Detroit Red Wings icon Darren McCarty put aside his storied on-ice rivalry with Claude Lemieux to honor the late NHL star after his death by suicide on Thursday, May 28.
“Sad day. Another brother gone,” McCarty, 54, said in a video shared with Woodward Sports Network on Thursday. “I can say a lot of things — and I will — but if you’re struggling out there, no matter what, just reach out for some help. It’s a sad day, no matter what. Rest in peace, Claude.”
The video then cut to McCarty blowing out birthday candles at his 50th birthday party in 2022, where Lemieux was on hand to help celebrate.
“It just goes to show you that you never know in this life,” McCarty said about his friendship with Lemieux.
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McCarty and Lemieux became bitter adversaries in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, when McCarty’s Red Wings and Lemieux’s Avalanche had one of the fiercest rivalries in pro sports history.
Most notably, McCarty and Lemieux’s bout was the centerpiece of 1997’s infamous Fight Night at the Joe, where the two battled at center ice.
McCarty posted a separate written tribute to Lemieux on social media shortly after news of his death.
“This is extremely sad no matter what feelings from past or present you hold,” he wrote via X. “My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends and people who got to see the person off the ice wasn’t the person on. As I’ve said and will always call it as I see it.”
McCarty added, “And please. If you are struggling at all please reach out and talk to someone. Godspeed my friend.”
The Red Wings organization remembered Lemieux on Thursday, calling him “a fierce competitor on the ice.”
Lemieux died on Thursday of an apparent suicide, the Palm Beach Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to Us Weekly. He was 60 years old.
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The late NHL star’s body was found by one of his sons inside a furniture warehouse in Florida owned by the Lemieux family.
Lemieux is survived by his wife, Deborah, sons Brendan, Christopher and Michael and daughter Claudia. It was not revealed which one of Lemieux’s sons found his body.
The Avalanche — for whom Lemieux played for from 1995 to 2000 — called the late enforcer “a fierce competitor and a champion in every way.”
“Today is a very sad day for the Avalanche family and Claude will be greatly missed by all of us who had the privilege of knowing him,” the team said in a statement.
