Music: {allcanada} Canuck players won't blame fighting for players' deaths

Friday, September 2, 2011

{allcanada} Canuck players won't blame fighting for players' deaths

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VANCOUVER - Although saddened by the third death of a hockey enforcer in four months, Vancouver Canuck players don't feel that fighting should be eliminated from the game. Nor do they even want to speculate that it was more than a coincidence that Wade Belak (notes), Rick Rypien (notes) and Derek Boogaard (notes) all fought to stay in the NHL.

Canuck winger Mikael Samuelsson (notes) called Belak's death Wednesday "devastating." It was ruled a suicide. Rypien's death in August was also a suicide while Boogaard's in May was due to an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone.

"I'm in shock like a lot of other people," the 34-year-old Samuelsson said Thursday. "I can't really understand it. I don't really know what to say. I don't think you can relate fighting to what's happened. Everybody is just speculating but obviously something is not right. Obviously it's personal issues."

Samuelsson, who doesn't fight on the ice, still wants it to remain part of the game.

"I don't think they should take it out," he said. "There are some kind of issues obviously that people have but I don't think taking fighting out of the game is going to solve anything."

Both the NHL and the NHL Players Association reacted to Belak's death Wednesday by issuing a joint statement Thursday that said, in part: "We are committed to examining, in detail, the factors that may have contributed to these events, and to determining whether concrete steps can be taken to enhance player welfare and minimize the likelihood of such events taking place.

"Our organizations are committed to a thorough evaluation of our existing assistance programs and practices and will make immediate modifications and improvements to the extent they are deemed warranted."

Both Boogaard and Rypien had received treatment for their personal problems prior to their deaths.

"I think they should look into that," Samuelsson said.

Daniel Sedin (notes) also found it difficult to point a finger at the three deaths and blame it on the players' roles.

"It's different circumstances so it's tough to say," commented Daniel. "You're speaking about three people and I don't even know if it's because they were fighters. I can't really stand here and say it's because they were fighters. But it's horrible. That's the only thing you can say about it. We lost a teammate [Rypien]. It's sad."

As for the NHL and NHLPA programs to help distressed players, Daniel declined to comment on that aspect of the situation.

"I haven't really put myself into how it works and everything," he explained.

Former Canuck defenceman Dave Babych, now a member of the team's player development department, appeared shaken by the Belak death. Babych, now 50, lasted skated in the NHL during the 1998-99 season.

"You don't know what to think with what's been going on this summer," he said. "It's just tragic. All kinds of things go through your mind. When you think of NHL players, it's a small group so a lot of this touches home. You just feel for the families and everyone involved. Each situation is different. It's just sad, that's all you can say."

Babych didn't agree with the theory that enforcers are placed under more stress than any other player on a team.

"As a player, you're nervous about your role at the best of times," he explained. "Fighters have different roles but I don't think you can connect them right now. There are always tragic things that happen. It's part of life. You don't like it and you hate to see it."

Babych noted that counselling has always been available to players but that some might find it tough to "swallow their pride" to ask for it.

"As a professional athlete, you're a tough person mentally and physically so to ask for help is the last thing you do," he said. "If you think you need help, you should try and find it and you can't be embarrassed about it. I think everyone in the world needs to talk to someone, it doesn't matter what you do. It's more swallowing your pride and asking.

"The players association has always had programs. They were always there. And I know the NHL alumni has a real good program, too."