Wranglers star Krischuk reflects on loss of sister

[hockeyfan]

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Jan-17-Wed-2007/sports/12014887.html

It's somewhat fitting that Las Vegas Wranglers defenseman Jason Krischuk traveled to tonight's ECHL All-Star Game in Boise, Idaho, looking like a hardened warrior -- wearing seven stitches above his right eye, along with the purple, black and bloodshot remnants of a shiner.

After all, Krischuk has been to his own personal heck and back in the past 10 months -- a torturous journey that began in Boise in April.

It was there that the good-natured 26-year-old lost his 19-year-old sister, Tamie, to a brain aneurysm.

She was a freshman at Boise State, and Krischuk was looking forward to joining her there. He played three games for the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads late last season, before completing his studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and the Steelheads wanted to sign him.

Then the tragedy hit.

"She was on a field trip planting flowers one day, and it happened. By the time anyone could do anything, it was over," he said. "She was perfectly healthy, and it was one of those random things you don't think can ever happen. Usually aneurysms don't happen at a young age."

To spare his parents and his other sister, 22-year-old Sabrina, any additional pain, Krischuk abandoned his plans to play for the Steelheads.

"It was kind of a bad deal when she passed away, and we all flew to Boise and actually had to take her off the life-support machines," he said. "So it was not a good place for my parents to fly there all the time and watch me play hockey."

Krischuk, who now has the initials "TK" tattooed on his right forearm in memory of his sister, went back to Boise with the Wranglers for a three-game series earlier this season and said he's trying to move on.

"It's almost been a year now. I had some hard times, but you've got to be able to talk about it," he said. "The way I look at it, she's gone and she's not coming back. I can pray she went to heaven, but I can't tear up every time I go to Boise. I've got to go there and play my game."

Krischuk has impressed Las Vegas coach Glen Gulutzan.

"He's been back (to Boise) once already, and I'm sure it's been tough on him, but he's been a real professional," Gulutzan said. "He's shown lots of poise on the power play. His skating ability is very good, and he's a real headsy hockey player.

"He's a guy who has a chance to play at the next level. He's exceeded my expectations."

Krischuk honed his game in his native Anchorage, Alaska, where he was a high school teammate of New Jersey Devils center Scott Gomez.

"Every day after practice, I'd challenge him that he couldn't beat me one-on-one going down the ice. I stopped him all the time," Krischuk said with a smile. "It makes you better when you play with players who are better than you are."

Krischuk overcame a slow start with the Wranglers (19-7-8) en route to the All-Star Game. He suffered a pulled groin in the second game of the season and had his appendix removed shortly thereafter.

"I got real sick and drove myself to the hospital, and they told me they were taking me to the operating room because my appendix had ruptured," he said.

After missing nine games, and only 10 days removed from his operation, Krischuk returned to the ice, scoring his first professional goal and dishing out three assists in a three-game series against Alaska, in his hometown, no less.

"It was nice to go back there and play good for my family and in front of the hometown fans," he said. "I didn't want to go back there and be a chump."

Krischuk has been a fixture in the Las Vegas lineup ever since. He has two goals and nine assists in 25 games this season, with a plus-7 rating.

Krischuk incurred his black eye and stitches after getting cleanly checked into the boards in Phoenix on Jan. 6.

"I wish I got punched, but I just took a normal hit, and my face hit the glass a little bit wrong," Krischuk said. "Some people think (the black eye is) a bad thing, but it's actually kind of fun. It's a conversation starter, for sure."

While Krischuk said it will be an honor for him to play in tonight's All-Star Game, he sounded more pumped about flying to the game.

"I was pretty excited because our owner, Charles (Davenport), told me we were taking his jet instead of flying commercial," he said. "I've never flown on a (private) jet, so I'm pretty excited about that."