The Atlantic Canadian hockey community is anxiously awaiting news about a promising young hockey player who sustained life-threatening injuries in a car crash on Wednesday.
Scottie Greene, 18, a native of Bishop’s Falls, N.L. is currently being kept in an induced coma at a hospital in Saint John, N.B. after undergoing surgery for a head injury.
New Brunswick RCMP say the vehicle Greene was travelling in left the road, struck a power pole and rolled. Two other players of the St. Stephen Aces were also taken to hospital after the crash.
Members of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles spent the morning loading their bus for a road trip to Halifax to play an exhibition game, but their focus was on their former teammate.
“He came here at Christmas last year and became one of my really good friends. It was really a shock when I heard about what happened,” says Screaming Eagles forward Peyton Hoyt.
Greene was a popular player on and off the ice. The Screaming Eagles issued a statement on Friday, saying the league is providing grief counsellors to players if needed.
“I was shocked, you don’t expect to hear something like that. Everybody was obviously very sad, we just hope he pulls through,” says Screaming Eagles play-by-play announcer Patrick MacNeil.
Greene played the second half of last season with the Screaming Eagles and was re-assigned to the St. Stephen Aces in Junior A to start this year.
“You develop as an announcer an emotional connection to the players. You can only imagine how much the players are connected to each other because they spend that much more time with each other,” MacNeil continued.
Greene’s former minor hockey coach says he is the only player ever to make the Major Junior level from the small community of Bishop’s Falls.
“The family has been through some hard times, this is just horrifying. It wouldn’t be too far off to say that the whole community is holding their breath and hoping everything is going to work out for Scottie,” says Derek Ford, Greene’s former coach and president of the Bishop’s Falls minor hockey association.
Back in Cape Breton, there has been an outpouring of support on social media from both former and current players as well as fans.
“Just to hang in there bud, I know he’ll be fine. He’s a strong person, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be okay,” says Hoyt.
An online fundraising campaign has been started to support Greene and already has raised over eleven-thousand dollars.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
