Oh Captain, My Captain | A Letter to Chris Pronger

Chris,

It’s hard to express to someone you have never met just how much they mean to you.  Watching you these past few years you have become so close to many of us.  Many that will never get to truly express how much you mean to our city.

You give Philadelphia so much to cheer for.  The Cup Finals run in 2010 was probably one of the most inspiring performances that I have witnessed from the Flyers in my lifetime.  We will all remember that for the rest of our lives.  It is an absolute honor watching you grace the frozen battlefield here in Philadelphia. 

All of us are blessed we get to watch one of the greatest defenseman in the history of the game in our city, in our colors.  You made this your city, your colors, simply by the way you approached the game and gave your all.  “It’s about the crest on the front, not the name on the back”.  You not only play by that motto, but you live and breathe it too.

You are the epitome of a warrior. From day one you gave nothing but your all for the city of Philadelphia.  For that, we are all eternally grateful.  That is all we ever ask of our players, to give 100%.  You do that, and then some every game, every night.  

Sometimes the hardest thing to do for a warrior is let go.  You owe the fans in Philadelphia absolutely nothing more.  You have given blood, sweat, and tears to this city, something that will forever endear you to us.  All that we can do is thank you, and let you know just how much you mean to us.

We here at the Orange and Black Pack wanted to extend our well wishes on a full and speedy recovery. Of course, we all hope to see you on the ice again, but we also wanted to let you know it’s ok. It’s ok if we don’t.  At this point, we would love to see you make a full recovery and be able to live the rest of your life in peace.

With that said, last week we put together a campaign to let you know just how much we all care.  It was called “Prayers for Pronger”. We had fans send in their well wishes for you via Twitter. 

There were many tweets, Chris. You can see how much you mean to us, as not only a hockey player, but as a person as well.  We care about Chris Pronger the man first, the hockey player second.  Wishing you all the best from the bottom of our hearts, Prongs…

 “If you are going through Hell, keep going”
                                      -Winston Churchill

We are behind you, Chris.  We are all behind you, 100%. Wishing you a full recovery from the entire Flyers nation.