The Colorado Avalanche coach was keen to begin his day with the cup and get right down to enterprise when he pulled the Hockey Corridor of Fame’s Phil Pritchard and Mike Bolt of their white pickup truck, lifted the cup from its trunk and carried it into the trunk. skating rink.
“I used to be wanting to see her once more,” Bednar mentioned.
The 50-year-old celebrated the Cup with an avalanche after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning within the Stanley Cup Last in Tampa on June 26 and on the present in Denver 4 days later. However Tuesday was his likelihood to get pleasure from it with household and pals in Charleston, town that grew to become his dwelling after 15 seasons as a participant and coach with ECHL’s South Carolina stingrays from 1995-2009.
Carolina Ice Palace, South Carolina’s coaching floor, is the place Bednar’s coaching journey started in 2002.
“We educated right here and it is clear you are concerned in a bit of hockey sport making an attempt to develop the sport right here in Charleston,” Bednar mentioned. “So my first thought was to try to get it right here and share a bit of bit with the little hockey group right here in Charleston.”
Bednar spent practically three hours taking footage with the younger gamers, their households and followers from the area, who waited patiently in line for an up-close have a look at the trophy. He took his time chatting with every group, asking some which NHL staff they rooted for and noting the place these groups’ names had been engraved on the cup rings.
Duane Jones, an avalanche fan stationed at Joint Base Charleston with the US Navy, got here along with his spouse Gina and their three sons dressed Cal Makar jersey.
“To be stationed right here in Charleston with my household, we’re lucky to have this distinctive alternative to be right here,” Jones mentioned. “The Trophy is probably the most prestigious award on the market, and for the folks right here to have this distinctive alternative, it is a great factor Jared does for everybody. It is a as soon as in a lifetime alternative.”
The trophy was additionally right here in 2018 after Jason Fitzsimmons, one other former stingray participant and coach, received it as knowledgeable scout and director of minor league operations with the Washington Capitals. Fitzsimmons Bednar received his begin in teaching as an assistant to South Carolina State in 2002 when he persuaded his former teammate to retire after taking part in 9 skilled seasons as a robust dwelling protection captain, together with the Kelly Cup with South Carolina in 1997 and 2001.
When Fitzsimmons joined the Capitals’ scouting crew in 2007, Bednar succeeded him as coach and directed South Carolina to a different Kelly Cup match in 2009 earlier than leaping to the NHL with Abbotsford (assistant), Peoria (coach), Springfield (assistant, president) coach) and Lake Erie (coach).
The 2016 Calder Cup with Lake Erie, the AHL subsidiary of the Columbus Blue Jackets, led to Bednar’s likelihood with Colorado after Patrick Roy unexpectedly stop his teaching in August 2016.
However profitable the cup made Bednar mirror on his days with South Carolina.
“I give it some thought so much,” he mentioned. “It is a lengthy journey to attempt to get into the NHL and even a tougher journey to attempt to win the cup. We have been in a position to do this in Colorado, and it has been an incredible journey. It would not have occurred for me with out the time right here in Charleston.”
Bednar estimated that 20-30 of his former South Carolina teammates and the gamers he coached would attend a reception at Isle of Palms on the Charleston coast Tuesday evening. That group included Fitzsimmons and Rob Concannon, the previous South Carolina ahead who’s now the staff’s head coach.
“We have at all times stayed very, very shut through the years and it is very particular,” Concannon mentioned. “Hockey, I believe, is a novel group, and there are plenty of totally different gamers who’ve performed and who have not performed with the Stingrays who at the moment are calling Charleston dwelling. … We’re all so excited, like little youngsters, 52-year-old 51-year-old, that The Stanley Cup is coming.”
Fitzsimmons mentioned his solely remorse from his day with the trophy was not spending extra quiet time with him and his household and pals taking footage with him and easily taking a look at them. So, Bednar did it at his seashore home on Palm Island on Tuesday afternoon, and likewise took the trophy on his boat to take some footage on the water.
Bednar mentioned he deliberate to spend some high quality cup time along with his spouse Suzanne, their son Cruz, 22, and daughter Saviga, 17. For Bednar, the day was simply as a lot for them. When he left South Carolina for Abbotsford 13 years in the past, they stayed in Charleston.
“We had been separated by seven or eight years,” Bednar mentioned. “I got here up as an assistant coach with the purpose of changing into a head coach, so we didn’t need to transfer everybody. I’ve been shifting my complete life and the youngsters had form of roots and so they had actions and sports activities… My spouse did all of the heavy lifting in elevating the youngsters with the assistance of her mother and father.
“You meet one another on trip days and street journeys close by, however you spend plenty of time aside and that form of makes all of it price it.”
The trophy heads to Europe subsequent on visits to the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and Finland, however Bednar will spend one other day together with her for the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Golf Event in Humboldt, Saskatchewan on August 6. A 2018 bus accident that killed 16 gamers and workers and injured 13 different Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League struck Bednar, who spent most of his major and secondary faculty years in Humboldt whereas his father, Wally, was an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
This would be the fifth 12 months that Bednar has hosted a charity golf match. He mentioned having the trophy there would make it extra particular and likewise give him an opportunity to get pleasure from some trophy time along with his mother and father, brother, sister, household and different pals within the Humboldt space.
“We have began a charity golf match to assist in giving again to the group along side the Broncos and that is rising and it has been an ideal weekend for households,” Bednar mentioned. “So, I’ll have a while together with her with my household. We’ll spend a while together with her with the group on the golf match after which these households will spend a while together with her and the Broncos…
“So the SJHL’s Corridor of Fame is that evening too, so it is an ideal day to get pleasure from it in Western Canada for everybody within the Humboldt group and area to get pleasure from.”