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Gilbert Brulé is staring out a taxi that’s motoring its way through the endless streets of Shanghai.

The night before, his Kunlun Red Star team had dropped a 2-1 decision to Dynamo Riga in a KHL regular-season game. The day before that he’d enjoyed a relaxing 12-hour travel day travelling from Helsinki to Shanghai. The day before that, he was suiting up for Canada at the Karjala Cup in the Finnish capital, a gig which served as an audition for the Canadian Olympic team.

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So you can excuse the kid from North Van, who’s now the 30-year-old man from North Van, if he’s reflecting on his situation these days; pondering the events which have brought him to the other side of the world, where he’s playing hockey for Mike Keenan in Shanghai. It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way for Brulé. His career, which now takes him to places you can only find on a Risk board, was meant to be played as a star in the NHL.

But through it all — through the trials, tribulations and travel, lots and lots of travel — he’s made peace with what was and what might have been. Hockey has taken him to parts of the world he never would have seen. It’s enriched his life and his purpose. In the end, he’s used the game instead of letting the game use him.