The Chicago Cesspool

I'm going to start this article by stating that the elephant in the room isn't what was contained in the report filed by Jenner and Block yesterday. I slept on this because I wanted to make sure that all of the pieces that were still in the air on Tuesday had a chance to land, and things could be approached with a clear mind. I won't deny that I'm angry about what the report detailed in terms of men who stood idly by why a predator took full advantage of the opportunity provided by their silences. I'm furious that people were allowed to "step away" or whatever garbage term one wants to use. But we need to peer deeper into this cesspool known as the Chicago Blackhawks because there were all sorts of people who simply looked the other way when crimes were being committed by employees of the team.

Being around the game for as long as I have, there's a saying that winning covers up a lot of flaws. There's no doubt that the Blackhawks won in 2010 as the Stanley Cup parade in that city and the names on the side of the Stanley Cup are proof of the win. The allegations made by former first-round pick Kyle Beach - his identity was revealed in a TSN interview with Rick Westhead tonight - towards the management group of the Blackhawks also proves that the temptation of winning supercedes any notion of being a morally-upstanding person.

The group of then- Blackhawks President John McDonough, then-Senior Vice President Jay Blunk, General Manager Stan Bowman, then-Senior Director of Hockey Administration Al MacIsaac, then-Assistant General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, then-Head Coach Joel Quenneville, and then-Mental Skills Coach Jim Gary should be fired into the sun and never heard from in any sporting role ever again. These men represent most of the upper hierarchy in the Blackhawks' front office, and they were complicit in allowing Brad Aldrich to commit heinous crimes against Kyle Beach and, indirectly, many others players. Their willingness to "look the other way" during a Stanley Cup run where Beach was a Black Ace speaks volumes about the lack of moral currency there is in hockey culture.

Former teammates Nick Boynton and Brent Sopel, former skills coach Paul Vincent, and former associate coach John Torchetti all confirmed Beach's allegations on their own, and these four men should be people one would want on a hockey team. They've proven that their moral compasses are intact with their stepping forward to support Beach, and I'd hope that teams who are searching for staff will add their names to lists if they aren't already there. They deserve the commendations I'm giving them for not being afraid to knock a few people off their pedestals.

"They are heroes to me," Beach told Westhead in his interview. "I could never thank them enough."

Beach, it should be noted, played most of the 2009-10 season with the Spokane Chiefs in the WHL, but did return to the AHL for four games before being made a Black Ace with the Blackhawks for their playoff run. Beach was solid in the AHL with three goals in four games before his life was shattered by Aldrich directly and the seven men named above who deserve a fate worse than hell for their involvement and/or silence. But it's the fact that he went to Rockford for a few games that triggered a memory for me because that franchise has its own ugly set of incidents with which it had to deal.

If you recall, Alim Aliu stepped forward in November 2019 with accusations that Bill Peters, head coach of the Rockford IceHogs in 2009-10, "used a racial slur 'several times' because he did not like the choice of music being played in the team dressing room." This accusation was confirmed by two of Aliu's teammates from that Rockford team as Simon Pepin and Peter MacArthur both confirmed the incident happened.

In the days following Aliu's allegations, Carolina Hurricanes defender Michal Jordan alleged he was kicked and punched in the head on the bench by Peters when he played for Carolina, and that account was confirmed by Rod Brind'Amour who had been an assistant coach under Peters with Carolina. The end results was that these players speaking up forced Peters to resign from the Calgary Flames as their head coach days later.

If we narrow our focus on the 2009-10 season only, though, that's a sexual assault at the NHL level and a racist outburst at the AHL level under the Chicago Blackhawks' umbrella of business from people who are supposed to be helping players develop and get to the next level. A second-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2007 (Aliu) and a first-round pick in 2008 (Beach) both had their careers derailed by people they were supposed to trust, and neither of them ever found a home in the NHL. Both Pepin and MacArthur wondered aloud to TSN if Aliu would have had a longer NHL career than seven games he played if it wasn't derailed at the start. I'm now in the same boat, to be honest.

In knowing all this, Kevin Cheveldayoff would have been overseeing the Rockford IceHogs that year as the assistant GM, so Beach's allegations are the second incident from that year in which he was involved. Exactly what the hell was going on in Chicago in 2010 where everyone suddenly went blind when it came to right versus wrong?

Let's run down those who shouldn't be on any NHL payroll now or in the future:

• Stan Bowman: stepped down from all hockey jobs, but should never work in sports again.
• Joel Quenneville: still employed by the Panthers, but should never work in hockey again.
• Kevin Cheveldayoff: still employed by the Jets, but should never work in hockey again.
• Bill Peters: still employed by the KHL's Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, and should rot there.

There are eight men and one convicted sex offender who the Blackhawks employed in 2009-10 that destroyed the careers of at least two young hockey players who appeared to have the talents to skate in the show one day. When Graham James' crimes against players were exposed, the hockey world howled for his capture and imprisonment due to the abuse he inflicted on a number of players.

Yesterday, we heard terms like "unfortunate incident", "deserved better", "too bad that that happened", and "unacceptable". All of those terms minimize what Aldrich did - he committed sexual assault and sexual harassment on a number of occasions, and we need to describe these incidents with the proper word: they are CRIMES. These is no gray area here because the law makes it clear that what Aldrich did to Beach and others is definitely a criminal activity. Calling it anything else effectively minimizes the severity of the crime and the trauma to Aldrich's victims. Use the proper word when describing this situation, I beg you.

Because we're defining Aldrich's actions as crimes, we should be demanding that all seven of the men in the report be treated as if they were criminals because it's pretty clear that they all were complicit in covering up these crimes or were possible enablers of the criminal in question. I can't see any resolution meeting public approval that doesn't involve removing all of these men from their positions within hockey and possibly banning them from future employment in NHL circles in any capacity.

Bill Peters' future appears to be exclusively written in Russian as he's already radioactive to NHL teams, so his punishment seems to be ongoing which is satisfactory for me. It doesn't excuse his abhorrent behaviour in any way, but it almost ensures that we'll never hear from him again. And the hockey world may be better off for it.

If there's one thing that has become apparent tonight, it's that Kyle Beach is one of the most courageous people on the planet. He stood up to the establishment and forced it to look inwards which is something that rarely happens. While I'm sure there will still be pain and trauma he'll need to work through, I can honestly say that Kyle Beach is a hero and I'd be proud to wear his name and number on my back. Granted, it will never be in a Blackhawks uniform for all the obvious reasons above, but the man is more than a survivor tonight. He's an inspiration, he's a role model, and he's one of the strongest hockey people I know.

Kyle Beach is a hero. For all the right reasons.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!