Let’s make two things clear: I am not here to discuss in depth the problems these three NHL players had leading to their deaths. I am also not here to talk about what the league can do to prevent more problems in the future. Those topics have already been extensively talked about, and you can read about them elsewhere.
Rather, I decided to write about what we as hockey fans can take out of this tragic offseason.
Before Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak succumbed to their off-ice problems, I used to believe hockey players had everything. As a normal working person (and diehard hockey fan) who may not make in my lifetime what NHL players make in a year, I had a vision of what a hockey player’s life was like off the ice. I often shared this vision with my friends in conversations.
I expressed that NHL players, and even American Hockey League players, had the glamorous life. Many have wives or girlfriends, with some also being fathers to young children. So they definitely had a loving family, and it’s likely they had a lot of friends. To add to that, I figured they loved the attention they got from their dedicated fans.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Alison Myers
NHL Player Deaths: What Fans Can Learn from Boogaard, Rypien and Belak Tragedies
September 2nd, 2011 by Alison Myers Leave a reply »
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