Steven Drover

NYR fan in Ottawa, with interests in sports, coupons & philanthropy. Tweets here are mine and mine only.

[Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx @CraigBaird]

On D-Day, 14,000 Canadians landed at Juno Beach, supported by the Royal Canadian Navy and the RCAF. The day saw 1,074 Canadian casualties, including 359 killed. It was a watershed moment in human history.
Here are some of the Canadian stories from that day.

📸 LAC

🧵1/12

[Military History Now @MilHistNow]

The seaside town of Bernières-sur-Mer is home to the ancestral summer residence of Normandy's Hoffer family.

After evicting the owners in 1942, the Germans transformed the three-story brick and timber beach house into a fortified observation post, complete with sandbags and machine gun nests. It became a key objective for the first wave of Canadian troops landing on Juno Beach on D-Day.

In the opening minutes of the June 6, 1944 invasion, soldiers of the Canadian Queen’s Own Rifles stormed the house under heavy fire. In fact, the Hoffer home would end up being the first building in France liberated by the Allies on D-Day.

Since then, the family has turned the property into a living shrine to the people of Canada. Each year, the outside is draped with Maple Leaf flags.

If you happen to be visiting Bernières-sur-Mer on June 6, and if you’re Canadian, the Hoffers may just invite you in to take a look around. #dday82

[Dave Scarangella @DaveScarangella]

Tonight, as I do every year at this time, I’ll be raising a glass to a scared young man, who 82 years ago was preparing to go ashore on the beaches of Normandy as part of an event code-named Operation Overlord.

D-Day.

I can’t imagine what was going through his mind. I’d be scared to death and I’m sure he was too. But in that first wave was a 21-year-old Private First Class from Henry County, VA by the name of Allen Homer Sink.

Fortunately, he would survive that initial wave, participate in battle until it ended in August, then come home to marry and raise a family of four, including two daughters after the war ended.

He would also become my father-in-law until his death in 2006.

His nickname for some reason was “Hank” and when I asked him how he got it, he said some guy in the Army said he “looked like a Hank.” From the time I first met him, he was a salt-of-the-earth man who was never afraid of anything. He was a carpenter by trade, and he’d stand up on the tallest roofs, grab bumblebees with his bare hands when they tried to persuade him to move elsewhere, and never be bothered by anything.

His hands were tough and leathery, but he was a softie. He spoiled his children, complained when my mother-in-law would gripe about something involving one of his alleged misdeeds, and always thought he was fooling everybody when he snuck around the back of the house and lit a cigarette, a habit everyone opposed but he could never part himself from.

He could talk your ear off for hours at a time, and I always suggested he become a greeter at Wal-Mart when he retired because then he could talk all day to strangers and none of them would – like his wife and daughters often did – tell him to be quiet for a few moments. Yet for all his love of talking, there was one subject he just wouldn’t discuss.

June 6, 1944. Omaha Beach.

In 1998, when he was 76 years old, the subject came up again. The movie “Saving Private Ryan” came out and the beginning was gruesome. Reviews said it was incredibly realistic to what really happened that day. I asked Hank if he wanted to go see it.

“No,” he shook his head. “I don’t ever want to see any of that again.”

He did offer that he remembered the night before when troops were loaded into the boats for the amphibious assault. He said it was raining and that once everyone was in place, they gave everybody ice cream and told them to try to get some sleep. Then the next thing he knew, they were waking everybody up telling them to stay low and head for the beach.

No, that doesn’t sound like somebody drugged the ice cream. Not at all.

That’s all he would say about the subject, and he never said another word about it until the final months of his life. Alzheimer’s would gradually rob him of his mind, and as his condition deteriorated, memories of the past would briefly spill out. One evening he thought I was his commanding officer and he was back at Normandy. It is the only time I ever saw him where he appeared to be scared. Ever.

It reminds me every day of something I had unknowingly taken for granted. The greatest generation did fight in and win World War II, then did incredible things over the next 50 to 60 years after the war. But many carried unspeakable memories from the War, ones they would never talk about and carry inside them to their graves. Those veterans lost a piece of themselves in battle they would never, ever, get back.

I mean, how can you at the tender age of 21 storm a beach, see friends die only a few feet from you, wonder each night if you will wake up alive the next morning and then return home a year later and try to pick up on the same normal life you had before you left? I told him once that after seeing “Saving Private Ryan”, I understood why he was never afraid of anything; after you’ve made it through something like that, everything else pales in comparison.

So tonight, I raise a glass to Hank and the 150,000-plus men, who like my father-in-law, were very young, very scared, and still charged that beach, paying a price that even for the survivors would last the rest of their days.

Rest In Peace...

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

Marteau. Matteau. Matteau!

[Realistic_Blue_Shirts @Rangerblue1978]

On This Day 5/27/1994: marks the anniversary of one of the most memorable games in the long history of the New York Rangers.  When Stephane Matteau scored on a wraparound to win the game 2-1 against the New Jersey Devils in double overtime, it sent the Rangers to the SCF.

[Realistic_Blue_Shirts @Rangerblue1978]

On This Day 5/25/1994: Mark Messier delivers on his guarantee that the New York Rangers will defeat the New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, scoring three goals in a 4-2 victory at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

Awesome. Worthy of a 5 second pose (for those with the benefit of flash photography).

@orangevilleont

[DirtyDomDom @DirtyDomDom]

Edge (Adam Copeland) & Christian winning tag team gold together after 25 YEARS is the definition of a full circle moment. ❤️

Different company. Different era. Same greatness.

#AEWDoN

[90s WWE @90sWWE]

This picture of Bret Hart in double white denim in front of a lake should be on Canadian currency.

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

@oldcanadaseries The only correct answer is @buddywasisname

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

@AAkooJ @paulvieira Douche

[Steve Carlson #17 @steve_carlson17]

Johnstown Jets
I was 19

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

So obvious that Kreider was tripped.

[Lauren🏒 @Ms_NYRangers]

May 17, 2014

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final. New York Rangers vs. Montreal Canadiens.

Chris Kreider drives the net, gets tripped, and slides into Carey Price.

A split-second play which turned into one of hockey’s most infamous moments.

Chris Kreider lived rent-free in Montreal Canadiens fans’ heads for over a decade as they would boo him whenever the Rangers visited.

#NHL #Stanleycup #Hewastripped

[Sportsnet Stats @SNstats]

Barring injury, for the 46th consecutive season, a former teammate of Jaromir Jagr will appear in the Stanley Cup Final

Brett Kulak (Avalanche) or Rasmus Andersson (Golden Knights)

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

Doink

Hahahahhaha
🦬

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

@610Barstool They had Leetch (2), Gilbert (7) and Messier (11). Three retired numbers.

Dammit Graves.

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

@MollieeWalkerr Gilbert (7), Leetch (2), Messier (11).

Needed Graves (9).

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

Morning show on @TSN1200 will be something tomorrow.

4 hours of a punching a wall.

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

Gilbert, Leetch, Messier…. If it’s Graves we win. #9

[StFX University @stfxuniversity]

A transformational $20M gift to StFX from the McKenna family—the largest in our history. “When we had a chance as a family, we all agreed that StFX is where we should try to make a major philanthropic impact.” — Frank McKenna (’70)

More: https://t.co/nuXuQmIDPD

[Steven Drover @StevenDrover]

@talkin_rangers Retire it now. So long as he’s in it.