NHL Tough Guy Tragedy: Todd Ewen Passes

Source: http://blues.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=779821&navid=DL|STL|home

It’s truly upsetting to report more sad stories involving retired NHL players, but Saturday we received another painful reminder of hockey’s inherent danger. Todd Ewen was reported dead at 49 of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. The St. Louis Blues — one of the four teams he played for, along with the Canadiens, Mighty Ducks, and Sharks — released a statement that you can read here.

With a nickname like “The Animal”, it is not a surprise that Todd Ewen was a ferocious enforcer. During the years he played in the NHL, from 1986 to 1997, Ewan amassed 150 fighting majors and 1911 penalty minutes. He helped Montreal win a Stanley Cup in 1993 with his fists more than his hands, so to speak: he finished the season with 11 fights and 14 points, and only played one postseason game.

It is tough to appreciate Ewen on his own when his situation seems so similar to others like him. Former Panthers Steve Montador and Wade Belak were found dead before they reached 40 years old. Rick Rypien and Derek Boogaard were found dead before either could turn 30. Bob Probert, with whom Ewan sparred often, passed away at 45. All of these men were known to fight in the NHL, all of them suffered multiple concussions, and all of them have shown some evidence of CTE or degenerative brain disease. The math is predictable and horrible.

Ewen’s is another tragedy among many that hockey fans, players, and officials all need to come to grips with. Fighting in the sport is poisonous to the athletes’ health, and there isn’t another way around that fact but to admit it. Helmet visors are a start for the NHL, and so are the new concussion spotters being used at all games this season. Hopefully both of those will help a league that is starting to distance itself more and more from fighting — there were only 391 fights last regular season in the NHL, compared to 801 in ’02-’03.

But these changes won’t do anything for players and retirees like Ewen, for whom the damage has already been done. Players’ brains are curdling inside their skulls whether they realize it or not, and that is not an acceptable exchange for a few years in the NHL. When Daniel Carcillo retired from the league four days ago, before Ewen even passed away, he stressed the call to action that the hockey community must heed:

"When guys are done with the game, the game shouldn’t be done with them. We sacrifice too much for that to be the status quo."

Ewen’s tragedy is another reminder that hockey is short and life is delicate. Hopefully I don’t have to share any more news like this.

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