Kukla's Korner Hockey
Hasenfratz Is Right Where He Wants To Be
by Paul on 11/19/11 at 03:04 AM ET
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from Darrell Davis of the Globe and Mail,
NHL referee Mike Hasenfratz is going to work a regular-season game in Canada this weekend for the first time in two years, quite an accomplishment considering he could have died in the interim.
“It’s the same thing that killed John Ritter,” said Hasenfratz, a 45-year-old official from Regina who joined the NHL’s staff in 2000. “When the doctors told me what I had, they asked me, ‘How did you know about this? We usually find out about it when we’re doing an autopsy.’”
Ritter, an actor best known for TV roles on Three’s Company and 8 Simple Rules … for Dating my Teenage Daughter, died unexpectedly of a heart affliction called aortic dissection in 2003. A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed against his doctors five years later; it was dismissed.
Hasenfratz, who has lived in Nashville for the past 11 years, is slated to be an on-ice official for a Winnipeg Jets home game on Saturday. He’s already worked about a dozen regular-season contests, including a welcome-back moment during his first assignment when he was smashed between Chicago Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews and Dallas Stars forward Jake Dowell.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Officiating, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: mike+hasenfratz
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