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Before facing off against the Boston Bruins Thursday night as part of the NHL’s league-wide Hockey Fights Cancer initiative, the Ottawa Senators will be sporting sweatshirts in honour of a local family.
Ottawa’s team will be recognizing the Bell family, who lost their son Griffin to cancer at the age of six in 2024, and who several of the players have formed a close relationship with.
Sens forward Drake Batherson says he’s been close with the Bell family for much of his time in Ottawa and developed a special friendship with young Griffin.
“Thomas (Chabot) and I, we’d go down to his driveway, play ball hockey with him. I am really tight with the whole Bell family ever since I moved to Ottawa,” Batherson told CTV News ahead of Thursday’s game.
In October 2018, at the age of one, Griffin — known lovingly as Griff — was diagnosed with a form of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.
In the years that followed, Griff grew closer to the team and was embraced by the Senators as he battled the disease.
“He went through some tough times, and then we would bring him in [the dressing room], whether it was after a game or before a game and just see him smile. I think that was that was the most amazing thing,” Batherson said.
Griff underwent treatment and was in remission by March 2019. But two years later, the Bell family learned that Griff’s neuroblastoma had returned.
On March 18, 2024, at six, Griff passed away from the disease.
“With Griff, especially on a day like today, I think back to the relationship we had and how much joy it brought to him, being in the dressing room and hanging out with the guys and having them at the rink,” says Batherson.
“(Today) definitely brings back a lot of good memories, and I miss him every day for sure.”
While the Canadian Tire Centre is filled with energy every night that the Sens drop the puck, Thursday’s Hockey Fights Cancer game promises to be a night that will be emotionally charged.
“It is going to probably hit them a little bit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” said Senators’ head coach Travis Green. “It’s a reminder that there’s more to life than hockey. It’s great that the NHL has nights like this.”
“They’re a good group of kids, our guys really care,” added general manager and president of hockey operations Steve Staios.
“I know [the players will] have some deep reflection at certain points in time, but they’re pro athletes, they’ll get themselves ready to play, but certainly it’s a special evening.”
At the game versus Boston, the Bell family will be selling the sweatshirts donned by the players ahead of the game near Section 106, with proceeds going towards the Griffin Bell Golden Endowment Fund to support research into childhood cancer.
“It puts it in perspective,” Batherson said.
“After a bad game you think the world’s ending and then you go to a place like [the children’s hospital] and you see it could be a lot worse.”
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