Finding out your luggage has been lost on a flight is frustrating at the best of times, but what if the lost piece was a hockey stick handed to you by your hockey hero?
That's what happened to Linden (11) and Marshall Erwin (13).
In an amazing twist, though, they have the original stick, along with new swag and a hockey bag full of memories.
Getting the stick
Back before Christmas the boys and their family (mother Janelle Staite and step-dad Mike Staite) were in Edmonton. On the last night in the city, Dec. 23, the Canucks were playing the Edmonton Oilers, and Mike took the brothers to the game.
"Linden had a card with a piece of a Bo Horvat jersey in it and wanted it signed," says Janelle. "So he made a poster."
The poster challenged Horvat to rock, paper, scissors and the pair took it to ice level during warm-ups. Horvat saw the poster, but instead of signing the card, he handed the boys his stick.
"Marshall happened to be in the perfect reaching distance to help out his little brother, that's the sign of a pretty awesome big brother," Janelle says.
To keep it safe the stick was taken to coat check until the game was over (during which Horvat scored two goals and assisted two others to lead the team to a 5-2 victory).
"They had called me and were just in shock, frankly," Janelle recalls.
Losing the stick
Unfortunately, the stick wasn't with Linden for very long.
"We had to check it and Linden was pretty reluctant to do it, he was almost in tears," says Janelle.
Perhaps he had seen the future. After being delayed in the Edmonton airport for seven hours during the pre-Christmas storm, the family flew to Vancouver. The stick, it seems, did not. The family waited and waited for the stick to arrive at the oversized luggage area but, eventually, they accepted it wasn't arriving.
"Linden definitely had some tears about that," says Janelle. "And confusion more than anything about how it couldn't make it through."
They spoke to Flair Airlines staff but weren't able to figure out where the stick was, so they filled out a missing bag report and headed back to the Island.
A Christmas message out of the blue
Christmas Day came and while there were no doubt plenty of surprises under the tree, perhaps the most surprising thing to arrive was a text message.
A random traveller had spotted the hockey stick while he was searching for his own missing sticks at the Edmonton airport. Instead of finding his, he found Linden's, with just a phone number attached to it, sitting in the baggage claim area.
The family tried calling Flair, but the airline wasn't able to send someone over to collect the stick.
"We knew the stick was somewhere but we couldn't physically get it," Janelle says.
Trying a different tactic
Uncertain whether the stick would be returned to them, Linden asked if there was something they could do on social media.
Janelle decided to tweet at the team and Horvat, asking for help.
"My son was like 'Do you think there's something we could do?' and I thought 'What's the harm of making a post on social media?'" she says. "We knew it was a bit of a long shot in the sense of someone hearing back."
There wasn't an immediate response, but a couple of days later a friendly message arrived.
"We’d love to help you out!" wrote the Canucks official account.
More than a stick
There was a bit of back and forth between the family and the Canucks, but one of the first things to happen was a special message for the brothers on Dec. 29.
Bo Horvat sent a video.
"Hey Marshall, hey Linden, I heard you guys lost your stick flying the other day," he says in the video. "I'm going to make sure you guys got another one on the way."
"I can't even count how many times they've watched that," says Janelle. "They were so excited. I think that just meant so much to them, for somebody of that calibre and importance and that busyness to take some time out his day to call out to the boys."
Getting the stick, again
The next day things kept getting better.
"We got a call in the afternoon from a flair desk in Abbotsford saying we think we found your stick," says Janelle.
They offered to hold on to it until it could be picked up or to ship it.
Linden was adamant someone picked it up.
Luckily some family lives in the area and they went and got it, sending a picture to prove it was in safe hands. Janelle let the Canucks know the stick had been found and returned, as well.
"We had zero expectations from the Canucks at that point," she says.
Expectations surpassed
The Canucks replied that they still wanted to do something.
"They said 'We'd love to personally come by, does Tuesday work for us to come by and surprise the boys?'" says Janelle.
A plan was hatched. The boys were picked up mid-morning Tuesday from school expecting to go for lunch with their grandparents, who live in Victoria and were supposedly passing through.
After they got back home the boys began to realize something was up when a guy with a camera and someone in a Canucks hoodie knocked on the door.
"They asked the boys to come outside and as they did the Fin mobile rolled up," says Janelle. "Then Fin leapt out of the car with a hockey stick."
Not only did Fin bring a new stick, but he also brought along Canucks legend Kirk McLean with a signed retro reverse Bo Horvat jersey, posters, and more.
"Linden is actually a goalie himself; once they connected the dots on that it was pretty neat," says Janelle, noting that Linden is actually named after McLean's old teammate and former Canucks captain Trevor Linden.
Mike, a long-time Canucks fan, was excited to meet McLean too, and chased down an old hockey card and got it signed.
"We're just awestruck by this," says Janelle. "The generosity of the Canucks and the amount of effort to come all the way to Nanaimo to make this so big and so special for the boys."
And while the first stick was for Linden, now that there are two, both brothers get one.
"Linden was pretty excited for the help from his brother and wanted to make sure [Marshall] had a piece of the memory," says Janelle. "They're both feeling pretty happy about it all."
Linden lost his @BoHorvat stick on a flight home from Edmonton.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 11, 2023
When Bo heard his story, he made sure a new stick found its way to him. pic.twitter.com/9sLJaDTefm
