More People Step Forward

After he appeared on the podcast Spittin' Chiclets, Chris Chelios did no favours for Mike Babcock's reputation as a head coach in the NHL. Adding to the myriad of problems is the news today that Marc Crawford, a long-time NHL coach, also engaged in some rather questionable behaviour as a head coach and is being investigated by his current team in the Chicgao BlackhaWwks. The news about Crawford originally came from Sean Avery whose own reputation isn't all that great, but when Patrick O'Sullivan stepped forward and confirmed that he had his own run-ins with Crawford, the words from O'Sullivan's book came rushing back to me.

O'Sullivan authored a book with Gare Joyce titled Breaking Away which was reviewed here on HBIC. He devotes an entire chapter, entitled Crow, to the abuses he endured from Crawford as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. Among the things that O'Sullivan writes, he states that he "felt a shoe dig into my ass" while sitting on the bench during a road game in Columbus. He was also bag-skated in front of teammates, ridiculed for wearing a full visor after taking a slapshot to the face that caused him to lose three teeth and require 40 stitches and his jaw wired shut, and had the constant threat of being sent to the minors used against him. O'Sullivan, though, focused on the kick to the behind as to when Crawford crossed the line with the abuse.

Brent Sopel also used the Spittin' Chiclets medium over a year ago to talk about his problems with Marc Crawford, so it's hard to deny that what Avery said as being embellishment when Avery, O'Sullivan, and Sopel all talk of Crawford's deplorable actions as a head coach. Where there's smoke, there's often fire as the saying goes.

I'm sure there will be more players who step forward with complaints about physical and verbal abuse from head coaches, so I'm going to go ahead and just say that we shouldn't be surprised if and when that happens. What bothers me the most about the allegations against Babcock, Peters, and now Crawford individually is that all of these men have coached with Hockey Canada at the highest level, possibly indicating that Hockey Canada isn't really doing their due diligence when it comes to ensuring that their coaching candidates are upholding the Hockey Canada values.

Should I be shocked? Not really. Gold medals and winning seem to quiet the dissenters, and it's pretty clear that Hockey Canada has embraced a "gold or nothing" mentality when it comes to sending teams to compete at the highest levels. Winning cures all, I'm sure you've heard, so why would Hockey Canada start digging into the past of these highly-successful NHL and junior coaches?

There has to be changes at this point. I'm too tired tonight to get into what those changes should be, and there are likely much smarter people than I who have better ideas than I. What I do know is that the list of coaches being investigated for past indiscretions will likely get longer before it gets shorter as it seems that more and more players are stepping up to voice their stories of the physical abuse they endured.

I stand with the players on this one. Coaches are there to teach and motivate their players, not punch and kick them. I encourage any and all players who have been on the receiving end of physical abuse from a coach to speak up. It's the only way this is going to change.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!