Former player meets family of girl killed by hockey puck
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS
An endless stream of faces passed by Jody Naudascher at her daughter’s funeral, but the one she was privately hoping to see, the hockey player with the long, sandy-blond hair, didn’t walk through the door.
Almost nine years after 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil died after being struck by a hockey puck, Naudascher finally met the man who had been carrying around his own anguish for the loss of her little girl.
Espen Knutsen, the former Columbus Blue Jackets player who shot the puck that struck Brittanie, embraced the trembling mother the moment he saw her, and the two began the closure that had escaped them both.
“I don’t hold you responsible; I never did,” Naudascher told Knutsen at Nationwide Arena during a private, one-hour meeting. “It was an accident, and you should never have blamed yourself for anything. I wanted to tell you all this back then.”
On March 16, 2002, Knutsen struck a routine slap shot in a game against the Calgary Flames. It ricocheted off an opponent’s stick, flew into the lower bowl and hit Brittanie in the head just above the nose.
Brittanie died two days later. The news left Knutsen sobbing in the Blue Jackets’ locker room and stunned the hockey world. Within a few months of Brittanie’s death, Nationwide Arena and every other NHL arena installed tall nets around the ends of the ice to protect fans from flying pucks.
Naudascher and Knutsen, separated by an ocean since the tragedy, have wondered about each other’s grief, until they were able to share their compassion for one another on Friday.
“I can’t imagine what it was like for you, for your family,” Knutsen said.
“It was a terrible accident that I couldn’t believe,” he said. “I saw her walk out of the arena and couldn’t believe it when I heard what happened. I’m the one that is thankful for meeting you.”
It was Knutsen’s first trip back to the U.S. since he last played for the Blue Jackets in 2004. He lives with his 11-year-old son, Emil, in Norway, where Knutsen coaches the country’s top professional hockey team. He is one of several former players from the inaugural season who have returned this year to Columbus to help the Blue Jackets celebrate their 10th anniversary.
The meeting this week was arranged at Naudascher’s and Knutsen’s request by The Columbus Dispatch when it was announced that the former player would be making the trip. The newspaper had interviewed Naudascher and Knutsen for an in-depth story published March 21.
They were joined in the arena’s Founders Club room by Knutsen’s son; Brittanie’s grandparents, Fran and Rhonda Naudascher; Brittanie’s sister, Kristina Sergent; and Sergent’s stepsister, Chelsea Wombold.
Knutsen’s calm, inviting demeanor seemed to soothe members of Naudascher’s family, who didn’t know what to expect from the 38-year-old former player.
They spent the first part of the meeting sharing details of their ordeals after Brittanie’s death.
Jody Naudascher told Knutsen that Brittanie didn’t see the puck or feel it until she realized she was bleeding. She was even laughing, joking and holding up the puck that struck her when she arrived at the hospital. And Naudascher told him how the national media stalked her family during Brittanie’s funeral services and continued to hound them for years.
Knutsen reflected on being made a villain by some after the tragedy, how hard it was to continue playing hockey and how Brittanie’s death could have been prevented if nets had been hung in North American rinks sooner.
The emotion in the room eventually overwhelmed Brittanie’s grandfather, who began weeping as his family described Brittanie’s spirited personality for Knutsen.
Brittanie would have turned 23 this coming March.
“She would have liked meeting you,” said Fran, her grandfather. “We don’t blame you for anything, either. You’re a very nice man.”
The family eventually received a financial settlement from the NHL, the Blue Jackets and others, including The Dispatch Printing Company, a minority owner of the team. The family has declined to talk about any legal issues, including the lawsuit it filed against Children’s Hospital, which treated Brittanie.
She remains the only fan to be fatally injured during an NHL game, and her passing was devastating to a Blue Jackets organization that was in its infancy.
“It really shook me, my teammates and everyone around the team more than people could ever know,” Knutsen said.
At the end of their encounter, Jody Naudascher embraced Knutsen one more time and asked him to sign autographs for Brittanie’s scrapbook.
But she and her family wanted one more piece of closure.
They had never set foot inside Nationwide Arena and wanted to see the rink and Section 121, Row S, where Brittanie was seated the day she and her stepmother attended the game.
Naudascher entered the darkened, empty arena and exhaled when she saw the seats where the tragedy unfolded.
Then she walked to the other end and pointed to the nets that wrap around each end of the rink.
“I’m so glad those are up there,” Jody said. “We will never stop missing Brittanie, but I’m at peace now, and I think Espen is, too.”