Loss of man power

Alexei Cherapanov was supposed to be the next big thing, the future of what has been a tremendous youth movement by the New York Rangers. Cherapanov was supposed to be the future with young talent like Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal, Lauri Korpikoski, and Nigel Dawes.

He was supposed to be next...

Instead what Alexei Cherapanov was was laid to rest yesterday in Moscow, Russia to be buried by family, friends, fans, and teammates way too soon at 19 years old. That's right: nineteen years old...

Alexei Cherapanov died at age 19 while playing for the Avangard Omsk hockey club of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) on the bench. The initial cause of death was termed chronic ischemia-a medical condition that means that not enough blood was getting to Cherapanov's heart of vital organs. It would make sense to the symptoms of Cherapanov's sudden death in that he was simply a picture of health seconds before talking with linemate Jaromir Jagr and then in an instant he was white: a ghostly figure passed out on the bench.

What would transpire in the coming moments would be a sad comedy of how a life could have been saved and was not. First, amateur video taken of the game showed players and coaches gathering around the bench to carry off Cherapanov, and not a stretcher. Secondly, the ambulance scheduled to be at the Moscow arena where Omsk was playing was 15 minutes late to respond, meaning that there was actually no ambulance on site during the game which would be a direct correlation to the lack of a stretcher for Cherapanov when he collapsed on the bench. Finally, any medical staff that might have been in attendance did not have either a defibrillator that worked properly or had one that was on hand that might have helped revive the 19 year old prospect. All of these acts are deemed criminal as complete negligence by the KHL as well as member of the Russian Parliament who oversee the operations of the KHL.

The KHL with their multi-billion dollar owners and their willingness to shelve out millions of dollars to former NHL players such as Jagr and Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators that are tax-free and allows former Eastern European players to possibly get a final payday in the final stages of a career. They have also shelved out millions to their younger talent in Russia to keep them at home which was a source of concern involving Cherapanov and his rising talent. The KHL fancies itself as a suitable alternative to the NHL for its ability to pay for its talent and take care of its players financially, however maintains an Old Western mentality toward its conduct of players. In the case of Radulov, league officials knew that Radulov was still under contract with Nashville, yet did nothing to honor that by offering him a deal to play back home in Russia. They also did bad business with former Cup winning coach Bob Hartley when he was all but given the keys to coach the Omsk team, yet turned around and gave the head coaching position to Wayne Fleming, a Canadian Olympic assistant.

Despite all of the KHL's mismanagement in handling contracts, players under contracts, coaches, and now most importantly the lack of response to a player going into cardiac arrest, this really is not about the KHL and how they do business, or about millions of dollars, or about protecting their assets...this is truly a sad story of a young athlete, possibly Russia's future superstar right behind the names of Malkin and Ovechkin, the future of one the NHL's marquee franchises in the New York Rangers, the future of maybe the NHL's youth in general was not taken care of by anyone.

The sport of hockey in itself is a sport of speed: bigger, faster, stronger. Men skating around the ice at blistering speeds with bone crunching hits, hard slap shots and quick reflexes. It is truly the one sport of all the major sports where to see it live is to gain an appreciation of how fast the game really is. Make no mistake about it, the players are moving fast and their bodies are trying to keep up at heart pumping speeds. Current Toronto Maple Leaf and former Ranger Ryan Holliweg was once monitored in a hockey game how fast his heart was pumping in beats per minute and at points of max movement Holliweg was registering at close to 150bpm. Think about doing this on an average of 15-20 times a night to your heart for the better part of your life since you were 6 or 7 years old: think about how much blood your heart is pumping to its organs and brain to function normally just to keep up. It is amazing that someone that has not yet to be diagnosed with a heart aliment in an NHL game has actually suffered the same fate that Cherapanov did. The whole story is that in an age where players are being paid a tremendous salary in a game that is unequivocally faster than any sport in the world, that players are not required to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) for every physical they take. This should not just apply to hockey players but to every single athlete for every single sport.

We tend to evaluate a pitcher's medial colateral ligament or a women's basketball player's anterior cruciate ligament more highly because they are deemed 'career threatening' injuries as opposed to monitoring what is every athlete's most vital body part-the body part that is vital to every human being alive: their heart. Too many times now we have seen young athletes in the pro and college sports world fall victim to heart related deaths, whether it be Hank Gathers, or Reggie Lewis, or Thomas Herrion. Cherapanov now joins Sergei Zholtok and Mickey Renaud as pro hockey players who have died suddenly due to a heart related stoppage. With the exception of Cherapanov, the other 5 men just mentioned died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, whereas Cherapanov's death has been linked to ischemia, which would not be detected by an ECG.

The whole truth has yet to be revealed about this tragedy involving a future star in the sport of hockey and an idol to many in Russia. The mere fact that investigators in Russia want to see Cherapanov's blood work as a possible link to doping is clearly a sign of uncertainty, as well as further continuation of how sad the story continues to unfold. In the end, Cherapanov will be remembered for something hopefully in the sports world: to a culture of athletes who deal with showing no weaknesses, the greatest weakness an athlete can show is admitting that there is something wrong with their heart. However, it may end up saving their lives. It might end up saving your own.