Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
For all the ups and downs that came with it Matt StromeA hockey player, his grandmother was there for everything.
Strome won the Ontario Hockey League championship with Hamilton in 2018 and had a chance to compete in the Memorial Cup. The following season, his last in the OHL, he captained the Bulldogs.
Then came the bumpy road of trying to make it in pro hockey. A 2017 fourth-round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers, Strome spent his first three seasons moving between the AHL and ECHL. In 2022 he crossed the Hershey Bears and found his home. That first season also brought the Bears a Calder Cup championship, although Strome was limited to 34 regular season games and did not dress during the Calder Cup Playoffs. But last season he really broke out, registering a career-high 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) and finding his place as an active, career-like figure on the head coach’s best checklist. Todd Nelson.
This time Strome got his chance to play, making 15 of 20 appearances. And it was that last game that brought the biggest moment of Strome’s professional career, when he broke loose between the blue lines in overtime of Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals and scored to win the Bears their second consecutive Calder Cup.
That his grandmother, Inez Stromehe can see those moments make the Hockey Fights Cancer programs this month very personal for Matt and his family. When she was young, Inez – who Matt says was “like a third parent” growing up – was diagnosed with colon cancer. Now, at 88, she is battling breast cancer.
“She is the strongest woman I know,” he said. “You deal with it. It just puts life in perspective. I was five years old, and I had no idea what he was going through. He’s always happy, and he always puts a smile on my face.”
Some of those early memories are strange. Strome relied on his parents, Chris again Trishtrying to process those issues.
“One of the things that amazes me and my family is that we are always there to support each other, whether it’s hockey or something that affects life,” said Matt, his older brothers. Ryan again Dylan both are in the NHL. “I know I can turn to many different people in my family who have many different life experiences. That has helped me a lot in my work – if I have a bad day or something goes wrong, there is so much to see in life that everyone goes through.”
Inez is still around to see her grandchildren pursue their hockey dreams. You see all their moments, in fact. And he is close to seeing his grandchildren and now his great-grandchildren. He will also give his player ratings.
“He will text us after every game and tell us what he thinks we did well and what things we need to improve on,” said Matt. Whenever I or my brothers talk to him, we always love you.”
Most of us cannot understand the small nuances and deep details of something as complex as cancer. It brings a host of questions to be answered and mysteries to be unraveled for the doctors, nurses and researchers who have devoted their professional lives to doing so. But what we can do is listen to patients – and the families and friends of those patients – who are trying to manage and cope with the daily trials that come with cancer. That’s a lesson Strome learned from his grandmother when he was young. He even saw how he often put aside his own pain and difficulty to help or listen to other people’s problems.
“Lending someone else’s ear, I think that’s a really big thing,” Strome said. “When someone is having a bad day, make sure you support them. That’s something he would always do. He was fighting this battle, but he always put other people first, and that’s the biggest life lesson I’ve ever learned – to always help people.”
The Bears host their annual Hockey Fights Cancer game Saturday evening against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Strome will be there that night at the Giant Center, and grandmother and granddaughter will be thinking of each other. There are so many memories between them, and so much more to do.
“He’s the happiest person I’ve ever met,” Strome said. “It’s crazy how things happen … and how hard it is behind the scenes.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
