The Loss of Alexander Galimov

For several days, I have been pulling for the recovery of a hockey player that I have never heard of. Unfortunately, I have just read that he is now deceased. My heart goes out to those who know him as well as people like me who over-attached to the story of this stranger.

Why was I following the story of Alexander Galimov? I think that I have figured out the reason. This has been an absolutely horrible summer for hockey. Death has been a big topic. Deep down, I wanted to end the summer on a positive note. The survival of Alexander Galimov could have been the saving grace for this depressing summer.

Earlier in the summer, we had to deal with the sad news regarding the losses of Derek Boogard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak. The entire hockey world was stunned by the deaths surrounding the sport. This was before a Russian airplane carrying the KHL hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed shortly after takeoff. Only two people were found alive, a crew member by the name of Alexander Sizov as well as one player from the team, Alexander Galimov.

I don’t want to be disrespectful. I really hope that Sizov can pull through. From the sounds of things, he’s got a better chance than Galimov. I just don’t think that Sizov’s recovery is something that hockey fans can use to salvage this summer as much as Galimov’s.

The plane crash means that in addition to the hockey community’s earlier losses, we have also had to deal with the deaths of Vitaly Anikeyenko, Mikhail Balandin, Gennady Churilov, Pavol Demitra, Robert Dietrich, Alexander Galimov, Marat Kalimulin, Alexander Kalyanin, Andrei Kiryukhin, Nikita Klyukin, Stefan Liv, Jan Marek, Sergei Ostapchuk, Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei, Maxim Shuvalov, Karlis Skrastins, Pavel Snurnitsyn, Daniil Sobchenko, Ivan Tkachenko, Pavel Trakhanov, Yuri Urychev, Josef Vasicek, Alexander Vasyunov, Alexander Vyukhin, Artem Yarchuk, Brad McCrimmon, Alexander Karpovtsev, and Igor Korolev.

I have not taken this summer’s news well, and I didn’t even know these people. Most professional hockey players know several of these people on personal levels. I can’t comprehend what they are going through right now. Let’s just hope that those who have had to deal with these losses personally can keep themselves together and eventually move on with their lives.