Kevin Hayes sheds light on support received from Boston Bruins and Brad Marchand after his brother’s death

Kevin Hayes sheds light on support received from Boston Bruins and Brad Marchand after his brother’s death

Kevin Hayes and Brad Marchand

Philadelphia Flyers alternate captain Kevin Hayes has stated it would be emotional playing his first game back home since his brother Jimmy’s death last year. However, the Flyers forward was grateful for the Boston Bruins’ and the community’s support, especially Brad Marchand, as he continues to grieve.

“The Bruins have been amazing with my family and my brother’s family,” Hayes said while interacting with ESPN’s Emily Kaplan on ‘The Point’, which aired Thursday, “especially Brad Marchand. He has played street hockey with [Jimmy’s son] Beau. He went down to the local Dorchester rink and hung out with them, got them sticks, got them pucks. Beau wants to be Kevin Hayes and Brad Marchand every single morning when he wakes up.”

For those who don’t know, Hayes’ elder brother, Jimmy, died at age 31, on August 23 with his family revealing later in October that he had cocaine and fentanyl in his system at the time of his death. Jimmy Hayes was a local star in Boston, playing at the Boston College before becoming the first-ever player born in the Boston neighbourhood of Dorchester, to play for the Bruins team in the NHL.

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“Hockey is the greatest sport of all time”

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The American centre said the structure of hockey and being around a team environment have been vital to him during this testing time.

“Hockey is the greatest job, the greatest sport of all time. I truly believe that,” Hayes said. “To go through everything that happened and the support I got from [GM] Chuck [Fletcher], AV [former Flyers coach Alain Vigneault], [interim coach] Mike Yeo, everyone in the organization, all of my teammates, it was incredible. Even the support from other teams has been crazy.

“If you can’t come to the rink and be positive and have a smile on your face and try to help someone else’s day … it’s hard not to want to do that. That’s basically my main goal every time I come here.”

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