Luke Richardson opens up about horrific family tragedy.

A long player in the National Hockey League turned coach has just opened up about a horrific tragedy that has taken place in his immediately family.

As part of the Hockey Talks initiative designed to help raise awareness about mental health issues around the league, the Canadiens sported purple socks sporting the "Do it For Daron" slogan this week. It was a great move by the Habs organization and one that supports a tremendously import cause, but unfortunately there is a truly awful story behind the name. 

You see the "Do it For Daron" movement was named after Daron Richardson, the daughter of former NHL player and current coach for the Montreal Canadiens Luke Richardson. Sadly and without warning Daron took her own life when she was just 14 years of age, something that unsurprisingly left Luke and his wife Stephanie Richardson completely devastated. Stephanie recently participated in a public service announcement where she admitted that she had not seen any warning signs of trouble, and sadly it was quite clear that she regrets not having asked the right questions prior to her daughter's death.

Thankfully Daron's loss was not for nothing as it has now inspired an entire movement to bring awareness to cases like her own. In her honor the socks worn by the players and others were all purple, which was Daron's favorite color. Although this must be an awful time for him Richardson remains focus on the positives the "Do it for Daron" campaign can bring to the world.

"We're honored to be a part of this. I think it's a good stage, especially with the way young people look up to NHL players. They're superheroes to kids, so if players talk about it then maybe it's a little easier for others to talk about a subject that's still not so comfortable in our society yet," explained Richardson as per NHL.com. "We're starting to break some barriers, little by little. The more we do it, the more comfortable people will get."

Richardson has been a part of a large number of NHL organizations during his career including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Liughtning, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders and the aforementioned Montreal Canadiens. As a result I expect there will be an outpouring of support for his family from both the NHL family and fans alike following his decision to make such an awful story public in the hopes of making sure it never happens again.