Demitra’s sudden death hits home for Canucks
Posted Sep 7, 2011 04:54:34 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Canucks are mourning the sudden death of their former teammate, Pavol Demitra, who team Captain Henrik Sedin remembered today as more than just a great player.
“As a person he was a great teammate and a great friend, and you think of his family, wife and kids and what they are going through right now,” said Sedin.
Demitra was on a plane bound for Belarus, where his Russian team was to open the season this week, when it crashed after takeoff, killing all but two people on board.
Sedin added that Demitra may have played his best hockey during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics when he led the men’s hockey in scoring while playing for Slovakia.
Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa called Demitra an easy guy to get to know, although the winger was more reserved around the media.
“I had a lot of fun with him, loved to play cards on the plane so we sat at the card table together, loved to joke around, loved to play the game of hockey,” Bieksa said.
Bieksa said today that the possibility of something going wrong is in the back of his mind whenever the team travels.
“You get home from a road trip sometimes, sometimes you say to yourself I made another one,” he admits.
The Canucks are still coping with the death last month of former teammate Rick Rypien, who had suffered from depression.
