Rypien never easy to read
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Rick Rypien sports a cut eye during the game against the Ottawa Senators at General Motors Place on March 13, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Photograph by: Jeff Vinnick, NHLI via Getty Images
In this business, you get to know hockey players mostly through dressing-room conversations nowadays, and as such, that's the way I knew Rick Rypien.
Virtually any conversation one had with him gave you some idea of the struggles he went through in life, particularly when you linked any such discussions together.
He was so very different from most professional athletes that at times you genuinely wondered whether he even remotely liked playing hockey. And yet, at other times he seemed very happy, particularly when surrounded by teammates that obviously cared for him very much even if they couldn't seem to help him nearly as much as they would have liked.
The first time your agent met him was after his very first home triumph, which included a fight and a couple of big hits which led to a big Canuck victory on a team that was just beginning to become a good one, a sense that has basically encouraged every player in the room since it began. Strangely, Rypien was hiding in the corner of the old dressing room on the forwards' side next to the blackboard, quiet and down and not willing to look anyone in the eye. His face wanted to drop to the floor and it frequently did during the conversation, and at the time you just thought he was shy or had received some bad news off the ice perhaps. Not what you'd normally see after a game situation, particularly after a young player had just made a significant contribution to his team for the first time.
Fast forward to the beginning of training camp last season, and a sit-down chat I had with him as he looked ahead to this campaign which has just passed. He was absolutely a different person. He seemed very happy, very enthused about his life and his manner was absolutely mature in every way. He looked you straight in the eye, had lots to say including some very clear and excellent insight into his future given his skill set, and even though we all knew he had his issues, it looked like they might be behind him. Whatever medication they had cooked up to control his depression or bipolar difficulties was absolutely perfect; not too high so as to seem induced, but bang on. And thinking back as a father of young men virtually the same age, I remember being happy myself that he finally knew some happiness and peace in his life if even just for a while.
For before and after these times, there were reports of the poor fellow wandering around town by himself not knowing anyone who knew him, his world of loneliness something that would break the heart of any parent.
So when people talk about thoughts and prayers going out to the Rypien family, you really must say those prayers because they're going to need some help. Anyone thinking about this for one moment will know that.
Throughout his stints away from the Canucks when he was getting treatment, there would be frequent rumors about him being involved with drugs, which at the time at least was absolutely not the case. Both general manager Mike Gillis and his right-hand man Laurence Gilman were upset with those reports, Gillis saying in an off-the-record conversation at the time that Rick's problems weren't street drugs, but rather that like so many young people today who have been told to 'say no to drugs,' he wasn't comfortable taking the meds that had been prescribed.
Whatever ultimately caused this young man's death, those involved - including the family - should know that this wonderful guy did know some happiness in his life which ended not because they didn't do enough, but because the fellow upstairs decided to end his struggles down here and call him back. He had access to the best help that can be provided for his condition and yet still we are beset by this sadness.
But not Rick Rypien. His sadness is at an end, and our prayers should be such that he finds a place filled with eternal happiness.
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