It was with great sadness on Saturday night, that I read about the tragic death of Luke Richardson’s 14 year-old daughter, Daron. According to the Associated Press story, a statement was released by the Ottawa Senators, the team that Richardson was an assistant coach with: “ There was an accident at their home (Friday) and Daron tried to take her life by hanging….. Her mother found her in the basement and Daron was rushed to the hospital by ambulance where she remained in critical condition in ICU until she succumbed to her injuries.”
I can’t imagine anything more horrific for any family.
Luke was a 21 year veteran of the National Hockey League, and played with Toronto, Edmonton, Philadelphia,Columbus, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa. He completed his career with 35 goals, 166 assists in 1,417 games.
I always appreciated that Luke was a gentleman, who always found the time to stop and say ‘ Hi,how are you ?’, and participate in a conversation. It didn’t really matter what team he was with, or how things were going for him or his club, it never stopped him from being well mannered and a class act. Luke is one of the real nice guys in the game.
We can all only hope that Luke will find a way to cope with this tragedy, and that he will know that anyone who is familiar with him, will have his family in their thoughts and prayers.