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Former players, CTV's W5 petition court to unseal secret NHL emails (regarding head trauma)


nuckin_futz

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Warning, there is some language that's a little spicy in the actual emails. TSN saw fit to publish them as is, so hopefully the mods here can let it slide.

 

Former players, CTV's W5 petition court to unseal secret NHL emails

Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell

Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell, Getty Images

 

When Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke effectively ended the career of Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard with a crushing blindside hit to the head, the blow sent shudders through the hockey world.

It also sent Colin Campbell, then the NHL's senior vice-president of operations, to his computer, where he exchanged emails about the incident with Mike Milbury, a former NHL player, coach and general manager turned TV analyst.

Milbury asked Campbell, "Is intent to injure a stand alone call?"

As part of his reply, sent six days after the incident in a March 13, 2010, email, Campbell wrote: "Let's face it Mike... we sell rivalries, we sell and promote hate..." 

Campbell's charged answer is part of the public record in U.S. federal court in Minnesota as the result of a legal action launched by a group of more than 100 former NHL players, including Joe Murphy, Bernie Nicholls and Gary Leeman.

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They are suing the NHL, alleging league and team officials knew or ought to have known about the links between head trauma and long-term cognitive problems but failed to act to protect players – all the while profiting from the violence of hockey.

The league says players could have put "two and two together" and done their own research about the long-term effects of repeated concussions.

The Milbury-Campbell exchange and thousands of others are now at the centre of a high-stakes battle over whether the media and the public have a right to know what NHL executives said and did behind the scenes about violence in the game and player head injuries.

So far, the NHL has turned over more than 2.5 million pages of internal league documents in the case. The vast majority of those documents, however, are sealed by a court order at the NHL's request.

But on Tuesday in Minnesota, a judge is scheduled to hear from lawyers for the former players and CTV's W5 that the public has a right to review an initial batch of 61 documents, most of which have been completely hidden from public view.

It's unclear when the U.S. federal court judge will rule on the former players' and CTV's court motion.

Some of the documents include emails that have been partially redacted by the NHL, such as the one Campbell sent to Milbury in which he wrote that the league "sell(s) and promote(s) hate." The emails referenced here are from documents that are now part of the public record. 

The NHL says in court filings that it wants to keep the documents secret to protect its trade secrets and to protect some of its officials from embarrassment.

The league says lawyers for the former players are simply trying to stoke a "media firestorm" and "spin documents" to influence the "court of public opinion" and recruit additional retired NHL players to file lawsuits.

Neither NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly nor league executive vice-president of communications Gary Meagher responded to an email seeking comment on the potential unsealing of documents in the case.

The emails that are partially redacted include correspondence between league officials and doctors, team executives, trainers and members of the media. Some of the emails will be used by lawyers for the former players suing the NHL to show the mindset of league executives, particularly those in charge of establishing on-ice rules and overseeing player discipline.

In October of 2006, after Jonathan Cheechoo, then with the San Jose Sharks, collided with Vancouver's Lukas Krajicek in a game, NHL executive Mike Murphy, a former player and coach, emailed Campbell after an NHL team official, whose name has been redacted, complained about the hit.

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"I think about when we played...head shots? That was life in the League," Murphy wrote. "You stood up for yourselve [sic] and your coach and GM told you to have some balls or go home!...I must be getting too old..."

In March, 2007, after former NHL player Todd Fedoruk said in an interview with The Canadian Press that tough guys should wear padding on their hands under their hockey gloves, NHL public relations staffer Frank Brown emailed the story to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Daly and Campbell.

Campbell's emailed reply has been completely redacted, hidden from public view.

A month later, in April, 2007, Brian Burke, then the general manager of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, emailed NHL senior manager of hockey operations Kris King.

Burke wrote to remark on a public comment from a team official – both the official's name and club have been redacted – about Derek Boogaard, a tough guy who then played for the Minnesota Wild and later died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose in 2011.

In Game 2 of the Ducks playoff series against the Wild on April 13, 2007, Boogaard hit Anaheim defenceman Kent Huskins with a knee-on-knee blow and was given a two-minute minor for tripping.

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"Are you f------ kidding me?" Burke wrote King. "We are waiting to hear if he [Boogaard] is getting bounced. And we certainly expect a fine so you stop this before he cripples somebody. Shall I start whining to the media as well? This will get out of hand if something isn't done."

King forwarded the email to Campbell.

"Burkie is up 2 [games in the series] and starting to play the game," King wrote. "He worries about Boogaard and maybe so. The calls he [Boogaard] has got are right and deserved."

King wrote that a player, whose name has been redacted by the NHL, "won't fight when challenged. Any thoughts? Or just Brian being Brian."

In December, 2008, TSN journalist Bob McKenzie forwarded a story to the NHL's Campbell about Don Sanderson, a 21-year-old amateur player with the Ontario Hockey Association's Whitby Dunlops who was hospitalized in Brantford, Ont., after losing his helmet and hitting his head on the ice during a fight.

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"Well, the prognosis on this kid isn't good," McKenzie wrote. "Sounds like he might not make it. If it happened in the NHL, what do you think the fallout would be? Hockey player dies or is brain dead as a result of a fight, hitting his head on the ice. It's the game's worst nightmare."

The first section of Campbell's reply is redacted. He then writes: "It is certainly scary... stand back a [sic] try and knock the guy out so he falls down on something as hard as concrete... and to think they throw off their helmets lots of times!!!! I guess if I had real balls I would go public and go hard but I won't."

Sanderson died three weeks after sustaining the injury.

Three years later, in 2011, two weeks before the NHL passed a new protocol calling for concussed players to be removed from games and sent to a "quiet room," former NHL referee Kerry Fraser sent out a mass email about a headshot New York Rangers' forward Derek Stepan delivered on Washington Capitals' defenceman Mike Green.

Fraser wrote about how he had appeared on TSN and questioned whether a suspension for Stepan was more appropriate than a fine.

Ruben Echemendia, a doctor who chairs the NHL/NHLPA Concussion Working Group, sent Fraser's email to Daly, who forwarded it to Bettman and another league lawyer.

"I'm not sure there is anything we can or should be doing, but I wanted you to be aware," Daly wrote in a March 1, 2011 email.

Bettman's entire response is redacted, as is Daly's subsequent reply.

Later in the email correspondence, Daly wrote of Fraser: "He's not the only person who thinks we should be penalizing head shots more severely than we do."

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 "That's not the issue. His disparaging campaign is," Bettman wrote.

In January, 2012, Meagher emailed Bettman and others a Toronto Star column quoting then-Toronto Maple Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke, after Burke had complained about the rise in the number of NHL discipline hearings being conducted by Brendan Shanahan, who had succeeded Campbell as the league's chief disciplinarian.

"Brian speaking out on his view on the state of the game (fighting) today major story north of the 49th today..." Meagher wrote to Bettman, Campbell and other league executives.

Campbell replied the same day, and brought up the health of Toronto Maple Leafs' forward Colton Orr.

"Burkie missing point," Campbell emailed. "Colton Orr either knocks out opponent OR gets knocked out. We figure he has had at least 3 concussions in the last year (even though NONE are recorded)."

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The remainder of Campbell's email is redacted.

Bettman then emailed Campbell and others.

"We haven't changed the rules on fighting," Bettman wrote. "What Brendan is doing has nothing to do with fighting. Hitting is only slightly down and those are the hits we don't want. Half the world wants fighting eliminated and the other half wants more... I'd say it's insane!"

The rest of the commissioner's email is redacted.

Because of the widespread redactions in the documents, it's impossible to determine the significance of some of the exchanges. For example, in May, 2013, Gerry Townend, the head athletic therapist with the Ottawa Senators, emailed Echemendia, the head of the NHL's Concussion Working Group.

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Townend's entire email is redacted.

Echemendia forwarded Townend's email a day later to NHL deputy counsel Julie Grand, and she sent it to six senior NHL executives.

"Attached is an email from Ottawa's trainer – who is a trainer rep on the CWG [Concussion Working Group] – expressing the views of his fellow trainers," Grand wrote. "We will tailor our presentation to the Trainers in Vegas to address these issues."

Campbell's entire email reply is redacted.

http://www.tsn.ca/former-players-ctv-s-w5-petition-court-to-unseal-secret-nhl-emails-1.402067

 

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Much like in the NFL, I suspect this is going to become a pretty big story. Who knew what and when. Certainly sounds like the league was plenty aware of the problem and were dragging their feet addressing it.

The many redactions are a little troubling. Especially when an entire response from a league official is redacted.

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34 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

Bettman's entire response is redacted, as is Daly's subsequent reply.

Later in the email correspondence, Daly wrote of Fraser: "He's not the only person who thinks we should be penalizing head shots more severely than we do."

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 "That's not the issue. His disparaging campaign is," Bettman wrote.

 

This makes Bettman look pretty bad. More concerned with damage to the game's image than damage to a player's brain.

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Well this could get pretty bloody ugly. It's about time this was out in the open. I hope the players and W5 are successful in getting those documents unsealed. We're about to see some folks hung and finally held accountable by their own words..... and rightfully so.

This is so long overdue.

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Unbelievable. The current NHL leadership may be good with money, but they suck monkey balls at operational competence. This whole thing reads like they have no idea what to do, even though it's obvious. And everybody they put in charge of discipline suddenly becomes Chief Wiggum. "Can't you people just police yourselves?"

Except Shanny. At least he tried to make sense and show his work. I always thought he was on the right track, but too much interference/influence derailed any progress he tried to make.

I would especially like to see some emails from around the Rome/Horton hit. I'll bet they're pretty interesting.

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12 minutes ago, X-PatLostInEdm said:

Unbelievable. The current NHL leadership may be good with money, but they suck monkey balls at operational competence. This whole thing reads like they have no idea what to do, even though it's obvious. And everybody they put in charge of discipline suddenly becomes Chief Wiggum. "Can't you people just police yourselves?"

Except Shanny. At least he tried to make sense and show his work. I always thought he was on the right track, but too much interference/influence derailed any progress he tried to make.

I would especially like to see some emails from around the Rome/Horton hit. I'll bet they're pretty interesting.

Exactly the bolded part. You can almost pin point the time when he was effectively muzzled and had his hands tied by higher ups.

Bettman finally confirmed in black and white to be the asshole oily slime ball we've always known him to be. I hope he's squirming and twisting hard in the wind right now........there's no way out for you, Gary.... you're not going to be able to slime your way out of this one.

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20 minutes ago, Cerridwen said:
20 minutes ago, Cerridwen said:

Exactly the bolded part. You can almost pin point the time when he was effectively muzzled and had his hands tied by higher ups.

Bettman finally confirmed in black and white to be the asshole oily slime ball we've always known him to be. I hope he's squirming and twisting hard in the wind right now........there's no way out for you, Gary.... you're not going to be able to slime your way out of this one.

Exactly the bolded part. You can almost pin point the time when he was effectively muzzled and had his hands tied by higher ups.

Bettman finally confirmed in black and white to be the asshole oily slime ball we've always known him to be. I hope he's squirming and twisting hard in the wind right now........there's no way out for you, Gary.... you're not going to be able to slime your way out of this one.

Actually you CAN exactly pinpoint when Shanny had his hands tied.

Following the Rome hit on Horton in the SCF in 2011, the league decided to crack down hard on boarding, illegal hit from behind, head shots.

Shanny took the DOPS job on June 1, 2011.

His first suspensions signaled that there was a new sheriff in town. The suspensions he dealt out were much lengthier than before.

From September 20-30th (2011) all pre-season games he handed out a total of 9 suspensions. Including a 12 game suspension to James Wisnewski (4 pre season and 8 regular season games). I am pretty sure Wisnewski was a first time offender and the Jacket's big off season acquisition

 

Date of Incident Offender Team Offense Date of Action Length
September 20, 2011 Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond Calgary Flames Boarding Matt Clackson.[1] September 22, 2011 5 games† (4 pre-season, 1 regular season)
September 21, 2011 Jody Shelley Philadelphia Flyers Boarding Darryl Boyce.[2] September 22, 2011 10 games† (5 pre-season, 5 regular season)
September 23, 2011 James Wisniewski Columbus Blue Jackets Illegal hit to the head of Cal Clutterbuck.[3] September 24, 2011 12 games† (4 pre-season, 8 regular season)
September 23, 2011 Brad Staubitz Minnesota Wild Checking Cody Bass from behind.[4] September 26, 2011 7 games† (4 pre-season, 3 regular season)
September 24, 2011 Brad Boyes Buffalo Sabres Illegal hit to the head of Joe Colborne.[5] September 25, 2011 2 games† (2 pre-season)
September 24, 2011 Jean-Francois Jacques Anaheim Ducks Leaving bench to initiate a fight with Mike Duco.[6] September 27, 2011 9 games† (4 pre-season, 5 regular season)
September 26, 2011 Tom Sestito Philadelphia Flyers Checking Andre Deveaux from behind.[7] September 28, 2011 4 games† (2 pre-season, 2 regular season)
September 28, 2011 Brendan Smith Detroit Red Wings Illegal hit to the head of Ben Smith.[8] September 30, 2011 8 games† (3 pre-season, 5 regular season)

September 30, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

Clarke MacArthur

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toronto Maple Leafs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illegal hit to the head of Justin Abdelkader.[9]

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 1, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 games† (1 pre-season, 2 regular season)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Editing the above post became a nightmare. So this is just continuing on. .....

Teams around the league almost crapped themselves at the length of suspensions and Shanahan was ordered by higher ups to knock it off.

A list of subsequent suspensions for the 2011 season are mainly in the 2-3 game range for the same offences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%9312_NHL_suspensions_and_fines
 

So yeah, October 1, 2011 (or thereabouts) was the day Shanny was neutered.

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22 hours ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

When the league - whose main assets are the players themselves - doesn't give a &^@# about their own assets... time for a revolution.

well said ..   I've always thought the powers that be were idiots ..   now i know i was right 

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We all know Bettman is worthless trash but  man Colin Campbell is pure scum. The league has become a joke and players safety means diddly squat. This is not surprising in the least.   The bitching about about the bitching is priceless : D

They took the instigator away, WTF did they think was gonna happen when the ability for the players to honorably police themselves was removed ? The officials have clearly been given a mandate to manage the games as closely as possible and there has been ZERO consistency on what constitutes a suspension. 

Players should demand an explanation and complete transparency in regards to officiating and injury/suspension protocols. The completely asinine explanations from the league on these matters is insulting to the fans on every level.

 

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13 hours ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

What I want to know is what the hell is the NHLPA doing?  Why aren't they in on this?

Their stance on disciplinary issues is pretty odd. When player has a significant suspension the NHLPA has to defend him. I am not surprised that they aren't speaking up.

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4 minutes ago, Shift-4 said:

Their stance on disciplinary issues is pretty odd. When player has a significant suspension the NHLPA has to defend him. I am not surprised that they aren't speaking up.

It's probably more like a defense lawyer's stance when the defendant may or may not be guilty. Sometimes it's pretty obvious the defendant's guilty. I'm not a lawyer or anything though so it's just a guess.

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Just now, The Lock said:

It's probably more like a defense lawyer's stance when the defendant may or may not be guilty. Sometimes it's pretty obvious the defendant's guilty. I'm not a lawyer or anything though so it's just a guess.

That's pretty much what I was trying to say. Maybe I should have said their position is awkward instead of odd.

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Thanks for posting. Very interesting. I have often wondered what would be discovered if say -- Anonymous -- were to hack into the NHL servers and publicize Campbell's and or Bettman's emails. I think it would change everything most people perceive to be true about hockey.

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