Bill Horner, publisher of the Sanford (N.C.) Herald, was in town with his family last week to visit Preds forward Martin Gelinas (above right, with Horner’s son Zachary). Horner became a rabid hockey fan when the Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh as the Carolina Hurricanes in 1998, and he struck up what has become a longstanding friendship with Gelinas:

My love for the game has been enhanced by friendships I’ve forged with two professional hockey players, Martin Gelinas (formerly of the Hurricanes, now with the Nashville Predators) and Serge Payer (a former teammate of Marty’s in Florida, now with the Minnesota Wild). They’re two of the finest people I’ve ever met and I like to think we’d be friends even if we didn’t share so many hockey-related experiences.

Horner and his family attended the Preds’ game against the Vancouver Canucks last Thursday night and were unfortunately witnesses to a serious injury for Gelinas, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the contest.

We had a great trip, the only blemish (and it was a major one) being Marty’s torn ACL injury at the beginning of the second period of Thursday’s game (a 3-2 OT loss to Vancouver). In his 19 years in the league, he’s never had an injury this serious, and it happened with our group and six more of Marty’s friends (from Switzerland and Montreal) all in attendance. We were all pretty devastated, but Marty was a great host despite being on crutches the rest of our time there. We went to practice on Friday (the morning an MRI revealed the extent of the knee injury) and Saturday and spent a wonderful evening with the Gelinas family and the Swiss and Canadian friends, plus did some sight-seeing around Nashville.

I’m sad to see Gelinas, a journeyman player who is also a stand-up guy, suffer such a tough injury, but I’m not surprised to see that he was still a gracious host to his guests. Here’s hoping for a quick recovery, hopefully in time for the playoffs, Marty.