Late last summer, we brought you the story of Leafs (and ex-Sharks) winger Mark Bell, the young man who was foolish enough to drive around town after a long night of quaffing beers at the bar.As you might expect with a drunk driver, Bell roared around Silicon Valley at very high speed, rear-ended an unsuspecting sap and causing serious upper body injuries. Thanks to his semi-celebrity status, Bell managed to avoid serious jail time and settled his case out-of-court.
Still, Bell had to pay some price and learn his lesson. In addition to the token NHL suspension, Bell had to perform 440 hours of community service (eight hours a day, five days a week for 11 weeks) of "professional landscaping".
"I don't consider myself an alcoholic and I never will consider myself an alcoholic. But I got in trouble because of alcohol and, to me, that's a problem. I had to change things in my life so I changed them," he said.
"I was ashamed of what I did when it first happened. And embarrassed, all the emotions that came along with it. But you know what? It happened. I made a mistake. At the same time, I've been through a lot and I've overcome a lot. I'm actually very proud of myself for what I've overcome."
Perhaps this humbling experience of forced manual labor really did give Bell enough time to reflect on what he did and where he was going in life. Bell was fortunate that he didn't cause the death of the victim, and now has the opportunity to get his hockey career back on track. Many other drunk drivers aren't quite so fortunate.
As for Bell's hockey career, it's very hard to project just how he'll do and how much he'll play. For all of his career, Bell has not put up the offensive numbers that many expects were expecting, and his last two seasons in the NHL were among his worst. I think 30+ points would be a pleasant surprise.
