Each pool of light that bravely defies the darkness illuminates a carefully placed hockey stick or two. Or three, or five. The sticks are adult-sized and child-scaled, well-used and scuffed, and starkly new. Some are goaltenders sticks. They are wrapped in black tape and in pink tape, left crossed against each other while leaning against a posh front door, standing near a snow shovel on a slush-stained deck, or jammed into the enclosure of a balcony of an urban high-rise. Sometimes candles are placed next to the sticks, creating a tableau that is unspeakably sad yet also beautiful.
There was a sense of horror and helplessness among NHL players, coaches, executives and fans when news filtered out Friday that the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos of Canada's Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League had collided with a tractor-trailer on a rural road near the town of Nipawin.