It was an emotional night at the Pictou County Wellness Centre as the Edmundston Blizzard visited the Pictou County Weeks Crushers. The rink was renamed the “Big House” for the evening, in honour of Maxime Grandmaison. The 19-year-old sustained a serious injury last week in Amherst and is recovering after surgery after being rushed to hospital in Moncton. Every since, the hockey community has been rallying support for Grandmaison.
When warmups started, the teams hit the ice with “Grandmaison” name bars on their jerseys. The Crushers lineup was customized for the evening, and a family member of Grandmaison was on hand.
@weekscrushers @BlizzardEdston @THEMHL Very classy all Crushers and Blizzard players wearing Grandmaison on their name bar! pic.twitter.com/UHWuC3ObL1
— SpentPrimer (@SpentPrimer) February 6, 2020
There’s a lil’bit or Biggie in all of us! ☺️ pic.twitter.com/HJ3UrQEU3I
— Weeks Crushers (@weekscrushers) February 7, 2020
What a night! Marc Grandmaison attended the game on behalf of Max’s family. Here he is with volunteer Diane who had all our volunteers sign a Get Well Soon card for Max. Such a lovely gesture pic.twitter.com/SgfJqsaRt3
— Weeks Crushers (@weekscrushers) February 7, 2020
But the emotions would peak with a pre-game ceremony as Grandmaison joined the game via video and even performed the ceremonial puck drop.
Joining us on the Big Screen, our boy Max did tonight’s puck drop! @THEMHL @BlizzardEdston @NewGlasgowNS @PicCoWellnessCt pic.twitter.com/5iq22Gvu7Q
— Weeks Crushers (@weekscrushers) February 6, 2020
Grandmaison spent just over two full seasons with the Blizzard/Dieppe Commandos franchise before being dealt to Pictou County at the MHL draft in June. In 98 regular season games in Edmundston, Grandmaison had 31 goals and 26 assists, with two goals and three assists in 21 playoff games. This season, he had seven goals and five assists in 31 games for the Crushers.