EDMONTON, AB – Right up until Jake Walman’s last-minute game-tying daysaver and the overtime goal from Jack Roslovic in Monday’s Edmonton Oilers win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, the heroes getting the biggest applause were the Oilers Warriors.
Poppies flooded Rogers Place in a multi-media Remembrance Day ceremony honouring veterans of Canada’s Armed Forces.
There was retired able seaman Marty Jones.
He joined up as a reservist at 14 and survived the D-Day crossing to Normandy as a teenaged gunner on the destroyer LSI Prince Henry, providing coverage to Canadian soldiers in landing craft on the blood-soaked Juno beach, then rescuing the wounded.
Jones got a rousing ovation every time the camera panned to him cheering the Oilers on.
Postmedia spoke with Bob Jazwinski, a Cold Lake retiree with a 44-year career history with the armed and civilian services from 1973 to 2017.
Jazwinski looked right at home in the arena – maybe because in his day he played minor and junior hockey as well as in an old timers league – or maybe because they made him an Oilers jersey No. 25 emblazoned with JAZWINSKI on the back, bringing him to ice level as fans cheered themselves hoarse.
A vehicle mechanic in the electrical mechanical engineers, Jazwinski was honoured during a break in Monday’s game.
He said he looked after them all in his lengthy career – tanks, generators, snowmobiles – “anything that basically that drives on the ground,” he said.
In late 1995, his service took him to Bosnia, where Canadians were relieving the United Nations peacekeeping force as the American-fortified international force was about to take over in January 1996.
“We were the go between, in between the two services,” Jazwinski recalled.
Donning the jersey with the help of his son Mike, the elder Jazwinski said he was touched by the attention from thousands of fans who hushed to hear from the veterans.
“I don’t have the words to describe it. I’m very humbled by it,” he told Postmedia.
“You feel you’re not deserving of it, to look up there tonight,” he said, gesturing to the packed arena crowd.
Jazwinski was nominated for the honour by his wing chief warrant officer, also an old timers hockey teammate from his days in Cold Lake.
“I’m just a little cog in our Oilers Warriors appreciation night,” he said, praising the partnership between Ford and the Oilers that recognizes Canada’s military past and present on game nights.
“They love their military, and I’m very proud of that. I’m very thankful that I got selected to be on this day, the day before Remembrance Day, and represent some of the veterans in our country,” Jazwinski said.
In addition to its longstanding relationship with the Canadian Armed Forces, the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation has invested more than $1.1 million towards not-for-profit military support organizations including Soldier On, Homes For Heroes, Wounded Warriors, Royal Canadian Legion, local Military Family Resource Centres, and the Oilers Warrior tribute during each home game.
