LIFE…

It has been 12 years, but I still remember. At that point in time my Hockey knowledge was due to my childhood friend -  Ryan Ward. The countless days that we spent in his basement playing Computer games, Video games, and modified games of Dodge-ball are some of the cherished times in my memory. While, at that time, I had no knowledge of the player and finer points of the game of the NHL, Ryan was the Stat loving, Card collecting type who was more than happy to try to keep me up-to-date.

Some days I would have makeshift Goalie pads strapped on pretending to be Chris Osgood (more often Patrick Roy) trying to stop shots as Ryan “practiced.” Other days we would play through an entire Red Wings season on Super Nintendo (as time passed we switched to the Playstation) with Penalties turned on (which didn’t make sense to me at the time). No matter what we did… Ryan made sure that Hockey came in at some point.

So it is no surprise to me that I remember the fateful day when the powerful Defense-man for the Red Wings (along with two others) was involved in a terrible accident after helping win the Stanley Cup.

According to Ryan, this Defense-man was one of the toughest guys in Hockey. He was a Monster of a Russian who would rather run you over as opposed to skate around you. Vladimir Konstantinov was not a guy you wanted to have any part of, he was larger than life, and the equivalent to an ancient Gladiator – he was the Vladinator.

This is a sad video about that particular section of my childhood memory. Sobering to think how quickly things can change for those who appear to be invincible. One day on the top of his game and the next never the same.