The Current NHL is Beyond Redemption
On February 20, 1993 I walked into my first NHL arena. Nassau Coliseum, a hallowed place that I’d seen on television many times was bigger than I expected, the banners commemorating Stanley Cup champions and revered players casting a long shadow on the upstart team facing the two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Islanders won that night, the night that the team raised another banner to the rafters, this one honoring legendary goalie Billy Smith. My father introduced my brother and me to Al Arbour.
After the game, my father waited out in the brisk air as my brother and I waited for the players to walk to their bus, hopefully stopping to sign autographs. Many of them did, and I was one of a lucky few who got an autograph from my favorite player, Darius Kasparaitis.
A perfect night.
Since that night, I’ve watched thousands of NHL games, played every one of the various EA NHL franchise video games for countless hours, changed allegiance to the Detroit Red Wings, and spent five years writing and podcasting about the NHL and the Wings with the incredible people at Winging it in Motown.
I now feel, however, that I can no longer give my time, money, and attention to the NHL. After 35 or so years, it feels incredibly strange, but I know it’s the right decision.
Before I get to the part that I’m most interested in exploring—how this decision will affect many things in my life—I think I must explain how I came to this decision.
Many people have already written detailed explanations for each reason I have come to believe the NHL is beyond redemption, but I’ll try to explain each reason efficiently.
The NHL does not care about its players off the ice
Last week, a report into the sexual abuse allegations against Brad Aldrich was published. At every step of the process, the NHL, everyone associated with it, and nearly every one who covers the league failed Kyle Beach.
The NHL failed Kyle Beach. First its member club, the Chicago Blackhawks, failed him by valuing winning a Stanley Cup over investigating and dealing with a sexual assault by a member of its staff against a player. The players failed Kyle Beach by mocking him and another player who was assaulted. According to Beach and a few former players including Brent Sopel, all the players knew.
The NHLPA failed Kyle Beach by not following through on a report:
Beach was subsequently referred to Dr. Brian Shaw, a psychologist and program administrator with the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
“Dr. Shaw told me [during a phone call] he would handle it and make sure that Team USA was aware that Brad Aldrich is a sexual predator,” Beach told TSN on Wednesday. “After that one conversation, the NHLPA cut me loose. I never heard from them again.”
The NHL failed Kyle Beach by giving the Blackhawks the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. The $2M fine is pennies to the Blackhawks organization and $1M less than the league fined the New Jersey Devils for cap circumvention. Yet again, actions speak much louder than words, and the NHL’s actions show that they only want to get this out of the news cycle, and will do whatever they think is necessary to accomplish that, no more.
The other consequences of the investigation are the least that the Blackhawks and other teams could do. Stan Bowman was allowed to resign. Nearly every article I read about this used the phrase “parted ways.” I’ll get to the hockey media shortly.
Joel Quenneville resigned from the Florida Panthers, but Kevin Cheveldayoff still remains the Winnipeg GM, even though he was in a position to know about what happened, since he was in the meeting to discuss Beach’s allegations. The excuse given doesn’t pass the smell test, and his “apology” didn’t include the words “I’m sorry” or any similar words. Yet again, the NHL and its member clubs does the bare minimum to make it look like it’s doing something, but its actions are woefully insufficient.
Before this, the NHL failed Akim Aliu. The NHL failed Steve Montador. The NHL failed Tom Sestito and countless others who were given outrageous amounts of Toradol and other drugs.
Wade Belak. Rick Rypien. Derek Boogaard. The list continues, but shouldn’t one name be enough?
And while teams like the Blackhawks, Canadiens, and Hurricanes have been at the forefront of alienating their fans with their recent transactions, it’s naive to think that they are the only teams abandoning basic moral principles in search of a few more wins.
The Canadiens were not the only team that would have drafted Logan Mallioux. The Hurricanes were not the only team that would have signed Tony DeAngelo. It could have easily been the team you root for.
The NHL does not care about its players on the ice
This has been written about excessively, but I have to include it because it is one of the reasons that I believe the NHL is beyond redemption without major changes that I think have little to no chances of happening.
The NHL has shown time and time again that it does not care about head injuries to its players. The Department of Player Safety under George Parros has shown little to no interest in levying sufficient punishments against players who target the head to deter them from doing so in the future.
This year, the NHL said that officials would crack down on cross-checking. From the many videos posted on Twitter each night, this is clearly not happening. Nearly every night sees at least one dangerous boarding play go unpunished, either on the ice or using supplementary discipline.
Fans are left to cross our fingers and hope that our favorite players will not suffer severe injury on a nightly basis. I’m tired of it.
The bulk of hockey media shows little interest in covering issues more important than what happens on the ice
Every time an issue like the allegations against Brad Aldritch arises, we get a day or two from the national hockey media about how something must be done to stop this. Yet 99% of them return to covering signings, trades, and depth charts within a day or two.
Many in hockey media seem more concerned about keeping their sources than reporting on the issues that are more important than hockey. That’s partially an indictment on the current state of hockey journalism, but these big names in hockey journalism could easily have written more about these stories without worrying about their jobs.
Without the tireless reporting of Ben Pope, Rick Westhead, and Katie Strang, this story would have died. That’s what the people involved in covering it up were counting on. And of course they were. Because that’s what happens.
Remember when the Canadiens drafted Logan Mailloux? Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek said on their 31 Thoughts podcast the next day how everyone they talked to felt sick about it.
When’s the last time you heard about it? Exactly. That’s what the bulk of NHL media does. They talk a big game and say how things need to change, then they don’t do anything to make it actually happen. A day or two later they are writing about a second line forward possibly playing on the top line, and the Thing We Can Never Forget fades into the background, then vanishes completely.
So that’s the why. But the question I’ve been thinking about lately has been “Now what?”
So much of my identity is tied to hockey. So many of my friends have some connection to hockey. Over half of my Twitter feed is posts about hockey.
Will it be hard to stay connected with people I care about when I have nothing to say about hockey? On the one hand, that sounds silly, but I’m genuinely worried about it. This feels like such a big life change that there’s a part of me that wants to delete this article.
At this point, I have way more questions that answers. The biggest question is: what would it take to make me change my mind? That’s easy.
Gary Bettman must resign. Donald Fehr must resign. Kevin Cheveldayoff must resign. Anyone else in a position of authority to help Kyle Beach who didn’t must resign. These people must never work again in the NHL. Instead, the NHL needs new leadership from the top down, leadership that follows up their words with strong, swift actions.
George Parros must resign. The Department of Player Safety must be completely rebuilt, starting with someone like Marc Savard being in charge. Or another player who has had their career ended by someone’s reckless play on the ice. Players must be held accountable for their actions and face severe penalties for plays they know are likely to lead to severe injury.
I would need to see actual actions, not empty promises. Then, I would come back to the sport I have spent nearly all of my life obsessed with.
Until then, the NHL doesn’t care about its players. It doesn’t care about its fans.
So why should I care about the NHL?
