NHL star Brad Marchand was honoured in the House of Commons this week following his visit home to Nova Scotia to guest coach the under-18 March and Mill Co. Hunters hockey team for a personal cause.
“Mr. Speaker, last week in Nova Scotia, NHL star Brad Marchand showed us what real friendship and real heart look like,” said Darren Fisher, the Nova Scotia member of Parliament for Dartmouth – Cole Harbour, while speaking in the Commons.
Marchand received permission from the Florida Panthers to come home on Oct. 29 and show his support for the Hunters’ regular head coach JP MacCallum.
“In the middle of his NHL season, Brad came home to stand behind the bench for his lifelong friend JP MacCallum, head coach of Dartmouth’s U-18 major hockey team, who is facing every parent’s worst heartbreak — the loss of his 10-year-old daughter Selah after a courageous battle with cancer,” said Fisher.
Selah Panacci-MacCallum died on Oct. 24 of adrenal cortical carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
“JP has been one of my closest friends since I was 12 years old. Him and his family, we’ve grown up together, there’s been a group of us that have been extremely tight, and we are all here tonight. We are supporting him and his family, and when you go back that long with somebody, that bond, we’re a family,” Marchand said after the game.
Fisher says more than a thousand people filled the Halifax Forum to show their support.
“There were bake sales, jersey auctions, and a whole community coming together, showing the kind of love and support that defines Nova Scotia and Nova Scotians,” he said.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to send all the love in the world to JP, his loved ones, the team, and I want to thank Brad Marchand for reminding us that true greatness isn’t measured just in goals, but in heart.”
Marchand also paid tribute to Selah on Saturday night by scoring a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars.
When he put the puck in the back of the net, he pointed a finger in the air and looked to the sky.
“The hockey gods always come through,” Marchand told the Panthers’ broadcast after the second period, in an interview aired throughout the arena. “It was a really, really tough week. That’s a special one to get for Selah.”
Marchand added his friends from Nova Scotia were watching and he also knew someone was watching from above, too.
“I think it means a lot emotionally for kind of everybody in Selah’s life,” Marchand said.
“She loved hockey more than anything and got so much joy out of it, just like we all do, and we play it because we love it, and we have a lot of fun doing it. These are memories when you go through tough times, you kind of look back on and see if they bring a little bit of light in the dark moments and put a smile on our faces.”
With files from CTV News’ Paul Hollingsworth and The Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds
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