In the second to last preseason game for the Habs, the team was in Ottawa to battle the Sens. The storyline we take from this game, however, has very little to do with the game itself…
Ottawa Senators Chris Neil and Montreal Canadiens Ryan White were going at it most of the evening. In the second period, they duked it out, resulting in White earning a five minute fighting major, ten minute misconduct and a two minute instigator. During the third period of that same game, things changed a bit. Ryan got a ten minute misconduct and Neil received a ten minute misconduct and a two minute unsportsmanlike penalty for pulling Ryan White’s hair. Really, it comes down to playground tactics?
After that game there was quite the stir on Twitter as to what White was going to do about it. As seen the next day nothing happened and he played that game with his long flow. On the Friday the team had off so nothing was seen as to what was happening with any of the players.
The next day was the one day I decided not to show up to Habs practice thinking nothing would happen. However, that’s was not the case – many things did happen, including Ryan White shaved his head. Along with other things happening on that Saturday morning practice, my entire twitter feed was dedicated to how he cut or shaved his head.
Nobody knew the extreme he went to in this case. We only had one picture circulating that showed his head was shaved on the side (he was wearing a helmet). He managed for the remaining days to escape reporters and fans and only debuted his new hair cut during Tuesday night’s opening game…being completely bald.
So why was this? Listening in on an interview I found out it was for a most unfortunate reason – to support a young cancer patient. “I decided to shave it to support my billet family’s daughter, who has cancer.” This young girl in question is Kailani Decock, whom he lived with her family when he played juniors for the Calgary Hitmen. The soccer player found out she had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (white blood cell disease), and White was ready to help out.
White also said that people kept harassing him to do something about his long locks. He took it as a challenge since he is all about extremes. He decided to go from what he said was the longest locks in the NHL to a shaved head, and there being a good cause made the idea come to fruition.
What hand Neil’s playground antics had in White shaving his head remains to be seen, but any time someone with some star power reaches for the good of many, it can only be a positive thing.
There you have it. Like I hoped and expected Ryan White shaved his head for a good cause in support of his friends daughter…who by the way is doing pretty well so far and is apparently responding to treatment.
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