A sellout crowd attended an exhibition game featuring current NHL players and others in support of Ottawa Senators assistant coach Bob Jones and his fight against ALS. "All the coaches. All the players here to support him and his family...there's no better guy in the game than Bob Jones." said Jerrod Smith who is thankful to Jones for helping him land his first job in hockey as a video coach for the team he now is the head coach of, the Windsor Spitfires.
The event started with player intros followed by a video message from Jones who was on the ice and visibly emotional by the show of support. He was flanked by good friends DJ Smith and Bob Boughner. All three were part of a coaching staff that led the Spitfires to back to back Memorial Cup titles in 2009-2010.
The rosters featured some of hockey's biggest names including Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk, Detroit's Dylan Larkin along with new teammate Alex DeBrincat and the NHL's current rookie of the year Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken. Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer ran the bench for Team Blue while Mike Babcock of the Columbus Blue Jackets overlooked Team White's bench.
Babcock's team won 10-6 but the big winners were the three charities who shared over $225,000 raised by the event: Sunnybrooke Foundation received $158,000 while $25,000 went to the ALS Society of Windsor Essex County and $19,000 to the Bob Jones Scholarship Fund.
Hear what some former Spitfires players and Detroit Red Wing's Associate Coach Bob Boughner had to say about a person they revere in the video below.
Check out our photo gallery too.
