April 16, 2007
A very sad goodbye
I never even looked at the sports news today, because I've been grimly following what happened in Blacksburg. A little while ago, Victor came in to tell me to read CapsChick.
Former Capital Gaetan Duchesne died today.
As I've mentioned, because my dad worked for the team when I was a kid, we got to know some of the players, some better than others. Gaets was one of the ones we knew pretty well, because he and my father were friends.
In fact, when my father went up behind Gaetan at the game the other day, Gaets jumped up and gave dad a hug.
I really hated calling my parents to deliver this news.
When we had our seats at the Cap Center, the ticket holders next to us were French Canadians, and they used to cheer for him: Buddy Duchesne, they called him. And does anybody else remember the "Vas-y Gaetan!" sign that hung in the corner?
He was a fan favorite, as they say. Not just because of his play (although I still remember a game when we played Edmonton, and he stuck to Gretzky like glue; it was fabulous) but because he was such a nice, nice guy.
When I was a little junior-high twerp with a new camera, I used to take pictures of the players during warmups, then hound them for autographs when I got my prints back. Sometimes the guys were nice enough to compliment me on the pictures, and even write more than their names.
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