Built on faith and hockey
Jordan Staal won his second Stanley Cup in June. His parents say they raised their four sons to do everything to the glory of God.
The Staal brothers’ road to the NHL started on Henry and Linda Staal’s rink near Thunder Bay, Ont. In their early years, high snowbanks framed the ice. As Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared grew, so did the rink: real boards, official nets and good lights so the boys and friends could play during Northwest Ontario’s long nights. Their sons’ route to the NHL is a modest yet remarkable story.
I knew the family over the nine years I was a pastor in Thunder Bay. In mid-July, Henry, Linda and I talked about raising their sons in what could be an “all-encompassing” life of climbing the hockey ladder from home rink to ice palaces with 18,000 demanding fans. They worked hard to keep their family balanced, modest and devoted to Christ and his church.
Nature and nurture
It’s a sure bet that genes and the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) community’s culture in Thunder Bay contributed much to the Staal brothers’ rise to the pinnacle of professional hockey.
Like many Dutch families, Henry and Linda’s parents immigrated to Thunder Bay after World War II. They joined First CRC there, which was established in 1950.
In 1960, Henry’s father started what prospered into 600 acres of Sunshine Sod Farms, run now by brothers Henry and Gary. The four sons grew up cutting, hefting and laying Kentucky Bluegrass sod throughout the region. That heavy work helped develop the ever-greater strength and stamina hockey demanded.
When I asked what built their sons’ discipline and drive, Henry was quick to say, “Their mother’s work ethic” – as if sod farming is sedentary. Both parents are athletic and strong. Linda, at 5’ 9”, played baseball for some years. She’s always liked hockey, but lacking hockey skates, she wore figure skates as she ran her sons through drills. At six feet, Henry still plays hockey three times a week as a Florida snowbird. While at Lakehead University, he played for the Thunderwolves until Bluegrass sod came calling.
Without sod to nurse in winter, home ice lured the brothers for hours each day as they learned to skate, shoot and check. In an aside, Henry mentioned, “Occasionally, one of my sons would throw his stick at a brother who probably deserved it. We were mostly inside, so didn’t hear much.”
Before turning ten years old, they travelled through northern Ontario, northern Minnesota and later all across Canada for weekend tournaments; one parent accompanied their sons. Henry remembers that each boy was about 13 when “they took their first real hockey trip to Winnipeg.”
Keeping the faith
Their homegrown faith continued when the boys left home to play in the Ontario Hockey League. Not willing to play a guessing game for billets during OHL seasons, the Staals put a request in both Peterborough CRC bulletins before Eric played there. “A couple from one church replied and looked after him during the Peterborough years. When Jordan also went to Peterborough a few years later, that couple found friends who billeted him.”
After the move to the NHL, Eric, Marc, Jordan and families continued church involvement wherever they played and lived. Henry and Linda occasionally visited their sons, attending worship with them in their own churches.
“But,” Henry observed, “hockey doesn’t work like church. It’s a seven-day-a-week job. Jordan says, ‘The league’s full of professional time-wasters, always having us watch videos, work out, practice.’ But Hockey Ministries International does a great job. They hold services before Sunday morning practices. All the boys went to Bible studies, sometimes dragging teammates along. Lots of teammates are Christians. That helps keep things in perspective.”
Henry continued, “When Jordan played for the Penguins, he developed a close relationship with Brad Henderson, his Hockey Ministries International leader. Brad even came to Thunder Bay to lead Jordan and Heather’s wedding ceremony in First CRC.”
Reformed practice
Throughout our conversation, Linda and Henry were emphatic about helping their sons link their faith with their stressful, demanding hockey jobs. I asked, “Did your worldview as Reformed Christians help shape your boys’ attitude towards hockey – like Abraham Kuyper’s ‘every square inch’?” Their response showed they’d thought out that question long before.
“Yes. We’re called to do everything to the best of our ability. Our sons happen to be good at hockey. But if it was something else, it’d be the same. Maybe it’s the Calvinistic work ethic; that’s how we both grew up. We tried to instill that in our sons. Hockey isn’t better than what anybody else does. Everything you do is for God’s glory. Okay, our sons are in the spotlight more than most people. But they’re still the same men, nothing special about them.”
Dealing with fame
That’s not what one would think driving into Thunder Bay. On the three highways leading into town, hard-to-miss signs declare: “Welcome to the Home of the Staal Brothers.” Not that the family wanted such publicity; too show-offy for Christian Reformed folk.
Still, after Eric won the 2006 Stanley Cup as captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, Norwest Arena managers wanted to rename the ice where the boys grew up the “Staal Arena.”
Linda and Henry asked their sons, “‘What would you like to do?’ The guys just weren’t comfortable; they didn’t want things named after them. The managers kept the original name, adding ‘Home of the Staal Brothers.’” But the spotlight kept growing.
Long before the NHL spotlight, the climb to upper levels could have become obsessive. Linda and Henry saw parents who would drive their kids hard; that wasn’t for them. “We wanted to give the boys lives besides hockey.”
When asked what they talked about around the dinner table while raising their sons, Henry and Linda looked at each other, smiled and said, “We talked less about hockey than you’d imagine: school, Cadets, catechism and sod. Yeah, we talked a lot about sod.”
Hockey, though, is a stern master. Enormous physical and mental stresses build over eighty-two or more games each year. In 18 NHL seasons Eric suffered only a few relatively minor injuries. Not so Marc and Jordan. Besides several concussions, Marc had a right orbital fracture and retinal detachment when a deflected puck hit his face.. Jordan missed almost two seasons over his 20 years with concussions, a severed tendon, surgeries, a broken leg and hand.
“Did your sons ever feel discouraged?” I asked.
oldest brothers began their NHL careers. Left to right:
Henry, Linda, Jared, Jordan, Eric and Marc. (Photo
submitted by Henry and Linda Staal)
“We had a couple of instances when Eric was about 12,” said Henry. Linda offered details. “He always loved playing, but just wasn’t having fun. Years later he told us, ‘I thought of quitting, but was never really ready to do that.’”
Henry chipped in, “We hadn’t noticed anything was wrong. You don’t want to say one thing, when Coach says something else; the kids wouldn’t know which way to turn. We’d say, ‘Just listen to your coaches; don’t whine.’ Eric didn’t respond much at the time. But that kind of backfired on us.”
There is life after hockey
Eric, Marc, Jordan and Jared Staal have more than merely survived professional hockey; it’s in their blood. Eric works as an assistant to the Buffalo Sabres’ General Manager. Marc plugs away at player development with the New York Rangers. Jared, who played one Hurricanes game with Eric and Jordan, coaches the Savannah Pirates, a Florida Panthers farm team.
This year Jordan won his second Stanley Cup and first Conn Smythe trophy, awarded to the NHL’s most valuable player in the playoffs. For seven years he captained the Hurricanes and now has one year left on his contract. The Hurricanes are something of a family affair; Eric captained the team for six years, winning the cup in 2006. Eric and Jordan played several years together as Hurricanes. I trust they still play pick-up hockey for God’s glory.
These days Henry and Linda say, “We’ve become couch potatoes. Now television brings our hockey-playing grandkids to the living room.” I pray the grandchildren’s parents teach them Abraham Kuyper’s firm foundation: “Christ cries ‘mine’ over every square inch in the whole domain of our human existence.”
