10 years ago

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Richard Gnida

I hate this man , You stupid drug addict , you cost Vladdie his well being and his life even though hes still alive. You cost the NHL one of the greatest defenceman to ever lace them up.

[Earthhuman 8]

http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/?showtopic=43917

[zetterberg_fan_40 0]

10 years...wow. I remember crying when I found out about it and I think I was only like six or seven.

I remember last year shopping at Costco me and my cousin saw him and he was pushing a cart and me and my cousin just looked at him and were like "oh my..." and he just looked and smiled and nodded at us. That man is amazing.

[Hiei 192]

Did they mention the next thing that guy's gonna do?

He's gonna drive Bip and Teemu and Pronger's Limo in the next 2 weeks. Watch your news.

[North Guy 0]

The impact of the crash wasn't just limited to the individual men. The loss of Konstantinov in his prime triggered a series of decisions in the past decade by Wings GM Ken Holland.

"We've been applying bandages trying to fix the loss of Vladdie for years," Holland said. "It's because of that I signed Uwe Krupp, which was a disastrous free-agent signing. Then I made the trade for Chris Chelios when that didn't work out."

The trade for Mathieu Schneider in 2003 was another blue-line quick fix that cost the Wings Sean Avery, Max Kuznetsov as well as a first-round entry draft pick (2003) and a second-rounder ('04). Holland said even the drafting of Jiri Fischer in 1998 was an attempt to replace Konstantinov's size and grit. Fischer, of course, later proved to have a heart ailment that has effectively ended his NHL career.

"We often wonder what this team would've been like if we'd had Vladdie all this time," Holland said. "He and Nick (Lidstrom) in their primes all these years would've given us some defence and we would've kept all those draft picks.

"We've been scrambling for years because of that accident."

You could wrack your brain thinking what could've been.

Perhaps Lidstrom or Vladdy would've been traded for a better goaltender. Or maybe the Red Wings would have the best two defencemen in the league and traded Datsyuk three years ago. Or maybe a young Sean Avery would have been a disruption in the Detroit locker room? Or maybe the Wings would have won 5 Stanley Cups in the past 10 years.

[seeinred 1,488]

I remember I didn't hear about this until the next morning, but I was absolutely crushed. I just loved watching Vladdy play. And for some reason, something that really stands out to me is before the series against Philly, some radio station played "Every Breath You Take" by the police, and said it was Vlad's song to Eric Lindros. I thought that was awesome

But it's hard to believe it's been 10 years.

[Production Line 1]

Lets send limo driver and his non license to the ducks. I'm sure he's out of jail. Richard Gnida a name I will never forget like Mark David Chapman, John Hinkley and John Wilkes Boothe...

My prayers still go out to both families...