Remembering Rusty...

RIP Rusty. Heaven has a new defennder

I always grew up as a sports lover. In fact, sports’ broadcasting is what I want to get into in future. Hailing from India, football (or soccer, depends where you’re from) was always my main sport so to speak. I grew up as a forward, moving to goalkeeper in grade seven, which I consider, to this day, as the best decision I ever made in my short life so far.

Now, being a fan of soccer didn’t stop me from following other sports – baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby and motorsport. Yes, I was quite the sports junkie, but I’ll save that for another article. Growing up, in 2002 as I turned ten, I chanced upon EA Sports NHL 2002. Intrigued, I bought it, paying a hefty sum back then, which was money well spent in my opinion (that is if you can count the opinion of a ten year old.) Naturally, a sports game means pick our favourite team and I was still quite the rookie at hockey and hockey teams. I picked the Ducks, I don’t know why and to this day, I’m still a Ducks fan, always will be a Ducks fan.

Anyway, I’ve deflected enough away from the idea of penning down my thoughts here. That 2002 Ducks roster is something I still cherish almost a decade later. The players, Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin, Vitaly Vishnevsky, Oleg Tverdovsky, Jean-Sebastien Gigure and one Ruslan Salei were all name I grew up with as a rookie to the hockey world. What was added to the mix was this friend of mine, who randomly, just like how I did, began to follow the Buffalo Sabres and lo, a rivalry was formed. A rivalry between two ten year olds thousands of miles away from America.

Fast forward a decade and my passion for hockey has grown. I’ve even moved to Canada for college, a decision that brings me into the country that is hockey crazy! It’s like paradise. But, this piece is not about my joyous days in Paradise, it’s about another tragic event that occurred days after I reached Canada. I’m referring to the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash that is fast approaching the two month anniversary (November 7^th, 2011.) Amongst those players killed was one of my childhood favourites – Ruslan Salei. I was gutted, much like the hockey world was. Ruslan Salei gone in the blink of an eye. The ‘Paradise’ I was referring to, gone instantly. “Former Kings forward Pavol Demitra and former Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei were among 43 people killed when a plane carrying a Russian hockey league team crashed shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, Russian officials have confirmed.” This was the headline I saw in the afternoon of September 7^th. You could imagine what went through me as I saw this. Many of the players killed, I later discovered, were young and raring to give professional hockey a shot. “Nipped in the bud”, nothing else really describes this tragedy better. “Salei, 36, was selected ninth overall by the Ducks in the 1996 draft and played the first nine seasons of his NHL career in Anaheim. The Belarus native played with the Detroit Red Wings last year. Video footage from the site of the crash showed a disfigured and burning bulk of the plane cabin towering from the shallow waters of the Volga close to the shore. Rescue workers were seen cautiously approaching the still-burning wreckage by boat.”

"They were both special in their own way," Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said of Salei and head coach Brad McCrimmon, (who was also killed in the crash). "Rusty was a team player and played well for us." To be honest with you, I’m at a loss of words here and I really don’t want to drag this piece on. I’ll leave you with a video I found on YouTube which I feel will substantially summarize my thoughts and my feelings at this moment.

Salei finished his NHL career with 45 goals, 204 points and 1,065 penalty minutes in 917 regular-season games. He added 7 goals, 16 points and 52 penalty minutes in 62 playoff games, along with a plus-15 rating.

“Rest In Peace Rusty”

Image Credit: http://2.cdn.nhle.com/ducks/images/upload/gallery/2011/09/56396536_std.jpg
Quotes Credit: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=587852

Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FVQ70X4Sg

PS: Wade Belak, Derek Boogard and Rick Rypien featured in the tribute video were not killed in the accident, but tragically passed away in the summer of 2011. Rest In Peace.