Rick DiPietro: A Tough Time - Suicide ''Joke''

Follow my YouTube video updates on Twitter. http://twitter.com/HockeyWebCast

Via PuckDaddy --- Days after being placed on waivers by the New York Islanders, Rick DiPietro and his $4.5 million cap hit met with the media as he became the newest member of the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

With Evgeni Nabokov taking a heavy workload through the first half of the season, DiPietro was sent down to get him games, having been bypassed on the organization's depth chart.
From Michael Fornabaio of the Connecticut Post:

"The last couple of years, with all the injuries, if it's taught me anything, it's that I need to enjoy what I do," DiPietro said. "It's a good opportunity to play a lot of games and get sharp. At the end of the day, you want to compete. You want to win. That's what I want to do."
Speaking with News 12 Long Island's Kevin Maher, DiPietro gave an emotional response to how he took the news that the Islanders were waiving him. DiPietro told Maher ,"they ripped my heart out, stabbed it, set it on fire and flushed it down the toilet."

The numerous injuries on top of the albatross of a contract turned DiPietro into a target for Islanders fans. The "DiPi!" chants inside Nassau Coliseum were few and far between once he became known as an oft-injured goaltender. The fans turning on him and the lack of success on the ice led DiPietro to have suicidal thoughts at one point, he told Maher, something he mentioned, "half-jokingly" at the end of last season.


UPDATE: DiPietro tells Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post that he was being facetious in making the suicide comment, but said, "There have been times that I've been depressed".

UPDATE: 6 p.m ET: Here's video, via News 12, of DiPietro's comments. The comment about him driving into a tree/off the Throgs Neck Bridge come at the 40-second mark. He made a similar comment to the New York Times in April:

• Category

  Sports

[retsnom820]

He could always just drive his car into Brent Johnson's fist.

[SuperFredster]

he should do a tim thomas and take a year off, might do wonders for him

[aldojr86]

Dipietro is the example of why long term contracts are a BAD IDEA.

[M. Witch Matt Olson]

The prob with Rick is that he has been bitten by the injury bug to much. He was a good goalie in 2006-07 and took the islanders to the playoffs

[Wolfhawk40]

Really, what Rick needs is a little space from reporters and time to get in form.

[Wolfhawk40]

The hair really shouldn't be of concern. There are more serious matters to attend to about him. He has more important things to worry about than his hair. He gets it cut, fanfuckingtastic. If not, so what.

[Wolfhawk40]

Obviously, Rick has had some bad times. I agree on the big deal being too much for him. But there has to be an upside... and there is. He's looking the way he was before the fifteen year deal. I saw him play in bridgeport today and he looked great. Hopefully he'll get called up next year after Nabakov retires and gets back in form. This is right from a die-hard NYI fan.

[AlexBkatzmann]

playing?

[TheIslesrule123]

He's doing good in Bridgeport

[Smoshlover749]

I feel bad for dp because he is a good goalie and and he was just having a tough time. But I think he he will play good in bridgeport.

[Smoshlover749]

All of these reporters just needs to leave rick alone.