Peter Zezel became known as an effective checker late in his career, but he wasn't always so. In fact, the star junior with the OHL's Toronto Marlboros was picked in the second round by the Flyers in 1983 and put up 133 points in junior the very next season.

A year after that, he stepped into the NHL and had six consecutive seasons with between 54 and 72 points. He ultimately became pretty well travelled, playing with seven different teams in his career, and as a result I imagine fan bases all over the NHL are in mourning today after his death at the age of 44.

Zezel had suffered from a rare blood disorder since 2001, and medication he took to combat the illness caused considerable weight gain. Even so, he was often in the public eye, and I recall seeing him on TSN's Off The Record a handful of times the past few seasons.

His death has made a big impact here in Toronto, where he was from and where he played for the Leafs between 1990-94 when they had some of their strongest clubs in the past few decades. He also played for the Flyers, Blues, Capitals, Stars, Devils and Canucks.

Me, I mostly remember him from his stop in Vancouver, when he came in for 66 games at the tail end of his career in the true dog days of that franchise and put up 31 points in his final two seasons. He was a Mike Keenan favourite, a faceoff specialist who worked hard and was popular among his teammates.

"The hockey community has suffered a great loss today," said NHLPA director of player affairs Glenn Healy. "Peter was a friend and a great family man who was well liked by everyone he crossed paths with in our game. Our thoughts are with Peter's family and many friends during this difficult time."

My condolences to his family.

If you read just one hockey story today, it should be Al Maki's on former NHLer Walt Poddubny.

Poddubny died on Saturday, and the initial reports read like so:

The full story's much more complicated. I'm not sure if we even know exactly what it is quite yet, but it's a sad one.

It makes me wonder how many more Poddubnys there are out there.

New York Ranger prospect Alexei Cherepanov collapsed on the bench at or near the end of Omsk's Kontinental Hockey League game and died a short time later, he was 19.

Omsk head coach, Wayne Fleming said Cherepanov collapsed on the bench during the third period of the game and did not see anything that happened on the ice that may have contributed to it.

— TSN.ca

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"I don't know if you know Shippagan," Guysma Hache said on the phone from there. "It's a very small city — only 2,500 people. We are a French community. The kids around here, they dreamed to have a chance to see Luc Bourdon bring the Stanley Cup here. He was a hero. That was the dream of a lot of kids."

— Vancouver Sun

There are a zillion stories like Luc Bourdon's across this country, a local boy made good in the game everyone knows and follows.

In Shippagan, Bourdon wasn't just a celebrity — he was a virtual head of state, a 21-year-old hockey prince who had ascended to the join the stars of the faraway NHL. Years from now, street signs, arenas and schools were to have his name, as the quiet kid from up the street helped shine a light on his sleepy hometown.

Yesterday afternoon, on a lonely highway between Lamenque and the quiet francophone community where he spent his first 16 years, the dream ended.

Some stations here in Toronto ran footage of the accident scene, something that wouldn't have made the press everywhere, and it was difficult to watch. A yellow semi-trailer truck with its hood in tatters down the middle, a slick black motorcycle in pieces on the pavement underneath, and blue tarps masking the rest.

To hockey fans in Vancouver, Bourdon was still an enigma, a high draft pick who had yet to round into form, but a player that had starred in his adopted homeland as a junior on the world stage. Still just 21, there was potential there, and being he could have simply been a slow-developing blueliner, who's to say what heights, exactly, he would have reached.

Bourdon was an Acadian, through and through, and that explained, in part, his shyness. Shippagan is a world away from the bright lights of Vancouver.

His uncle was a crab fisherman, and every summer until he signed his NHL contract, Bourdon was on the boats with his family, earning a living the way countless others in the area do.

There have been outpourings of support in the hours after his death, including groups on Facebook and tributes around the 'net. His family, understandably, has remained quiet, but one friend left a message on a blog explaining the incident, saying that Bourdon's girlfriend watched the accident unfold in a car trailing his newly purchased bike.

Unthinkable.

We've seen small-town Newfoundland rejoice this week as one hero chases the Stanley Cup, but a neighbour is now mourning its boy wonder.

Luc Bourdon Country is down a star.
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