An end for Ivanans(?), and the dangers of concussions from fighting.

Raitis Ivanans of the Calgary Flames

Tying into some of my earlier thoughts on the mental and emotional effect on hockey players that concussions cause and exacerbate, I would like to delve a little further into that subject with a particular case that is very current but seems to have drawn little to no attention. The case regards of one of my favorite NHL enforcers, Calgary Flames forward, Raitis Ivanans.

Fighting in hockey. I have seen the pros and cons of it for many years, but I have always considered myself "Pro-Fighting" when it comes to fisticuffs being allowed in the game. I agree with the moniker; "Let the players police the game and themselves". Fighting holds would-be cheap-shot artists accountable for their actions. If you are going to deliver an elbow to the head, or decide to be an idiot and go for a knee-to-knee hit on an opposing player, then you SHOULD have to receive your comeuppance and pay a price for your actions. Hockey can quite often be a game of karma; what goes around comes around. And oftentimes, it does not always seem that time in the penalty-box or a temporary suspension without pay can make up for an underhanded act performed on a player that could forever be a detriment to both their career and their livelihood.

Raitis Ivanans, while with the Los Angeles Kings,
delivering a punch to Aaron Johnson of Calgary

There is the much argued and much maligned fighting instigator-rule. Ennacted in 1992, the rule used to dissuade fighting gives the player who starts the fight an additional 2-minute penalty for instigating, thus potentially putting his team shorthanded.  If the instigator-rule were to be abolished it would ensure that a player, likely a team's enforcer, could exact retribution on the opposing player who committed an offense without the fear of putting his team at a disadvantage for his actions. The guilty party would receive what is coming to him and would likely refrain from committing any further offenses. This would mean that players like Matt Cooke, Patrick Kaleta, Jarkko Ruutu, Sean Avery and Steve Downie, all of whom are widely considered "dirty" players would be held accountable for their actions. Knowing that they would have to tangle with the likes of imposing giants such as George Parros, John Scott, Jody Shelley, Brian McGrattan and Raitis Ivanans would act as a major deterrent for these "dirty" players when having to pay the price for their actions. And in theory, the game would be much "cleaner" and there would be far less instances of long-term and/or career-threatening injuries taking place due to one player intending to do harm to another. Less hits from behind, less overzealous stickwork, less instances intended bodily harm. The players police themselves and keep anyone from getting badly hurt by a cheapshot. Fighting serves a necessary purpose.

I have long agreed with that philosophy, and I know that the players in the game who are inclined to drop the gloves realize the risk involved. They are grown men, they are "big boys", and they know that there is always a chance of serious injury. But when that serious injury actually takes place, and that player not only misses playing time but is also out of work on a long-term basis and has ongoing major health-issues after the initial injury, the question that has to be asked is "was it really worth it?". Was it worth it to go toe-to-toe in order to avenge a violation of the sacred "code of conduct" in a hockey game? So a agitator slashed one of our finesse players - is the act of retribution worth the same price as a concussion that may prevent a player from ever playing the game again? When I look at Raitis Ivanans of the Calgary Flames, I do not know if I can truly justify fighting anymore, at least not to myself.

Strong arms of Raitis Ivanans

Raitis Ivanans is a giant and one of the fiercest and most intimidating enforcers there is. The most recent statistics that I saw on him listed him at 6'4" and weighing 240lbs. He has trimmed down a bit if that is the case, for I remember early in his career he weighed in at 265lbs., and was the heaviest player in the NHL; even heavier than the largest player in the League, Zdeno Chara. Ivanans has arms the size of Redwood tree trunks that look as if he could crush someone's skull with a single squeeze. The sight of him alone would be a major deterrent for most to stay away from doing harm to any one of his teammates. Ivanans is also one of the very few players to ever make it the NHL from the small country of Latvia.

After going undrafted, Ivanans was signed by the Montreal Canadiens where he played but 4-games, perhaps largely due to an injury during the 2005-06 season. In Raitis' very first NHL game, he fought fellow giant Zdeno Chara while Chara was still playing for the Ottawa Senators, and sustained a broken orbital bone after Chara threw a late punch once Ivanans was down. That summer, Ivanans would sign on with the Los Angeles Kings where he has played the bulk of his career. In all, Raitis Ivanans played four full seasons with the Kings, appearing in over 270-games while recording well over 500-penalty-minutes. Ivanans garnered (though it would not be that difficult for him to do so, due to size alone) a reputation as one of the most feared enforcers in the NHL.

Ivanans fighting Steve MacIntyre.
This is the fight that gave him
a severe concussion.

In the summer of 2010, Ivanans would leave Los Angeles for the Western Conference rival Calgary Flames, after signing a new 2-year contract. To this day, Ivanans has only played one single game as a Flame. I remember watching that very game and have not forgotten it. My wife and I were on honeymoon in Montreal in early October 2010, right at the start of hockey season. After a day of sightseeing, we returned to the hotel and I put a hockey game on the television. The game happened to be another "Battle of Alberta", as provincial rivals the Edmonton Oilers and Ivanans' Calgary Flames were playing each other. In the third-period, Ivanans squared-off with the Oilers' giant, Steve MacIntyre, who is listed even somewhat larger than Ivanans, at 6'5" and 250lbs. I was actually quite excited to see these two heavyweights drop the gloves. That was until the fight got underway. MacIntyre certainly got the better of the fight by landing about seven straight shots to the left-side Ivanans' face, while Raitis got only a few shots in. Seven hard shots to the face may have done a fair amount of damage in and of themselves, but it was the eighth punch that was the most damaging and most horrific to see. When MacIntyre caught him with that eighth and final haymaker, Ivanans slumped to the ice immediately. The first thought through my mind was, "Oh no, this is bad. He is in trouble". I think that everyone watching the game realized it as well, and the announcers duly noted it too, as medical training personnel hurried to assist Ivanans on the ice. Ivanans was practically knocked cold and badly concussed.

That was the last game that Ivanans has played in the NHL, as he has been out for over a year making efforts to recover from a debilitating concussion which was a direct result of the fight with MacIntyre. At 32-years of age, Ivanans isn't getting any younger, and he hasn't played for more than half of his 2-year contract with the Flames which is scheduled to run out at the end of this season. I can only imagine the large amount of frustration and stress that a longterm injury such as this must be putting on Ivanans. Recovering from a concussion is a lengthy process that has no definitive end of recovery time. There are good days and bad days of the symptoms involved (i.e. sensitivity to light, depression, irritability, headaches, etc.), not to mention the sense of not being able to work and competing with your teammates. It is my fear that Ivanans could never fully return from this injury in being the same player that he once was, and even a worse fear should he fall into the same struggles that afflicted fellow tough-guys Derek Boogaard, Wade Belak and Rick Rypien.

Raitis Ivanans

However, there is some very bright news which came about just recently on 10/20, as it was announced that Calgary had assigned Ivanans to their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Heat. Even better was the fact that Ivanans was able to play in his first hockey in over a year and already has a couple of games under his belt with the Heat, after a long, long recovery from his concussion. Regardless of this excellent news, who is to say that Ivanans' playing career and life will ever truly be the same, and whether or not he will ever make it back into the NHL. One concussion, especially a serious one, usually makes a player more prone to additional concussions down the road. And not being a skilled player makes Ivanans' role with a hockey club extremely limited. It is inspiring to see that Ivanans is moving forward and returning to the game, but has the concussion gotten the better of him and has it already made a lasting imprint and done its damage? For Raitis Ivanans sake, it is my sincere hope that with all of the recent attention to concussions and the emotional and mental strain that they can cause, that he will have all of the assistance and support he needs in returning to hockey permanently.

The tragedy of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

I haven't blogged in a while, and I wanted this to be my first entry now that I am writing again. It took me quite a while to gather my thoughts and to find a way to make a personal response regarding the horrible tragedy of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash that took place on September 7th, 2011. Over a month later and having had ample time to reflect, I think I can now put my thoughts into the most appropriate words for understanding the gravity of situation and its impact on hockey and on myself.

Brad McCrimmon

The crash claimed the lives of the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team.  Nine members of the team I had once watched play in the NHL and had collected their hockey cards over the years; a few of whom since my boyhood. Coach Brad McCrimmon, assistant coaches Alexander Karpovtsev and Igor Korolev had been players that I had grown up watching when they starred in the NHL. At 9-years of age, I fondly remember Brad McCrimmon being instrumental for the 1989 Calgary Flames when they won their first and only Stanley Cup. I have McCrimmon's rookie card in a plastic sleeve set aside in a special box with many of my other cards that I treasure. I even remember seeing him play in person towards the end of his career with the Hartford Whalers during a game against the Buffalo Sabres in the old Memorial Auditorium.

Alexander Karpovtsev

Alexander Karpotsev was always one of my most favorite defensemen. He was openly criticized for laziness and being a soft player by some, who also acknowledged his immense talent when he put the effort in. I cannot help but wonder how some of Karpovtsev's most ardent critics must feel, what thoughts went through their minds when they learned that he had perished in this plane crash. I do not intend to sound morbid by posing this question. Rather, I am highly sympathetic. I would not know how to cope with openly criticizing someone and then learning that they had lost their life in such a horrific accident. I think of Karpovtsev in a much more positive light, though. I can still recall watching on television as Karpovtsev raised the Stanley Cup above his head in 1994 with the New York Rangers. He was a healthy-scratch that night and lifted the Cup over his held while wearing a shirt and tie and screaming a triumphant victory cry. Karpovtsev was one of the last Rangers to lift the Cup on the ice that night before the team went to celebrate inside the locker room. But he became one of the first four Russians ever to have his name enscribed on the Stanley Cup, along with teammates Sergei Zubov, Sergei Nemchinov and Alexei Kovalev.

Igor Korolev

Igor Korolev played in nearly 800 NHL games beginning in the early 1990s and then into the 2000s. I remember that when Korolev first broke into the NHL with the St. Louis Blues in 1992, he was part of the short-lived "Moscow Express Line" with teammates Vitali Karamnov and Vitali Prokhorov. Korolev would have much more longevity in the league than his two counterparts, moving on to play with the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks for many more years following his days in St. Louis. But what impressed me most about Igor Korolev was the way he was portrayed in Dave King's 2007 book "King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League". King documents his time as head coach of the Metallurg Magnitogorsk hockey club in the Russian Super League. The book discussed King's adjustments to life and coaching hockey in Russia, as he became the first Canadian coach to do so. Korolev, one of King's players for Magnitogorsk that year, was one of the few players on the team who had played in the NHL before and could also speak English. Reading the book, King talks in such high regard of Igor Korolev for how hard he worked on the ice during games, how much of a leader and inspiration he was to the younger players on the squad, and how integral a part he was for the success of the team. I was always impressed by Igor Korolev after reading that book.

Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, Karel Rachunek, Alexander Vasyunov and Josef Vasicek were all players whom I had seen play throughout the years as well. I respect all of them for what they were able to accomplish as players. Perhaps I still cannot fully comprehend the loss of so many players that I had watched and admired who were taken from the world in an instant. It is too difficult to fathom and to grasp, though I am trying.

I also believe that I was touched in ways by this tragedy that others were not and could not fully understand unless they were in my shoes. Many, many more people were impacted on a far deeper level than I, and I am certainly not attempting to say my grief is greater than others or to make some type of comparision. But I think that my experience with this tragedy is unique in many ways.

I have traveled somewhat extensively in Russia. I have visited the country on five separate occasions. I have been in the cities of Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Ulyanovsk, Samara and Dimitrovgrad. I have taken flights on numerous occasions and made connections in the Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and Samara airports. Samara's airport is highly outdated, especially on arrival. You land in the middle of an open runway and gather your luggage in an old dilapidated "barn", for lack of a better word. I have studied the Russian language and can speak it fairly well, though I am getting rusty. I have known and have been very close with many Russians and have numerous Russian friends. I think that maybe I have an insight into how the Russian people may have felt when this tragedy took place.

Yury Urychev

During the weeks surrounding Christmas 2010 and New Year's 2011, I had the rare privilege of being able to work the World Junior Hockey Championships of 2011 when they came to Buffalo, New York. I worked 10 of the games that were hosted at Dwyer Arena at Niagara University. During that time I befriended members of the Russian contigent and Team Russia, some of whom I still remain in touch with. Team Russia was one of the four teams that were hosted at Dwyer Arena. I was in their locker room, I watched their practices and saw all of their games that were hosted at our arena. Team Russia would win the Gold Medal of the tournament by defeating Team Canada in the stunning Gold Medal game in Downtown Buffalo. Yuri Urychev and Daniil Sobchenko were both members of the Yaroslavl hockey club who I had seen play and practice during this tournament. The friends whom I had met during the 2011 World Juniors from the Russian contigent were all heartbroken and devasted by the loss of these two young men. Day after day following the plane crash, I read their posts on Facebook and saw how they grieved. I sent consoling messages to them, with the hope that at the very least they would know that the loss that they were experiencing was recognized and that they were being thought of during their time of grief.

Alexander Galimov

In the brief time following the plane crash, I prayed daily that Alexander Galimov, originally the lone surviving member of the Yaroslavl hockey club, would live and be able to recover from his horrific injuries. He was the one ray of hope that at least one member of the team would live on. That at least one player could survive would provide consolation to all of the grief-stricken hearts. But that was not to be, as Galimov would eventually succumb to the burns he sustained in the crash on September 12th. Perhaps comfort can be taken in knowing that Galimov would no longer be suffering from the excruciating pain of injuries such as these and he would not need to face that endless road ahead of trying to recover. He is at peace now with the rest of his teammates.

By putting my thoughts together here, I will move forward from this tragedy and find my own closure with it. May all the members of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl rest in peace. They will never be forgotten and they will continue to live on in the hearts of the people who knew them personally as well as those that had the honor of seeing them play.