Referee Butch Mousseaux remains hospitalized in critical condition after falling on the ice during warm-ups of a WCHA game last Friday.
“It’s just shocking to me how it happened,” Mousseaux’s wife, Macaire, told MLive. “I get the logistics of it all that he had his hands in his pockets and was just casually skating backward and tripped somehow. He didn’t have an opportunity to break his fall and slammed his head.”
WCHA Referee Butch Mousseaux
Mousseaux is currently in a medically-induced coma in an attempt to reduce brain activity while the swelling on his brain decreases. His family reported that the intercranial pressure was decreasing overnight, which may be a positive sign. His family is by his side at Mercy Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“I’m just hoping and praying that by the end of the week we’ll have kind of a direction on which way this is going,” said Mousseaux’s wife. “Hopefully there will be a game plan on what we’re doing. I really just don’t know. It’s a waiting game.”
The Colorado Avalanche will show a tribute to Mousseaux, a Colorado resident, during Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol is familiar with Mousseaux from his days as head coach of the WCHA’s University of North Dakota. Additionally, Altitude TV’s Peter McNab will present an on-air tribute during Thursday’s broadcast.
The Minnesota Wild featured Mousseaux on the scoreboard at last night’s game.
Donations have raised nearly $75,000 so far for Mousseaux and family, thanks to the terrific response from the hockey community as well as from some key donors including the Colorado Amateur Hockey Association.
“It has just been incredible,” said Macaire Mousseaux. “It’s amazing, even from people I don’t know. I don’t know quite how to put this but we’re just overwhelmed by the love and support. I’m very grateful.”
Thanks to everyone who has supported Butch Mousseaux. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Donations can be made to help Mousseaux via GoFundMe or Dawg Hockey.
You can also mail donations to: Dawg Nation Hockey, PO Box 182, Indian Hills, CO 80454
Thanks to MLive’s Pete Wallner (@petewallner) for his ongoing coverage of this story.
