It still hurts.
I admit that I'm guilty of a lot of things.
I don't talk to my players as much as I should, I don't communicate my expectations of them as well as I should, and I do tend to give most of the burden of keeping them in line to Ronnie and Roddy and Wes.
But that doesn't mean I'm not affected when something bad happens. It doesn't mean that I don't hurt and that I don't mourn.
When Chase died, it hurt. He was a hell of a guy, and his loss really hurt--not so much from a team perspective, but because he was one of those people that you like to say that you're proud to have gotten to know. He made a bad decision, and that decision wound up costing him his life.
Dany Heatley also made a bad decision, and that decision wound up costing the life of a friend and teammate--who, like Steve Chiasson, was one of those people that you can say you're proud to have gotten to know. I heard about Dan Snyder's passing when I was watching the baseball game on Sunday night, and I immediately thought of that morning in May of '99 when I got the call from Jim telling me that we'd lost Chase.
I know what they're going through in Atlanta right now. All of us that were on that 1999 team know what they're going through, because we went through it too.
And I'm so sorry that it's had to happen again.
I don't talk to my players as much as I should, I don't communicate my expectations of them as well as I should, and I do tend to give most of the burden of keeping them in line to Ronnie and Roddy and Wes.
But that doesn't mean I'm not affected when something bad happens. It doesn't mean that I don't hurt and that I don't mourn.
When Chase died, it hurt. He was a hell of a guy, and his loss really hurt--not so much from a team perspective, but because he was one of those people that you like to say that you're proud to have gotten to know. He made a bad decision, and that decision wound up costing him his life.
Dany Heatley also made a bad decision, and that decision wound up costing the life of a friend and teammate--who, like Steve Chiasson, was one of those people that you can say you're proud to have gotten to know. I heard about Dan Snyder's passing when I was watching the baseball game on Sunday night, and I immediately thought of that morning in May of '99 when I got the call from Jim telling me that we'd lost Chase.
I know what they're going through in Atlanta right now. All of us that were on that 1999 team know what they're going through, because we went through it too.
And I'm so sorry that it's had to happen again.