Rick Rypien Remembrances

It's been a day of remembrances of Rick Rypien, along with sympathy for him and his family. Stories and thoughts have flooded online about his life as a player, his life as a person and his struggles off the ice.

It's the type of story you to hate report. First Derek Boogaard, then Barry Potomski, now Rypien. Last year it was the hard-living Bob Probert.

It's easy to link a group of people through a common job, but all had different backgrounds, different personal issues and different circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Rypien lived with a public secret that he battled depression. No details have been released about his health or his manner of death, outside of the police announcing it was not suspicious, but most comments on Rypien-related stories around the web assume depression played a part in his death. If true, it's a hard, hard battle to fight and oft misunderstood by those who have never witnessed it or have been through it themselves.

What we do know is that Rypien seemed to be well-liked, well-respected, and now, sorely missed. My heart goes out to his family & friends for their loss.