Versteeg looks after Kamloops friend

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Kris Versteeg’s stay with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers was rather short-lived, but it was long enough to make an impression with one fan.
“He’s my best friend,” Jenna Fowler said Monday during the first intermission of the NHL playoff game between the Blackhawks and the visiting Vancouver Canucks.
Versteeg played 14 games with the Blazers after being acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes to start the 2005-06 season. At that point, he was traded to the Red Deer Rebels.
But he was here long enough to meet Jenna, who was born with a rare bone disease and makes regular trips to Vancouver to consult with doctors. To date, Jenna, 28, has been through 26 surgical procedures.
Last month, on one of those trips to the big city, she purchased a Blackhawks jersey, after which she contacted Versteeg, who is a candidate for the NHL’s rookie-of-the-year award after a 53-point season.
“I emailed him and just asked him if I could get my jersey signed,” Jenna said. “He said that if we could make it to Vancouver for Game 5 he would get us tickets and let us go downstairs after the game and get my jersey signed.”
And that’s where Jenna and her father, Ken, were Saturday night as the Blackhawks scored a 4-2 victory over the Canucks in a game that included fans chanting “BULL----!” and littering the ice with debris.
“Those people in Vancouver . . . they’re wicked,” Ken said. “Jenna was frightened when they were chanting.”
Jenna was wearing her Chicago jersey when she took her seat.
“The guy sitting beside her was . . . a big man,” Ken said. “He sat down and he looked at Jenna and he said, ‘Holy (cripes), we got the gawd-damn Chicago Blackhawks sitting beside us.’
“When Chicago scored, Jenna never cheered once. If that was in Kamloops, she would have forgotten it and cheered.
“Going down in the elevator, we had one guy come up to us. He stuck his face right in Jenna’s face and swore at her about the Chicago jersey. They’re not good fans, I’ll tell you that.
“I told him that we were from Kamloops and that her best friend was playing for Chicago and that calmed things down.”
None of that kept Jenna from enjoying herself, though.
“We were in the balcony. It was great,” she said.
And after the game, true to his word, Versteeg made sure Fowler got to meet some of his teammates, including former WHLers Dustin Byfuglien and Duncan Keith.
“It was awesome,” Jenna said.
And, yes, she got her jersey signed.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca