Former Avalanche player Wade Belak reportedly found dead

[pnbronco]

Here is another one, man this summer has so sucked and it's looking like a another suicide.

Posted August 31, 2011, 5:05 pm MT
Former Avalanche player Wade Belak reportedly found dead
By ADRIAN DATER



I just saw this news, and immediately felt a punch to the gut. Former Avalanche player Wade Belak, a first-round draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques in 1994, who played with the Avs in parts of three seasons from 1996-99, has reportedly been found dead in a Toronto condominium.

We don’t know yet how this happened, but foul play was not suspected. I really hope it wasn’t what we’re all thinking, because the Wade Belak I and many other people knew was a cheerful, friendly guy who seemed to have a lot of other good stuff going on besides being a pro hockey player for a long time.


rest of article:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2011/08/31/former-avalanche-player-wade-belak-reportedly-found-dead/7939/


UPDATE: The Toronto Sun has reported that Belak’s death was a suicide — that he hung himself. I feel sick. It’s time for the NHL to do something about NHL’s tough guys — the toughest jobs in hockey — wanting to kill themselves. This is the third this summer. Time for a change.

.

[Dzone]

3rd this summer? really? Man thats sad.

[SR]

Sad. Bad summer for the NHL in the deaths department.

[Denver Native (Carol)]

This morning, Adrian Dater was on with Vic & Gary, discussing this, and he also wrote about it in the DP:


I didn’t want to write this kind of thing. God, if there’s one thing I hate, it’s the kneejerk, moralistic, holier-than-thou, reactionary scold of a sports column right after something terrible happens to a sports figure away from the arena. It’s cheap, it’s too easy and 99.999999 percent of the time, the columnist on his/her high horse doesn’t give a bleep about that sports figure or what happened. Doubly awful is the reactionary scold of a column bathed in false, weepy, violin-string manipulative pathos.
And they are always the kinds of columns that win some kind of worthless journalism award too.

So forgive me. But the people around the game of hockey, and this includes the media too probably, need to come to together in some way to try to figure out how to put a stop to a certain class of player from wanting to do harm to themselves when their playing days are either numbered or over. Dramatic sounding? A little moralistic and preachy? Maybe.

rest of article - http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2011/09/01/nhl-and-its-troubled-fighters-denial-no-longer-an-option/7953/

[pnbronco]

Thanks Carol for posting the article. It's very eye opening and I hope the NHL can see it for what it is. This whole thing makes me really sad.

[Denver Native (Carol)]

Thanks Carol for posting the article. It's very eye opening and I hope the NHL can see it for what it is. This whole thing makes me really sad.

You would only hope that the NHL would do something about this - but, fighting is a major part of hockey, and if there are those that are on a hockey team for that purpose only - can't see the NHL changing anything. It has been stated that many hockey fans love the fighting, more than any other aspect of the game.

[pnbronco]

You would only hope that the NHL would do something about this - but, fighting is a major part of hockey, and if there are those that are on a hockey team for that purpose only - can't see the NHL changing anything. It has been stated that many hockey fans love the fighting, more than any other aspect of the game.

I know and it's not even that I want them to stop the fighting. It's just that it broke my heart to read that Chris Simons (sp) didn't even feel a part of the team in the final games. That just feels so wrong to me.

What I heard is that Lappy lied about how far he recovery so he could play in the finals in Philly, it just means so much to these guys. Which is why he couldn't play at all last year.

What I would hope is that people that have gone through the severe depression come forward. That the NHL makes the players aware that this is something that can happen and that counselling is available. Also find a way to stress that there be no shame in it, that's why I would hope past players start to open up. In my life the more I have become aware of certain things the better chance I've had of making better choices esp when I'm in a bad place.

I know they are doing research on football players and how it can tie to depression with the blows to the head. I hope this info is shared with all area of sports and maybe use that info to work on better equipment.

[Buff]

Hard to not wonder about the correlation between head injuries and depression given all the premature hockey/football deaths.

[MileHighCrew]

Hockey players are kicking off faster than professional wrestlers, it has been a strange summer. RIP

[Denver Native (Carol)]

TORONTO — Professional athletes need more help to deal with the potentially lasting physical and psychological trauma that can be suffered while playing the game, say advocates from the hockey and medical worlds in the wake of the death of Wade Belak — the third NHL enforcer to die in the past four months.

“There needs to be some recognition as to why this is happening, what is causing this to transpire, and some type of evaluation done in order to understand its cause,” said Keith Primeau, a former captain of the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers, from his home in New Jersey.

“There’s something here that is not right and it needs to be addressed,” he said Thursday, a day after Belak was found dead in a high-end Toronto hotel room.

much more - full article - http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Belak+death+spurs+calls+help+injured+athletes/5342176/story.html

[Denver Native (Carol)]

from article:


NHL commissioner Gary Bettman​ and Don Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players Association, issued a joint statement Thursday saying that while each case is unique, the "tragic events cannot be ignored."

"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," the statement said. "We want individuals to feel comfortable seeking help when they need help."

full article - http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_18808689

[OrangeHoof]

Sounds like one of those Hercules Poirot mysteries...

"They're killing all the hockey enforcers"