Ex-Wing Potvin's Death A Head-Shaker

Marc Potvin is dead, and we don't know why. We don't know how.

Marc Potvin is dead and just because he was a not a coach at the NHL level, it doesn't mean hockey's loss is any less significant.

Marc Potvin, 38, was found dead in his hotel room in Kalamazoo Friday morning. He was the coach of the Adirondack Frostbite, a lower level minor league club. He was also a former Detroit Red Wing, playing for the team in the early 90's.

Hockey, I think more than any other team sport, is a sort of throwback to the old days, when people cared for each other and there was a tightness of community. Many of the players still come from small towns, whether it's Canada or the United States or any other country. I have found them to be, by far, the most approachable, down-to-earth athletes of the four majors. You can go up to a hockey player and he'll actually talk to you. He'll give you something to write. He'll be courteous, and thank you when you're done.

If you think that goes for baseball, basketball and football players just as much, then you're lving on the planet Lovetron with Darryl Dawkins.

So in Glens Falls, New York, where the Frostbite call home, Mayor Le Roy Akins ordered flags at city buildings lowered to half staff Saturday in honor of Potvin.

"We're a hockey town. When the hockey team grieves, we grieve," said Mike Mender, the mayor's assistant.

Potvin's death has reverberated around the hockey world, and no doubt into the NHL, where he played several seasons and doubtless still has many relationships. He was a tough guy on the ice, and not considered a skill player, but he obviously had enough acumen about the game to be given a coaching job. Who knows what future he may have had in coaching?

For their part, the police say they have a good handle on what led to Potvin's death, but they are being tight-lipped until the official autopsy results are made public. They have, however, ruled out foul play. That opens up Pandora's box of speculation, of course. I'm sure you might draw your own conclusion. Or you might not care enough. That's okay too.

Potvin was separated from his wife, and left behind two young children.

"Obviously, we're devastated," his wife said, sobbing, to a reporter who reached her. "I'm not ready to say anything to the newspaper right now."

Potvin was to have coached the Frostbite Friday night against the Kalamazoo Wings. That game, of course, was postponed and the stunned team rode the bus back to upstate New York. Air travel isn't in the budget for lower minor league teams.

Marc Potvin is dead, and even when we do find out why, we'll still wonder. That's what you do when a 38 year-old man passes, in a motel room, alone.