Former NHL enforcer Belak found dead in Toronto

Associated Press ^ | Wednesday, August 31, 2011 10:38 PM EDT | TERESA M. WALKER

[Hunton Peck]

Third "goon" found dead in four months. I suppose those guys take more painkillers than the average player, but whether that's the explanation, I don't know.

[cumbo78]

Perhaps they should try and track how many concussions, diagnosed and undiagnosed, each had.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Doctor 2Brains]

Okay, I don’t know hockey at all, but is “enforcer” a real position like middle linebacker? Or do they call you that if you get in fights? Don’t they all get in fights? What up?

[Puppage]

I suppose those guys take more painkillers than the average player, but whether that's the explanation, I don't know.

He hung himself

[Wolfie]

They all can get into fights, but a select few on each team are the designated fighters in that it's the only real skill they bring to the game. They're basically there to beat the snot out of anybody who messes with a skill player.

[Moose4]

There are some guys who are out there more for their fists than their puck-handling. The “enforcers” are there so that if somebody tries to rough up one of the team’s more skilled players, they respond. They’re there to either intimidate or defend, whatever’s needed.

}:-)4

[Pompah]

The old saying goes; “ If you can’t beat’um in the alley, you can’t beat;um on the ice.”
Thus all teams in the NHL carry an “Enforcer” on the bench.

Sometimes a couple of them.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Belak is the third NHL enforcer found dead since May.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. - Commander James Bond

[LaRueLaDue]

Actually, that quote is not from Bond, but from Auric Goldfinger, referring to his encounters with Cmdr. Bond.

[dfwgator]

“Let ‘em know you’re there!”

[sargon]

Former Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard died in May at 28 due to an accidental mix of alcohol and the painkiller oxycodone.

Accidental? BS. How did such an "accident" happen, I wonder?

[buccaneer81]

Don’t they all get in fights?

Are you kidding? Can you imagine Wayne Gretzky in a fight?

[momtothree]

“... track how many concussions, diagnosed and undiagnosed, each had”

I think that could be an issue. Some people who suffer from concussions have mood swings and bouts of depression (all neurological). I wonder if they got depressed and already had painkillers as a result of such damage to the body due to hockey.

[buccaneer81]

Accidental? BS. How did such an "accident" happen, I wonder?

Happens all the time to regular people who are daily drinkers and are then given a narcotic. They vastly underestimate the warnings and carry on with their "normal" activities. Respiratory arrest can sneak up on them. So can choking on their own vomit.

[Betis70]

There is a certain code that most players follow. Kind of like school yard bullies picking on the little kid, someone will step up and put the bully on his keister. That is an enforcer, making sure the bully gets his due.

Chicken-sh!t players will start things, then turtle when a real enforcer gets in their mug (yes, I am pointing at you Matt Cooke). Other star players will drop the gloves when they need to, but generally don’t.

[AZLiberty]

Eight goals in 14 years makes it pretty clear that he wasn’t on the ice to play hockey.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Thanks. Sometimes misattribution sounds better than truth.

[buccaneer81]

Other star players will drop the gloves when they need to, but generally don’t.

That can lead to poor outcomes (Derek Brassard.)

[buccaneer81]

Eight goals in 14 years makes it pretty clear that he wasn’t on the ice to play hockey.

True. He only averaged 39 games per season, which is explained by injuries and games where he was a scratch because there was little or no chance of fisticuffs breaking out. (Skill teams like Detroit of the past ten years are unlikely to drop the gloves.)