CALGARY—In the mythology that’s been built around hockey life, the focus is always on the backyard rink, the arena, or the dressing room.

Rarely in a commercial for Tim Hortons or Canadian Tire will you see kids on the bus, but players and coaches alike know the bus ride is one of the most important parts of hockey.

“Honestly — you’re basically team building the whole time you’re on the bus, because it’s nothing but a bonding event,” said Calgary Canucks head coach Darryl “Oly” Olsen.

“You actually look forward to it when you’re a hockey player because it’s just the boys.”

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Last season, the Canucks, one of Calgary’s two Alberta Junior Hockey League teams, logged about 12,000 kilometres travelling to places like Brooks, Bonnyville, Lloydminster and Fort McMurray.

A round trip to Fort Mac — the longest trip of the season — means players spend 14 and a half hours on the bus, travelling 1,480 kilometres.

Most hockey teams have the same pecking order when it comes to seating. The coach and staff sit in the front, and then the rest of the players work their way to the back based on seniority and age. The veteran players always get the back seats.

Olsen has had views from both the front and the back of the bus. As a coach sitting up front, Olson said he’s usually filling out paperwork, but he knows what’s happening at the back as well.

“What goes on at the back of the bus is just total chaos — pranking each other and chirping each other,” said the coach, “It’s just a brotherhood.”

Junior hockey player McKullen Astill remembers his first time bonding with members of the Humboldt Broncos. He played eight games with the team before being traded in November 2017.

On his first bus trip, the Broncos were headed to Flin Flon, Man.

“On that bus trip you lose service for that majority of the time,” Astill said. “Since there is no service, nobody can be on their phone, so all the guys would just talk and it really helped me get to know everybody.”

The 19-year-old said of the eight games he played with the team, seven of them were away.

“I spent a lot of time on that bus, throughout my time with the team,” he said.

Social media users are reaching out to the town of Humboldt after a bus carrying the Broncos junior hockey team collided with a semi truck. (The Canadian Press)

He said the bus rides lasted either an hour or six, depending on where they were headed. Every trip, each member of the team always sat in the same seat.

“Guys would be playing games on their phones, guys would be playing cards, we’d watch movies,” he said.

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He said the Broncos loved the Will Ferrell movie Step Brothers. And most of the guys had seen the movie so many times they could quote it.

Astill said the crash has definitely left him scarred.

Usually when they would go on long trips, players would either lie on the floor or on the seats but he said on his recent bus trip with his current teammates, he found himself sitting straight in his seat, thinking of the crash.

“I’m just like, ‘Sit straight and normal, because if anything were to happen and you are in a weird position, that might be what decides whether you survive or not,’” he said.

Josh Giacomin, a former player with the Calgary Canucks, described the bus as a safe zone.

“Sometimes it’s a grind, but it’s definitely a fun time. It’s where you become best friends with your teammates, for sure,” he said.

Long trips across sometimes monotonous prairie landscapes meant the players turned inward towards their friends and teammates.

“You have no idea what’s going on outside,” said Giacomin.

Canucks’ Coach Oly Olsen said they put a lot of trust in the bus driver, who becomes an integral part of the entire team. The Canucks have used the same driver for nearly two decades.

“When you have that bus driver who you trust, you can actually fall asleep,” said Olsen.

He said news of the Broncos crash left him sick to his stomach, and brought back memories of the Swift Current Broncos’ crash in 1986.

He had played against the four players who died in that crash.

“To lose four, to lose 15, to lose one, it’s a part of a family,” the coach said. “It doesn’t matter if you know the kids or you don’t. We’re all in the same position. We all get on the bus.”

With Files from Kashmala Fida

BT Brodie Thomas is a Calgary-based reporter covering work and wealth. Follow him on Twitter: @metrobrodie

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