Wade Belak found dead

[indaslot 0]

I would say that speaks volumes....

[JR Boucicaut 3791]

How so?

In an interview with the Toronto Star published Sunday, Lorraine Belak said the family does not believe her son Wade intentionally took his own life.

"For all intents and purposes, he did not do it on purpose. It was accidental," said Lorraine. "That’s a good way of putting it: Accidental. Because I know he wouldn’t have done that on purpose. Nothing makes any sense."

Wade’s parents, who added they have not yet heard an exact recount of their son’s final hours, said a coroner’s report is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

[chippa13 1844]

All I see in that article is a family not wanting to believe that their boy would take his own life.

[RadioGaGa 162]

I actually watched the first episode of Battle of the Blades last night. Wade was going to be on the show. I missed the very beginning...but they were doing spotlights on all the competitors. And, they did a memorial piece for Wade at the end...

There was lots of him in the episode though...kinda weird to watch!

[JR Boucicaut 3791]

All I see in that article is a family not wanting to believe that their boy would take his own life.

Exactly.

[shotty 7]

she's going through some serious grieving. some one should advise her to stop talking to the media. wasn't it her that originally said "it wasn't an accident and it wasn't natural causes" alluding to suicide without saying it directly.

poor woman.

[sitzlejd 0]

Here's a pretty cool article by Brent Severyn about being an enforcer in the NHL.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/hockey/nhl/09/19/brent.severyn.enforcer.life/1.html

[Scotty 8]

All I see in that article is a family not wanting to believe that their boy would take his own life.

Hit the nail on the head.

Just like when someone commits a crime or is killed by police: "Oh he was such a great kid. He would never do that."

No one wants to think that someone they love is capable of doing such a thing, but they weren't in Wade's head and going through what he dealt with.

[bostonjuniorblackhawks 1]

great read. Thanks for posting that

[skyscrape 5]

I read a question today on yahoo answers here is the link

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111023045403AAGkCpp

This answer in my mind is something I thought should be shared on here. A great response in my opinion. SOrry if this is the wrong spot, but it is a very good point I believe.

From above link

"It is amazing how a couple of deaths in a short period of time can allow people who neither know or understand hockey make blanket judgments just to satisfy their hate of the game. Hockey has been going away from the pure enforcer for several years now and the roster with a pure enforcer is as rare as ever. You want to know the tragic results of having enforcers leaving the game has done....it has markedly increased the amount of serious injuries to players mostly due to lack of accountability. Guys dont have the fear of instant on ice justice for playing a dangerous style of game so severe concussions are at an all time high. That was never the case when enforcers stood by to administer justice. One must understand the reasons for and the role of fighting in hockey to truly understand why it has been a fact that it used to be a big deterrent for the dangerous side of the most fast paced game of the major sports.

Fact.....hockey has less death and serious injury than boxing (since you bring that up) and far less health issues than football. In fact baseball has more catastrophic injury each year than hockey does and there isnt the contact involved in that sport so what explanation is there for that? Any sport has inherent danger and injury is part of it. Another fact the haters will go ut of their way to ignore so as not to interfere with their hate of hockey....the lifespan of hockey players is on a normal pace with society in general....in football AND baseball it is significantly lower. How is it such a "dangerous" sport as hockey allows guys to live a fairly normal life after retirement while playing football or baseball significantly increases your risk of early death?

Just another "fact" about hockey.....only 1 in 3 games involves a fight and 1/2 of those dont include a real bout between 2 guys capable of inflicting damage. Fact....football players in the NFL will suffer more season ending or catastrophic injuries in 2 game weekends than NHL hockey players will suffer over the course of an entire season. And yet hockey endures the moniker of violent? And how many instances in a season will a pitcher intentionally throw a 90+ mph fastball at a hitter? We are so fortunate there arent more deaths in baseball....but more pro baseball players are dead since the year 2000 from the result of injury suffered playing or steroid use than you can document in hockey.

I could go on and on with facts that are easily enough obtained but haters choose to ignore to justify their positions on hockey.....yes there is an obvious element of violence in hockey but so to is there well documented proof the same exists in all major sports. These are the best of the best in all sports and crossing the line will be part of their nature....winning or simply holding onto a coveted job requires such.

But to answer your original question 99% of hockey fans would absolutely still be fans of the game. We do fear for the safety of players if the on ice threat is removed but we DONT go to games to see fights....we enjoy the ONLY pure fast paced game of the major sports. No other sport offers the fast non stop pace and speed of our game no does any other sport require such attention to detail. One play in hockey can result in a win or loss while it takes a lot more than that for any other sport to cause a loss....except baseball where you can wait 2 or 3 minutes into an at bat to see a game changing swing.If we so crave fighting then maybe the haters can explain why the game continues to grow in popularity while your odds of seeing any kind of fight are no better than 1 in 3? The NHL tries to protect its players while the NFL glorifies violent hits every week by showing "highlights" of violent hits that often end careers and lead players down the path of drug and alcohol abuse. And we see so manyfootball players die before they reach 60 years of age due to the violence the game has inflicted on them. If you want to rail on a sport for its violence I would suggest you target football (which by the way I also enjoy immensely) or soccer where the violence not only is an issue on the field but also in the stands and streets.....fans die of the violence that sport seems to revel in."

So... what do you guys think of this statement. Again sorry if this is unwanted. Just thought it might make for a good conversation.

[stuie7 6]

They're a lot like night club bouncers; a necessary evil whereby in many cases those likely to cause trouble are given jobs to prevent other, similar people from causing trouble. Not that I've got anything against enforcers or night club bouncers, but in a perfect world they would not be required; however this is not the case.

There are a number of skilled players who require enforcers to fight their battles, if you want to translate this into hockey, taking the Washington Capitals as an example; two skilled players Semin and Ovechkin, Semin cannot defend himself appropriately (humorously well documented) whereas Ovechkin would certainly try. I'm not singling out Semin, but there are a number of players in the NHL who are highly skilled, but do not possess the ability nor desire to defend themselves physically and as such require some one to look after them.

Going full circle, I'll conclude that this isn't a perfect world and they're a necessary evil.

[chippa13 1844]

Perhaps someone should tell the tirade poster from Answers.yahoo that there are a huge number of NHL fans who watch just for the fights. I am not one of them but they are out there and in bigger numbers than we like to admit.

Do I believe that fighting should be in the game? Yes. Do I think knuckle draggers who skate 3 shifts a game and only exist to fight the other team's knuckle dragger belong in the game? No.

[Chadd 916]

Perhaps someone should tell the tirade poster from Answers.yahoo that there are a huge number of NHL fans who watch just for the fights. I am not one of them but they are out there and in bigger numbers than we like to admit.

Do I believe that fighting should be in the game? Yes. Do I think knuckle draggers who skate 3 shifts a game and only exist to fight the other team's knuckle dragger belong in the game? No.

I couldn't agree more on everything in your post. The problem is that nobody has been able to address the career fighter without impacting fighting as a whole.

[skyscrape 5]

Perhaps someone should tell the tirade poster from Answers.yahoo that there are a huge number of NHL fans who watch just for the fights. I am not one of them but they are out there and in bigger numbers than we like to admit.

Do I believe that fighting should be in the game? Yes. Do I think knuckle draggers who skate 3 shifts a game and only exist to fight the other team's knuckle dragger belong in the game? No.

Personally I do not take the answer as referring to knuckle draggers. But, then again I wouldn't completely classify guys like Marty Mcsorley as just a knuckle dragger. This is the difference between a game with enforcers vs a game with thugs. In my mind if we had still had true enforcers in the game they would be out there to deter the knuckle draggers like Gillies, Torres, Cooke, and a few others from playing to injure.

[chippa13 1844]

Personally I do not take the answer as referring to knuckle draggers. But, then again I wouldn't completely classify guys like Marty Mcsorley as just a knuckle dragger. This is the difference between a game with enforcers vs a game with thugs. In my mind if we had still had true enforcers in the game they would be out there to deter the knuckle draggers like Gillies, Torres, Cooke, and a few others from playing to injure.

Here is the problem, Torres and Cooke aren't knuckle draggers and they are protected by the instigator rule. They are very selective about who they will accept from and often refuse to answer for antics. There is very seldom the opportunity for someone to ragdoll these guys. Gillies is just a goon who has no problem eating a couple of rights, tough to deter the actions of a guy like that.

The days of having a guy like Semenko or McSorley riding shotgun with Gretzky are gone in this league. Once officials fell in love with the instigator penalty back in the early/mid 90's (it was always on the books but seldom used until that time) guys had almost free reign to take liberties, just turtle and draw the penalty. Before that time there were maybe a couple of those types around, namely Claude Lemieux and Ulf Samuelsson. Once the instigator call became all the rage, then GMs around the league were signing these pests like they were going out of style and now nearly every team employs one of these guys.

The other problem is that you can't hide an enforcer on a star's line like you could in days gone by. The game has gotten too fast and skilled these days so a coach can't afford to have one of his top scoring lines essentially playing short-handed to keep a pest in check.

[Chadd 916]

Drop the instigator penalty and then you get a major when the other guy turtles. Please explain how that will fix the pest problem. Until the NHL starts suspending pests for what they do (and don't get called for) they aren't going to change the way they play. You're also never going to see a 30 goal, 300 PIM guy like Probert again. The current crop of top level fighters will never score 21 points in 16 playoff games like he did in 87-88. Mostly because, they all get benched in the playoffs.

[skyscrape 5]

Both above posts have very valid points. I guess the solution would be to either drop the instigator or even better...hold the pests accountable for the dumb asinine things they do!

[Chadd 916]

Both above posts have very valid points. I guess the solution would be to either drop the instigator or even better...hold the pests accountable for the dumb asinine things they do!

As I said, dropping the instigator won't stop anything. All they have to do is turtle and they get a powerplay. More severe penalties and suspensions for their actions are the only way it gets cleaned up and that isn't going to happen any time soon. The PR hit from dropping the instigator would do a lot of harm to the NHL and they can't afford it.

[skyscrape 5]

It is too bad they do not hold them accountable for their actions a little more deservedly.

[chippa13 1844]

As I said, dropping the instigator won't stop anything. All they have to do is turtle and they get a powerplay. More severe penalties and suspensions for their actions are the only way it gets cleaned up and that isn't going to happen any time soon. The PR hit from dropping the instigator would do a lot of harm to the NHL and they can't afford it.

The turtling never really happened until the instigator really came into vogue. A bit of an alteration to the instigator penalty could be in order. Leave it so that guys can't just randomly grab stars and get them off the ice for 5 minutes but give some leeway whereby a player who commits certain penalizable offenses are fair game, ie. blatant hit from behind/boarding - candidate for getting face rearranged sans instigator penalty.

[Chadd 916]

The turtling never really happened until the instigator really came into vogue. A bit of an alteration to the instigator penalty could be in order. Leave it so that guys can't just randomly grab stars and get them off the ice for 5 minutes but give some leeway whereby a player who commits certain penalizable offenses are fair game, ie. blatant hit from behind/boarding - candidate for getting face rearranged sans instigator penalty.

Guys aren't going to stop turtling, they just figured out how to avoid having to stand up for their actions. And any time you give the refs any leeway with penalties, they go completely overboard and the standards get shot to hell.

[chippa13 1844]

Then we continue to get creative with the rules. If you commit a blatant boarding/hit from behind or other such blatant safety violation that would result in a penalty then turtling doesn't protect you from the reciprocating major.

Example: Cooke hammers Patrice Bergeron in the numbers into the boards, McQuaid immediately grabs Cooke and starts swinging away with Cooke turtling. Cooke gets his penalty for boarding plus 5 for turtling during the fight (call it some kind of new fangled unsportsmanlike) and McQuaid gets 5 for fighting. The 5's offset and Boston gets a powerplay as a result of the boarding.

[BoDangles 0]

Then we continue to get creative with the rules. If you commit a blatant boarding/hit from behind or other such blatant safety violation that would result in a penalty then turtling doesn't protect you from the reciprocating major.

Example: Cooke hammers Patrice Bergeron in the numbers into the boards, McQuaid immediately grabs Cooke and starts swinging away with Cooke turtling. Cooke gets his penalty for boarding plus 5 for turtling during the fight (call it some kind of new fangled unsportsmanlike) and McQuaid gets 5 for fighting. The 5's offset and Boston gets a powerplay as a result of the boarding.

Fall under unsportsmanlike?

[wrangler 157]

Seems better if McQuaid does nothing, and Cooke gets penalized for boarding, along with being subject to further action by the league, which becomes very serious action with subsequent offenses. If the rules are enforced, and the penalties and discipline are tough enough, it should work.

I'm in favor of first enforcing the rules we have, rather than adding more rules, which may or may not be enforced.

[Chadd 916]

Seems better if McQuaid does nothing, and Cooke gets penalized for boarding, along with being subject to further action by the league, which becomes very serious action with subsequent offenses. If the rules are enforced, and the penalties and discipline are tough enough, it should work.

I'm in favor of first enforcing the rules we have, rather than adding more rules, which may or may not be enforced.

And there is the correct answer. The league needs to hammer down on the guys that are doing stupid and dangerous stuff. Missing game checks is going to have a much larger impact than impact than getting hit in the shoulder pads or helmet with some punches. The guys that cross the line on a regular basis need to be punished a lot harder than they have been.