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| The 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Hockey Club. |
The hockey world usually stops to take a break after the Stanley Cup is awarded to the champion of the league each June. This off-season has been anything but a break. In the past four months we have had three NHLers commit suicide: Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers overdosed on pain pills and alcohol, Rick Rypien of the Vancouver Canucks killed himself after fighting depression, and recently retired Wade Belak, was found hanging in his hotel room.
If that was not sad enough, today a plane carrying a Russian professional hockey team (the KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) crashed into a signal tower after not being able to get to a high enough altitude. Of the 45 people on the plane, 43 have already been determined to be dead. As for right now, the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl have no hockey team. Former NHL players like Pavol Demitra and Ruslan Salei were lost in the crash.
Right as the season was about to end last season, I wrote a piece on my old blog about a friend named Everett Duke and how he was losing his favorite hockey team to Canada next season (The Duke Of Blueland). I thought what he was going through was tragic and awful. I understood why the team needed to leave Atlanta, but I felt for the people that cared about it so much.
As for what has happened this Summer, I do not understand a single thing. These stories have been some of the saddest things I have seen in sports. I feel for the families of Boogaard, Rypien and Belak along with everyone involved in that plane crash. For some reason this all happened and none of us can truly explain why.
I love the sport of hockey with all of my heart. Even though I grew up on the Steelers and Mountaineers football, I have come to call hockey as my favorite sport and be proud of it. That being said, when people say things like "The hockey world" or "The hockey family", I consider myself apart of that group. It is a group made up of all different nationalities and races and is represented well by anyone who picks up a hockey stick or wears a jersey of their favorite player.
With that being said, I think it is time for The hockey family to rise up from the pain of this past off-season and remember all of the good times of the players we lost in the past few months. If they were here, they would want us to love hockey as they did and make the sport grow in ways they might have never imagined otherwise.
So on Thursday, October 6th, I will be supporting my Pittsburgh Penguins as they play the Vancouver Canucks in their first game of the season. I will have the warmth of my Pens sweater and be with my friends that love hockey the most, and we will all rejoice in what will be the start of a wonderful season.
As for the teams heavily effected, the hockey world is responsible to support them in any way they can and help honor the ones who have passed by doing what they did best: loving the sport with all of their hearts.
Below are videos of some the best moments of ones the hockey world has lost this season:
Pavol Demitra's Hat Trick on Hat Night
Derek Boogaard "Snipe Job" vs. Caps, last goal of career.
Wade Belak vs. Donald Brashear, Belak KO's him
Rick Rypien has a check-filled shift against Chicago in the playoffs
A Tribute to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Chad Underwood is the editor-in-chief of Students Of The Game. He is currently attending Auburn University at Montgomery and is majoring in Mass Communications.
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