124-2009-01-29

Congratulations to Young Daniel Erlich For a Great Act of Human Kindness
By W. Owen Thornton

The www.humankindnessproject.com weblog celebrates Daniel Erlich of the Ontario Hockey League London Knights for a great act of kindness.  The story starts with another player … a former London Knight.  This player is as well known for his hockey prowess as he is for his ‘attitude’.  He’s been traded three times in an attempt to find him a hockey home where his attitude doesn’t distract his teammates.  As is oft the case with a trade in sport, the traded player’s team comes back to his or her old digs and in this case it was less than a month since his auspicious departure.

With 16 seconds gone in the first period a tussle broke out between, you guessed it, our former Knight and a current player.  Later, the returning player scored a goal against his old club.  As he skated by the London bench he said something so colourful that he earned a two minute minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.  For him the game spiraled downhill.  In an uncustomary fashion for fans of ‘Junior A’ hockey, the old home-town fans began to boo the returning player every time he touched the puck.  I say uncharacteristic because fans know these players are boys of 16 years of age ranging to young men of only 20, so rarely do they heckle players … out of respect for their young age.

While it was uncool for the fans to boo him, one could see the other side of things and suggest that he had done many things in this game alone (in addition to his reputation preceding his stay with London), to bring this harassment upon himself.  Now don’t get me wrong about the booing.  I fall to mob mentality at hockey games too, and could have easily been a ‘boo-er’ had I been there.  It is just one of those unkind sorts of things that people find themselves doing in a mob and we are just human after all.  The booing was just one more thing this young man did NOT need.

And so the return home for this player, I would guess was a rather miserable one.  At the end of the game something odd happened, which set up what Daniel Elrich did.  The teams were told by the officials to disembark the ice surface one team at a time to avoid a post-game brawl – things had escalated to that level by the end!  The visitors retreated first after a resounding loss: all but our returning player.  Whether he was too despondent to leave or was told to stay there until everyone had left, I do not know, but there he sat on the bench: dejected … alone … and probably hurting on the inside (if a young male hockey player could ever admit to having such feelings!). 

And then the Knights began to leave the ice.  Our heroes had won the game and the applause was well deserved.  But Daniel – the smallest player on the team but one whom many would call the player with the biggest heart – well he did a round-about and went back to the opposing team’s bench, and he started to talk to his old teammate.  The dejected player left the bench and the two ambled across the ice surface talking like old friends should.  And then, when it came time to depart to opposing dressing rooms, they tapped hockey gloves like two old friends sad at such a difficult parting.  At last … the ice was empty.
Daniel Erlich’s actions had undone everything: the belligerent behavior of the returning player, the negative response by some Knights who tackled him during the game and even the crowd’s improper reaction to him.  Daniel’s single act of kindness saved us all from our improper behaviour.

Now I don’t know Daniel.  I don’t know what compelled him to skate over to that bench.  Maybe he was sent over by the coach and the team as the representative.  Maybe he’d lost the draw to go and do it.  Maybe they’d asked for volunteers and everyone but Daniel stepped backwards, leaving him the “accidental volunteer”!  All of these things could be true, but I doubt that.  I doubt that because if he’d been doing a duty, he probably couldn’t have made the glove tap of friendship happen for love nor money.  The sincerity of the moment suggests another reason why Daniel skated over to his old teammate.

I’m betting that it was something between sympathy and empathy.  He could imagine his old friend’s reaction to what had happened … knew how he’d be feeling about it and … he couldn’t leave things between them like that without doing the right thing.  It may have been hard and awkward for him to do that.  Maybe not.  I’ve heard things about Daniel that suggests he’s just that kind of fellow: Someone you want on the team bus beside you, someone you want in the dressing room before playing a big game and someone you’re praying will be on your old squad who will skate back and get you off the ice with some degree of hope and dignity.

So to you Daniel: www.thehumankindnessproject.com celebrates your great act of kindness.  May you continue to set an example for all of us, and may all of us learn from your example.