'You made my life': Former Canuck Darcy Rota pays shock go to to ailing aged fan

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Roy Downie did a whole lot of nice issues in his life.

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Raised within the Cariboo, he was a junior hockey star earlier than he labored as a truck driver, obtained married to Shirley, the love of his life, grew to become a Mountie, moved his household to Whitehorse, constructed a yard hockey rink that grew to become the discuss of the city, and discovered how fantastic being a youth hockey coach could be.

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Now, 84 years younger, he’s in a battle with most cancers.

Some days are powerful. Earlier this week, he landed in hospital.

However on the primary Sunday of this month, that wasn’t a troublesome day. It was, he declared afterwards, nearly one of the best day of his life.

That day, he met one among his favorite hockey gamers: former Vancouver Canuck Darcy Rota.

It’s been a troublesome summer time for Roy, Andrea Laycock knew. Laycock is one among his daughter Carrie Pratt’s greatest mates, to the purpose the place she is taken into account virtually an adopted daughter within the household.

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And so Laycock despatched a word over to her previous pal Glen Ringdal, the previous Canucks government who now has ties to the Canucks Alumni Affiliation, asking if perhaps a former participant or two may ship over a message or video of help, to brighten Downie’s spirits.

Ringdal duly handed the request alongside to the alumni affiliation’s executive-director Robin Wyss, who handles requests like this on a regular basis. Wyss despatched a name out, and Rota was one of many gamers who responded.

Rota, who has been one of many official Canucks’ group ambassadors for a pair seasons now, thought perhaps he may do one higher: would an in-person go to be attainable?

The timing was excellent. The Downie household had organized to have an enormous household get collectively and invited Rota to return out to Chilliwack for an hour or two.

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The children knew one among their dad’s hockey heroes was coming, however for Roy, it was a complete shock.

Downie’s son Ron, who has run eating places and cafés in Vancouver through the years, stated the whole lot performed out completely.

“The smile that got here throughout my dad’s face! He was somewhat in shock, however he knew it was Darcy straight away,” Ron stated. “Darcy may need been 12 toes tall and bulletproof in my dad’s eyes.”

Rota, who is called a usually upbeat particular person in your common day, was positively glowing speaking about assembly Roy Downie, a person he would come to be taught had had fairly the teaching profession within the Seventies and ’80s.

“It was so particular, it was a shock to him. He had no thought,” Rota stated.

“He simply knew a lot about hockey. We talked about my favorite thrill, the 1982 run (to the Stanley Cup last), my profession, the Summit Sequence. His son Ron is an enormous fan too.”

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Pratt stated they have been an awesome match when it got here to their hockey data.

“As a lot as dad connects with my brothers (about hockey), he and Darcy had that in frequent, he knew gamers my brothers don’t know as nicely,” she stated.

“And pa would say what about this man or that man, and Darcy would smile.”

Rota was there for nearly two hours, chatting about all their favorite gamers from the Nineteen Sixties onwards.

Rota grew up in Prince George and lots of the gamers that Downie knew have been acquainted to Rota as nicely.

Downie’s Canucks fandom stretches all the best way again to their Western Hockey League days.

“Darcy would throw out trivia. ‘Dad’ can’t bear in mind what he had for breakfast, however he knew the whole lot when it got here to hockey,” Laycock stated with fun.

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“We talked in regards to the previous Western Hockey League, and the NHL within the Seventies and ’80s,” Rota added.

Ron stated that even via all of the ups and downs of the Canucks through the years, his dad’s fandom, and that of his and his brother Don’s, has by no means wavered.

“We’re the followers who by no means see the negatives. I’ll say, ‘Okay, we misplaced, however no less than there was this…’ however Dad’s a coach and he sees the whole lot that goes on,” Ron Downie stated.

“We discuss all sport lengthy. I don’t know what I’m going to do after I don’t have that,” he added, his voice trailing off for a second. “This man is so liked.

“Earlier than folks actually studied the sport, my dad studied the sport, found out the way it labored,” he stated. “And he was such coach due to it.”

Downie’s teaching philosophy centered on excessive ability, ignoring the tough stuff, the type of coach who noticed the sport otherwise in a time when many thought hockey was about toughness

and power, not a lot about ability and velocity.

However his components clearly labored. Teaching a junior group in Whitehorse meant typically having to play towards males’s groups, solely attending to face their friends when it got here time to play within the

provincial after which Western Canadian playoffs.

“He labored with Dave King and Howie Meeker. He was a level-five coach. He was a step away from teaching at college degree,” Ron stated with delight.

“We completed second in western Canada in 1982, within the Tier II playdowns. We beat the (Prince George) Spruce Kings and all of the groups in Vancouver.”

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The elder Downie grew to become a policeman as a result of he believed in serving to his group. That’s the reason he coached. That’s the reason he was already prepared to assist others, his son stated.

“One time, I bear in mind we have been going procuring at Woolworths and we noticed somebody sleeping within the alley and my dad stopped to select him up and we drove this man to get assist,” Ron recalled.

“And he constructed a yard rink for us. It was so fashionable that after seven or eight years, the town simply confirmed up at some point and constructed us boards and put in lights,” he added.

He was fairly actually named Mr. Hockey within the Yukon at one level.

“Per week after, everybody continues to be speaking about Darcy’s go to,” Laycock stated. “Everybody who’s been on the home, it’s been introduced up.”

As Rota was on the point of depart, Downie thanked Laycock and Rota, saying: “You made my life.”

“The entire household is now in remedy,” Laycock joked.

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