Wednesday, December 4, 2019

There's a reckoning happening in hockey...

It's scary and it's sad. But maybe it'll be cathartic and healing. And maybe, just maybe, hockey will be held accountable and eventually become for everyone...

A few weeks ago, an NHL coach was fired. Upon his termination, the floodgates opened and story upon story of how much his players hated him came out.

And then a player tweeted that another NHL coach--a mentor of the first coach--used racial slurs against him and said that he felt he never made it to the pros because this coach had the GM bury him in the minors.

And that was all she wrote... the hockey version of the #metoo movement began in earnest.

Players of all stripes from all levels of hockey are airing their stories of hazing and all kinds of abuse.

As a result, yet another coach is now under investigation.

It's not pretty. It's--as I said up top--scary and sad. It's disgusting and shameful, and my heart hurts for all of these guys.

Hockey is probably getting a huge black eye right now, but I hope, in the end, the perpetrators are held accountable for their actions and that moving forward, players from mini-mites (age 5 &6) to all all professional leagues find safety and healing.


On the other hand, I've got a trio of podcasters who were players not so long ago and they want to point out that the whole hockey barrel shouldn't be spoiled because of a few bad apples. And they're right--just because a coach is strict and tough doesn't mean he's abusive. But there's a line, there's a limit.

Anyway...that's what's on my mind right now, among the dozen other things going on in my world.

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