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Blackhawks player from 2010 championship team suing team for sexual assault by coach

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Read the full report. It’s disgusting and I feel so bad for him. Basically it derailed what could have been a promising career and probably cost him millions in career earnings. Most importantly, the trauma he experienced will live on with him forever. Kudos for coming out the way he did.

 

I have an extremely hard time believing some of the players say they didn’t know the extent of what happened and were unaware of who it was. Stuff like that would have spread like wildfire in an NHL locker room and once word got of a coach and a player doing something inappropriate everybody would be asking each other what they knew of it. There will be a day of reckoning where the players will have to answer the bell and finally admit they knew more than what they are leading us to believe. 
 

 

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2 minutes ago, JM_ said:

well, thats between them and their consciences I suppose.

 

I do think they knew, and chose not to do anything about it and tried hard to ignore and/or forget it. In these interviews I see people very uncomfortable with having to deal with it again. So thats the players side.

 

Management otoh acted criminally imo. Recommending a pervert for another job with kids is inexcusable. Bettman letting Bowman go with basically no punishment is a black eye on the NHL.

 

 

 

Did they know "what was happening," or did they eventually find out (circa 2010 playoffs or end of 2010 season) as to what had happened?  

 

If the players knew what was happening (which I don't suspect was the case), then they should be met with severe consequences.

 

If the players knew what had happened, then I do believe them when they say that they thought the situation had been taken care of (i.e. Aldrige being forced to resign).   Boynton and Sopel claim that the Hawks knew what had happened, but do they argue that the Hawks players knew the full extent?   

 

For me - I still think the players are innocent for the most part.  It's ownership and maybe even Quennville that deserve to be in deep $&!# here. 

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3 hours ago, wallstreetamigo said:

The statement by the Blackhawks once Beach identified himself was reprehensible. Not even an apology to him for calling him a liar for 11 years.

 

If there is one constant in the NHL it is zero actual accountability, just say and do enough to keep public opinion from affecting the bottom line or brand image.

Gotta agree with this.

 

As much as they have their own issues, you can pretty much guarantee that an NFL or MLB exec who did this would be sitting out for a full season.

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1 minute ago, Chris12345 said:

Bergevin too?

I don't know how they can be employed.

I think Bergevin may be far enough removed from it to not get dragged in. He wasn’t part of the executive group that had the meeting, and his role was more about sorting out places for players to live, the hotels they would then stay at on the road. Getting them settled, sorting out stuff like that.

hes not named in the file either and he was likely on the road and not with the players that much.

 

I’m not absolving him from anything but unlike the others there isn’t any fingers pointing at him and he does have an element of removal from the playing team 

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BTW: To put the whole "power dynamic" into perspective, I think almost all of us can relate to having a boss at one time or another that we were capable of pounding and often felt like doing it....

 

Yet, we didn't......because we wanted to keep our jobs....

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18 minutes ago, Fanuck said:

Sadly your gut feeling is way off - Sopel and Boynten confirmed that everyone connected to the organization at that time knew what was going on and NOBODY did anything about it - NOBODY. 

Logically the purpose of the coverup was to ensure that the Chicago players did not know about the incident and focus on the the Cup Finals. If the players knew about the incident at the time of the Cup Finals, it would have been pointless to cover it up. 

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9 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

Do we know which players were chirping Beach, or if Beach was in fact being chirped?

 

I've been reading things from Sopel and Boynton, and while they say that the players knew what had happened (as opposed to what was happening.....big difference), I don't see a quote anywhere that says that Beach was being chirped.  Perhaps I overlooked it, but if any of you guys see quotes of this, please link me. 

Did you watch Beach's interview?

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2 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

BTW: To put the whole "power dynamic" into perspective, I think almost all of us can relate to having a boss at one time or another that we were capable of pounding and often felt like doing it....

 

Yet, we didn't......because we wanted to keep our jobs....

Exactly

 

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1 minute ago, Maddogy said:

Logically the purpose of the coverup was to ensure that the Chicago players did not know the incident and focus on the the Cup Finals. If the players knew about the incident at the time of the Cup Finals, it would have been pointless to cover it up. 

I hear you, but I cannot overlook two people (Sopel/Boynton) with direct knowledge of the situation - and nothing to gain/lose at this time - claiming that it was common knowledge among those closely connected to the team at that time both stating publicly that everyone knew what was going on.  Senior management was most definitely complicit with the cover-up; I'm assuming that senior management simply understood that players just don't publicly talk about this type of stuff and didn't even have to include them in the 'cover-up'. 

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10 minutes ago, 4petesake said:


Ask yourself this one question - Out of two rosters, the Blackhawks and the Ice Hogs farm team, why did only 21 players agree to be interviewed? 37 people declined or wouldn’t respond and I have to believe that any player who didn’t know anything about it would have been more than willing to answer any questions. Do yo really believe that Toews, Keith and Kane weren’t asked to be interviewed? Either they were worried and advised by lawyers to refuse or they just didn’t give a crap. Either way it says everything about their character that I need to know.

Here’s the thing. If this works itself through the court process far enough every person who declined to be interviewed will be on the target list for Beach’s attorneys if they are worth their salt.

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45 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

 

 I do feel terrible for Beach and what he went through.    

 

I will say another controversial thing and I hope that people can respect me for my honesty here.  

 

As much as I dislike guys like Kane, Toews, and Keith due to their hockey rivalry with the Canucks, I'm of the belief that they didn't know the full extent of what was going on.   I just don't.  Color me stupid but Pat Kane actually came across as genuine in his interview to me.  Even Duncan Keith.  Toews came across as cold but that's more of his personality I think.   

 

(Unless Beach came out and said that he was being bullied by the players and that everyone knew what was going on, in which case, negate the above). 

 

For me, Chicago ownership and executives are the ones to blame.  I feel like they cared more about revenue and negative publicity rather than Kyle Beach and so they tried to keep things under wraps.   

 

Hockey players do get some media training but it is more about saying bland cliche things about hockey games.

It must have been horribly difficult as the captain of the team to be thrown in front of the cameras immediately after a game to talk about the sexual abuse of a teamate.

I am not excusing him for his callous statements during the interview but this is something he probably hasn't spent a lot of time thinking or worrying about.  

The qualifications for captain of an NHL team are not that you can go and speak meaningfully about sexual abuse or survivors.  

Now he should have been better prepared and frankly sending him out in that situation without better prep is an embarrassing mistake by a franchise that has not taken this seriously enough at any level.

This is a comment on how to handle media and frankly opening him up for liability not about sexual abuse.

I am not excusing him or the management of the Hawks for that but the media handlers should have had him and Kane in a room prepping them for several hours before any interviews were done.  This is a billion dollar organization that has a huge public footprint that looks like it is being run by a bunch of Frat boys and keeps hurting itself with self-inflicted wounds.

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53 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

 

 I do feel terrible for Beach and what he went through.    

 

I will say another controversial thing and I hope that people can respect me for my honesty here.  

 

As much as I dislike guys like Kane, Toews, and Keith due to their hockey rivalry with the Canucks, I'm of the belief that they didn't know the full extent of what was going on.   I just don't.  Color me stupid but Pat Kane actually came across as genuine in his interview to me.  Even Duncan Keith.  Toews came across as cold but that's more of his personality I think.   

 

(Unless Beach came out and said that he was being bullied by the players and that everyone knew what was going on, in which case, negate the above). 

 

For me, Chicago ownership and executives are the ones to blame.  I feel like they cared more about revenue and negative publicity rather than Kyle Beach and so they tried to keep things under wraps.   

 

again, I had a front row seat to this in POrtland, except over years, maybe decades.

 

Everyone knows..........everyone knows.  

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