Amongst all this trade talk and free agency fishing one can easily forget that sports heroes are human beings. Most of them really love the job they have the God given talent for or just work bloody hard to be able to play. Hockey, the game that captivated me ever since I saw my first game, often seems and still is what sports are all about. Hard work, dedication and sportsmanship is what being a hockey player is all about. If I thought otherwise, I’d probably follow a different sport than the world’s greatest (and fastest) game. A players’ biggest dream is the Cup. Win the Cup, the fabled Cup, engraved with names of all the heroes of the past and present remains the world’s greatest sports trophy. Being a part of a hockey team, literally fighting to defend teammates or losing teeth and bone for the coveted W, the most important letter in sports, is the definition of dedication. To do it, you have to love it. And then, it gets taken away.

This is the human side of a story. It was announced today that our own Mike Van Ryn has elected not to play in the 2010-2011 season. I will be the first to admit it, during the last couple of days, I viewed players as assets. As tradable commodities, resources of a hockey GM. After hearing the news about Mike I was hardly shocked, but it just stuck with me. Imagine what he is going through. If you ever played sports you know what I’m talking about. You were injured. You sat there and watched. The pain wasn’t the worst, it was not playing, not helping the team. That impulse that still makes you shoot the imaginary puck, that makes an imaginary deke in your head knowing just what’s it like viewed from the eyes of that player. That instinct. And you know if you were out there, things could be different, YOU could make a difference.

An osteotomy is a surgical operation whereby a bone is cut to shorten, lengthen, or change its alignment. For most players this is a career ending surgery. Osteotomy is also used as an alternative treatment to total knee replacement in younger and active patients. Because prosthetic knees may wear out over time, an osteotomy procedure can enable younger, active osteoarthritis patients to continue using the healthy portion of their knee. The procedure itself can delay the need for a total knee replacement for up to ten years. Read the last part carefully. With an injury like that, Mike is working like a horse to not only get back to playing hockey, but playing the game at the very highest level. That in itself is admirable. To do it for as long as he has, and with the amount of hope he has, it’s heroic. He will become a free agent in a few hours, but this is not about his contract status. My need for writing this came from hoping that, underneath all our blue and white, we are all still red.

Come back soon Mike, we’ll be waiting.

Mislav “Xterratu” Jantoljak