A quick check of Aren Miller's career stats will find the assistant coach of the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins had 141 regular season games in junior as a goaltender with the Spokane Chiefs, another 45 in the American Hockey League and dozens of other games in various levels of minor pro hockey.
What the numbers won't tell you, and what Miller had kept buried for some time before last week, is that he was also involved in a bus crash with his Chiefs in 1997 going through the Rocky Mountains back to Spokane.
Miller talked about it to media just beside the Broncos crash site Friday night.
“We were well into the trip (home) and everybody was just enjoying a movie and hanging out when our bus driver Bob Mitchell hit some kind of black ice just outside of Cranbrook (B.C.),” said Miller. “He got the bus back on and everybody gave him a rousing cheer, and all of a sudden we went over and rolled one and a half times and we hit a pole on our way down the hill. A few guys were banged up pretty bad but not to this extent.”
Hearing about the Humboldt bus crash between a bus and a trailer until brought Miller's mind back to that place just outside of Cranbrook for the first time in a long time, something he revealed in a tweet last week.
“It's definitely triggered some bad memories,” said Miller. “The reason I put that out was I was having a really hard time with it. I reached out and was reached out to by other guys having a tough time. Our generation ... we tend to keep things in, which isn't good. I heard about some guys who were having trouble and I wanted to help those guys too. That's why I put it out. There's guys that I talked to who wouldn't go for help. They needed that little bit of encouragement.”
Former players and teammates from Estevan and beyond are now parents of hockey players, like Miller, who may have been apprehensive about both getting help and seeing their kids off on a bus trip.
“It's a little bit different and I think it struck a chord with the guys, with the parenting thing more than anything,” he said.
“The biggest thing for us in Spokane is we got on the bus the next day and we were fine. Guys were nervous but... if you get bucked off a horse, you get back on. You've got to fight that fear. I think the biggest thing people do now is hold it in. Hats off to all the bus drivers because they're doing a great job but I don't think this could discourage families from putting their kids on a bus to go play hockey or go on a band trip. It happens every day.”
