron said. “Just a terrific, terrific team building for guys to be able to spend lots of time together. I think it was wonderful. There’s nothing that (shows) teamwork more than the military. They told us when we went in that losing isn’t an option. Just to rub elbows with them, and to get an idea of what kind of environment it is, where guys actually lay their lives on the line for our country … I think we read about it a lot, but we emerged in it.

“I think it takes it to a different level, and it gives these guys a real understanding that there’s a lot more to life than hockey.”

Now, with any luck, there will one day be a second signed Team Canada jersey, and another gold medal, hanging on a wall at the Silver Dart Arena.

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