The year of 2021 has been incredibly difficult for athletes. It seems as if this year more than ever professional athletes have passed away. Whether it is the NFL, NBA, MLB or the NHL, there have been far too many deaths in 2021.

Unfortunately, tragedy has most recent struck the New Jersey Devils among several other NHL teams. Former Devils defensemen Tom Kurvers has passed away at the age of 58 after being diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a type of non-small-cell lung cancer.

During his time in the NHL, Kurvers played for the Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders and the Anaheim Ducks.

In other NHL news, retired Devils goalie Martin Brodeur recently talked about the difference between today and when he played in regards to players walking into an arena before a game. Nowadays, you see players walking in with headphones on and their heads down. Brodeur indicated that things were different during his time in the NHL.

“We actually talked to each other,” he shared with a laugh. Now it’s more normal, kids are having their headphones on and listen to music and all that. We didn’t really do that, but we traded for Brad Lukowich. I don’t remember what year, and he came in from Dallas. And he’s the first one that during his preparation, he would put his headphones on. And he would do like the air drum and like playing the air guitar. And we’re like sitting there like, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on over there.’ So, that’s the first guy that we saw. So a little different than what we were used to.”

When discussing music that was played in the locker room, Brodeur had the following to say:

“Danius Zubrus had a little bit of techno music there, from Europe,” said Brodeur. “We had guys that (went) overboard with the country in the morning. You’d fall asleep.” There was never any happy medium. If it was somewhere we could never find it. You know, we are hockey players. We just like to complain about everything to each other anyway.”

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