Player’s passing stuns lifelong Canucks fan

Woman mourns loss of 'one of my boys'

By: Jonathan McDonald Posted: 3:18 AM CDT Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011

VANCOUVER -- Rick Rypien was five-foot-11, 190 pounds. Hal Gill was six-foot-seven, 240 pounds. A punch-up mismatch if there ever was one.

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VANCOUVER -- Rick Rypien was five-foot-11, 190 pounds. Hal Gill was six-foot-seven, 240 pounds. A punch-up mismatch if there ever was one.

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This article was published 17/08/2011 (5527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Rick Rypien was five-foot-11, 190 pounds. Hal Gill was six-foot-seven, 240 pounds. A punch-up mismatch if there ever was one.

And that’s why Ellen Ransford loved Rypien. That’s why she has a photo of the Rypien-Gill fight, which happened during a Vancouver Canucks tilt with the Montreal Canadiens in 2009, on the wall of her home.

“He was punching up, because he was small,” says Ransford, a Canucks fan from Richmond, B.C. “He didn’t back down from anybody.”

Darryl Dyck / the canadian press
People pause at a memorial for former Canucks player Rick Rypien outside Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Tuesday. Rypien was found dead at his home on Monday. — Darryl Dyck / the canadian press People pause at a memorial for former Canucks player Rick Rypien outside Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Tuesday. Rypien was found dead at his home on Monday.

Rypien’s sudden death Monday stunned Canucks fans, considering the 27-year-old tough guy had spent six years with the organization. No one was stunned more than Ransford, who’s enveloped her entire life in all things Canucks.

That’s why Ransford encouraged her 17-year-old daughter Alex to set up a “celebration of life” for Rypien Wednesday afternoon at Roger Neilson’s statue outside Rogers Arena. Alex and Ellen will bring books of condolence, which she hopes the Canucks will give to Rypien’s family.

“I was so happy for him,” Ransford says of Rypien, who signed during the off-season with the Winnipeg Jets after a troubled final season with the Canucks. “He was getting a fresh start.”

Rypien was suspended for six games last October after he attacked a fan in the stands at the Xcel Energy Center during a game between the visiting Canucks and Minnesota Wild. Then, in late November, the Canucks granted Rypien an extended personal leave.

He returned to pro hockey in March, playing his final games with the AHL Manitoba Moose.

When Rypien first showed up to Winnipeg, he spoke about his four-month absence and was surprisingly candid for a player who’d normally been tight-lipped. “It’s a personal matter, a rare issue,” Rypien said, without disclosing exactly why he’d been gone. “Even though it’s taken me away from hockey and the game I love, doing the work I’ve done the last couple of months I’ve made a lot of gains as a person.”

Ransford has invested a lot of time and effort as a Canucks fan. She and Alex were regular visitors to Canucks practices during last spring’s playoff run, and went to the airport to greet the team. The Canucks, she says, have helped make her relationship with her daughter closer.