over the course of a career I find games played to be a very useful metric in appreciating a player, especially a defenceman. even now fewer than 100 men have played more NHL games than Jay Bouwmeester..and not many duds in the bunch
Glad that he got his name on the cup. I really enjoyed the post Brent Sutter version of Jay Bouwmeester that we had until we traded him.
Too bad the flames wasted a few good years of his career with Brent coaching the team.
Good luck on your future endeavours Jay. Very few players could log that many minutes night after night in this league.
Never would have imagined something like this would result in him needing to stop his playing career. I was a pretty harsh critic of some of his time in Calgary, but he always was a very efficient player who played a lot, and played every night. I questioned his intensity at times, but never had any concerns about his durability. The team did screw up trading him when they did for what they did. He definitely was being used more effectively by Hartley than he had with Brent Sutter. So to me it just re-enforces that even the most healthy people can fall victim to something like this very randomly.
He did have a really good long career in which he did experience a good amount of team success. No doubt going to St.Louis and being allowed to be a primary support piece as opposed to a driving force really did seem to suit him perfectly. Congrats to him, on an excellent career, and hopefully a long life of good health.
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A pal of mine brings an AED unit to all of our games notwithstanding most arenas have them. Do you know how to find it in an emergency? I know of one arena where the machine is locked in the rink rat's office.
The batteries run $300 and need to be changed annually.
Year ago in a small league I played in a young guy went home after our game and died on his sofa from a heart event. He wore a smoking patch and I heard that had something to do with it, but never got the full story.
Brodie spoke the other day - it seems like his was dehydration issues, nothing heart related.
Yes. And also there are many different things that can go wrong with the ticker. Some are more benign, some are more severe.
Some, if you are lucky, can be cured via ablation (which is not whatever the heck Francis was bumbling on about). That’s where they identify some cells or tissue as the root cause, snake a catheter through your femoral artery in to the heart and burn/destroy the cells which are the probable root cause. Depending on the condition, if an ablation is successful, then the person could return to full normal activity. (Incidentally, the way you determine if it is successful may simply be returning to normal activity and seeing if there is any recurrence)
With other situations, such as Jay’s case, it is something where the approach is to manage rather than attempt to fix, a subcutaneous defibrillator is implanted, etc
Lots of different heart conditions, and it is unfortunate that JayBo had a condition that has to be managed with an ICD
It just goes to show how fast life can swing another direction in a flash. One minute your playing NHL hockey with the best players in the world. The next, you might likely never be able to play again. Just like that.
It will be sad if JayBo can't play anymore. That's a terrible way to end a career.
I'm glad he got his cup. But even happier he can continue on with his life.
I had one but gave it away after he was traded. Now, I kinda wish I didn't...
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Imagine the pairing if he could’ve played in his prime with prime Gio instead of the anchor that was Chris Butler.
I know Brent Sutter gets a lot of heat here but those Flames teams early in the last decade were not very good at all. It was Iginla, Kipper and a bunch of retreads and castoffs.
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