[Devils-list] Stephane Richer

[Patrick Emond]

Former Dev Stephane Richer was on "Arcand", a weekly one-on-one interview 
show on French network TVA tonight, and he was very candid, much more so 
than he had been for most of his career.

Richer admitted that he is currently undergoing psychiatric therapy to deal 
with depression; he said that even during his glory days in the NHL he had 
never really felt happy, with hockey or with his life in general. At times, 
he said he would just go through the motions on the ice.

He also admitted to having been suicidal at various times in his life. He 
said that he is overly sensitive, letting too many things affect him 
emotionally to the point where it would distract him on the ice.

He also squashed rumours that he is gay... his sexual preference had long 
been in the Montreal rumour mill. He said his bachelorhood was due mostly to 
not really knowing to love someone. He ended by saying that he regretted not 
finding help sooner, it probably would have changed a lot of things about 
his life.


Interesting stuff... it was common knowledge in Montreal that Richer was 
something of a head case, so it was eye-opening to hear his story in his own 
words. Hopefully things work out for him... his hockey career was short of 
what it could have been, so maybe he can make the most out of life after 
hockey.


Patrick Emond
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.