Countless professional athletes can share stories of their triumphs and failures, capturing glimpses of the road that they travelled in their particular sporting endeavour. Few of these tales are as compelling and intimate as that of Clint Malarchuk, the former NHL goalie.
Spending roughly a decade in the National Hockey League, Malarchuk is remembered most for the horrific incident in a March 1989 between his Buffalo Sabres and the visiting St. Louis Blues, when Malarchuk's throat was slashed by the skate of an opposing player, creating a life and death situation on the ice.
Be aware, the video of the incident is very graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.
Yet it is his post-career challenges with addiction and depression, a combination that would ultimately lead to a suicide attempt, that the 55 year-old Edmonton native now shares with hundreds of Canadians every year.
A fourth-round draft pick of the Québec Nordiques in 1981, Malarchuk will be in Sudbury on Oct. 6th, the guest speaker at a free public talk at the Steelworkers Hall on Brady Street.
Sponsored by the Health Sciences North Foundation, Malarchuk will share trials, tribulations and triumphs of his life, and take part in a Q&A with the audience.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m., with Malarchuk taking to the podium at 6:30 p.m.
He will tell his extraordinary and heart-wrenching life story — which includes his long battle with alcoholism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post tramautic stress disorder and an unsuccessful suicide attempt that made the news. His goal: To help others with mental illness with the message that they are not alone and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
For more information regarding "A Conversation with Clint," call (705) 523-7145, or visit the foundation website at HSNFoundation.com. Malarchuk will have copies of his 2014 memoir, The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond, on hand, and will be available to sign any books that are purchased.
