Steven Delorme of Scottsdale, Arizona wants to know "Who was Bill Masterton and why does he have a trophy named after him?
This is a pretty common question, which in a way is kind of sad. You see, Masterton is the only NHL player, so far, to die because of events on the ice. He died because of hockey, not because he was playing with an undiagnosed illness like Alexei Cherepanov earlier this year.
Here's a short but great video documentary on Bill Masteron that I found on YouTube:
You can read my Bill Masterton Biography here.
You will have undoubtedly noticed that I said he's the only player to die so far. I pray and hope I am completely wrong, but I really believe we will see another death in hockey one day. The game is dangerously fast and physical. And with the technology of sticks nowadays, everyone can shoot the frozen rubber bullet of a puck at 90 MPH.
We've seen a lot of close calls. Trent McCleary. Clint Malarchuk. Richard Zednik. Let's hope we don't see it again any time soon.
1 comment:
It's sad that Bill Masterton would never win his award if he were playing today. There was a time when the Masterton was given to players who took a long time developing or who were exceptional leaders or who had career seasons and not just to guys who came back from an injury. It's hard to believe that players like Trevor Linden, Martin St Louis, Tim Thomas and Patrick O'Sullivan aren't given more consideration.
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