Tuesday, October 14, 2008

RIP Alexei Cherepanov

I don't even really know what to say. A young man, a year younger than myself, died of a heart attack, playing the sport he loved.

I didn't know much about him, as a player or as a person, I just remember watching him get drafted in 2007, watching as team after team passed him by, until finally, the team with his idol, Jaromir Jagr, drafted him 17th. The irony that it was Jagr with him is not lost on me.

I've cried, I threw up, and I think it's finally out of my system. Is this going to be the end of the tragedies for hockey for now? I guess we can only pray that it is. Three promising young lives taken in the short course of a year are three too many.

RIP Alexei.