[KootenayFlamesFan]

I took a few shots and then looked up into the stands again. Brent had his head down. His face said it all. When it’s your brother, you just know.

Our hometown of Fort McMurray, Alberta, was being engulfed by a wildfire. Brent and his fiancée, Shannon, had flown in from Fort McMurray to see me play. Their daughters, Avery, Emma and Grace, were back there, 2,000 miles away, staying with our mother.

Right as warmups were ending, I looked up at my brother one last time. He gave me a little fist pump, like, Go get ’em.

For him to have the strength to think of me in that moment — with all he was going through — meant so much to me. Hockey was always been an escape. It could be 5 a.m. or it could be midnight; it could be 20 below or 80° outside. When you’re in a hockey rink, there’s no time, no weather. Everything in the world goes away.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/sco...rray-wildfire/