One award missing from Bickell’s farewell to NHL – DeCock

The farewell to the largely forgettable Carolina Hurricanes of 2016-17 morphed into a hockey farewell to Bryan Bickell, and that was just fine with everyone. Bickell’s courage and fortitude in returning to play in the NHL after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier in the season was worth honoring, and it was.

From his players surprising Bickell and his wife at Saturday’s morning’s Walk MS, wearing BickellBrave T-shirts, to their decision to give Bickell the team’s revered Steve Chiasson Award, awarded in memory of the defenseman who died in 1999, it turned out to be a fitting farewell for Bickell. This was the final home game of his NHL career, with the announcement Saturday that…