ST. LOUIS -- Patrick O'Sullivan was Craig Conroy's teammate for a chunk of the 2006-07 NHL season.
At the time, Conroy knew parts of O'Sullivan's horrific story of growing up with an abusive father who pushed him mercilessly to be a professional hockey player, and was among those who know what John O'Sullivan looked like to alert the authorities if he was around his son and defying a restraining order.
But even Conroy didn't realize the extent of what happened to O'Sullivan for nearly his whole life, which is one reason the Calgary Flames assistant general manager is currently reading O'Sullivan's biography, Breaking Away.