Flowers for Carly

It's another Monday here on the third rock from the sun, and it was an eventful weekend for both me and my hockey boys; but for no one more than the Vancouver Canucks. They should have been able to win both games Saturday and Sunday with ease, but they were not only missing a vital part of their second line; but they had lost a member of their family.

Early Friday morning Taylor Pyatt got a phone call that not only changed his life, but a whole lot of people around him. I can only imagine what he was and still is going through.

I know how I felt when my friend called to tell me that our pal and former Silvertip Jordan Mistelbacher was dead.... I almost thought she was kidding, but she wasn't. I spent the rest of the evening sobbing and most of the next few days in a fog of sorts. He wasn't even that close of a friend, he was just an acquaintance that I had known about 2 years; but even three months later I'm still not sure I believe that he's gone and I miss him.

Carly and Taylor had been together for 11 years... they were going to be married this summer... they had their whole lives planned out no doubt, or at least until Tay retires. Now, instead of helping get that last minute stuff done for the wedding, even if it would be over the phone; Taylor had to help plan a funeral and became a widower before he was ever a husband.

I guess my point with this ramble is how much being part of a hockey family, like the I'm part of with other Tips friends and fans, means to me and how this game and the people who are involved with it change your life. It gives us that anchor when things like Carly passing away or even Mickey Renaud and Alexei Cherepanov last year happen. You hope it never happens to you, but if it does like it did with Jordan's death, you know that you aren't alone in your grief.

Anyway, I just want to send some virtual flowers to the Pyatt and Bragnalo families; as well as the Canuck boys and their families. I hope they know their extended family in the hockey world is thinking of them.