What a summer. What was miserable. Derek Boogaard (Notes), dead of an overdose of pills and alcohol, alone in his apartment in Minneapolis, Rick RYPIEN (notes), which had suffered from depression for a decade, was found dead at his home in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.
And now, Wade Belak (notes), a guy from fourth or fifth line, seventh defenseman, a joker, a fighter, as pale as snow. His body was found in an upscale hotel in Toronto and died Wednesday at the 35th condominium Three boys in the Prairie region, away for four months.
A newspaper reported Belak hanged himself, but it seems impossible.
Perhaps, it always seems impossible.
We know he suffered from chronic pain from arthritis in his basin, cortisone injections may be necessary, but felt physically able to go to the Battle of the Blades on CBC. We know he had two daughters. The oldest one just turned seven, and the youngest is five.
But if he was a tormented Enforcer, he was also a major player at this age. I've never met a happier, apparently guys in hockey. It has always seemed comfortable, he was recently retired, and in town to appear on CBC reality show, where he probably would have been the star. Except he's dead, and hockey feel sick again the right of his stomach.
All the guys who are playing an increasing role in obsolete, Belak was the last guy you expect to die young. Apparently he told a radio station in Calgary last week that he was happy and healthy, and its rings was't head. When he spoke of retiring with Sean Fitz-Gerald National Post last week, said, "I thought of the press, but I wanted to make an ass of myself."
And it was Wade. As Boogaard, Belak was born in Saskatoon, and he smiled and wise cracks as he clung tenaciously to the edge of the National Hockey League. Once, when asked if he ever special treatment in Toronto as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, smiled and said: "I have a table with the sick in all McDonald." When it was changed to Florida in the trade deadline, after everyone had spent the week speculating on Mats Sundin (notes), told TSN, "I blame Mats." When asked his two tattoos a lot, he said, "Yes, I will be 60 or 70, all wrinkled and Hangin 'Out with the old" home. But I will look hard and get all women. "
Was, in other words, a real person, and looked so comfortable in his own skin with ink. After launching a weekly TV program attractive Leafs when he was in Toronto, had agreed to be a journalist outside predators television affiliate in Nashville. He was a skater to fall with the CBC. Nine days earlier, Fitz-Gerald said, "I hope this will be my transition to life after hockey."
And we are here. As a leitmotif, it is not yet clear. Yes, it was Boogaard, Rypien and warriors Belak, above all. Yes, there is a long history and growth that the job requires a real and sometimes terrible toll. If Belak suicide when his name added to a list heartbreaking.
Old Enforcer Georges Laraque (notes) spoke to TSN Radio on Wednesday and said ... "I hated to fight I did it because it was my job, I hated to promote violence I hated it, I hated it, I hated." In this paper, it is far from alone.
Thus, while Rypien suffered from deep depression, and Boogaard was on painkillers, we do not know why Wade Belak death. Not yet. Maybe ever. We just know that a lot of 40 Goal Scorers puck movement and defensive players die young, and men whose role is to fight in the NHL is disappearing as professional wrestlers. This should not be a political issue in sport and it should be a human. And finally, some very serious questions to be asked about the role of enforcement in hockey, just to understand why these men went too fast. This was one was unspeakable, which is exactly why it needs to be spoken.
But this is for later. Wade Belak is now. In 2007, when he scored his goal Belak NHL for the first time in four years, called his parents and wake up, joked and asked his mother for five dollars, such as a child. At this rate, it would have paid only $ 40 in his career of 15 years, was a good deal. And when he made that joke on a table in McDonald that day, Belak really answer the question. "I mean, I do not throw around" Game of the Maple Leafs to get free stuff all the time, because I like doing that. But I could not ... I enjoy it while it lasts. I will soon be a stranger. "
Unfortunately, he never had the chance to disappear into the darkness, and now he never will. And so we feel sick all over again. We practiced on how to react, what not to wonder what to say, how to feel. It does not get better, though. Just more and more famous.
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