Showing posts with label Ulcerative Colitis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ulcerative Colitis. Show all posts

Monday, April 26, 2010

Fernando Pisani, Masterton Fail

Today the Masterton trophy nominee's were released today. The three guys nominated were Kurtis Foster, Jed Ortmeyer, and Jose Theodore.

Anaheim: Teemu Selanne
Atlanta: Jim Slater
Boston: Mark Recchi
Buffalo: Ryan Miller
Calgary: Craig Conroy
Carolina: Rod Brind’Amour
Chicago: Brent Sopel
Colorado: Matt Hendricks
Columbus: Jared Boll
Dallas: Mike Modano
Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom
Edmonton: Jason Strudwick
Florida: Bryan Allen
Los Angeles: Brad Richardson
Minnesota: Guillaume Latendresse
Montreal: Jaroslav Halak
Nashville: Joel Ward
New Jersey: Patrik Elias
NY Islanders: Jack Hillen
NY Rangers: Chris Drury
Ottawa: Matt Carkner
Philadelphia: Mike Leighton
Phoenix: Vernon Fiddler
Pittsburgh: Bill Guerin
San Jose: Jed Ortmeyer
St. Louis: Erik Johnson
Tampa Bay: Kurtis Foster
Toronto: Jonas Gustavsson
Vancouver: Henrik Sedin
Washington: Jose Theodore

Now I will never knock those three guys for being nominated, they all deserve the recognition. Here are their stories.

I will however knock the Edmonton Oilers nominee choice -- not the guy, but the choice itself -- Jason Strudwick. Yeah, the guy is a great guy to be around and he's not an NHL regular (due to lack of skill) so he has shown perseverance and dedication. Jason also does a great job in the community.

The definition of the Bill Masterton trophy is, "it's awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey."

By that definition, it does describe Strudwick like I said in the two paragraphs up above, but it describes Fernando Pisani even more.


Pisani has been suffering from a disease called Ulcerative Colitis since August 2007 and it's very deadly. In fact, Pisani was near death when it first hit him. He has since recovered enough and has came back to the NHL and continues to play today. It's very amazing that Pisani is back playing. There was a point in time where he might not have ever played again. But he fought and did a great job at recovering.

Pisani had this to say about his Ulcerative Colitis, "It's not one of those illnesses that a lot of people enjoy talking about and it's obviously a private matter, but at the same time, so many people have come up to me and said I have a brother, sister or uncle or aunt that has been affected by this, and hasn't really been able to come out and say anything because they just felt embarrassed about it until my situation came up."

Pisani's situation has created a lot of awareness for Colitis. His story has been terrible for him, yet good for the public awareness. Fernando Pisani is a hero. A modest hero, but still a hero.

Maybe since Pisani was nominated last year, that took him out of the running this year? I don't know. All I do know is Pisani would have been my choice every year until he won the Masterton trophy.

Since it appears that Pisani most likely won't be back next season with the Oilers (or maybe the NHL period), this year just might be his last chance at this award. It's a shame that Fernando wasn't a winner of the Bill Masterton award. He is that award.

Here is a more in depth look at what Ulcerative Colitis is all about.


-Smokin' Ray-

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