Igor Romishevsky, Soviet Defenseman, Dead

The Russian media is reporting death of defenceman Igor Romishevsky at the age of 73.

Romishevsky was the Olympic champion in 1968 and 1972 and 3-time World Champion. He retired one year prior to the 1972 Summit Series.

RJ Pratt, a hockey historian with the Society For International Hockey Research, crunched some interesting numbers:

Only 6 members of that 1968 Olympic team are now still alive (Davydov, Ionov, Mayorov, Polupanov, Starshinov and Zimin). 12 have died - including 3 within the past 3 months - to continue the trend of early deaths of Russian players in comparison to their western counterparts. ‎ Even eliminating Viktor Blinov's death at age 22 in 1968 from a car accident, the other 11 members have died at an average age of 63.