Editor’s note: This story contains mentions of sexual assault. Please proceed with caution.
Jonathan Toews had a chance to show the Chicago Blackhawks, the NHL and the world that he had learned an obvious and urgent lesson from the horrifying events and subsequent fallout of the franchise’s sexual assault scandal: That hockey’s toxic, team-above-all culture continues to traumatize individual players and create an environment that gives too much power to coaches and managers who would gladly ignore and cover up abuse in the name of winning games.
When speaking with reporters on Wednesday night, the longtime captain failed.
Hours after former Blackhawks forward Kyle Beach bravely came forward as the “John Doe 1” mentioned in the report as a survivor of sexual assault from former video coach Brad Aldrich, Toews spoke about former general manager Stan Bowman and senior VP Al MacIsaac stepping down from the franchise and said this, via USA TODAY Sports:
“Make any argument you want, they’re not directly complicit in the activities that happened,” Toews said. “It’s not up to me to comment on whether they would like to deal with it differently or not. I just know them as people and I’ve had a relationship and friendship with them for a long time as being part of the Blackhawks family.
“How this situation went down, what the timeline was, what they knew, I can’t really comment on that. It’s obviously a tough day. Regardless of the mistakes that may have been made, for someone like Stan who has done so much for the Blackhawks, and Al as well, to lose everything they care about and their livelihoods as well, I don’t understand how that makes it go away – just delete them from existence and that’s it, we’ll never hear from them. So I have a lot of respect for them as people. They’re good people.”
The words that sting the most are that last set of sentences. Toews somehow equated Bowman building teams that won multiple Stanley Cups and whatever relationship he had with Bowman and MacIsaac behind the scenes with them being “good people.”
But “good people” don’t — as the report released earlier this week details — hear about the sexual assault allegations and then fail to properly report them to the authorities (along with others in positions of authority) while the team makes a run to a title.
Why did they have to step down from there jobs, asked Toews? Because why would you trust Bowman, MacInnis and others (including then-head coach Joel Quennville, who was somehow allowed to coach the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night before he met with commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday) to be in charge of anything when they heard the allegations and didn’t act?
In the end, Toews's "they're not directly complicit in the activities that happened" line about Bowman and MacIssac just follows the bouncing ball introduced yesterday by Bowman and the team: That it was all John McDonough's fault, and he's been gone.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) October 28, 2021
You could see how hockey culture informs Toews’ quote, and while I think he’s far from absolved from what he said, it’s worth stopping for a moment and thinking about how a young captain (he was 21 during the season in question) would not feel empowered to do more about the situation. Hockey culture dictates a team-first mentality wherein all focus is placed on sacrificing for the good of the whole so that games can be won on the ice.
Toews has personified that sort of “leadership” for much of his career, but his comments make it clear that maturity has not brought him enough wisdom. He should know enough by now to say that the culture was rotten, and to realize that the way to fix it is, in fact, to remove those who allowed it to fester.
He should also realize that the only way the game can move forward is to center the actual victim here.
An apology and/or sympathetic words from either Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews to Kyle Beach isn't going to erase 11 years of pain, but it would be a heck of a lot more appropriate than talking about how much of a bummer it is for Stan Bowman to have lost his job.
— James Neveau (@JamesNeveau) October 28, 2021
As disheartening as that is, look at how his teammate Alex DeBrincat responded:
Alex DeBrincat: "Hearing the story is pretty disturbing. That's never something you want to hear goes on."
"We can not move on from it, but learn from it and come together as a team and make sure that doesn't happen again."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 27, 2021
That’s it right there. That’s the right message. And it’s one from a player who was around 12 years old at the time of this incident, far away from an NHL career. And the hope is that there are more and more DeBrincats in the league and fewer like Toews.
Maybe it’s a sign of a generation that won’t stand for this, that would blow the whistle when hearing about a sexual assault and stand up to the authority they’ve been so conditioned to follow.
But it’s more likely that quotes like Toews’s are a sign that we have so far to go to solve the issues plaguing the sport.
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