Monday, October 07, 2002
Blue Jackets look ahead after tragedies of last season
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — By the final days of last season, the Columbus Blue Jackets seemed to be going through the motions.
A 13-year-old fan, Brittanie Cecil, died in March after she was struck by a shot off the stick of Espen Knutsen that deflected into the stands at Nationwide Arena.
Later in the season, the father-in-law of player Serge Aubin was killed in an auto accident on his way home from a Blue Jackets' game in Montreal. Then, the father of general manager Doug MacLean died.
After Cecil died on March 18, the Blue Jackets won just three of their last 14 games.
“That plays on everybody's mind,” MacLean said. “It plays throughout the NHL and sports in general. It's something that's unimaginable. It's something we will live with for a long, long time.”
As the team attempts to move on, it has added some new faces. Columbus took forward Rick Nash with the overall No. 1 pick in last summer's draft and also signed veteran center Andrew Cassels; defensemen Luke Richardson and Scott LaChance; and forward Lasse Pirjeta from Finland.
All the new players further distance the team from the tragedies that beset the franchise in its second year.
“There's great spirit in the locker room,” Pirjeta said.
Even those who were on the team, though, remain touched by the death of the teenager who was attending her first hockey game with tickets that were a birthday present from her father.
“This tested a lot of people,” MacLean said. “You get strength from it. I'm proud of our organization, of the way we dealt with it. But at the same time, that is such a minor, minor part of it compared to what her family, friends and schoolmates had to go through.”
The Cecil family has an attorney, but no lawsuit has been filed yet. There has been no contact between team officials and the Cecil family, MacLean said.
Knutsen's family said this summer that they would like to meet the Cecil family.
A year ago, the Blue Jackets wore heart-shaped stickers bearing Cecil's initials on the backs of their helmets. Her picture briefly flashed on the video boards at the next home game after her death and at the season finale at Nationwide.
Asked if the team planned to memorialize her in any way, MacLean looked down for a moment. His voice cracked and he pointed to the protective netting that the NHL installed in all its arenas for this season.
“That is a tribute to Brittanie,” he said.
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Blue Jackets look ahead after tragedies of last season
