There are times in sports when results don’t matter. Who’s top and who’s bottom is irrelevant. Tuesday night in Anaheim, California was one of those moments as Jay Bouwmeester of the St Louis Blues collapsed on the bench during the first period of their clash with the Anaheim Ducks.
The game was rightly postponed and the early news was he was awake and alert when taken from the building to the nearest medical facility.
The news broke near the end of the second period of the Colorado Avalanche’s clash with Ottawa Senators, the game I was watching, and suddenly everything became insignificant. The rivalry. The chase for the Central division. It meant nothing. All that matter was the health and well being of Bouwmeester and his Blues teammates who were obviously shaken up.
Bouwmeester is a 17 year veteran of the league having been drafted in 2002 by the Florida Panthers. After a four year stop north of the border with the Calgary Flames, Bouwmeester joined the St Louis Blues in 2012 and was a part of their Stanley Cup winning team last year. He also won an Olympic gold medal in 2014 with the Canadian men’s hockey team.
He was named to the NHL all star game twice, in 2007 and 2009, and played his 1,200th game on November 5th 2019 against the Vancouver Canucks.
At about 9:30pm Tuesday night St. Louis Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong released the following statement.
“With 7:50 remaining in the first period of our game tonight, Jay Bouwmeester suffered a cardiac episode and collapsed on our bench after completing his shift. Thankfully, with the quick response of our medical trainers, Anaheim medical trainers and their team physicians, they were able to stabilize Jay. He was alert and moving all of his extremities as he was transported to UC Irvine Medical Center. Currently, Jay is conscious and alert as he undergoes further testing by Anaheim’s physicians. We will update Jay’s condition on Wednesday morning.”
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The hockey community is uniting to send well wishes to the St Louis Blues and their Defenseman as it’s times like this you realize it’s just a game and as much as winning might feel great and losing can ruin your day, a man’s health is much more important. Here’s hoping you are okay Jay Bouwmeester and are back on the ice before we know it.
