Back in June, Jake Thibeault, the Milton Academy hockey player who suffered a spinal cord injury in September 2021 that left him paralyzed from the waist down, joined an episode of the hockey podcast Spittin’ Chiclets. The conversation ranged from talking about graduation parties to walking — with the help of a walker — across the stage for his high school diploma to becoming friends with Mark Wahlberg.
Towards the end of the conversation, it turned toward how his injury impacted his parents.
“Not to go back to the day,” Thibeault told Spittin’ Chiclets, “but my dad was right on the glass where I hit the end wall. It’s stuck with him.”
The shockwave from those 25 words was felt about 500 miles away from where Thibeault recorded the interview at his home in Fitchburg, Mass.
Glen McMinn, an artist based in Nova Scotia, was listening to that episode. He had known about Thibeault’s injury — the news stories, the outpouring of support, the Spittin’ Chiclets crew talking about it — but with his son Jack headed to Kimball Union for the first time that fall, the imagery of a New England prep school player suffering an injury of this magnitude wasn’t something he wanted to picture.
“I didn’t want it to get into my head too much because it’s just something that most of us hockey parents don’t want to process,” McMinn said. “It’s a horrible thing and it can happen to anybody…My son was going down there and it was just too close.”
That changed when Thibeault mentioned his father was on the glass to witness the injury.
“He completely got into my soul and I was destroyed by it,” McMinn said. “I burst into tears. I had this huge emotional response to that, which was very unexpected. I felt deeply compelled that I needed to do something.”
McMinn was already looking for ways to use his painting to help people. He’d been kicking around the idea of selling limited prints on a subject and working with somebody who shared the same passion and cause — and telling their story through a painting.
The lightbulb went off and McMinn got to work immediately — he would paint something with all the proceeds going to the Thibeaults. He contacted Kimball Union head coach Tim Whitehead, who loved the idea and put McMinn in touch with Milton Academy head coach Paul Cannata, who also loved the idea.
Initially, the plan was for McMinn to paint a hockey glove about Milton Academy. Some alumni would surely buy the prints.
But after a couple of days of letting the idea sit, McMinn remembered Thibeault’s favorite player was Brad Marchand, a Nova Scotia native. McMinn didn’t know Marchand, but he did know JP MacCallum, Marchand’s trainer.
McMinn called MacCallum. Not only did MacCallum support the idea, but Marchand was in Nova Scotia training — MacCallum was seeing him later that day.
MacCallum called McMinn later that night with the news: Marchand was in.
“It was fantastic,” McMinn said.
McMinn and Marchand connected and got right to work. After much collaboration, McMinn crafted a painting of a glove that told the story of Marchand’s life.
“It was really impressive and inspiring and [McMinn] did an incredible job,” Marchand said. “It was an honor to be a part of it.”
The painting features numerous designs that provide insight into what Marchand values most — some subtle, some not so subtle. One of the more prominent designs is the Team Canada font of No. 63 towards the bottom of the glove. It represents the 2016 World Cup of Hockey where he played on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby, scored the second-most points in the tournament and won the championship. It was a turning point in Marchand’s career, as the undersized winger began to see himself as a top player in the NHL.
“With the painting and everything that’s come together with this project, it kind of makes you speechless,” Thibeault said.
The painting has been made into prints, which are being sold at Thibeault’s website.
The biggest takeaway McMinn had from the painting, however, was the connection between Thibeault and Marchand.
“They’re fierce,” McMinn said. “These guys are fierce. They’re never-give-up kind of guys. I could see why Jake adored Brad.”
Giving up hasn’t been an option for Thibeault in the 16 months since the injury. From walking at graduation to increasing mobility to rigorous physical therapy sessions, Thibeault will not quit.
“Whoever says you won’t do something or can’t, there’s no better feeling than proving them wrong,” Thibeault said. “In this case, it’s that doctor that told me I won’t work. Every day, I think of that when I’m in the gym and physical therapy grinding because I know that feeling when I walk in front of him is going to be the best feeling ever.”
Thibeault still needs lots of assistance to take steps. He’s not quite walking on his own yet, but he’s getting there, as his specialists move his legs and he uses a walker for stability.
The last five months have presented an entirely new challenge to Thibeault and his family: college. The 19-year-old began his first year at Babson College in late August.
“It’s been really good,” Thibeault said of adjusting to college life. “At first, it was a little nerve-wracking. I’ve lived independently since the injury but definitely not on my own completely. The first few weeks were definitely a lot of trial and error in trying to find my path and see what made it easy like my way around campus.”
Thibeault was in the early stages of being recruited to Babson to play hockey prior to the injury. Still, that wasn’t the end of his time with the hockey team.
Thibeault has found a role with Babson, analyzing each period. The best part? He lives around the other hockey players in his dorm, which has made his transition into college and living independently that much easier.
“We’ve learned this year that things happened for a reason,” Mike Thibeault, Jake’s dad, said. “Babson happened for a reason. Coach [Jamie] Rice was there before Jake got hurt, he was there right when Jake got hurt and he came to see him at the hospital. I get a text from him maybe every couple of weeks, Jake talks with him on a daily basis. Just knowing Jamie’s there, the Babson community has his back, the hockey team, we’ve had opportunities to meet all of them and it’s just amazing, amazing young men.
“We couldn’t ask for a better situation given the circumstances.”
This semester will provide a new set of challenges for Thibeault. He has class every day from 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. From there, he gets in the car and goes to Journey Forward, a non-profit organization in Canton, Mass., where Thibeault works out and does his physical therapy.
Some days, he’s there for up to three hours doing electric stimulation, working out and engaging in exercises to re-train the body how to walk. His main support staff includes Kaelan Beatty, Grace Thomas, Jude Alamo and Dave Alexander. All four have been instrumental in his progress.
“About a year ago, I could barely sit on the edge of a bed or sit on the edge of a table,” Thibeault said. “Now I’m standing up with support on my knees and hips a little bit and throwing medicine balls. My core is strengthened and the legs, they’re coming. It’s slower than I would like.
“But we go to war with it every day and we get that one percent every day and make sure we don’t stop.”
In his hockey career, Thibeault idolized Marchand. Now, as he completes physical therapy daily, he uses Marchand’s relentless play and never-give-up mindset as a guide — something not lost on the star NHL winger.
“It’s an honor,” Marchand said. “It means a lot. I think as I get older and I have a much deeper appreciation for the position I’m in and the gifts that I’ve been given really realizing how lucky I am to have gone through everything I have. I don’t take it for granted the way I used to. Those things mean a ton.”
By now, the Thibeault family has become used to the support from the hockey community. It’s the bittersweet part of this.
“You can’t explain it until you’re in the situation and receiving that help because it is a feeling like no other,” Thibeault said. “You feel like you need to repay everyone and unfortunately, I’m lucky enough and blessed enough to have so much support that it would take my whole lifetime to repay everyone and I might still not repay everyone. But I know my biggest thing I can do for them is to not quit and to keep going and to show them that their help is physically lifting me out of the chair and I also know that I can’t do it alone.”
But the family has created relationships and bonds through this experience that will endure. A lot of those people, from current Bruins to youth hockey players to Wahlberg, send constant messages of encouragement. McMinn is now a part of that.
“We’re very, very grateful for what Glen is doing,” Mike said. “Blown away by it.”
Working with McMinn is the Bruins Foundation, which is led by former Bruin Bob Sweeney.
“I can’t say enough about what a great, great person he is,” Mike said. “He’s kind of an unsung hero in the foundation. He does so many things that people don’t know about. He just does it out of the niceness in his heart.”
Throughout all of the people working to sell this painting and raise money for the Thibeault family, there’s one common theme.
“You’re dealing with a series of hockey dads in this case,” McMinn said. “Bob’s a hockey dad, Paul’s a hockey dad, Brad’s a hockey dad, I’m a hockey dad. That’s the universality of this story for me is that we’re people who know these kids in that these kids are our kids. We’ve grown up with them.
“All of these folks connect with this story in a very personal way.”
