Facing Off With Adversity

Earlier this season the unthinkable happened. Hockey star in training Phil Kessel had to leave the game to deal with a cancer diagnosis. The news was initially shocking and downright scary, though perhaps unnecessarily so on my behalf. Kessel's life apparently was never in danger, nor his career. He returned to the league with as clean a bill of health a cancer patient can have just a few weeks later.

Still, Kessel's story keeps us sports fans real. There are far more important things in life than hockey. And Kessel isn't the first sports hero to be brought face to face with mortality so shockingly.

In fact, the Bruins have had their share of such scares. Two that come immediately to mind are Normand Leveille and Barry Pederson.

Normand Leveille was a can't miss prospect billed to be "better than Yvan Cournoyer." Unfortunately just a few games into his second season he suffered a congenital brain aneurysm. He would spend 7 hours in surgery and 3 weeks in a coma, recovering eventually although his vocal and many motor skills remain severely challenging.

Barry Pederson's brush with health scares was a little less scary, as his life was never really in danger. But his career was. Doctors removed a 4x6 inch portion of his shoulder muscles to remove a benign tumour. A scoring superstar in his first three years in the league, Pederson was never the same after the surgery. The Bruins recognized that fact early, and were able to trade him to Vancouver in exchange for Cam Neely and a third overall draft choice (Glen Wesley).