主題: Hockey tragedy

The horrific off-season for hockey, which saw us lose Derek Boogaard to an accidental overdose in May, and Rick Rypien and Wade Belak due to suicide in August, just got about a million times worse. I woke up at 10:30 this morning to read that the plane carrying Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, a team in Russia’s KHL, had crashed. There are still conflicting reports, but it is confirmed that over forty are dead, including quite a few former NHL players and prospects. The last report was that two people had actually survived, including a flight attendant and one of the players, Alexander Galimov, who had burns on 80% of his body, and was in a coma. It now appears, sadly, that he will not pull through, even though it is said that the doctors are fighting hard.

R.I.P Guys!

Forme Blue Pavol Demitra among dead.

That is crazy, I just read about this. Very sad day indeed.

Dallas Stars defenseman Karlis Skrastins, Slovakian national team captain and ex-NHL player Pavol Demitra and the team's coach, former Detroit Red Wings assistant and NHL player Brad McCrimmon, were among those confirmed to have died. Former New Jersey Devils forward Alexander Vasyunov was also among those killed. A Czech embassy official said Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in 2000, were among those killed. Rachunek was also a former NHL player, having skated for the Devils, Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers. Also lost were defenseman Ruslan Salei of Russia and Swedish goalie Stefan Liv.

Wow, as a Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) fan, there are some familiar names on that list (Demitra, Salei, Liv). What a tragedy.