By Torontoist

“If you had all this pressure to fight while you’re in the NHL, after you have the pressure to live because you don’t have any other option. All you did was fight. You don’t know what you’re going to do.”

—Former Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque talking to the Globe about the impact that being a “fighter” in the NHL can have on a player’s mental health, during and after his career. Laraque’s comments follow the death last night of former Toronto Maple Leaf Wade Belak, who retired earlier this year, and the loss of two other NHL enforcers in the past four months. Police are saying that it appears Belak took his own life, though they can’t be certain until a post-mortem is completed.