The tragic plane crash took place in Russia, yet grief knows no boundaries and claims no citizenship. This was Black Wednesday for the world of hockey in this Dark Summer that just does not seem to end.
At least 43 lives were lost when the Yak-42 aircraft carrying the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv KHL club crashed into the shores of the Volga River north of Moscow shortly after takeoff while on its way to Minsk for the opening game of the season that had been scheduled for tonight.
Among those lost was Alexander Karpovtsev, who will live forever in Rangers’ history as a member of that once-in-a-lifetime 1994 Stanley Cup championship team.
“It’s like a punch in the stomach,” Mark Messier said Wednesday. “Potsy always came to the rink with a smile on his face. He was a great teammate. He didn’t know that much English when he came over but that never hindered him from fitting in with us.
“I loved the guy. It’s just devastating.”
Karpovtsev, 41, played just over five years with the Rangers in an 11-year NHL career that included three games with the Islanders in 2003-04 when the Moscow native was pretty much at the end of the line. He was a blue-collar guy who punched in, went to work, and knew how to enjoy himself.
An assistant coach for Yaroslavl, Karpovtsev was described first as “fun-loving” yesterday by former Rangers teammates Messier, Wayne Gretzky and Bruce Driver, all of whom remembered him fondly.
“He was one of those guys who got along with everybody,” Gretzky said. “I can’t recall a single controversy or problem involving him or anybody on our team.”
Karpovtsev was one of the first four Russians to ever win the Stanley Cup, joining with fellow Blueshirts Alex Kovalev, Sergei Zubov and Sergei Nemchinov for that parade up the Canyon Heroes so many yesterdays ago yet still so fresh in our memory.
Though he was the sixth/seventh defenseman for coach Mike Keenan, he developed into a shutdown defenseman by 1996-97, when he paired with Ulf Samuelsson and was matched against the Flyers’ fearsome Eric Lindros-John LeClair combination throughout the regular season and in the conference finals.
“Potsy wasn’t as big as Ulfie or Beuk [Jeff Beukeboom], but he played as big and he played as hard as anybody,” Gretzky said. “The way he played against Eric and that line was really something.
“He was an honest guy who gave as much as he took, blocking shots, going into the corners, taking guys out in front. And as far as his personality, it’s true, he was always smiling on the bus, on the plane; just a really solid guy who everybody enjoyed being around.”
Before the start of the series against the Flyers the Rangers eventually lost in five after a wave of injuries decimated the team, I asked Karpovtsev if he relished the challenge and opportunity to go against Lindros.
“No,” he said, straight-faced and simply enough. “But it’s my job, so that’s what I have to do.” When the story was relayed to Gretzky, he laughed.
“That’s Potsy,” he said.
And this: During the 1997-98 season when the Rangers practiced at Playland, I was down at the bench at the conclusion of a morning skate while Karpovtsev was working on chipping pucks off the glass. Only one time he chipped the puck off my face.
He shrugged his shoulders and grinned at me.
“That’s Potsy,” Driver said.
Now he is gone at 41, gone before his time with far, far too many others.
And the world of hockey grieves.