Doing a full time radio show, you come in contact with some very unique characters. Plenty of egos and personalities from both players and fans. Sadly, a lot of the time people or athletes you run into don’t leave you with anything after the conversation is over. It’s not always the case, but being in the business of routine questions and predictable answers, it can be difficult to try and generate something unique and lasting.
Friday morning, we were able to sit down with Calgary Flames goaltending coach Clint Malarchuk. Many remember him from his Buffalo Sabres days as the goaltender who had his throat cut by a skate and came incredibly close to bleeding out and losing his life right on the ice. Following the incident, Malarchuk tried to salvage his playing career but never really did maintain his spot as a full time NHLer. He began to spiral into depression, and things got to the point where he tried to commit suicide by firing a gun at himself. Somehow, he wasn’t successful. Malarchuk survived. The bullet that remains in his head to this day is a lasting souvenir as to how dark things for him had gotten.
Clint reached out for help and today represents one of the greatest success stories in terms of depression and mental illness. All Canadian-based NHL teams are going to commit time and funds to get rid of the stigma surrounding mental illness. One in five Canadians suffer from some sort of mental issue and Malarchuk has made a brave choice to take on this endeavor. This is the actually the second such discussion we’ve had with Malarchuk in the last year. Rhett Warrener, who we have fun with most of the time on the air, announced during the interview that he actually seeked out help after our initial discussion. I’m proud and honored to see some of what we do is having a positive impact on people.
Guys like Clint Malarchuk and Sheldon Kennedy were NHLers but have shown more bravery and machismo in their post-playing career than they did on the ice. We are very fortunate to have people like this living among us and making our community and lives better. Yes, there are lots of “take ’em one game at a time” type interviews we do, but it’s nice to have even a few that possibly make a difference.