Goal released Walker's burden

[mmonk]

At the time, no one knew the emotional burden the Carolina Hurricanes forward -- one of the toughest players on the team, if not the league -- had been carrying.

-snip-

The team announced Saturday that Walker's wife Julie was diagnosed with cervical cancer during the second-round series against the Boston Bruins, explaining Walker's uncharacteristic display of emotion Thursday night and casting a new light on Walker's eventful week.

-snip-

There's no way to minimize the effect that word can have on a person, on a husband, on a family, on a team. At any time, it's a jarring blow, let alone in the middle of the playoffs, in the middle of a series where Walker was in the spotlight anyway.

-snip-

The thing is, even without this hanging over his head, his emotion after his Game 7 goal was totally understandable for so many reasons.

http://www.newsobserver.com/796/story/1530692.html

[Forkboy]

1. I read about this over the weekend.

Explains a lot. Glad to hear last night that the cancer was caught early and his wife is expected to be fine.

This makes that goal in game 7 a lot less painful for me. ;)

[mmonk]

2. Remember I said I was going to post something about Walker, but didn't.

After they decided to do a press release, my conscience allowed me to post it as this story done by a sportswriter.