NHL Tragedies

Derek Boogaard was found dead in his home on May 13, 2011 from a lethal combination of alcohol and painkillers. He was 28 years old.

Rick Rypien was found dead in his home on August 15, 2011. The cause of death was determined to be suicide. He was 27.

Yesterday, August 31, 2011, Wade Belak was found dead in his home. It was released today that the death was suicide. He was 35 years old.

All three of these men were NHL players and their combined number of career Penalties in Minutes (PIM) is 5,583. That number includes games played in minor leagues. Total NHL PIMs is 2,078. Total number of goals scored in the NHL between all three players in the entirety of their careers: 20.

Call them what you like: Enforcers, Goons, Fighters. It is an unofficial and controversial role in hockey. [Note: Rick Rypien has been mentioned in this blog before, with a video posted of him yanking a fan out of the stands.] The debate about whether fighting should be allowed in hockey is ongoing. Recently the NHL has shown less tolerance for head injuries, but fighting has been around as long as the game of hockey. Nothing gets the fans on their feet and cheering quicker than when two players throw down the gloves.

The off-season in hockey is only about four months long, yet this short period of time has seen a great deal of tragedy in 2011. This pattern is troubling, and while it does not appear that the deaths are immediately related, it does shine a brighter light on the enforcer role, and further the debate of the place of fighting in hockey.

Keywords: Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, and Crazy

According to the Sporting News, Rangers Left Wing and resident whiner Sean Avery claims that Capitals Center Brooks Laich bit him during Saturday's game. On D.C. Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg posted a video of the alleged incident. It's hard to tell when Avery's glove came off. According to a quote by Laich on the Sports Bog,

“And [Avery’s] fingers were in my mouth, and I remember thinking about that, that I’m not [going to be] stupid about biting a player. He was trying to eye gouge me, he was sticking his fingers in my mouth. But that play happened to me where somebody bit me and I thought it was a low, disrespectful, gutless play, and I’m not gonna do that.”

I'm sure we all side with Avery on this one. Hockey has really gone downhill. It used to be the kind of game where you could gouge someone's eyeball and stick your fingers in their mouth without worrying about them pulling a low-class move like clenching their teeth together.

In other news of the crazy, former Capitals Left Wing Donald Brashear was picked up by the Rangers for the 2009-2010 season and has been playing for Canada's LNAH for the current season. According to wikipedia, "...the LNAH is not known for its skill level. Its teams employ many enforcers and has a rather infamous reputation for on-ice antics that mostly include fisticuffs." A close friend and lifelong hockey fan described this league to me as , "Basically MMA on skates."

It should come as no surprise then that Donald Brashear has a deal to try his hand at cage fighting. This looks to be a logical career move for Brashear. He will likely do very well at MMA since it does not require puck handling. It definitely seems to match up his talents better than being a winger in the NHL.