Ottawa Senators assistant coach Bob Jones passes away due to ALS

A year ago in early August, I attended the “All in 4 ALS” charity game in Windsor, Ontario as a media guest of the Windsor Spitfires. It was a charity game held for Ottawa Senators assistant coach Bob Jones, who had been diagnosed with ALS a in January of 2023.

The game raised over $200,000 for charity, and Wings assistant coach Bob Boughner, then-Sens coach D.J. Smith and Red Wings coaches Derek Lalonde and Jay Varady brought in members of the Senators, Red Wings (including Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat) and other players with Windsor Spitfires and Soo Greyhounds ties for what was essentially a gigantic party for Jones. From Brady Tkachuk to

I spoke with coach Lalonde after the game, but most of the players and coaches were far too busy holding the most raucous party for Jones after the game to speak, and that was OK: I understood that Mr. Jones faced a long fight, and it wasn’t my place to stick my nose in the party looking for quotes.

It turns out that Mr. Jones’ fight was a short one:

The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch and the Hockey News’s Steve Warne penned obituaries today, and…

I didn’t know Bob Jones personally, but through the game last summer, I saw how very much he was loved by his friends in hockey and in life. There were at least forty players and a cast of what seemed like dozens of coaches, family and friends who showed up at the All in 4 ALS game, and Jones was feted like a hero.

He deserved the praise. And now he’s gone, and even though I didn’t know the man, I feel like I lost a friend given the amount of love I witnessed him receive. The man know how to throw a party, too.

ALS is a mean son of a bitch. And it needs to be erased.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!