She was a 13 year old attending a Columbus Blue Jackets game against the Calgary Flames when a shot puck was deflected into the stands in the end zone area. That's where Brittanie Cecil was sitting. Espen Knutsen of Columbus fired the puck while Flames' defenceman Derek Morris deflected it. It hit her in the head and snapped it back. She was injured, but she still seemed relatively okay. Still, she was taken to a nearby children's hospital for observations. They decided to keep the girl who was clutching the puck that hit her while joking with friends and family. But she herself was concerned...
She was concerned with her upcoming 14th birthday. The hockey tickets themselves were a birthday gift from her father. In her room, she smiled, laughed, all from her hospital bed where she was taken after the incident. She was excited about her souviner puck from the game. "Papaw, look," she said to her grandfather, "I got a souvenir." She was sitting up and was just "daddy's little girl".
She had cake and ice cream the next night. A few last minute gifts purchased at the hospital gift shop were given along with others. She was happy and waved goodbye as people departed the party, clinching her new souviner puck.
Later that night, the second night after the game, Brittanie complained of a headache to her mom, Jody Naudascher, and her stepmom, who took turns monitoring her through the early-morning hours.
By dawn, her mother would talk to her daughter, who could only hum a response.
"I knew she was still in there," Jody said.
Brittanie eventually faded into a coma from which she would never emerge.
She died that afternoon of internal bleeding on the brain.
It was the first death of an NHL fan of this kind in the league's history. And it would change the lives of the Cecil family, and the player who shot the puck, Espen Knutsen. He was told of the girl's death by a teammate.
"I thought he was joking. He had to be joking," Knutsen said. "I didn't believe it until I saw his face. I remember just kind of going blank and numb."
"He was beyond consoling, and that was for weeks and weeks," Columbus Coach Dave King said. "That incident ended his career. Espen was a wonderful person, and he had talent. But he was never the same player after that."
Knutsen played the night he learned of the death, thinking it would help. He would cringe every time a puck sailed into the stands. He was in obvious grief and despite being a very aggressive, checking player before, he did not deliver nor recieve many hits of any kind that night as the opponents noticed his fragile situation.
Later, Knutsen would travel to Europe to play. He was never the same and has not returned to the United States since 2004. The incident happened on March 16, 2002.
Knutsen has thought about contacting Brittanie's family over the years but feared he might upset them or, worse, that they might be angry at him.
Jody Naudascher, Brittanie's mother, has thought of Knutsen hundreds of times and came close to writing him a letter. She never did.
"We don't blame Espen; we don't blame anyone," Jody said. "I want to look him in the eye someday and tell him that. An accident is an accident."
The NHL has since put up safety netting round the back of the endzones. Brittanie remains the only fan to have died by being hit by a puck from the ice.
The Columbus Dispatch did an amazing story on this two years ago. Much of my information and the quotes came from that story.
Puck Daddy did a very good story on this topic. I suggest you read his story over on Yahoo! Sports.
That story focused more on the safety netting. At first, the nets were protested. They would interfere with the viewing experience. They would be taking away from the experience of attending a game in person by limiting the ability to get pucks (like foul balls in baseball). But Greg Wyshynski, the Puck Daddy writer, put it this way:
"...The netting has become such an assumed part of the fan experience that the backlash 10 years ago seems Neanderthalic — and fairly cold-hearted — today. The league argued this change was essential for safety. The purists bristled at the end of a tradition. Debates raged … and then a decade later, yesterday's hot-button debate is today's societal norm."
Well said.
Brittanie Cecil forever changed the view on safety in the NHL as it pertains to its fans.
She is a hero to so many that will never meet her. Never knew her name. Never even knew the possible danger they avoided because of present day safety measures that are just a routine part of the arena setup for a hockey game. Anytime a puck sails into the protective netting and the fans have a collective "woah" reaction then joke with each other about the guy in the group that raised his hands to catch it or shield themeselves from it, thank Brittanie.
R.I.P.
