ROBIN LEHNER
“…I’m not ashamed to say I’m mentally ill, but that doesn’t mean I’m mentally weak…”
— Robin Lehner, 27, accepting the 2019 NHL Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
That says it all.
Right on the money.
Period. End of report.
Minnesota North Stars rookie centerman Bill Masterton, 29, died on January 15, 1968 from a head injury sustained in a game 30 hours earlier against the Oakland Seals.
In 1967-’68 the National Hockey League expanded from its storied Original Six configuration to become a 12-team circuit. Masterton hung up his skates after spending time in the Montreal Canadiens’ minor-league system but expansion rekindled and piqued his interest, offering him another chance. He latched onto the North Stars and in fact scored the first goal in the franchise’s 52-year history. (The Stars moved to Dallas in the Fall of 1993).
Not unlike his teammates and opponents Masterton absorbed some big hits along the way in a league where helmets were not mandatory and wouldn’t be for another 11 seasons.
It was not until the start of the 1979-’80 campaign when the NHL decreed that any player entering the league from that point on would be required to wear a helmet. By the early ’90s there were only a few hatless players left, the last one being Craig MacTavish of the St. Louis Blues in 1996-’97. Concussion protocols would not be introduced and mandated until 2008.
Masterton is the only man to die of injuries sustained in an NHL game. Nearly 52 years later, he remains the last fatality in any professional team sport in North America involving a direct in-game injury. While he was originally thought to have suffered a fatal brain injury after being checked and banging the back of his head on the ice, further analysis of the case revealed evidence of second-impact syndrome and the cumulative effects of prior concussions.
Masterton’s death sparked the NHL’s first vote on mandatory helmet use although the subject was well-received neither by franchise owners nor the coaching fraternity and as a result met with staunch resistance for the aforementioned eleven years.
Several awards including the one bearing his name, recognizing the NHL player “who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey” were created to honor Masterton’s memory. His death was the seminal event which sharpened the focus on head safety and brought it to the forefront of a game both unready and unwilling to accept change.
A significant uptick in mainstream media attention of late has catalyzed unprecedented public awareness of brain injury and concussions in hockey and many other sports. Bill Masterton’s death served as the driving force.
The winner of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is selected by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association (PHWA) after each team nominates one player; it is often awarded to the player who has rebounded from career or even life-threatening injury or illness.
The first recipient in 1967-’68 was Claude Provost of the Montreal Canadiens. Bobby Clarke of the Flyers who battled and overcame diabetes in a Hall-of-Fame career won it in 1971-’2. Mark Fitzpatrick was honored twenty years later, returning to the New York Islanders after dealing with the frightening Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, an incurable and sometimes deadly flu-like neurological condition. The next season it was the Penguins’ Mario Lemieux who missed 24 games due to Hodgkin’s lymphoma and still won his fourth Art Ross Trophy, amassing 160 points.
Bryan Berard of the Blackhawks was selected in 2003-’4 coming back to play and somehow contribute after suffering an injury that rendered him legally blind in one eye. In 2007-’8 it was Jason Blake of Toronto who played in all 82 games despite his diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Jose Theodore a Washington Capitals goaltender in 2009-’10 had his best season in nearly a decade on the tragic heels of his son Chase’s death from premature birth complications. Josh Harding, tending goal for the Minnesota Wild in 2012-’13 earned a shutout in his first start after an off-season diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, missed 33 games, then returned late in the campaign and managed to start five playoff games.
Brian Boyle of the Devils was the 2017-’18 Masterton recipient, returning to the NHL on November 1 after being diagnosed with myeloid leukemia — a bone marrow cancer — at the beginning of training camp and scoring ten goals over his first 25 games.
And this year’s winner was Robin Lehner, goaltender for the New York Islanders.
Lehner, following the cue of some professional athletes and select others today finding themselves in the harsh and unforgiving limelight, publicly disclosed in the off-season that he was struggling with alcoholism and bipolar disorder.
He then proceeded to record a career low 2.13 GAA, the lowest regular-season figure since the mid-1980s. He set a personal mark for wins with twenty-five (25–13–5) and compiled a .930 save percentage, becoming a Vezina Trophy (NHL’s top goalie) finalist. (The Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy claimed the hardware. Lehner and Thomas Greiss however shared the Jennings Trophy presented to the goaltending tandem playing at least 25 games apiece for the club allowing the fewest regular-season goals).
But it was in the middle of a game in March 2018 when Lehner had “a major, full-blown panic attack,” that he knew something was very wrong. The night before he had “wanted to kill myself.”
He expounded. “Since the new year began I had been feeling severely depressed and my drinking increased. I was heavily drinking a case of beer a day just to settle the demons in my mind and then took pills to sleep. I was self-treating myself because I could not be inside my own head by myself. The thoughts of ending it all…it was real and close.”
He knew that he needed help.
“March 29, 2018 was the day my life would change forever…I was personally in a bad place…I was not good to go…This dark place is full of self-medication and thoughts of suicide…I was drunk. I wanted to kill myself. I was extremely close multiple times. The battle playing hockey was nothing compared to the battle inside my brain. It was at its worst…It was true powerlessness…I wasn’t in control of my own mind…I was scared…It finally didn’t matter. I was going to rehab for myself and my family. It was the one thing I have done in my life that made me feel like a true man…My detox lasted three weeks…I was told my detox was one of the worst that they had seen. I had not had an honest sleep in so long, my mind was in shock…Sleep was only in short spurts. I was truly living on autopilot for three weeks in a constant fog…Five weeks into treatment and I was diagnosed bipolar 1 with manic phases…I could not stand being alone in my brain [at night time]…I am an addict that was diagnosed as bipolar and ADHD with PTSD and trauma…I am not sharing this story to make people think differently of Robin Lehner as a professional goalie. I want to help make a difference and help others the way I have been helped. I want people to know that there is hope in desperation, there is healing in facing an ugly past and there is no shame in involving others in your battle…It is time to take the ‘crazy person’ stamp from bipolar disorder…I am working hard to become the latest to battle this unfair stigma…Got to keep pushing, end the stigma…My journey is still new. Every day is a battle and each day a new chance to grow as a man. Our battle together is just beginning.”
Acknowledging that his well-documented travails are a factor in current contract negotiations, unrestricted free agent Lehner insists that the Isles will be the only team with whom he negotiates. President and GM Lou Lamoriello has said he hopes to re-sign the goaltender. “I’ve got no plans to talk to another team at this point,” Lehner remarked.
“From my understanding, that’s not Lou’s intention either. Hopefully, it will work out so we can finish what we have started.” A bargain at one-year and $1.5 million, he could make 3 or 4 times that going forward on a short-term deal but his comfort level is a paramount concern. And he’s comfortable with the Islanders.
Lehner’s continued sobriety will always be an issue; it’s the nature of the beast.
But standing up as he has — on and off the ice — bodes well for his future. As does his humility. “I can’t diminish what this team and this organization has done for me because they’ve done a tremendous amount, being good human beings,” he said. “I like the people there. I love my teammates. I love the organization.
So obviously, I want to be back…I know the team knows where I stand and I just hope something works out. I just want to be a part of this team.”
Regardless of whose sweater Lehner pulls on next season for whatever sum of money and length of contract, he deserves respect.
And he now knows just how to continue to earn it.
There is nothing more valuable than that.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in June 2019.]
