What's with all the dead hockey players?! :(

[ForeverAutumn]

Former NHL tough guy Wade Belak found dead in Toronto at the age of 35
By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Former NHL enforcer Wade Belak has been found dead.

A Nashville Predators spokesman confirmed Wednesday night Belak was found dead in Toronto. He was 35.

Specific details were not immediately available. But Toronto police confirmed they were called to a downtown hotel/condo in the early afternoon and are still investigating the matter.

Belak spent the past three seasons with the Predators prior to retiring over the summer. He was scheduled to work on Nashville's television broadcasts this coming year.

Belak was in Toronto to film the latest season of the CBC show "Battle of the Blades."

The six-foot-five, 222-pound Belak spent parts of 14 seasons in the NHL with Nashville, Florida, Toronto, Calgary and Colorado. He was taken in the first round, 12th overall, in the '94 NHL entry draft by the Quebec Nordiques.

Belak, who accumulated 1,263 career penalty minutes, is the third NHL tough guy to die this summer.

Derek Boogard, a 28-year-old forward with the Minnesota Wild, was found dead May 13 at his Minneapolis apartment due to an accidental mix of alcohol and the painkiller oxycodone.

Then on Aug. 15, forward Rick Rypien of the Winnipeg Jets was found dead in his off-season home in Crowsnest Pass, Alta., at the age of 27.

[JohnMichael]

Too much head trauma. Look at the number of football players and boxers who suffer from head trauma and the effects it has on them. I know I am still a little scrambled from my head first backward fall down a staircase. 16 steps does not do a brain any good. Combined with my other head traumas and I am having problems with memory and irritability. So really people should not **** with me.

[kexodusc]

Sadly, I speculate it's a case of substance abuse more often than trauma. Terrible news.

[Hyfi]

Like Kex said...

Hockey is the next generation of Wrestling. Take a look at one of the dead lists for wrestlers and your jaw will drop.

These guys hurt, so they take something for the pain. They want to get bigger so they take the juice.
For some reason, pro sports has it's own set of rules for substance abuse and if it were you and I, we would be in jail, not rehab for a week and back to a multi million dollar contract.

[ForeverAutumn]

This morning's news reports say that he committed suicide.

[bobsticks]

Sadly, I speculate it's a case of substance abuse more often than trauma. Terrible news.

Yes.

This morning's news reports say that he committed suicide.

Which could easily have been the result of negative circumstances and detox/withdrawal from pain meds and alcohol.

Or, maybe he got married.

[markw]

No smart comments. Click here for the full story.

[ForeverAutumn]

Plane crash kills ‘majority’ of KHL team Lokomotiv
By Greg Wyshynski

Tragedy has struck the hockey world again, this time in Russia and this time on a considerable scale.

A Russian jet carrying a top ice hockey team crashed while taking off Wednesday in western Russia, killing at least 43 people and leaving two critically injured, officials said.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 plane crashed immediately after leaving an airport near the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. It was carrying 45 people, including 37 passengers and eight crew, and the ministry said all but two people were killed in the crash.

The crash occurred right after takeoff for a flight to Minsk, where Lokomotiv had a Kontinental Hockey League game scheduled against Dynamo Minsk on Thursday.

Witnesses are reporting that the plane was reduced to a pile of charred metal. It is reported that the plane broke off in two and one half fell into water and another one on the ground.

Puck Daddy's Dmitry Chesnokov reports that "Lokomotiv official tells Sovetsky Sport 'everyone from the main roster was on the plane plus four players from the youth team.' Lokomotiv official said the entire team was on the plane because they were traveling for the 1st game of the season, a celebration."

Among the NHL alumni that lost their lives in the crash: Pavol Demitra(notes), a standout offensive player for the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks; Ruslan Salei(notes), former Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche defenseman; Josef Vasicek, former New York Islanders forward; Karel Rachunek, former New Jersey Devils defenseman; Karlis Skrastins(notes), former Dallas Stars defenseman; and Stefan Liv, Detroit Red Wings goalie prospect.

Other victims of the crash included head coach Brad McCrimmon, a former Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers defenseman; assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev, former New York Rangers defenseman; and assistant coach Igor Korolev, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks among others.

One player from Lokomotiv survived the initial crash. Alexander Galimov, a 26-year-old forward who has been with the team since 2004, has been hospitalized with burns to 80 percent of his body. Details are here.

The KHL's opening day is Wednesday, and a Finnish reporter wrote that the game between Salavat Yulaev and Atlas was stopped and then postponed when the news broke. There was a moment of silence in the arena before fans and players left the rink.

Said Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation:

"This is the darkest day in the history of our sport. This is not only a Russian tragedy, the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations. This is a terrible tragedy for the global ice hockey community."


Via Sovietsky Sport, a list of the dead Lokomotiv players in the crash:

Passengers: Vitaly Anikeenko; Yuri Bahvalov; Alexander Belyaev; Mikhail Balandin; Alexander Vasyunov(notes); Joseph Vashichek; Alexander E. Vyuhin; Robert Genrikhovich Ditrih; Pavol Demitra; Andrey Zimin; Marat Natfullovich Kalimulin; Alexander G. Karpovtsev; Alexander I. Kalyanin; Andrey Kiryuhin; Nikita Klyukin; Igor Borisovich Korolev; Nikolai Krivonosov; Evgeny Kunnov; Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Kuznetsov; Stephen Daniel Patrick Liv; Jan Marek; Brad Byron MacCrimmon; Sergey I. Ostapchuk; Vladimir Leonidovich Piskunov; Karel Rahunek; Ruslan Salei; Evgeny Sidorov; Karlis Martinovic Skrastinsh; Pavel Snurnitsyn; Daniel E. Sobchenko; Gennady S. Churilov; Maxim A. Shuvalov; Artem Nikolaevich Yarchuk.

[Poultrygeist]

In our mental health clinic we're seeing more and more closed head injuries with symptoms which mimic major psychiatric illnesses.

[ForeverAutumn]

Wow. This is really touching. The team that the Lokomotiv were flying to play held a memorial for them in place of the game that didn't happen. This is a shortened version of the 34 minute ceremony.



Here's the article which inludes a video of the full ceremony if anyone is interested. Even if you don't understand Russian, it's still worth having your sound on for the music and the tone of the comentator. Very sad.

[ForeverAutumn]

In our mental health clinic we're seeing more and more closed head injuries with symptoms which mimic major psychiatric illnesses.

That's really sad. Makes me wonder how many ongoing problems that some athletes have after their careers could have been (and can be) avoided.

[WalterS]

Definitely the head injuries. The impact they have on depression is gravely under-reported