Advances in medicine have kept millions alive who, had they been born decades earlier, would certainly
have died young of maladies easily treatable today.
Vezina, of course, succumbed to tuberculosis in 1926. Eleven years earlier, the same disease took Marty Walsh.
During the 1919 Stanley Cup Final, Joe Hall perished of the Spanish flu, resulting in the cancellation of the Final.
Hamby Shore was another victim of that influenza pandemic the previous year.
Jack Darragh suffered a ruptured appendix, ending his life in 1924. Hod Stuart was 28 when he died
in a 1907 swimming mishap. Another young star player, Alan "Scotty" Davidson, was only 23 when he was killed
in combat during WWI. The great goaler Charlie Gardiner was just 30 when he was done in by a brain hemorrhage.
The great goalscorer Didier Pitre, if memory serves, put on a huge amount of weight after his playing days,
and died at 49 in 1934 of what was probably a heart attack.
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