Abusive behavior in Hockey

[InstaFace]

Went back and looked, didn't see a discussion for this already.

So maybe this was common knowledge among bigger hockey fans than I am, but while I kinda peripherally assumed a lot of hockey teams were full of the worst kinds of machismo and hazing, it's very different seeing it confirmed in graphic detail. I remember ESPN bringing the accusations against Bill Peters to the fore last year, and then he resigned, and you had Toronto and Babcock which got some discussion around here, but it didn't look like some sort of broader cultural change was in the offing. Well, now I might have to reconsider that:

Former NHL enforcer Dan Carcillo is trying to change this by being a twitter-based abuse hotline, getting lots of stories privately, offering support, and sometimes sharing them publicly. Sometimes he gets called out for his own past shitty behavior, and posts that and recognizes it as a dick move. Washington Post did a great article about it last week, which I'm just getting to now:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/02/19/hockey-dan-carcillo-abuse-twitter/
A sampling:

In 2002, Carcillo landed with the Sarnia Sting, a Canadian Hockey League club that treated extreme hazing as cherished tradition, according to Carcillo and teammates. When he was 17, Carcillo was beaten with a sawed-off goalie stick and stuffed in a bathroom with other rookies while teammates spit tobacco juice on them, he says. He was also subjected to the “shower train,” he says, in which he and other rookies were seated on a shower floor while veterans spit and urinated on them.

The next year, Carcillo was playing for Team Canada’s under-18 club. At a team dinner, he talked about the beatings and the shower train and the bus bathrooms. “Their jaws hit the floor,” Carcillo says.

It had never occurred to him to complain to the league. But Team Canada’s coach, Brad McCrimmon, alerted David Branch, who was president of the CHL and commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League, where Sarnia plays. Branch came to Sarnia to inquire but took no action.

“In speaking to certain people in charge of the club and a couple of players, I did not see a cause to move forward with an actual investigation,” Branch said in an interview.

...because of course he didn't see a cause to move forward.

The whole article is both shocking and not-shocking for different reasons, and seems to be some very good journalism about culture shifts rather than just a "look at the knuckle-draggers!" hit piece. Perhaps Carcillo will actually make a difference, alongside hundreds of others of similar mind.

 

[edoug]

Thanks, it's nice that he wasn't forced to this by court order or public outrage.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

It's Carcillo (not carillo), and his devisive personality in addition to a huge laundry list of scumbag transgressions makes it hard for a lot of hockey people to really get down with him these days. I mean, it's a good thing that he's talking about this (and admitting to some/much of his past), but he's being aggressive and holier-than-thou about it (which is who he is). This stuff is most certainly being addressed across the hockey landscape, although it is slower to root out in certain areas (small town Canada as one example). Another interesting situation just occured recently when a couple of Assabet Valley coaches were suspended.

I had a friend who was working on the UVM hazing scandal back in the day and I saw a bunch of the depositions. That was some shit that would make your skin crawl.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

I take it that Carcillo's own personal scumminess gives his current message more weight, because he's been that guy and is now trying to make amends and be better. Such a message carries more urgency coming from Carcillo than a player like say Paul Kariya who was pretty much a saint.

I get that his style rubs people the wrong way, but I follow him pretty closely and he's always extremely upfront with his own past and just how much of an asshole he was. He's flawed, very flawed, but I guess that makes him more human to me.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

Yet when someone else takes a different approach to exposing or handling these issues, Carcillo blasts them. He thinks the way he's doing this is the only way, and something like this is so personal, there can't be just one way. Again, I apprciate his honesty and contributions to this issue, but he's still a complete asshole. And if that makes him more human, fine- doesn't mean I want anything to do with him.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

I know he got into some sort of Twitter/personal scrap with Paul Bissonnette, but to me that was two assholes trying to outdo each other.

I dunno, Justin. I think Carcillo's pretty sincere in what he's trying to accomplish, despite his obvious flaws.

 

[veritas]

I know he got into some sort of Twitter/personal scrap with Paul Bissonnette, but to me that was two assholes trying to outdo each other.

I dunno, Justin. I think Carcillo's pretty sincere in what he's trying to accomplish, despite his obvious flaws.

Agreed. I don't think anyone deserves credit for simply not being an asshole anymore. His execution might not be ideal, but this is exactly how someone should make an effort to atone for things they've done in the past and try to fix a messed up system they contributed to.

 

[Marciano490]

Yet when someone else takes a different approach to exposing or handling these issues, Carcillo blasts them. He thinks the way he's doing this is the only way, and something like this is so personal, there can't be just one way. Again, I apprciate his honesty and contributions to this issue, but he's still a complete asshole. And if that makes him more human, fine- doesn't mean I want anything to do with him.

I don’t know much about Carcillo, but it’s clear he’s suffered some nasty abuse from a young age. Obviously, everyone handles that differently and it’s not an excuse for bad behavior, but this reads as harsh to me.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

I don’t know much about Carcillo, but it’s clear he’s suffered some nasty abuse from a young age. Obviously, everyone handles that differently and it’s not an excuse for bad behavior, but this reads as harsh to me.

In my defense, I’ve thought Carrillo is an asshole for years. I’m empathetic to the idea that his past helped shape his personality- I spent years when I was younger teaching at schools for kids with severe trauma. It’s heartbreaking what childhood trauma does to a human’s psyche, and perhaps I should give Carcillo more slack. But I suspect he’s always been an ass.

Just because people agree with you doesn’t mean you have to like them.