As the work-a-day world returned from its Easter weekend respite on a sun soaked Monday in Prince Edward County, one couldn’t help but laugh in the afterglow of a glass ceiling being shattered Saturday night.

With a national audience looking on, Bloomfield’s Jett Alexander made local hockey history by becoming the first home grown alumnus of the Prince Edward County Minor Hockey Association to appear in an NHL game- Belleville native Andrew Shaw’s one year in a Kings kit during a squabble between the Shaw family and the heads of minor hockey in the Friendly City notwithstanding.

To the casual observer, you would require a road map and a flash light to figure out how Alexander wound up involved as a back up goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their game against the Montreal Canadiens on Hockey Night in Canada.

Essentially, injuries to regular Toronto net minder Matt Murray and a late season salary cap crunch led the Leafs to signing the County native who regularly toils with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues to what’s called an Amateur Try Out contract. Alexander is typically one of a handful of emergency goalies the Leafs utilize and are on call in case some kind of goaltender voodoo befouls Toronto or the visiting team opposing them any given night.

Alexander had a brush with the big leagues last season, suiting up and taking warm up with the visiting Colorado Avalanche before their call up arrived at Scotiabank Arena just after the start of that night’s NHL contest.

Jett Alexander during warm up Saturday night (Mapleleafs.ca)

But on Saturday morning, our Jett got the call. No emergency on call duties, hidden away in the bowels of the Leafs home stadium this Easter weekend. Alexander would be seated on the end of the Leafs bench Saturday night for the bright lights of an HNIC broadcast, wearing a Leafs sweater adorned with his last name and the number 40.

His appearance in warm up and watching from the corner of the bench area alone drew plenty of attention from the HNIC talking heads and a graphic during the telecast pointed out Alexander’s home town and his current record in the Canadian University ranks.

The duty was an honour to behold and a testament to the young man who has stuck with the game even when it hasn’t been easy. Alexander’s motto must have been have pads, will travel.

After cutting his teeth in the PECMHA, he moved quickly to the AAA ranks and when the path to the net of the Quinte Red Devils wasn’t his path any longer, Jett jetted to the big smoke and played with the Don Mills Flyers and the North York Rangers in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. He continued to chase the dream in the Canadian Junior Hockey League with stops in Georgetown, North York and Prince George, BC.

The path to the NHL might have seemingly grown a little cold with a commitment to U of T. Not a lot of players move on to the big leagues from USports but the brass ring was shining as brightly as it ever has ‘that night in Toronto’ to quote another goalie kind of known in these parts.

The Leafs and Habs were going in opposite directions Saturday night both in terms of the forever rivals match up and the 2022-23 season. With a comfy 7-1 lead late in the contest, the word came down from the General Manager’s box. The kid is going in. Our Jett was going to ride out his dream with nervous eyes in Prince Edward County glued to their television set.

Sure it was only 70 seconds long and Jett never saw a shot. Our own Moonlight Graham tale if you will.. But it was our miracle moment made of happenstance on an Easter weekend we surely shan’t forget.

One of our very own- Jamie and Sandra’s kid from up on County Road 1- made it to the big league and after decades of wondering who would be the first from the County to see their ultimate hockey dream realized, we can only laugh at the wayward journey this community has taken to finally get to the NHL and ask one question.

Who will be next?

-Jason Parks