Summer of 2011 – Tragedy and Heartache

By nature, hockey players avoid the limelight. It’s a mentality that’s instilled from the first time anyone laces up the skates. Don’t show up your opponent, don’t showboat, don’t do anything that brings unwanted attention to yourself and be humble. Anyone that ever strays from that path is usually criticized, much like how many ripped Linus Omark after his spin-o-rama move during a shootout or Alexander Ovechkin’s oft-extravagant goal celebrations. Sidney Crosby is the poster boy for the new NHL, and the next time that he says something that isn’t straight out of a PR manual at a press conference will be the first.

So when hockey makes its way into the spotlight, it’s usually not out of choice, and this summer unfortunately proved that. The deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and the Lokomotiv hockey team from the Kontinental Hockey League maake the summer of 2011 one of the worst hockey offseason in memory. That’s not even factoring in the likes of Marc Savard being out for the year with post-concussion syndroms and Crosby potentially facing similar issues.

The Lokomotiv crash Wednesday is a tragedy that leaves people wondering what to say. 43 of the 45 people on board perished in the crash, including former NHLers Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek, Karlis Skrastins and coach Brad McCrimmon. Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, dubbed Wednesday “the darkest day in the history of the sport,” and he’s certainly not wrong. The two survivors, player Alexander Galimov and a crew member, are in intensive care and several sources indicated that things don’t look good for either. This tragedy is beyond crushing and puts hockey on the backburner. It’s incredible to think that an entire team was wiped out, but that fatal landing in the Volga River did just that.

The deaths of Boogaard and Belak placed a shining light on abuse of painkillers by enforcers, which is rapidly becoming one of hockey’s biggest problems. Boogaard and Belak allegedly had issues with painkillers after careers that were better-known for the fights and physical play over goals and highlight-reel dangles. This issue is something that the NHL can no longer ignore and must take a long, hard look into.

The summer of 2011 will forever be tainted for the dark shadow it placed over the hockey world. Teams convene for training camp in a few weeks and while it won’t bring those who perished back, a new season can bring some solace to those suffering from a horrid offseason. When will everything end?

For a sport that prides itself on not making headlines for the wrong reasons, hockey’s had one hell of a bad offseason. How the sport bounces back will be crucial, but if the past showed us anything, hockey will bounce back and be stronger than ever.

Matt Chandik is a columnist for OpenIceHockey and can be found at @MattChandik on Twitter or via email at matt.chandik@gmail.com