Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment on Saturday morning at age 27. That was the same age at which Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin in October 1970.

The music was different, but these two singers have been linked due partially to the distinctive quality of their voices, and mostly due to their addictions to chemicals.

There will be eulogies for Winehouse in the entertainment world and from her fans, but a popular reaction will be that the singer embraced the drinking and drugging and thus this early demise was inevitable.

Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment on May 13 at age 28. This made the hockey player a few months older than was Steve Howe, a pitcher from the Twins, in September 1985, when he disappeared from the team to go on a cocaine bender.

Boogaard took part in the Canadian version of a bender - a "binger'' - on the night and into the morning before he was found dead.

The NHL office, the New York Rangers (Boogaard's team at the time) and the Wild (his previous team) were well aware of his problems with chemical abuse.

On Friday, Aaron Boogaard - Derek's younger brother - was charged in Hennepin County with third-degree sale of a controlled substance (a felony) and interference with a death (a gross misdemeanor). And this passage in the Star Tribune's coverage told the story of how insincere Derek was in final attempt to defeat his demons:

"According to the complaint, police were called the night of May 13 to the apartment, where Aaron Boogaard told officers that he had given Derek the powerful pain-killer oxycodone before the NHLer went out to the nightclubs with friends the previous night.

"Aaron said his brother intended to go on a 'binger' and celebrate one day after being released from a chemical-dependency center.

"Aaron Boogaard also told the officers that he had been holding for his brother the narcotics OxyContin and Percocet, neither of which came from a doctor.''

Just read that. This might be the worst attempt at successful CD treatment this side of Charlie Sheen. And certainly any characterization of Amy Winehouse as an out-of-control drug addict surrounded by enablers for her addiction duplicates those same situations that existed with Boogaard.

He was a pinhole on the celebrity map, of course, but knowing what they knew about Boogaard's drug abuse, was it really wise for the NHL and the Rangers to celebrate him by having Aaron announce the team's first choice when the draft was held last month in St. Paul?

OK, Boogie willingly answered reporters' questions, and he signed autographs and took pictures with fans, and he was both a fierce and lovable goon on the ice, but all the sugar-coating could not prevent these truths from surfacing:

A) Boogaard's drinking and drugging made an early demise as inevitable and did Winehouse's; and B) despite assurances from family and friends, there was no sincere attempt at recovery - not when you're planning a "binger'' on the flight home from a California treatment center.

Steve Howe was mentioned earlier because I've always looked at him as the poster boy for athletes that made claims of sobriety and attempts at treatment that were in actuality complete frauds.

I was covering the Twins' road trip to Chicago and Cleveland in mid-September of 1985. The Twins had signed Howe, already a renowned cokehead, five weeks earlier.

The Twins were flying to Cleveland after the game of Sept. 12. Howe was given permission by the Twins to appear on a "Nightline'' panel that night, then fly into Cleveland the next day. The subject was cocaine abuse among athletes. Pete Gent, the former Dallas Cowboy receiver and a recovering addict, was also a guest.

Howe went to the Chicago television studio, talked about his recovery, then went searching for cocaine. He didn't show up in Cleveland for three days, and then asked the Twins for his release.

Twin Cities reporters spent much time on phones from Cleveland hotel rooms, trying to find Howe. I did talk to Gent in Michigan. He didn't have a hint as to Howe's whereabouts.

On the second night in Cleveland, reliever Ron Davis and I ran into one another entering and exiting an elevator. I asked the question of the moment: "Do you know anything about Howe?''

R.D. said that he and Howe had been out drinking a couple of nights earlier in Chicago - drinking well past midnight - but it was simply alcohol and Howe remained sincere in his attempt to avoid cocaine.

I was 4 ½ years removed from treatment at that time. Relying on the information I received in 30 days at St. Mary's Rehab Center, I told R.D. that drinking large quantities of beer was not the best method for Howe to stay away from cocaine.

And parsing out painkillers to be used in smaller quantities surely wasn't the best way for Derek Boogaard's enablers to greet him one day after his discharge from treatment.

P.S.: Howe died in a one-vehicle accident in Montana in 2006 at age 48. There was a trace of meth found in his system.