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Zack Kassian involved in car accident; enters rehab


lazy26

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The thing with Kassian is, people have been pleading for him to 'wake up' since he first came into the league. This isn't his 'second chance,' it's more like his fifth or sixth.

The one hope is that the accident, and the public humiliation, are finally serious enough that they really do compel him to want to change his life. Remember Brian Fogarty? Few things are sadder than seeing a young person waste their talent and their life.

You have hit the nail on the head CC. He has had multiple brushes and to-date just doesn't get it. The best thing for him is getting help and staying clean. Whether he ever plays another second of hockey is incidental. Giving him another chance may not be the best thing for his recovery.

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You have hit the nail on the head CC. He has had multiple brushes and to-date just doesn't get it. The best thing for him is getting help and staying clean. Whether he ever plays another second of hockey is incidental. Giving him another chance may not be the best thing for his recovery.

Great points. But I can't believe Kassian - even if he's clean and committed to recovery - will see it this way. He'd be walking away from, potentially, millions of dollars. That's not easy to do. More likely, he will try to rebuild his career while being a recovering alcoholic. And as you say, that must be extremely difficult when all your friends are young guys looking to party.

I don't see this ending happily for Kassian's career, even if it ends happily for his life (which I doubt). If he tries to come back this season, assuming the Habs let him, he will be trying to step into a mid-season lineup, which is very hard to do even for players with a great work ethic and a history of commitment, let alone a guy with a history of being a talented bum. He will constantly be a 'step behind,' struggling to find his mojo. He'll say all the right stuff to the media - Kassian always does - about working hard, getting a bit better game by game, etc.. But after a couple of horrible games and/or stupid penalties, the coach will start benching him. He'll become a black ace and get cut loose at season's end. Then he'll resurface somewhere next September, desperately trying for a PTO or something - either to make some team as a 'project' or to vanish into the nether regions of the hockey world, like so many talented failures before him.

I see Zack Kassian looking back at age 30 and wondering what happened - how his hockey career got stripped from him before it had hardly started. Maybe he'll recall, then, all the coaches and veterans who told him that he had to get serious, that you 'only get so many chances.' The only hope for him is a radical transformation as a result of this accident. Given that his learning curve has been ZERO since he entered the league, the best we can hope for, I suspect, is that he becomes a healthy and functional human being rather than a thriving NHLer. In short, I think his career is done.

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They said he was in stage 1 of rehab program when in Vancouver and why he is at stage 2 now.

Fell bad for the guy, but I don't agree that the team will be weaker with him gone, maybe just the opposite. de la Rose seems likely to have a long solid checking career ahead of him.

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You guys never been young and wild?

Some peeps live and learn, and some don't, and some are addicted to substance and trouble.

There are more stories of failure than of success, and I am not going to judge this young fella.

We here actually know #%*$ all about him personally, maybe he's just not that bright, maybe, maybe, maybe...

I hope he can find his trouble, and I hope he gets all the help he needs from the Habs to turn himself around, and I think they will give him the chance, based on their "team" oriented agenda, the rest is up to him, and we will see...

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I hope he can find his trouble, and I hope he gets all the help he needs from the Habs to turn himself around, and I think they will give him the chance, based on their "team" oriented agenda, the rest is up to him, and we will see...

Ya so far in the interviews of all the Habs players it seems like they will support him in any way that they can. I feel Montreal has the tightest group of players in all of the NHL so this is the best situation for Kassian to be in. I'm sure he will get support from his former teammates around the league as well since they all have pretty good things to say about him. Wish him the best. Hopefully he gets the help he needs.

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Ya so far in the interviews of all the Habs players it seems like they will support him in any way that they can. I feel Montreal has the tightest group of players in all of the NHL so this is the best situation for Kassian to be in. I'm sure he will get support from his former teammates around the league as well since they all have pretty good things to say about him. Wish him the best. Hopefully he gets the help he needs.

LA also has one of the "tightest" groups in the NHL. Basically all live within a few minutes of each other. They had their fair share of characters as well on one hand but won a few cups on the other. Fine by me!

Great points. But I can't believe Kassian - even if he's clean and committed to recovery - will see it this way. He'd be walking away from, potentially, millions of dollars. That's not easy to do. More likely, he will try to rebuild his career while being a recovering alcoholic. And as you say, that must be extremely difficult when all your friends are young guys looking to party.

It's a good point but the good thing for Kassian is that he is relatively new to Montreal so he may not have had the time to condition himself to get into such a party routine in this environment. It can be good to move from one city to another for this reason. The only problem is that I consider Montreal to be a pretty nice party town, so it definitely can be tough. With a solid supporting cast it can be done though.

Anyway, I think this whole process is a little too gloomy and he will get another chance here. Immensely dumb decision but in all honesty he did very little wrong. Yes he has an alcohol problem but that's only one factor in the accident. The driver is much more to blame. Label him an alcoholic all you want but the only thing really wrong here was that he got injured, point finale. If the driver was clearly wasted though, I question the influence alcohol had on his judgement as well, I admit. Once again, poor decision making, lack of judgement but terribly unlucky and the accident was most likely out of his control. We all get put into situations we don't want to be in throughout our lives and they can turn out different ways. Unfortunate outcome here.

I'm not surprised by the dichotomy of sentiments here though. Those who know his history a little better have probably run out of patience whereas those who don't, want to be a little more forgiving and hopeful.

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Everyone seems ready to count him out and call him a bust, but I would like to point out that there is a chance this might actually wake him up. Obviously he has had incidents in the past, but this one seems to eclipse everything we know about. If I'm in his position, I figure (and I'm sure everyone around him is telling him the same thing) that unless I can turn it around and be a good player for MTL, I'm done in the NHL. Maybe this is the wake up call he needs. Some people need to hit rock bottom before it sinks in. Sucks it had to happen this way, but this might be what he needs.

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Everyone seems ready to count him out and call him a bust, but I would like to point out that there is a chance this might actually wake him up. Obviously he has had incidents in the past, but this one seems to eclipse everything we know about. If I'm in his position, I figure (and I'm sure everyone around him is telling him the same thing) that unless I can turn it around and be a good player for MTL, I'm done in the NHL. Maybe this is the wake up call he needs. Some people need to hit rock bottom before it sinks in. Sucks it had to happen this way, but this might be what he needs.

:thumbs_up:

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I am sure Sabres traded him for a similar reason as did Canucks, so cant see him 'waking up' now. He was a mediocre player to begin with and all we were hoping for was bit more offense than Prust, which wasn't a big hurdle.

And seems it has resulted in a hard working faster player being picked up from Flames and inserted instead, so in end may be a good thing for Habs on the ice.

Sorry, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for Kassian.

(and Byron is said can play RW-LW as well as centre)

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Kassian deserves sympathy, if he's an alcoholic.

But whether or not this 'wakes him up' (which is possible), I still doubt it will get his career on track, for the reasons I gave earlier.

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I don't. He had to go after last years meltdown in the playoffs.

Hey it was worth a shot. Everyone knew what was in Kassians resume. MB gambled on a party animal and lost. I miss Prust already.

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Actually, the Kassian trade is--at worst-- a wash for Montreal. If Kassian recovers and finally plays to his potential ( an unlikely scenario at this point, I admit) then it is a big win. If Kassian is a bust, they still have a 5th round draft pick which is an ok return for the declining Prust. Note: I love the guy, but I thought it was time for him to go.

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Prust had some good years in Montreal in amongst all the injuries. However he was slowing down, time is taking it's toll. Then the meltdown in the playoffs last year kinda sealed the deal. We signed him as a free agent and we got 5th for him. We wernot going to get much more. Kassian was a bonus and if he ever gets his act together and plays to his potential it makes it a great trade. Miss Prust? I miss Prust from 3 years ago.

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I share a lot of the skepticism about Kassian ever living up to his potential, but this accident could be the perfect catalyst for him to change. Nothing TOO serious happened, it happened before the season started and he even played a game for us, and he's gone straight to rehab. Maybe he'll return for the second half of the season with something to prove.

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Guest Stogey24

Apparently it will be 3 months before Kassian can actually play.

Gave a up heart and soul player for this guy. Stings a bit

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More like dumped $2.5m cap hit if a guy who completely melt down in the playoffs and has lost his effectiveness. Heck, I didn't think we be able to trade Prust.

Apparently it will be 3 months before Kassian can actually play.

Gave a up heart and soul player for this guy. Stings a bit

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Apparently it will be 3 months before Kassian can actually play.

Gave a up heart and soul player for this guy. Stings a bit

It's no different to when we got rid of Travis Moen (a guy I liked a lot and made a lot of excuses for) except Prust is slowing down considerably.

That "heart and soul" guy played 9 minutes with the Canucks and somehow racked up 15 minutes in penalties in that time. Fighting and a 10 minute misconduct first game. Whee. No thanks. If the deal was just for a 5th we still won.

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More like dumped $2.5m cap hit if a guy who completely melt down in the playoffs and has lost his effectiveness. Heck, I didn't think we be able to trade Prust.

2.5M NOT wasted on Briere or PAP.

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It's no different to when we got rid of Travis Moen (a guy I liked a lot and made a lot of excuses for) except Prust is slowing down considerably.

That "heart and soul" guy played 9 minutes with the Canucks and somehow racked up 15 minutes in penalties in that time. Fighting and a 10 minute misconduct first game. Whee. No thanks. If the deal was just for a 5th we still won.

2.5 million in space to use elsewhere (and was used on Flash and Semin).

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