Wednesday, September 7, 2011

KHL Lokomotiv

I usually process what I'm feeling by writing about it. Unfortunately for that sketchy method of dealing, there's not really a crusade here to social-justify about--there is no real reason that this team died, it was basically a freak accident, there's nothing for me to try to trace back and feel righteous and indignant about, there's no charity I can donate to in order to feel like I helped, I don't think one exists for Prevention of Plane Crashes.

And yet in one fell swoop, more players have died in a matter of minutes than had died from slower, slowly crippling, deeply-rooted reasons all summer. That does not make Belak, Rypien, and Boogard's deaths less significant--it's just a shock. It's too many people, and too little there could have been done to predict or prevent it.

It would just be terrible, to wake up and find out that your whole team has died. What if you bought tickets for the upcoming season? What if you've got something one of those men signed? I'm trying to think if anything like this has ever happened--a single team, everyone, all at once. I'm sure there's not protocol for the occasion--do they redraft? Do they do an expansion draft? Does the team disappear?

It's a massive, massive void, created suddenly, without warning, and that hurts. It's just a lot of people.

My thoughts are with their friends and family, and with their fans, and with the whole KHL organization as they try to cope today. Maybe I jinxed it by saying it last time, but I really, really hope we can make it through the summer without any more tragedy striking. I am at the point where I am about ready to sequester every single player in a bomb shelter for the next three weeks. Don't think I won't do it.

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