As Arshdeep Bains prepared for his home debut Saturday between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena, he wore the words “Bibi” and “Bibi” on his hockey stick in honor of his grandmother, Gran Kaul Bains. I pasted a “Baba” sticker on it. his late grandfather Kewal Singh Bains;
Father Kuldip Bains took his three sons, including his youngest, Arshdeep, to Canada on the Skytrain from Surrey to Vancouver to watch the Canadian ice hockey team win at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I still remember when I took him to Hockey Place. . Now, Kuldip and his family have their own Olympic dreams.
“Arshdeep visited our house before Saturday’s game to meet his grandmother and show him his team jersey. Earlier, as he took a lap around the rink before making his Colorado debut, following the tradition of rookies, I recorded the moment and showed it to my family later. We all cried that night and I hope that one day I'll see him in a Canada jersey at the Winter Olympics,” Kuldip said in Surrey. He spoke to The Indian Express from the state.
Earlier in the week, the 23-year-old left winger made his National Hockey League (NHL) debut, becoming the fourth Indian-born player to do so, joining Robin Bawa, Manny Malhotra and Jujhar Khaira. He has logged more than 12 minutes in each of the three games he has played.
“On Saturday afternoon, when the entire Baines family was rooting for Arshdeep, it was a dream come true for all of us. Here we learned that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a professional ice hockey player. That being said, this one hour of match time was like a lifetime for all of us,” says Kuldip.
As a teenager, Kuldip Bains often played in a local soccer league near his village, Parsowal, in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, before his family immigrated to Canada in 1982. Baines moved to Surrey, where he became a mechanical engineer and started his own workshop. AK diesel. It was in the Newton, Surrey area that young Arshdeep took his first ice skating lessons, accompanying his older brothers Amrit and Harvil, who both took up the sport recreationally.
The family moved to Cloverdale, Surrey, where Arshdeep ended up playing in the Surrey Minor Hockey League in various age groups with coaches including Surrey Minor Hockey President Herb Baines. For the Bains family, this means, in addition to supporting his son financially, his days start at 4 a.m. and he and Arshdeep travel to Vancouver and nearby cities on weekends. “We went to places like Winnipeg and Toronto to get him to play matches. We supported Arshdeep's dream by doing whatever we could, including extra time in workshops. “That's what each parent does for their child,” Baines says.
In 2014, the youngster spent a year at the Delta Hockey Academy and was called up to the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League in 2017. He scored 77 goals in five years with the team and collected 209 points, including 43 goals in 2021. -Became the first Indian player to win the Bob Clark Trophy in the 2022 season.
“Once he joined the Red Deer Rebels, that was his life for five seasons. The junior team travels by bus from here. When the team gets caught in a snowstorm and has to spend the night in a small town… As a parent, it worries me, but that's life. In 2018, all of Canada mourned the lives of the Humboldt Broncos players killed in a Saskatchewan bus crash. also cried all night. His friends know some of the players and it was a tragic loss. In 2020, he missed the entire season due to Covid-19 regulations. He spent time with the team in Alberta, and those things shaped him into the person he is today,'' Baines said.
In 2022, Arshdeep signed an entry-level contract with the Canucks' American Hockey League team, the Abbotsford Canucks, where he has played in 66 games and has recorded 13 goals and 25 assists. He was also named AHL All-Star MVP for the 2023-24 season. Last year, Arshdeep, along with three other ice hockey players, appeared in director Baljit Sangla and Nilesh Patel's documentary 'Maleya Shot, Keetha Goal: Make the Shot'. The filmmakers spend time with the players throughout the season, tracing their lives and hopes for the NHL throughout the season.
“I think we have over 1,000 players of Indian origin training here in Surrey alone. Eh sada apna khed hai (this is our own game). Of course there are challenges, but there is also a support system. Once Arshdeep wins the Stanley Cup, I hope to make another film.” Sangra says.
