Tanev and Jankowski Fight For Late Teammate

November is Hockey Fights Cancer Month across the NHL. So each week this month, the Penguins will share a story that inspires hope and courage for those who have been affected by cancer to show our support as an organization. We are proud to help create awareness and raise funds to fight cancer.
Whenever Penguins forwards Brandon Tanev and Mark Jankowski wear the purple Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys or hold the 'I Fight For' signs, they think of someone they used to share the ice with at Providence College - their teammate Drew Brown, who passed away three years ago at the age of 25 following a long battle with Ewing sarcoma.

"It makes it a little more personal, and definitely a lot more emotional," Jankowski said.
And while Tanev, 28, and Jankowski, 26, may not be physically wearing those jerseys or holding those signs this year during the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer month, they are still thinking of their beloved friend, just like they do most days.
"You miss him, but I think at the same time, his legacy and what he was able to accomplish at Providence and showing everyone that the fight isn't over - to continue to battle and to continue to fight adversity and always put your best foot forward - was amazing," Tanev said.
"It taught me many life lessons. Just an amazing and great person I was fortunate enough to be around."
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When Tanev and Jankowski first arrived on Providence's campus as freshmen in the summer of 2012 to start classes and get ahead academically before the fall semester began, they met their new teammate Brown, a sophomore forward for the Friars.
The two of them quickly discovered that Brown, a forward with a big shot and a bigger heart, was someone who would always look out for them and the rest of the younger players.
"He was always one of those guys where you could talk to him about anything, and he would make sure we knew what we were doing around campus and stuff like that," Jankowski said. "He was really good about taking care of us, taking care of the lowerclassmen and just kind of showing us the ropes."
But it wasn't just his younger teammates that Brown was there for.
"He was just loved by everyone, because he had a heart for everyone," Providence head coach Nate Leaman said. "That's just who he was. He had time for every one of his teammates. And I think that's why every one of his teammates loved him so much, because he just got along with all the guys."
Brown was from Grass Lake, Mich., about 30 minutes outside of Ann Arbor. He was a unique personality coming from the Midwest to the East Coast, a blue-collar kid who grew up an avid outdoorsman. He loved wearing camouflage gear and loved hunting and fishing.
There used to be a softball field in front of Schneider Arena where geese would sit all winter, and Leaman laughs thinking about how every time Brown walked by on his way to the rink, he'd think, "I can't wait to drill a couple of those geese."
"No one else on our team would think of that, but that's just the way he thought because he was from the Midwest," Leaman said with a chuckle.
Though for Brown, hunting and fishing tended to be solo excursions, as Tanev and Jankowski never went with him.
"I don't know if Drew would have wanted me around," Tanev said with a laugh. "I probably would have scared off all the animals or the fish, so I don't think that we would come home with any pictures or good stories to tell. He probably would have just come back and said that Tanny ruined everything for us."
However, one team-bonding activity that Brown loved to recruit his teammates for was going to the casino.
"He loved to go to the casino," Jankowski grinned. "He would always be asking guys to go. It's one of the big things I can remember about him."
Brown also loved watching sports with his teammates, even if they did give him a hard time. Being from Michigan, Brown loved the NFL's Detroit Lions - "the only Detroit Lions fan in the state of Rhode Island," Tanev quipped.
And while Brown was, for the most part, a soft-spoken kid who tended to let others take the lead with stirring the pot while he giggled quietly in the background, he never backed down when it came to defending his beloved team.
"I think a lot of us got into him a little bit about that," Tanev smiled. "But he always wore his pride on his sleeve and never backed down from any arguments or stuff like that. He was just an enjoyable person to be around. He was just fun. He loved sports. And I think that was what kind of brought a lot of us together."
It certainly wasn't just hockey and football that brought them together. Brown also enjoyed baseball, and played intramural softball at Providence during the offseason. In fact, Brown's graduating class had a team that would play against Tanev and Jankowski's graduating class.
And it was after one of those games in the spring of 2014 that Brown and his roommate Noel Acciari, who currently plays for the Boston Bruins, asked their teammates to stop over at their place.
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As Tanev, Jankowski and their teammates made their way there, they weren't sure what was going on or what to expect. They certainly weren't prepared whatsoever for the news that Brown delivered: he had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
"I remember it pretty vividly," Tanev said. "It's a lot to take in. You see your teammates and everybody that's a part of the hockey program at Providence every day. Drew was like one of our brothers. It's tough to handle that news, and it's almost shocking to really digest and take in all that stuff. But that's what I remember. We went up to their room and they told us what was going on. And it's obviously extremely sad."
It started when Brown, a junior at the time, suffered an injury to his left leg in Providence's 3-1 loss to New Hampshire in the Hockey East semifinals on March 21.
"He went to the boards awkward, but not overly awkward," Leaman said. "He just kind of fell into the boards. No big deal. We thought it was just a deep thigh bruise."
But a few weeks later, after Providence's season ended with a 3-1 loss to Union College in the NCAA Tournament, the pain persisted. So the team doctor told Leaman that they needed to do an MRI and an X-ray.
"The doctor literally said, there's about a one in 100,000 chance that this is a tumor," Leaman said. "He goes, I'm not worried about it, but we've got to do everything. So, he did."
That night, everyone's worst fears were confirmed. The doctor called with the shocking news - that Brown did actually have a tumor on his leg. And when he went into the boards, he basically banged the tumor itself, which is extremely painful and the reason he was still feeling the effects.
Brown immediately went to see an oncologist in Rhode Island, while Leaman and the rest of the staff began to charter a course of action for him. They felt the best thing for Brown would be to receive care at the University of Michigan Hospital, because it was close to home for him and they are known for treating cancer patients.
While Brown missed the entire 2014-15 season to receive chemotherapy and surgery on his femur to remove the tumor, he was always with his teammates in spirit, as they kept his No. 7 jersey on the bench and had special shirts made to always keep him in their mind and their thoughts.
Brown even flew out to visit his teammates in person two or three times, including for "Drew Brown Night," an emotional fundraiser organized by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee ahead of a game in February. With every visit, as Leaman put it, no one had a bad day. They were just so happy to see him.
"He was a fighter. He was a battler," Jankowski said. "That was his personality on and off the ice. When this whole thing happened, it was a testament of how much he could play through. It puts life into perspective, and it puts hockey into perspective. We're talking about the battles that we're facing on the ice, and he has this whole other battle a million times harder - not even comparable to the stuff we're going through. And for him to be able to battle through that is really something special."
Brown served as such an inspiration for his teammates that entire year, with a moving and uplifting moment coming after Providence advanced to the 2015 Frozen Four.
Brown was able to make it to Boston for the tournament, which was held at TD Garden, despite being in the middle of treatments. He just wasn't supposed to be putting any weight on his affected leg whatsoever.
"So here you have me and the coaches just following him around like a hawk, making sure nothing happens to him," Leaman recalled. "And the next thing you know, we're in the middle of our last practice before the national championship game, and he comes out on the ice with skates."
The boys were all hooting and hollering as Brown rejoined his teammates for a brief respite from the pain and suffering he was dealing with, another moment that Tanev remembers vividly.
"When you're part of a group of guys and you're out there battling and grinding every day and a serious situation occurs in your life, to be able to kind of get past that point and battle through it and fight through it and to be back on the ice where you love to be and around all of your closest friends, that was something special," Tanev said. "You could really see the enjoyment and a smile on his face, and it was something that he was missing while he was getting this treatment and taking care of himself."
From that moment, Leaman feels his players drew all the inspiration they needed to ultimately defeat Boston University, 4-3, in the championship game to give Providence its first-ever NCAA title.
And as if Brown taking the ice during practice wasn't emotional enough, watching him lift that trophy over his head was beyond words.
"He was with us that whole season, and for him to be able to be there at the Frozen Four and then get on the ice and lift that trophy, it was very emotional," Jankowski said. "And just to see how emotional he was lifting that trophy, it was just a really cool, special moment."
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While the first round of treatments was successful, Brown's hockey career was over. But he still returned to Providence to finish his degree, and joined the men's hockey staff as Undergraduate Student Assistant Coach for the 2015-16 season, Tanev and Jankowski's senior year.
"I think it was more important almost to us than it was to him to have him around the rink," Tanev said. "It was amazing for him to be back on the ice and to be a part of the coaching staff and be part of the program again with him taking a step back to deal with cancer treatments. That's what life's all about, is enjoying yourself and being around people that you want to be around."
And while Brown loved to laugh and joke around with his buddies, he could get serious sometimes, too.
"He would be pissed off sometimes when guys weren't working hard, and we loved it," Leaman said. "There were a couple of times we sent him in the locker room and said 'go ahead Drew, say what you want to say.' The guys knew that he could never play again. And for him, your effort mattered because he didn't have that opportunity."
After Brown graduated in 2016, the cancer returned, this time spreading to his lungs. He again returned to Michigan for more treatments, which is where Jankowski got to see him one last time after turning pro with Stockton of the American Hockey League.
"We were going to play Grand Rapids, and I know he lives close to there," Jankowski said. "So I called him up right away, and we hung out the night before the game. Then he came to the game, we hung out after, and everything was just so normal. Just being able to see one of my good friends again was so nice. Unfortunately, after that, things took a bad turn."
Following another long and courageous battle with cancer, Brown passed away on the morning of Nov. 11, 2017, survived by his mother Sandy, father Duke, younger sister Nicole, and fiancée Michelle. Every single one of Brown's teammates traveled to Michigan for his funeral.
"That tells you enough about Drew," Leaman said. "We had guys in the NHL at that time like Mark and Brandon, but it just tells you that hockey was small compared to how we felt about Drew and what Drew meant to their lives."
The legacy Brown leaves behind is a special one. It's one of a hockey player with a big heart, adored by everyone around him - particularly his teammates - who played a big role on their historic championship squad.
"If you ever go back to Providence and look at the rink and stuff, his footprint, his bookmarks - they're everywhere," Jankowski said. "I mean, he helped us win that national championship trophy. And then on top of that, the person he was, the teammate he was - he was just someone that you always wanted to be around that would always lighten the mood and just someone that you could hang out with at the rink, away from the rink."
When Leaman thinks about one of the goals of Hockey Fights Cancer - to raise funds to fight cancer - he's inspired by how we get closer to cures and better survival rates every day.
"But the story of Drew, for us, will always be to live every day like it's your last," Leaman said. "Because with Drew, one day he's a normal student and the next day he's got cancer. And the hard part was that he got one of the toughest cancers going. He never let you know it. That was hard, too, that he never let you know it and how bad he actually was hurting and things like that. But if you talk to Mark and you talk to Brandon, I bet they'll tell you live every day like it's your last and understand that you have to cherish the moments and the people around you that that you want to be around.
"Because I think we all wish we could have more days with Drew."
For more information on the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative, click here.*