The great, big world of hockey has some much smaller circles within it.
Start with Cody Eakin, for instance.
Raised in Winnipeg, he played major junior hockey in Swift Current for the Broncos, the franchise that had lost four players in a tragic bus accident in December of 1986, including a 16-year-old Brent Ruff, whose older brother Lindy is now Eakin’s coach with the Dallas Stars.
“It’s a big part of the history you learn while you’re there,” Eakin said Friday, two states and about 14 hours removed from the scene of his overtime game-winning goal in St.