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Post by seventeen on Mar 30, 2016 1:36:08 GMT -5
The NHL had to release a bunch of email correspondence between various members of Head Office, including Bettman, Campbell and others. They paint a not very pretty picture. The writing and attitudes reminds me so much of old geezers who are riding that line between consciousness and lala land. I relayed one earlier where it looks very much like Bettman hoping there's a concussion about to happen, and there are others where Campbell derides an Ottawa trainer for questioning the concussion protocol, calling him an idiot (literally). That's a farce...Campbell calling anyone else an idiot.
"They" seem to have a code where if you get a concussion, you should get right up and defend yourself by fighting the guy that hit you. "They" were so tough themselves in the good old days. I don't think they realize they may be suffering from CTE already because they didn't give it the concern it deserved "in the good ole days". Anyway, the emails really are frightening in their way, revealing the attitudes prevalent in the NHL head office. As I've always said, you could solve head shots with one 40 game suspension, but they'll never do that. The correspondence seems to indicate they'd like more violence in the game and concussions are just another factor players have to put up with. Very sad. These guys make Attila the Hun look like a Socialist.
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Mar 30, 2016 6:59:08 GMT -5
Only caught about 5 minutes of TSN690 and they were suggesting that these emails could very well damage the game a lowest levels ... it's already an expensive sport, which eliminates quite a few kids as it is ... however, this issue could affect registration, participation etc ... that's all I was able to pick up this morning ... my signal faded in and out throughout town ... if that does come to fruition I the NHL should take a measure of responsibility for it and Garry Bettman should fall on his $7-million-dollar sword ...
Cheers.
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Post by blny on Mar 30, 2016 9:30:16 GMT -5
The emails are searchable, and you can find exchanges on various topics between league personnel and media members. There are lengthy conversations between the likes of Campbell with Dreger and McKenzie. The latter clearly trying to influence supplementary discipline in the instance of Corey Perry's elbow on Cheechoo a few years ago. No minced words on how either feels about both players, or about each other.
If you didn't have a low opinion of Campbell before the release of these emails, you will soon enough. Scum. Pure scum. IMO, there's enough in there to warrant cleaning out the entire league offices. Top down, all execs. Gone. There's clear, systemic, problems. If I'm on the board of governor's, I'm demanding that heads roll and I'm reaching out to the likes of David Branch at the CHL and Andrews at the AHL to come in and fix it. If they won't come in on a permanent basis, at least a sabbatical from existing jobs. IMO, they're the best executives in the sport.
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Post by CentreHice on Mar 30, 2016 9:42:02 GMT -5
The more you hear about this story, the less conspiratorial become the stories of Campbell helping his son's 2011 Bruins.
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Post by seventeen on Mar 30, 2016 13:17:24 GMT -5
The more you hear about this story, the less conspiratorial become the stories of Campbell helping his son's 2011 Bruins. I'm quite convinced that was the case. Aaron Rome was suspended for a late hit in an earlier series, just enough games so he couldn't play against the Bruins. Not that he was a key player but he was a decent 5/8 dman with some toughness and he was a body the Canucks needed. Johny Boychuk carried Mason Raymond into the boards in a very awkward situation (he had him tied up like a pig going to slaughter) and ended up breaking his spine. No penalty and no suspension on the play. Raymond was a good secondary scorer for the Canucks that year. I'm sure there are other situation, but those are two I remember more clearly. It was a fraud of a Cup win. Vigneault should have had his Stanley Cup. blny, it's very unlikely anything will happen to Mr Campbell. He may be 'retired' if there's enough public pressure, but the owners in general and Bettman in particular don't care about player welfare. Heck, it even seems like the NHLPA doesn't care about it's own players. In order to protect a few 'goon' jobs, they seemed to obstruct some plans to improve player safety. There are far too many of the old geezer mentality types for the league to move ahead. |
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Post by blny on Mar 30, 2016 13:39:15 GMT -5
The more you hear about this story, the less conspiratorial become the stories of Campbell helping his son's 2011 Bruins. blny, it's very unlikely anything will happen to Mr Campbell. He may be 'retired' if there's enough public pressure, but the owners in general and Bettman in particular don't care about player welfare. Heck, it even seems like the NHLPA doesn't care about it's own players. In order to protect a few 'goon' jobs, they seemed to obstruct some plans to improve player safety. There are far too many of the old geezer mentality types for the league to move ahead. Oh you're most likely right. However, if charges of any kind came from it, public pressure could force the hand of even the most dyed in the wool owners (Jacobs and Snider). |
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Post by CentreHice on Mar 30, 2016 14:21:19 GMT -5
The more you hear about this story, the less conspiratorial become the stories of Campbell helping his son's 2011 Bruins. I'm quite convinced that was the case. Aaron Rome was suspended for a late hit in an earlier series, just enough games so he couldn't play against the Bruins. Not that he was a key player but he was a decent 5/8 dman with some toughness and he was a body the Canucks needed. Johny Boychuk carried Mason Raymond into the boards in a very awkward situation (he had him tied up like a pig going to slaughter) and ended up breaking his spine. No penalty and no suspension on the play. Raymond was a good secondary scorer for the Canucks that year. I'm sure there are other situation, but those are two I remember more clearly. It was a fraud of a Cup win. Vigneault should have had his Stanley Cup. blny, it's very unlikely anything will happen to Mr Campbell. He may be 'retired' if there's enough public pressure, but the owners in general and Bettman in particular don't care about player welfare. Heck, it even seems like the NHLPA doesn't care about it's own players. In order to protect a few 'goon' jobs, they seemed to obstruct some plans to improve player safety. There are far too many of the old geezer mentality types for the league to move ahead. I think Rome was suspended for a clean BUT LATE hit on Nathan Horton….which knocked both of them out for the rest of the Finals. I recall laughing at the LATE part being the difference-maker in Mike Murphy's explanation. Earlier that season, Murphy "officially ruled" on the Chara/Pacioretty incident. Ruled interference, even though the stopwatch shows the hit was much later than Rome's. Resulted in broken neck, concussion. Innocent of all wrong-doing. That was enough for me. |
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Post by franko on Mar 30, 2016 20:35:38 GMT -5
looking even better for the NHL . . . Colin Campbell called Senators trainer 'an absolute freaking idiot' "This guy is an absolute freaking idiot!"
That's what Colin Campbell, the senior VP of the NHL, had to say about the head athletic therapist of the Ottawa Senators over his concussion concerns.
Gerry Townend wrote those concerns in an email to the head of the NHL's Concussion Analysis Working Group, Ruben Echemendia, in May of 2013.
Townend was relaying the thoughts of other trainers with whom he had spoken about treatments for concussions.
"We have a major issue with education of our players, still unsure if they get the information they need. The GM's and coaches are still not up to speed in regards to understanding how complicated the issue is," Townend wrote in the email on May 15, 2013.
"The league does not take it seriously as refereeing is atrocious and that is a major reason we are still seeing head shots," Townend went on to write.
Echemendia forwarded the email to Julie Grand, a lawyer for the NHL, who then forwarded it to Campbell and others.
That's when Campbell responded to all: "This guy is an absolute freaking idiot!"
"I can only say these are partial takeaways from long conversations....not only email but telephone and live conversations about these same topics," Campbell wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon when asked why he referred to Townend's concerns that way.
"I may not have expressed things in an elegant way...dressing room talk...but there was a very valid reason."
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Post by Skilly on Mar 31, 2016 13:23:59 GMT -5
I'd like to see the emails after the Pacioretty incident ...
I totally agree with Townend. The league is culpable, and refereeing is a perfect correlation on how they do not take the issue seriously. Also, supplementary discipline. The logic they use is always directly opposed to logic they used in other circumstances. It can only be described as "do we like this player?" decision making.
When refereeing starts penalizing the instigator and not the retaliator, then I'll consider they are changing their attitude. But after seeing how the Detroit game was officiated, I'm afraid they have a long way to go.
One thing I'd like to see, is a system in place where the refereeing is graded. The problem though is that the NHL would have to be hands off on the grading, and they would never agree to that. And of course, sub par officiating would then have to face consequences.
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