Around the League 29: Which RFA blinks first?

[Navin R Slavin]

The player is Kyle Beach, 11OA in 2008. The Blackhawks Fansided site has this to say about him last year:

Blackhawks: Was Kyle Beach The Biggest Bust In Franchise History?

That guy might want to consider a rewrite.

 

[A Star is Burns]

When they came out with the details yesterday, it was fairly easy to figure out it was likely him. One of my immediate thoughts was that I remembered him as a prospect and how much of a bust he was considered and how all this very likely impacted his ability to function as a normal person and make a go at his dream. I feel for him and hope at some point he gets some kind of peace and closure. I also hope the remaining folks out there that appear to have known, lied, and have faced no consequences, get what's coming to them.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

When they came out with the details yesterday, it was fairly easy to figure out it was likely him. One of my immediate thoughts was that I remembered him as a prospect and how much of a bust he was considered and how all this very likely impacted his ability to function as a normal person and make a go at his dream. I feel for him and hope at some point he gets some kind of peace and closure. I also hope the remaining folks out there that appear to have known, lied, and have faced no consequences, get what's coming to them.

Yeah, it was pretty easy to guess, but I'm glad people had the decency to wait to say his name until he was ready.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I’ve always thought he was kind of an ass, but I clearly don’t know him so I could be way off. Not sure if I believe him or not as he said pretty much the only thing he could say. Doesn’t mean he’s not being truthful, just can’t say for sure.

As a follow on:

KB: Word spread pretty quick. I do believe that everyone in that locker room knew about it. Because the comments were made in the locker room, they were made on the ice, they were made around the arena with all different people of all different backgrounds – players, staff, media in the presence.
RW: So, when (then-teammates) Nick Boynton and Brent Sopel say everybody knew in that locker room, you think they were telling the truth?
KB: I 100 per cent believe both of them and I haven’t spoken to either of them since the last time I would have ran into them at a training camp. I do not know them, I do not have a personal relationship with them, I do not have their phone numbers, I have not spoken to them.

 

[Canes]

Man watching the Kyle Beach interview is rough. I can't even imagine

 

[bleedgreen]

I know he’s saying that, but that is not fact. That is his opinion. Of course he is very sensitive about it all and it would be easy to feel that everyone knew after people made comments. Keith isn’t making these comments like Q did a year ago not realizing it was going to be this mess. He made his comments in the middle of this blowing up. There are groups within the locker room. You can’t assume everyone knew.

Read the report. There are discrepancies about who was where and what happened. I’m not saying this is anything but the truth but there are discrepancies in what the final version is and what the woman involved saw as well as what he told his confidant about details of these events.

To me it’s that he’s really upset by it all but that doesn’t mean that every detail is going to be accurate. This is an event being told through eyes ten years later. The report itself talks about confirmation bias and how that it absolutely is part of this case.

The Hawks knew and sat on it through the playoffs. That part is true. That they had an encounter is true and due to this guy having other accusations about him I think we can say KB’s version of their one on one encounter is true. It’s hard to say who is actually responsible enough to lose their job. McDonough is already gone and he’s the number one in my book. None of them agree on the details of their meeting. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of Q’s meeting. They all seem to think they were told KB was advanced on and didn’t feel comfortable around the coach but didn’t seem to understand there was an actual assault. That may be true as the version that was brought to them by “Gary” seems to be one more of KB being scared about his career and uncomfortable with the advances, and I didn’t get from reading it that Gary got that there was an actual assault at that point. I’ll have to reread it. If that was true the smoking gun meeting might not qualify as such to the same extent. They may have thought they had an HR mess but not an assault. Still needed to do something about it immediately and not sit on it.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I know he’s saying that, but that is not fact. That is his opinion. Of course he is very sensitive about it all and it would be easy to feel that everyone knew after people made comments. Keith isn’t making these comments like Q did a year ago not realizing it was going to be this mess. He made his comments in the middle of this blowing up. There are groups within the locker room. You can’t assume everyone knew.

Brent Sopel said everyone knew in July.

Sopel: Former Blackhawks teammates should be 'telling the truth publicly' about assault allegations - TSN.ca

Everything is not black and white, and you can't assume everyone knew everything. But I think it's pretty safe to guess that almost everybody knew something.

 

[bleedgreen]

Brent Sopel said everyone knew in July.

Sopel: Former Blackhawks teammates should be 'telling the truth publicly' about assault allegations - TSN.ca

Everything is not black and white, and you can't assume everyone knew everything. But I think it's pretty safe to guess that almost everybody knew something.

I mean I get it, and everyone loves having villains to point to at during these times but this does not count as the truth. This is opinion.

I knew about Sopel and another teammate saying they all knew. That’s what I’m responding to as well as KB’s thoughts. Sopel does say “almost” everyone knew.

Toews gave an annoyed comment about someone saying they all knew and denied it. Saying that some people heard whispers and that’s it.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I mean I get it, and everyone loves having villains to point to at during these times but this does not count as the truth. This is opinion.

I knew about Sopel and another teammate saying they all knew. That’s what I’m responding to as well as KB’s thoughts.

No one can ever know the whole truth. That's fine. But there is such a thing as a preponderance of evidence. Multiple people in the room at the time say that everyone knew. The investigation makes it clear that people in power knew more than they later admitted.

Some people may never have known anything. Some people may have known more than they later admitted. But Sopel is very clear: he calls out people who knew for saying that they didn't know, because they have their own jobs and careers to protect. Maybe Duncan Keith wasn't one of those people, and that's fine.

There will come a time when names will be named. That's not happening yet for legal reasons, but one day, that will happen. One thing is for sure: there are a bunch of players who definitely knew, and those players might be wise to get out in front with some mea culpas before their names come to light.

 

[bleedgreen]

No one can ever know the whole truth. That's fine. But there is such a thing as a preponderance of evidence. Multiple people in the room at the time say that everyone knew. The investigation makes it clear that people in power knew more than they later admitted.

Some people may never have known anything. Some people may have known more than they later admitted. But Sopel is very clear: he calls out people who knew for saying that they didn't know, because they have their own jobs and careers to protect. Maybe Duncan Keith wasn't one of those people, and that's fine.

There will come a time when names will be named. That's not happening yet for legal reasons, but one day, that will happen, and some people might be wise to get out in front before that happens.

If its going to be the players getting named and ostracized then I hope Sopel gets the same treatment the rest of them get. It's not like he did anything about it for a decade either.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

If its going to be the players getting named and ostracized then I hope Sopel gets the same treatment the rest of them get. It's like he did anything about it for a decade either.

I mean I get it, and everyone loves having villains to point to at during these times but this does not count as the truth. This is opinion.

I knew about Sopel and another teammate saying they all knew. That’s what I’m responding to as well as KB’s thoughts. Sopel does say “almost” everyone knew.

Toews gave an annoyed comment about someone saying they all knew and denied it. Saying that some people heard whispers and that’s it.

I find it amazing and a little disturbing that 99.9% of the time you could write my posts for me and it would be exactly what I’m thinking

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If its going to be the players getting named and ostracized then I hope Sopel gets the same treatment the rest of them get. It's like he did anything about it for a decade either.

No one did the right thing back in the day, for various reasons. The question is, what can you do now?

For those who were peripherally involved, they can either be honest and say "yeah, we knew, we didn't understand the importance of what was happening, we apologize for not being good teammates and wish KB the best, and we need to get this kind of stuff out of our game" -- or not.

For those who actually dropped the homophobic slurs, they'd better come to Jesus in a hurry, because I guarantee you that multiple people remember who those guys were. (Caveat: because those individuals are now at the center of the lawsuit against the Blackhawks, they might be advised against doing so by counsel.)

 

[bleedgreen]

I find it amazing and a little disturbing that 99.9% of the time you could write my posts for me and it would be exactly what I’m thinking

You're doing it right though, I usually take the heat for us. I should let you respond first more.

 

[bleedgreen]

No one did the right thing back in the day, for various reasons. The question is, what can you do now?

For those who were peripherally involved, they can either be honest and say "yeah, we knew, we didn't understand the importance of what was happening, we apologize for not being good teammates and wish KB the best, and we need to get this kind of stuff out of our game" -- or not.

For those who actually dropped the homophobic slurs, they'd better come to Jesus in a hurry, because I guarantee you that multiple people remember who those guys were.

It really should be about what it looks like moving forward instead of witch hunting the past. We know what the past is and it cant be changed but how we are at the rink moving forward is an open book. I honestly believe that change is happening as we speak. Old farts from my generation are moving on, and we spoke that language fluently as a group. It took a long time for me to look at my usage of certain words the way I do now. I never meant to hurt anyone and ironically had no ill will towards those groups but I now know I was being insensitive when I was younger. They were "just words" to me then.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

It really should be about what it looks like moving forward instead of witch hunting the past. We know what the past is and it cant be changed but how we are at the rink moving forward is an open book. I honestly believe that change is happening as we speak. Old farts from my generation are moving on, and we spoke that language fluently as a group. It took a long time for me to look at my usage of certain words the way I do now. I never meant to hurt anyone and ironically had no ill will towards those groups but I now knew I was being insensitive when I was younger. They were "just words" to me then.

This is an important truth that I think people are too quick to overlook. A lot can change in even ten years.

But it's way easier when people just own their shit. This is why Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are a thing.

It's ironic and unfortunate that the people who make these mistakes try to cover them up instead of owning them, because that always always always makes the blowback worse -- but that's just human nature, I guess. We remember ourselves in the best light, and we're often wrong.

 

[VibesAlive]

That was tough to watch but I got through it. After everything, I'm in the camp of believing that everyone knew something prior to the Finals.

I hope if that is the truth, the time limit hasn't run out on doing the right thing for everyone involved.

I want to give the current folks the benefit of the doubt.

Coach Q's statements today make that difficult.

 

[NotOpie]

To me, THE most important this is that those who were in power get the most stringent punishment possible.

Yes, the shitty comments and cover ups by some or all of the players sucks and should be addressed (I'm in the camp that everybody or nearly everybody knew - locker rooms are like petri dishes - bad shit grows fast and throughout). But every one of those motherf***ers who should have addressed this and put the cleanse of sunlight on it deserve to be out of hockey forever.

EDIT: ...meaning GM, Coaches, Front Office, etc.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

nvm...

 

[NotOpie]

Now on a totally unrelated note....here is exactly why you don't bet against Alex Ovechkin breaking Gretzky's record....it is charitable to say that he's "conserving energy" on this PP goal.

 

[NotOpie]

Sorry for the multiple posts, but Toronto being down 2-0 to the Blackhawks is the Leafiest thing of all.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Now on a totally unrelated note....here is exactly why you don't bet against Alex Ovechkin breaking Gretzky's record....it is charitable to say that he's "conserving energy" on this PP goal.

I watched that goal. Ernie pointed to an open Ovi just before that. The defenseman didn't get 0ver, but man, if I'm Ernie I'm dropping down to cover the most dangerous pp player on the earth. He just always finds the soft spots and cashes in.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Sorry for the multiple posts, but Toronto being down 2-0 to the Blackhawks is the Leafiest thing of all.

I watched he Prime series on the Leafs and I came away with a couple of things.
1) Keefe had no influence on those players. His intermission speeches were cliche and the players never seemed to even register what he was saying.
2) Joe Thornton came across as a big goofball. Maybe he'll do well in FLA, but he really came across as a guy I wouldn't want if pursuing a cup.
3) Nylander was great with a lot of personality. The series should have devoted more time to him.

all that said, I don't think Keefe is long for this job. I don't think the player respect him. In fairness, I don't think some of those players will respect anyone.

 

[surfzone365]

Sorry for the multiple posts, but Toronto being down 2-0 to the Blackhawks is the Leafiest thing of all.

Enjoying this game right now. This would be a new low for Leaf Nation if the Hawks win.

 

[NotOpie]

I watched that goal. Ernie pointed to an open Ovi just before that. The defenseman didn't get 0ver, but man, if I'm Ernie I'm dropping down to cover the most dangerous pp player on the earth. He just always finds the soft spots and cashes in.

Agree....yet the thing that got me the most about this clip, is that he's literally "just standing around" waiting for somebody to pass it to him. No energy expended. Dude's gonna play until he's 50.

 

[VAcaniac]

Feels weird that the Panthers are actually good enough to make for a intriguing game to actually watch.