Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

[evilC]

Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

Not Pavol Demitra! He was just about my favourite NHL-er. A real class act.

Didn't he once forgo a sizeable bonus by choosing not to score in the final game of a Blues playoff run and instead passed to someone else so that they could score and pick up their bonus? Just a small anecdote, I know, but I always hoped the 'Hawks would get him. Shitty way to go, the poor bastard.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

Yes, I've heard that story too. He was hugely respected by team-mates and a real mentor to Marián Gáborík and other Slovakian players. They'll be devastated.

[ursus arctos]

Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

Demitra carried the entire Slovak team on his back during the Olympics (not literally, though you began to wonder whether he could do that too). He got the unheralded team to within one game of the final podium (they lost the bronze medal game to Finland) and deserved at least that much for his performance.

Also killed were a number of members of the exciting and carefree Russian team who won last year's World Juniors.

It's all unspeakably sad.

[ursus arctos]

Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

I can't watch this without tearing up.

All tickets for the game had been sold long before the tragedy. Soon after the sad news spread worldwide, the game's organizers decided to arrange a mass at the arena, honoring the legacy of the team.

Not a single ticket had been returned as the ceremony was held in the packed arena.Each spectator brought flowers. All the Belarusian leadership, including President Aleksandr Lukashenko, were present at the event.

Never was the arena that silent as 37 huge portraits of the players and staff were placed on the ice. A requiem mass was performed by an orchestra, while portraits of the departed Yaroslavl friends and icons appeared on the scoreboard.

[Buzz Killington]

Minority interest non-NHL ice hockey thread

And,tragically, the only player to have survived the crash, Alexander Galimov, has now died. RIP one and all.