The Passing of Alexei Cherepanov

Hearing Alexei Cherepanov's name announced over the Garden's PA system sent a chill down my spine. I had known the horrible news for hours, but the sad fact being uttered here cemented Alex's tragic passing in my mind. I couldn't have been the only person choked up at the Garden. There had to have been dozens of others trying to come to terms with the fact that an innocent 19-year-old with a brilliantly bright future ahead of him was gone.



[Via Lowetide]

It's so easy to bury certain things in the dark recesses of your mind. All of those ugly truths that frighten us are pushed down and away until they're hidden beneath the murky waters of our subconscious. It's easier that way, isn't it?

But still they remain, looming around the next corner or one years down the road. Violence, hate and death are realities regardless of how well we ignore them--the last on that list obviously the one on my mind tonight.

You can't spend this finite existence dreading their arrival but when they aren't reflected on every now and then, you become complacent. You forget that eventually a second will pass and you'll cease to be in the next.

No one's immune and no one escapes it. It doesn't matter if that person is in absolutely perfect physical shape or if fate had smiled upon them and blessed them with remarkable skills.

Death is real. Death is cold. And death is final.

There isn't much else to say I guess.

Alexei seemed like great kid and reading the stories about the frantic time spent trying to save his life make my stomach wrench and turn. I can't even imagine how Jaromir Jagr must feel both losing a close friend and being one of--if not the--last person Alex ever spoke to.

My thoughts are with him, his family and his teammates in Russia.

For those wanting to read more about just what happened, Beyond the Blueshirts translates a Sov Sport article on the panic-filled scene here and a piece about Jaromir Jagr's reaction to his teammate's passing. The site also compiled the thoughts of some of the Rangers coaching staff and several New York-area hockey writers' on this sad twist of fate.



[Via Beyond the Blueshirts]

Brandon Dubinsky comforts Cherepanov's countryman Nikolai Zherdev prior to the moment of silence at Madison Square Garden Monday night.