Trio of hockey enforcer deaths no coincidence — Laraque

炽月

EDMONTON - In the wake of Wade Belak’s suicide, retired heavyweight Georges Laraque doesn’t think it’s happenstance that three NHL players who made their living as fighters have shockingly died over the summer.

“A coincidence? No,” said the former Edmonton Oilers’ tough guy, who now is host of a sportstalk show in Montreal modelled after TSN’s Off The Record.

Laraque has been bowled over by the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and now Wade Belak in the last few months.
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2 e, J3 C+ M2 g3 i" p+ e“This job is so hard, physically and mentally,” said Laraque. “You can go to a movie theatre the night before a game, and you’re thinking of the fight you’re going to get into the next day. Like, you have to fight Boogaard. Then that game’s over and it’s like ‘OK, I have to fight Jody Shelley.’ After that it’s Brian McGrattan. You try not to think about it, but you start with the drugs or the alcohol and that creates the problem.”
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* U4 N( o0 Q+ D  ?7 q' p( F9 M  [  c“And when you retire, most of the tough guys aren’t set (for life). You don’t make a lot of money as a fighter, so they’re thinking ‘OK, now what do I do?’ So they go back to drugs and alcohol. There’s no options. Then, there’s the people who say ‘let’s take fighting out of hockey.’ Are you kidding me? Whoever decides to make that rule (no fighting), then you’re really going to have a problem with these guys. If there’s depression when you retire, how bad do you think it’ll be if you take 75 jobs out of the NHL so they can’t even earn a living? You create a bigger problem by trying to fix the problem,” said Laraque.
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“You have to find solutions for the fighting. Being a professional athlete is an ego job. You think you are invincible. The programs that exist that have doctors and PhD’s ... nobody wants to talk to them. The players should be talking to former players about their issues, have a committee. You get tough guys who talk to each other, they’ll open up. The only reason players enter the substance abuse program of the NHL is the NHL Players Association. It’s either mandatory, and you have no choice or you have so many problems, you’ll lose your paycheque. You know how many people should be in that program every year? It’s unbelievable,” said Laraque.

Laraque fought Belak several times and considered him a very hard, honest foe. He liked him, as he liked Boogaard who died because of a mix of painkillers and alcohol in Minnesota. On the surface Belak seemed just fine, but obviously he wasn’t. “The thing with Belak that’s hard to understand is he was going to be on The Battle of the Blades (TV figure skating show). After the first day practice, he was talking about his daughter, and he seemed pretty happy. He didn’t have any drug or alcohol problem. It doesn’t make sense. We don’t know what caused this. He had a job waiting in Nashville in broadcasting,” said Laraque.

% G+ }/ z4 D, e  u- p“But, we’ve talked about Boogie and Rypien and now Belak. Before that it was Probie (Bob Probert) dying. All fighters. On top of the people who’ve died, we could talk about all the other guys who’ve had trouble with alcohol or drugs but they’re not dead yet,” said Laraque.
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Former Oilers’ defenceman Jason Strudwick says he was “sick to his stomach’ when he heard about Belak dying. He had fought him, too, but he was a friend. “I don’t know what’s going on ... whether it’s a coincidence or not, but it’s time for the league and the players to review their policies and off-ice support. Players passing away in such a short period of time is very unsettling. As a league and players association we have to offer more support somehow. I don’t know what that would entail, but we have to it,” said Strudwick, who thought the defenceman/forward was an engaging, lovable fellow away from the rink.

2 x$ T4 k) f) W( B“I was very upset when I heard that Wade had died. He was full of life, and today he’s not with us anymore. He was a tough guy but we used to hang out. He was fun guy, he had a great spirit,” said Strudwick, who doesn’t buy the theory that the concussion concern is tied to fighting.

“Look at (Boston centre) Marc Savard. He’s not a fighter. A lot of guys have concussion issues and to be brutally honest if you play the sport of hockey you have to expect injuries. It’s the reality of the sport. I support fighting,” said Strudwick.
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Local heavyweight Matt Kassian, who has made his bones as a fighter, doesn’t feel his line of work is the cause of Belak’s shocking death.
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8 r& I$ q9 [8 K5 W' f: G- E“I honestly don’t believe that’s the case until I see some studies on it and it can be linked to fighting. I don’t agree with what they’re saying,” said the Minnesota Wild forward. “I’m not a doctor or psychiatrist but you can look at any profession. Any time a person is under stress or duress their issues are pushed to the surface and become bigger than they are. I’ve read that dentists have the highest suicide rates among professions which to me seems odd. With hockey, there’s stress with goal-scorers too who are in a slump.”
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“It’s unfortunate that it (deaths of hockey players) has happened in the last couple of months. You don’t ever want to be that person to have it end like this, especially for his family. It is awful,” said Kassian.

Cam Connor, the aggressive, one-time Oilers’ winger who played for the roughhouse Flin Flon Bombers in junior and dropped his gloves on many NHL nights, says there were deeper-seated issues with Boogaard and Rypien and now Belak than just their job description.

“I have to believe that there were other things in these gentlemen’s lives, something that will be uncovered in time, other than just being a scrapper. The common denominator was they were all National Hockey League players and enforcers, but I think it’s a way bigger picture than that Belak died,” said Connor, who now works for a company that sets up lodging and catering in the oilpatch. “I do think some players have problems with the transition (player to non-player).”
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; j- [0 E  k+ H; b& C/ M  f* b& h( R# `Connor certainly thinks concussions are an issue with NHLers, and fighters, though. It’s a very hazardous job, being a hockey policeman.
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“When I played for Montreal and had to go against, say, the Flyers ... there were four or five guys that would fight on any given night or in the WHA days having to go into Minnesota to play the Fighting Saints — they had those Slap Shot characters. It was almost like being a gladiator. It’s not a fun role,” said Connor, who feels one solution to monitoring fighters and how they’re doing physically might be random checks throughout a season.

“Maybe CT-scans to protect them if they can’t protect themselves. It wouldn’t be a witch-hunt, it would be preventive medicine,” he said.
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“People look at athletes like they’re invincible, but we have feelings. We’re not robots,” said Oilers centre Eric Belanger, who played with Boogaard.
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" \. ^9 _; l" t; U) B) d“When something like this (Belak) happens, you try to think why?”

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