One Fan's Take: Mourning a Tragedy, Grieving for an Individual

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 7, 2011 8:36 PM CDT in Opinion

Not long after the news of the deadly crash which destroyed an entire hockey team today, the names of the individuals who made up the team started coming out. As I went over the names, the faces of those I recognized jumped into my head one by one. Out of more than 40 people who tragically lost their lives in that crash, Karlis Skrastins, Josef Vasicek, Pavol Demitra, Brad McCrimmon, and Ruslan Salei were the ones who had faces I could put to their names. That's what my mind immediately did, too; it put faces to all of those names.

As I tried to process what I knew, details emerged and added to the deluge. Not helping in the matter was the usually-helpful Twitter. The same place where you can get lightning-fast updates and opinions is also by its nature a place where you can get bad reports and contradictory updates at the same speed. What I knew ten minutes after hearing the news of the crash was that Ruslan Salei was a member of the team involved in the crash. What I experienced in the hours that followed was a hailstorm of different confirmations as to whether he was indeed on the flight or whether he was already in his home country of Belarus awaiting his team for their season opener.

I still can't process the scope of total human loss that happened today. I'm not going to even try. It would be intellectually dishonest of me to say that I have the capacity to adequately complete such a task. With that comes a certain amount of guilt of its own. How can I grieve this tragedy more than the two suicide bombings which killed 34 and injured 143 today? If I can do that, how can I mourn the loss of any one individual person over the losses suffered by the entire human race on any given day? Moreso, how could I do this despite not personally knowing a single one of these people?

Trying to grasp the scope of human suffering is a good way to end up at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. You'd be just as successful trying to experience the same joy, elation, passion, and love felt by every person on any given day. Perhaps you're a more highly-evolved person than I am, but I simply lack the capacity.

Rather than tilting at windmills and trying to pull off the impossible in some vain attempt to say I'm any better a person than anybody else, I came to the conclusion today that perhaps I need to grasp my own limits.

Ruslan Salei's death today hit me on a personal level simply because Ruslan Salei is closer to my monkeysphere.

For those too lazy to read another 3,600-word article, let me summarize for you:

The Monkeysphere is the group of people who each of us, using our monkeyish brains, are able to conceptualize as people.

Those who exist outside that core group of a few dozen people are not people to us. They're sort of one-dimensional bit characters.

Remember the first time, as a kid, you met one of your school teachers outside the classroom? Maybe you saw old Miss Puckerson at Taco Bell eating refried beans through a straw, or saw your principal walking out of a dildo shop. Do you remember that surreal feeling you had when you saw these people actually had lives outside the classroom?

I mean, they're not people. They're teachers.

Now, it's more than a few dozen. Current going wisdom is that the number is about 230 people who all exist somewhere in that sphere. Naturally, the ones closer to the center are the ones that elicit more caring.

In the wake of tragedy and in the realm of social media, this is a hard concept with which to wrestle. I know that if I think about it, I can be sad for each individual who lost his or her life today. I can spend my time learning about these people, their lives, their families, their hopes, their plans, and their pasts. However, I know doing that is going to move them no closer to my monkeysphere than they started. Now, where I do disagree with the article linked above is in its claim that I apparently lack the capacity to care at all. That's not true. I am very sorry for the loss of these people and for the senseless loss of people everywhere, even if I don't know them.

So why is Ruslan Salei anywhere near my monkeysphere? Perhaps it's as simple as the fact that he played for the Red Wings. As I root for that team, I'm bound to simply like their players more than I like other hockey players. That alone has an impact. Was Ruslan Salei any more worthy as a person than anybody else? Objectively, I have no idea. To boil it down, I didn't know Ruslan Salei very well as a person. To tell the truth, my sports fandom is not built on objectivity. My sports fandom is built on subjective measures and the ability to embrace the emotion of the game. I was once accused of living vicariously through my team. While the bitter reject on the back end of the poison pen which flung that barb was trying to be hurtful with that statement, there's definitely a grain of truth to it. If there wasn't some form of vicarious enjoyment to be had, then what am I left with? Stoic curiosity? I suppose that's possible, perhaps even likely, but it's not what I am as a fan.

But, if it's a case of former association with the Red Wings, why do I mourn the loss of Brad McCrimmon as part of the tragedy while grieving the loss of Ruslan Salei as something that touched me? I certainly wasn't any nicer to Salei than I was to McCrimmon in things that I've written. I didn't say I was sad to see either of them leave Detroit in the offseason.

Part of it certainly has to do Salei being a player and McCrimmon a coach. The rest, I think, is the offshoot of following these players and how much we do live vicariously through the players. It also has to do with how people view social relationships. After all, I shared life experiences with Salei.

Scoff if you must. I know full well and good that Ruslan Salei didn't know me from Adam and didn't give a crap for my life. The social experience of people doesn't require that both of them recognize a shared experience to have one though (otherwise, what's the point of ever watching any television show or movie?) As Wings fans learned that Salei's wife was expecting their 2nd daughter last season, it wasn't just a morsel of information to chew up. More than that, it was a detail.

If it helps, think of people outside of your monkeysphere as being a bunch of stick-figures drawn in your mind. You recognize that each of them is an individual, but until you get those details, separating one from any other is impossible. As more details come in, the more he is separated from the faceless mass and the more he becomes, as the Cracked article hints, a person.

As my emotional states rose and fell with the Wings through the season, those details helped shape the context of understanding. When Salei's play suffered as the birth of his daughter neared, that detail helped a great deal to put what was happening in context. Funny enough, the subjective nature of my fandom was helped out incredibly by knowing these objective factors. It's easier to give a guy a break for a string of bad games when you know his mind is elsewhere.

Having a picture of Salei as a person, even if it wasn't a wholly filled-in portrait of him is what separated him from the rest in the wake of today's tragedy. In my mind, I know that everybody who lost his life has a story and is a person; but in my heart I felt the loss of Salei, the one I knew, even if I didn't really know him at all.

I will continue to mourn for the loss of everybody on that plane today and to hope for the survival of the two men in critical condition. At the same time, I'll be working through the grief of losing Ruslan Salei. That's who I am as a fan and that's who I am as a person.

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Comments

This is Marshall all over again

its too sad to even describe. From Boogard, to the Vancouver Riots, to Rypien and Belak, to this. We hope this is it but can we really be sure/surprised if it isn’t ?

J✈E✈T✈S✈ JETS! ✈JETS! ✈JETS!

by SLAUGHTERHOUSE on Sep 7, 2011 8:41 PM CDT reply actions

.

by meetyourmako on Sep 9, 2011 10:02 PM CDT up reply actions

Excellent

There was a lot of talk today about how we mourn as a family of hockey fans, and we as a group need to come together and help each other get through what has been a truly awful summer.

However, the idea that we should not feel something more for the players and coaches who played on the teams we root for is a little absurd to me.

There are tragedies that occur every single day around the world, and for us as a collective to try and “feel” for those affected would cause a significant spike in alcohol sales and psychology degrees. It’s important for each of us as individuals to mourn and grieve in our own ways, and no one person is right or wrong in how they choose to process this event and remember those who lost their lives (unless you make a tasteless joke, in which case you should burn in hell).

I absolutely love this post, JJ. Well done.

Winging It In Motown

by Amerinadian on Sep 7, 2011 8:43 PM CDT reply actions

Thank you

That was hard to put into words. I don’t think I’m an uncaring person, but I can’t apologize for feeling more strongly about some people than for others, even if the reasons are incredibly tentative and not wholly based on impossible objective considerations.

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 7, 2011 8:48 PM CDT up reply actions

Great post JJ.

The tragic death of Salei didn’t hit me quite as hard as losing Tom Kowalski last week. But now u think I know why. Reading articles from killer for years, put him in my monkeysphere. That said, this has been a terrible summer for all of us in the hockey community. Here’s to hoping that start of the season will help all of us move past such disturbing offseason.

by sparto on Sep 7, 2011 8:48 PM CDT reply actions

The media plays a huge role

Most sports figures have reporters following them around on a constant basis, so we get that feeling like we know them personally, even if we’ve never met in real life. It humanizes them to a point, and they’re not just some guys that fling a piece of vulcanized rubber at each other. The first thing I thought of when I saw Salei’s name was he just had a kid last season. You immediately feel bad thinking of stuff like that.

Back off man, I'm a scientist

SB Nation Detroit --SB Nation's regional hub for all your Detroit sporting needs
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by Ryan Weiss on Sep 7, 2011 9:04 PM CDT reply actions 5 recs

That was my first thought as well.

That’s when the sadness hit me…The fact that he just had a little girl in March. I wept a little over it. His poor family and that little girl. My heart goes out to all of them, especially that little girl.

by chez_bazaldo on Sep 8, 2011 1:39 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Basically the linesman just needs to DROP THE DAMN PUCK ALREADY

so we can get past “Offseason 2011: A Pucking Lousy Four Months”

Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! --George Carlin

by J_Stone on Sep 7, 2011 9:18 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs

Great post. Rec’d

Hell on Ice/In Lou We Trust/Twitter
That's it. I'm sending you to El Paso to live with your real parents.

by Kevin Sellathamby on Sep 7, 2011 9:33 PM CDT reply actions

Really good piece on an elusive subject. I think I can guess the bitter reject, too.

Don't take life so serious, son -- it ain't nohow permanent.

by Sunday on Sep 7, 2011 9:37 PM CDT reply actions

Similar in scope

I’ve had thoughts in large crowds, say at JLA, where I’m sitting there and looking around. There are 20,000 people here. 20,000. It’s such an insignificant number to the nearing 7 billion total, yet even if I devoted my life to knowing as much as I possibly could about every person there, I would fail miserably. I wouldn’t be able to put a face on the vast majority of them and would rattle of common names when asked who they were, hoping to stumble into the right answer.

Shift focus to Ruslan. On a personal level, I clearly don’t know anything about him. Does he like sushi? Wheel of Fortune? Midget fetish porn? A strong maybe for all of them. But because he was part of an organization that I love, he stands out of the faceless crowd. He was only with us for one season and I care more about him than the average man on the street. However I don’t mourn Ruslan for me,I mourn him for the ones that did know him; for his wife and children, his parents and siblings, his teammates former and current.

I hate Jonathon Ericsson.

by Brion on Sep 7, 2011 9:39 PM CDT reply actions 9 recs

However I don’t mourn Ruslan for me,I mourn him for the ones that did know him; for his wife and children, his parents and siblings, his teammates former and current.

Very well-said.

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 7, 2011 9:46 PM CDT up reply actions

Thanks J.J.

For putting into words what I’ve been struggling to verbalize all day. When I first saw the report I was of course sad and felt horrible for all the players and their families, but when I saw Rusty’s name, I admit I cried. I tried to justify why I felt so much worse when I saw his name. I thought of his wife and daughters. To me he wasn’t just a stick figure on the periphery of my world. He was a character I (felt) I knew because of my interaction with hockey. I feel like we went through the birth of his second daughter together… the ups and downs. His goal in the playoffs when interviewed in the intermission and he said “oh now you want to talk to me” That was part of who he was. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him and his family all day. It helps to know that I’m not the only one who connects in this way.

by SlapshotGoal on Sep 7, 2011 9:40 PM CDT reply actions

Phenomenally well-written article

Amazing job of explaining something all of us felt and most of us didn’t understand. This was without a doubt the best piece I’ve ever read dealing with the issue of mourning as a fan. Well done, and RIP Rusty.

by larryjam on Sep 7, 2011 9:45 PM CDT reply actions

I must have missed something during the conversation today...

But I figured this was common knowledge. Was someone actually ripping on hockey fans for being sad about hockey players dying? We all reflect more on what happens to those we feel closer to.

Random person gets cancer? Sad, but it happens. My brother-in-law’s mom gets treated for breast cancer? I care very much.

It’s why I am avoiding as much of the 9-11 coverage as I can. It was a horrible tragedy, of course, but it didn’t touch me personally because I didn’t live there, didn’t lose anyone in the attacks, and it feels as though the barrage of coverage is trying to FORCE me to care, and I don’t want to be pushed to feel an emotion that seems dishonest to me because I wasn’t touched. It seems disrespectful.

A tragedy of this magnitude is too hard to encompass without reducing the size of it, and the easiest way is to focus on an individual, and if you don’t know an individual very well you might as well be inventing a cartoon.

It is freaking impossible to mourn everyone in a tragedy equally. Individuals feel stronger for those they feel closer to, and everyone who dies gets “their share” of sorrow. I only hope that those left without fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and friends get enough support from their own monkeysphere to cope with the pain that will fade with time but never go away.

Random nonsense at @Baroque97

"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

by Baroque on Sep 7, 2011 9:45 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs

Thank You!

I am so glad that you wrote this wonderful article. It helps me not feel so weird about grieving the loss of Rusty. When I seen Salei’s name on the list of the perished I immediately thought of baby Ava. I have an 8 month old daughter, and I could never imagine having her grow up without her daddy.

I have been crying on and off since I found out Rusty had been confirmed dead, and crying now as I write this. Friends, family and neighbors don’t get it, even some hockey fans think I have lost my marbles crying and grieving over a man that I have never met before, and I am so relieved to know that I’m not the only one doing so. I know my hurt is no where near comparable to what the families of these wonderful men are going through. I grieve for them most of all, for all the children now facing a life of “knowing” their fathers through pictures and video’s. I grieve for the mothers and fathers who have just lost their sons, and for the wives who no longer have their gentle giants to curl up next to at night.

I grieve Salei as if he were family, because in a sense he was family. Hockey isn’t just a sport, Hockey is a family, it’s a relationship like none other, and I see nothing wrong in grieving the loss for those we felt close to. I could never imagine losing any of my players from Detroit. I love them all equally, whether they are current players, past players or even future players. The Detroit Red Wings is my team, and they are my family and I will grieve them no differently. Once a Red Wing….Always a Red Wing. Hockey is life, Hockey is love, and Hockey is family.

R.I.P Ruslan Salei. And my deepest condolences to his wife and his children. He was a wonderful man, and was loved by many, he will be missed and remembered always.

by T.S. on Sep 7, 2011 9:48 PM CDT reply actions 5 recs

Thank you, J.J.

For pretty much putting into words what I’ve been feeling all day.

R.I.P. Rusty, Beast, Stefan, and R.I.P. Lokomotiv. This offseason has been filled with loss.

Used to be RWCaptain19
@TheNorm41

by TheNorm41 on Sep 7, 2011 10:02 PM CDT reply actions

So much emotion

You’ve been given a gift that allows you to put into words what so many are feeling. I pray that God gives you peace. May He also care for all the families affected by this day of tragedy.

by InMDmissingtheD on Sep 7, 2011 10:19 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

Thanks J.J.

Thank you for making not feeling alone in wondering why I have been so affected all day by the death of one among many…

RIP Rusty, Beast, Stefan and Lokomotiv…and prayers to all your families and friends in this time of great sorrow.

PS minor correction Rusty had 2nd daughter last season, but 3rd child cuz he also has a son, right?

by wingsluver4ever on Sep 7, 2011 10:27 PM CDT reply actions

Thanks for that catch

Updated for 2nd daughter.

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 7, 2011 10:33 PM CDT up reply actions

I felt the same way when I saw this.

I could not figure out why I felt so moved by the death of someone with whom I had no social contact. I decided that it had to be how I pictured him as a player and a person and you just explained that to me. Thanks for this.

Living in Chicago is great... apart from the Blackhawks fans.

by Cornelious on Sep 7, 2011 10:54 PM CDT reply actions

I know the feeling

McCrimmon was in my monkeysphere so to speak. In the early 90s, the Red Wings’ wives gave birth at the hospital where my mom worked. She met the players, wives, kids, etc. She really like McCrimmon as we was especially gracious with all the attention given to Wings players. At the time, I was 19 and had moved to Florida by myself. I was alone and looking forward to school in the fall. Then I get a card from my mom. In it was an autographed photo from McCrimmon basically telling me good luck, stick with it and call home collect…ALWAYS!
From that day forward, I felt a connection, though tenuous with this player. I was excited when he became a coach on the Wings. Today, I was sick. I felt for his family, I felt for my mom who is going to cry for his kids and wife. I also felt for all those others…training day in and day out to be in the best physical shape of their lives, to never speak again, play again, hug again. All the lives touched.
Life is just wrong sometimes. Planes go down, a soldier gets hit by friendly fire…we go on. It is that what makes us sad that is also the greatest gift. They left a mark inside of us which is great but now we know there can never be more given to us. Is it greed? Is it just human nature?
Thanks to all these men who laced it up for the most wonderful sport on earth. Thanks to their families who had to put up with road trips, early practices, you name. Our hearts and thoughts are with you. If I could bottle some of my strength and send it to one of the bereaved, I would do it tonight.
Alas, we will each deal with this in our own way but I will always think of Brad when I call my folks, even if it is not collect.

by Dirac on Sep 7, 2011 11:32 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

It sounds like my reaction was not uncommon.

When I heard the news first, I of course thought it was tragic. When I scrolled down and saw the list of names included McCrimmon…and Salei…I broke down, and cried.

Great post J.J…I respect you for having the courage to write freely and openly on such an emotionally sensitive subject. I think it all boils down to one thing: your connection to the person. Although we never knew Salei on a personal level, through the sport of hockey and watching/rooting for the Detroit Red WIngs last year we all felt a connection to each and every member of the organization, including Salei. The stronger the connection, the more you mourn the loss. You don’t have to know someone on a personal level to have that connection…and it’s pretty clear that sports fandom is one of those examples.

RIP Rusty, and Beast.

by tehGOALIE on Sep 7, 2011 11:32 PM CDT reply actions

J.J. Thanks a lot.

I myself used to live in Russia, and after I moved to the US, I became a Wings fan. Now, I was never a fan of Lokomotiv in Russia, but I loved hockey and was willing to watch any kind of crap they had on TV. Now, this year alone there have been a great deal of tragedies related to hockey, but none of them hits the point at home like this did. My deep condolences go out to all of the families involved in this tragedy, but for me personally it gives me a much, much bigger appreciation for living every day of my life in a country where I feel safe and secure.

I feel a terrible loss not as somebody who’s ever met these players or coaches or knew them personally, but as someone who used to live in Russia and I still shudder at the thought of all of the corruption behind the scenes.

J.J. Thanks a lot for your moving and emotional post, it brought tears to my eyes, just like when I saw the news after coming home from the supermarket and hearing this horrible news.

RIP Rusty, Beasy, Demitra, and the Lokomotiv.

by vr67 on Sep 7, 2011 11:37 PM CDT reply actions

You are a gifted wordsmith J.J.

Though I never felt any shame for caring more about the ones I knew more about. It did help me organize and rationalize my feelings to read this post. Excellent job.

RIP Lokomotiv

by BLOOD RED on Sep 8, 2011 12:02 AM CDT reply actions

Contingency?

RIP all who were on that plane!
But,I have to ask, does anyone know what contingency plans the KHL has in the event of a tragic thing like this?
And, does anyone know what contingency plans the NHL and the other major leagues have if god forbid a tragedy like this was to occur again?

by nighthawk55 on Sep 8, 2011 12:43 AM CDT reply actions

The KHL was talking about

Collecting two or three players from each of the other KHL teams so that Locomotiv could be competitive. The NHL has a similar plan, actually – kind of like a dispersal draft from the existing teams. Joe Yerdon posted on it on his blog. (I’ll track down the link later.)

It seems morbid to think about, but all organizations need plans in case of tragedy. Corporations even have plans regarding who can travel together or stay in the same hotel, based on how much knowledge they have of the corporate operations and how much overlap there is with other executives.

Random nonsense at @Baroque97

"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

by Baroque on Sep 8, 2011 4:45 AM CDT up reply actions

Beautiful

Words J.J. it was a good read on a day of horror. I’ve spent all day and all night just hoping Salei would pop up some where safe. It pains me at what his family is going through. I myself feel sorrow for all of the families involved. Yet Salei’s got me the most. I think you summed up the reasons why very well too. I’ll be playing Salei tonight NHL11 in dedication and remembrance.

R.I.P
The hockey gods are rollin’ 37 deeper now…

by chez_bazaldo on Sep 8, 2011 1:44 AM CDT reply actions

Excellent post, JJ.

I can’t imagine ever lecturing someone else on how they “should be” grieving. I am not impacted strongly by this crash, as some of you are, but there have been random deaths that for whatever reason struck me harder than they did for other people. You never know what will be a hook into your own heart and make you feel like crying for someone you weren’t close to.

Everyone feels different grief. The only “wrong way” to grieve is if you feel nothing at all.

Random nonsense at @Baroque97

"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

by Baroque on Sep 8, 2011 4:49 AM CDT reply actions

I just have two words

THANK YOU!!!

by zfan16 on Sep 8, 2011 8:26 AM CDT reply actions

I felt exactly the same way about Salei when this happened. I kept trying to figure out why I would feel more sorrow for him than McCrimmon since they were both a part of the Wings. I thought that maybe it was because Salei just had a daughter.

In the end, what I think made it feel worse was the fact that there was so much uncertainty about whether or not Salei was actually on the flight. The news of McCrimmon being on the flight came so quickly but there continued to be a silver lining of hope that Salei was still alive. It seemed to go back and forth all day with reports contradicting one another. I think we all had time to hope that he would be alive so that his three children wouldn’t be without a father. When it was finally confirmed, it felt like such a low blow since we had all gotten our hopes up. His death seemed to have stung the most.

The first report I read yesterday was on msn.com. The only thing it said was that there was a plane crash in Russia. I had only read the headline at that point which didn’t say anything about Hockey, a sports team, etc. But because it was a plane crash in Russia, my first thought was “what if Datsyuk was on that flight”. Seems so unfortunately ironic that it did end up being an entire NHL team since that’s where my mind went to first.

by Lauren H on Sep 8, 2011 9:56 AM CDT reply actions

I definitely think the uncertain status of Salei was a big factor in yesterday. Bouncing back and forth several times between hope and despair wasn’t an easy feeling. I can’t begin to imagine how anybody who felt closer to him must have felt if they had to go through the same.

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 8, 2011 10:03 AM CDT up reply actions

I wish it were under different circumstances, but this might be the best thing I’ve read all off-season.

Fear The Fin = Man goes into cage... Cage goes into salsa... Shark's in the salsa... Our shark.

by Mr. K. on Sep 8, 2011 5:13 PM CDT reply actions

Thank you

I wish it were that way too.

by J.J. from Kansas on Sep 8, 2011 6:00 PM CDT up reply actions

Ditto. Great stuff here JJ, and I don’t dish out compliments to Red Wings fans lightly.

Maybe
Jibblescribbits: C'mon over and waste some time

by Jibblescribbits on Sep 8, 2011 7:33 PM CDT up reply actions

Rec'd 100% my friend

Amazing post and extremely well written. Thank you for sharing. Don’t think for one second you’re alone in your thoughts, especially with fellow Hockeytown faithful. Couldn’t have said it better… First Class J.J.

Screw ESPNegative about anything hockey.

When it comes to Osgood, I agree with D-Mac 100%.. (http://youtu.be/_BJCxdkoIxc) I'm sure the same goes for Drapes. R.I.P. Grind Line!

by Let's JOE WINGS-BOLTS on Sep 8, 2011 11:02 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Great Job JJ

As soon as i read the story and seen Ruslan Salei his newborn popped into my head i even heard Ken and Mick (in my head) talking about him taking leave so he could be with his wife . That changed him as just a hockey player to a Dad and being a Dad you know just how much just being around your kids means to them .

They just out of the blue will say to you i love you dad it made me really sad thinking Rustys newborn will never get that chance or the chance to have any memory’s of time She spent with him . That is the thing i find hard to process she never will have the memory of him saying I Love You

Show me the CUP

by Mashman on Sep 9, 2011 4:52 AM CDT reply actions

Great article!

Thank you for writing this … like many of you, Ruslan Salei’s death hit me the hardest, although I did not personally know any of the deceased.

He was definitely in my monkeysphere (did not know that term/definition til today so thanks for that, too!) because I love the sense of humour he had and it was common knowledge that he seemed to be a very devoted husband and father. Those are all qualities I – as a female – love in men so maybe that’s why I was a fan of his, beyond his hockey skills. I also liked his style of play & the fact he was so proud of his home country. I know the same can be said of many other players but Rusty said things with such a comic flair & blunt honesty.

Also, I had read numerous mentions of him in the past referring to his character / how he was a fan favourite / funny guy to his teammates etc – all great qualities.

My understanding re: his children is that he & his wife have a daughter, Alexis, a son, Alexsandro, and then baby Ava. Obviously it is sickeningly sad to think of his wife & kids moving forward without him. May they all be supported by love & prayers the world over.

RIP, Ruslan. You will not be forgotten!

by Carina Bella on Sep 13, 2011 12:45 AM CDT reply actions