PROFILE
SHANE BIGOURDIN
HOCKEY BEATS CANCER
BY JOHN PLOSZAY Photos by Jeff Miller
SHANE BIGOURDIN IS BACK. That might not mean much to the average hockey fan, but to Bigourdin, his family, his teammates with the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League’ s St. James Canucks and the entire Canucks organization, it is the end – everyone hopes – to an ordeal that most junior hockey players will never have to endure.
Bigourdin isn’ t a big goal scorer, he’ s not going to the NHL and the chances of him ever making millions from the game are not even slim, but on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 2, 2017, this 19-year-old won the biggest game of this or any other year.
He came back. He looked cancer square in the eye and fought his way back to the game. Before his return this month, Bigourdin last played a hockey game in February 2017. He had begun to get strangely fatigued while playing. He always seemed to be out of breath. After a number of visits to his family
108 | GAME ON | DECEMBER 2017