Every year, the Professional Hockey Writers Association votes on the best players in the NHL. They hand out a bunch of respected trophies that hold significant cultural meaning in the world of hockey. Some are decided objectively, based on sheer number of points and/or goals scored, while others are all together subjective, like the Lady Byng trophy.
According to the guidelines, the Lady Byng trophy is awarded to the NHL player who has “exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.”
In practice, the Lady Byng is usually awarded to a player who can score a lot of goals and keep penalty minutes low, but hockey, being the sport that is, loves to pat themselves on the back for vague, virtuous ideas like “gentlemanly conduct.”
With that in mind, and of all the deserving players in the league, it is baffling that the PHWA voted Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, who faced disorderly conduct charges last year, as one of the award finalists.
As a reminder, Matthews was accused of trying to get into the locked car of a female security officer around 2 a.m. last summer. When the officer confronted him and his friends, Matthews pulled down his pants, (but kept his underwear on) and mooned her. Though the charges were later dropped, Matthews issued a weak apology over the transgression.
“Unfortunately, it’s the situation we’re in, I regret any of my actions that would ever put a distraction on the team or distress any individual. I take a lot of pride in, you know, preparing myself for the season and representing the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as I can. Unfortunately, due to the situation, I’m afraid I can’t really make any other comments. That’s all I have and thank you for coming out.”
I do not think Matthews needs to be vilified for the rest of his career over this incident, or that players are incapable of change. Yet, it feels supremely careless that the members of the PHWA would not take this behavior, which is by no means “gentlemanly,” into account when casting their votes, especially considering it happened less than a year ago.
Writers will argue that the Lady Byng is awarded to players strictly for their on ice conduct, yet that’s a semantic distinction at best. In the clubhouse culture, that kind of one-dimensional thinking implies that players’ actions off the ice should be above reproach, or, at the very least, irrelevant to accolades they receive.
If anything, Matthews’ harassment of a woman late at night should be the one thing that writers can point to and classify as not “gentlemanly,” regardless of when and where it happened.
2020 Lady Byng Trophy finalists, voted by @ThePHWA: Nathan MacKinnon (COL), Auston Matthews (TOR) and Ryan O'Reilly (STL).
I like to vote for d-men – it's harder to defend & not take penalties. Last D to win: Brian Campbell (2012) and then Red Kelly (1954) before switching to C.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 16, 2020
Matthews isn’t that far removed from what he did, and he also hasn’t clearly addressed the incident nor has he done any of the work to show that he’s sorry for his actions. Why then, would hockey writers be willing to hold him up as a standard for other players to emulate?
Hockey culture is in the midst of a cultural and racial reckoning but Matthews’ nomination is another reminder that the toxicity and misogyny in the sport won’t be eradicated without total vigilance and that it needs to come from inside and outside the sport.
In the case of Matthews’ nomination the most optimistic scenario is that the PHWA writers, who are mostly male and mostly white, were able to separate Matthews on-ice play from his off-ice actions, while the other side of it, that they simply don’t think what he did was that big of a deal, is more stomach-churning to consider.
Matthews isn’t the only player nominated for the Lady Byng whose actions don’t exactly line up with the award’s gentlemanly conduct edict. The St. Louis Blues’ Ryan O’Reilly, a past winner, is most notoriously remembered for driving his car through a Tim Horton’s in 2015. Unlike Matthews, O’Reilly at least had to take part in the NHL’s substance abuse program.
There’s no disputing that Matthews is one of the best players in the league, destined to win many awards. At this moment though, Matthews nomination and the social media backlash should force a conversation inside the PHWA about the culture that they are directly rewarding and lead them to re-examine their standards.
Changing hockey culture is an uphill battle. Right now, the PHWA seems more focused on holding the line than helping win that fight.