Hannah Carpenter always attended the annual Hockey Fights Cancer night at TD Garden with her mother Shannon McCarthy, an avid Boston Bruins fan.
But on Monday night when Carpenter raced from Downtown Crossing to Causeway Street for Bruins warm-ups, she was alone. Her mother had passed away in March after losing her battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 51.
Carpenter may not have had her mother by her side when she stood up against the glass with her homemade sign, sporting her mother's Hockey Fights Cancer jersey but she definitely felt her presence -- especially when Bruins forward Charlie Coyle tapped on the glass and threw a puck into Carpenter's waiting hand.
Carpenter said her phone began blowing up with messages saying she was captured on TV. The moment was not what she expected.
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"I'm thinking I got clipped walking in the concourse and then all of a sudden it was like, 'Oh, I was on TV.' And then I was so embarrassed I cried on TV," Carpenter told NESN.com. "Then I was like, no (not embarrassed) because that's legitimately how much that meant."
The pre-game moment was not only captured on NESN but also featured on the ESPN SportsCenter segment, "Best Thing I Saw Today" with Scott Van Pelt.
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Carpenter inherited her love for the Bruins from her mother, but her unwavering passion and support for Coyle stems back to when the 31-year-old center played for the Minnesota Wild.
The Boston University product would skate in the annual Comm Ave Charity Classic between the Terriers and the Boston College Eagles to raise money for the Travis Roy Foundation and ALS research and care, in honor of BC alumni Pete Frates. Carpenter originally attended the games to see her then-favorite player Brian Boyle.
Carpenter was waiting outside the Walter Brown Arena in 2018 hoping to catch some of the players after the game and it was the first time she met Coyle.
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"He stopped and took a picture with me and I didn't really think anything of it. I liked him, but not any more than any other hockey players," Carpenter explained. "I remember meeting him again when he got traded (to Boston) and if I'm not mistaken he was like, 'It's good to see you again.'"
Carpenter joked that she isn't sure if that actually happened or not, but has had the opportunity to meet and talk with Coyle on numerous occasions over the last five years.
"He gets it. He takes the time to ask you your name or ask you what you like to do," she said. "He really takes the time to get to know you and I was like, 'This is crazy. You're a hockey player in the NHL and you're taking five minutes to talk to me and it spiraled into me seeing him more often.'"
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Carpenter added: "I have some really one-of-a-kind items of his and stuff like that. And it became, I don't want to say a friendship because we're not friends, but I guess maybe like a bond. All out of one interaction. And I think that is super, super special."
One particular interaction is embedded into Carpenter's memory and heart.
It was about a week after she lost her mother and Coyle was doing a public signing at the North Shore Mall. Carpenter didn't feel up to going, but her friends rallied around her and convinced her to go since she had already bought the ticket.
"(The players) just sit at a table and they sign items," Carpenter explained. "They don't really do pictures. But he got up and came around the table and gave me a hug. He was like, 'It's really good to see you here. I hope you're doing OK.' It was one of those things where I feel like I blacked out because I'm like this man is really coming over to give me a hug. ... It's really something that turned into something way bigger than I could have ever expected and it was on full display there."
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Carpenter has shared a lot of moments with her mom at TD Garden cheering on the Bruins. One of her favorites was the night McCarthy got to ride on the Zamboni.
"She was bald. Like completely bald from chemo," Carpenter remembered. "I have pictures of her getting on the Zamboni getting ready to come out and the smile on her face was like nothing I've ever seen before. Of course, all the people sitting in the stands during intermission don't know you, but they were all waving to her and she was up there doing the princess wave and smiling at everyone. It was really special because she was so sick and almost everything else was a challenge for her, but she was like, 'Hell yeah, I'm gonna rock it!'"
The Hockey Fights Cancer Night in 2022 was one of the last games McCarthy attended at the Garden. She and Carpenter took their place along the glass with their signs watching Coyle and the rest of the Bruins warm up.
Carpenter captured another moment on her phone that she will never forget.
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"He tossed her a puck and I have the end of it (on video)," Carpenter said of Coyle and her mother. "We heard him hitting the glass and smiling at her."
Carpenter continued: "I was in her place for her and it was like her last one to my first one alone. Very transformative. ... I think that is something Monday night gave me as it wasn't just me alone trying to remember my mom. It was all of these other people that were acknowledging it. That was basically saying, 'Your mom was a badass, and you're going to be fine.' And that was something I could have never asked for. And I think I didn't know how much I really needed it."
When attending Bruins games, Carpenter always honors her mother's memory by belting out the national anthem along as Todd Angilly's voice bellows throughout the Garden.
"My mom always sang the anthem and I would be like, 'Mom, people are looking at us and you don't even have a good singing voice,'" Carpenter laughed. "I didn't appreciate it for what it was. But now, every time I go into the Garden, I sing the national anthem for her and I feel like she's there with me. And in that moment, when I caught the puck, I was like, 'She's here. She did this.' When I sat down and saw what it had become (on social media), there's no way she wasn't drawing this up exactly the way she wanted it to be."
Featured image via Photo Courtesy of Hannah Carpenter
