Bruins sign Mitchell Miller to an ELC - now "parting ways"

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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That this kid is getting victimized all over again is heartbreaking.
This is the worst part. Unwittingly, the Bruins have put into motion the hate machine that is unleashing on this poor kid. I say unwittingly in that it wasn't intentional, but it's massive negligence. They caused real harm to one person who should never be harmed again forever.
 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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Jul 15, 2005
14,462
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Our school systems have failed our kids for a long time. It's an antiquated and primitive system that is not setup to handle issues facing our kids today.
Don’t forget severely understaffed and underfunded. This kind of thing falls through the cracks way too often simply because there are just not enough adults in the room.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
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Apr 12, 2001
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Good lord. This is absolutely gut wrenching. Just awful.

A friend of mine has a kid who fits Isaiah's description; African-American and developmentally slow. He's the sweetest kid you'd ever meet, just a happy, fun-loving little boy. As I was reading this piece from Isaiah, I kept picturing my friend's little guy. It's quite a horrific picture.

Miller is just a complete and total piece of shit.
 

Auger34

used to be tbb
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
9,275
Miller, the Miller family and the agent are all awful. I can’t believe that this agent has completely destroyed any semblance of credibility for this guy. It’s just nauseating all around.

Good riddance to him and he 100% doesn’t deserve a 2’d chance. Both Neely and Sweeney deserve all of the heat they’re getting
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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Dec 12, 2004
27,164
Cambridge, MA
They need a complete organizational gutting of the front office. No more 90s era Bruins. No more Neely cronies.
A reminder that the sentient fetid corpse of Harry Sinden is still on this organization's payroll. It's also worth revisiting how Delaware North treated its employees going into and through the pandemic. I reluctantly still go to games, but only by virtue of being unable to get out of my season tickets until February / March -- spending $0 at games has been a nice change.

My overall point: expecting this organization to pursue change on its own is not realistic. It starts at the top.
 
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cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
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Apr 23, 2010
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from the wilds of western ma
Absolutely gut-wrenching and heart-breaking to read that. I don't give a shit if Miller ever has any redemption now. And not because of the awful abuse he heaped on Isaiah. I still think it's possible that another person could redeem themselves from things they did, even things that horrible, between ages 7-14. But clearly this POS still has no remorse. "Why do you always have your parents do things for you"??!! Fuck off, you useless punk. And take your white trash family with you, along with your dishonest, grandstanding snake of an agent. And what a cesspool that town and school system sound like. A pox on everyone who enabled/looked the other way on this obscenity for years. I don't think Cam or Sweeney are getting fired for signing him. Whether they should or not is, I think, a legitimate discussion to have. But either way, the Bruins damn sure need to do something meaningful and impactful for Isaiah and his family. And they damn sure better be out at the front of the pack, leading loudly as an organization on these issues going forward. And I don't mean the players. They are, very admirably, already there.
 

changer591

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Jul 19, 2005
966
Shrewsbury, MA
Yup...while I still think "ok, people can change from horrible mistakes they make when they are children", this kid isn't one of them. Good riddance. Bai bai.
 

Scoots McBoots

nothing Sinista here
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
2,832
Worcester, MA
Let's also not gloss over the fact that Miller has been hounding Isaiah for years trying to be "friends." This is a nightmare that he's having to relive due to a clueless and classless front office. Fire everybody.
 

Myt1

educated, civility-loving ass
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Mar 13, 2006
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One or more people relatively high up have to go over this. It’s the sort of error that destroys rhetorical credibility and any assumption of competence in other areas.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Jul 31, 2006
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Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Agree they need a fall guy, but they also need to announce an outreach program to show you can learn and grow from mistakes. It's a win-win for everyone.

I'm sure guys from the locker room would be thrilled to participate.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
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Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Also, I'm sorry for saying that the family needs to "move on" a few pages back. While I still think that's best for everyone, it's impossible to do when you're getting thrust back into the thick of it. Most victims don't have to deal with this high level of media causing them to relive their trauma.

I do hope, however, that they are getting Isaiah the help he needs (which it sounds like they are).
 

3Olympics

New Member
Aug 1, 2019
11
Hate to sound like an old guy, but back in the day executives, managers, government ministers and Secretaries, and others in positions of authority, often fell on their own sword, taking responsibility for major errors, whether of their own or of underlings, and resigned, feeling that such an action was implicit in their remit and that the organization needed a fresh start, with new hands on the wheel. Step up, boys...
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Sep 12, 2003
14,540
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Fuck that was tough. The Bruins should send their best mental health professional to help that kid out for a while. They should also cut him a life-changing check.
 

Red Right Ankle

Formerly the Story of Your Red Right Ankle
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Jul 2, 2006
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Hate to sound like an old guy, but back in the day executives, managers, government ministers and Secretaries, and others in positions of authority, often fell on their own sword, taking responsibility for major errors, whether of their own or of underlings, and resigned, feeling that such an action was implicit in their remit and that the organization needed a fresh start, with new hands on the wheel. Step up, boys...
...when they couldn't bury it entirely via intimidation, firings and payoffs.
 

cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
6,247
from the wilds of western ma
I was going to say make him GM or President. I still might say that.
I love the idea of bringing him into the organization and having him in a real, impactful position dealing with diversity issues and developmentally disabled folks. If he is interested, of course. If not, cut him that big check @PC Drunken Friar mentioned. Actually, cut him that check either way. The apology and the 45 minute chat with his mom is not nearly enough.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
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Jul 12, 2005
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I’ll add the caveat that he should feel comfortable in the role. Offering him a front-facing position in the organization is nice, but if he’s not comfortable doing that, you’re doing him no favours.
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
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Nov 4, 2007
62,312
Agree they need a fall guy, but they also need to announce an outreach program to show you can learn and grow from mistakes. It's a win-win for everyone.

I'm sure guys from the locker room would be thrilled to participate.
I’m sorry I forgot the name of the poster’s niece who was an inclusivity officer for (I believe) the sharks, but we should be able to get her to the Bruins front office, right?
 

j44thor

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Aug 1, 2006
10,961
Hire him. Community Outreach if they can't come up with something that better fits Isaiah's interests
I think they owe him and his family a very significant sum of $$ and support but the last thing he probably wants to associate himself with is a hockey organization esp this one.
Perhaps there is another way they can indirectly support him but offering him to work for the organization that brought all this pain back up to the surface feels very wrong to me. Offer him reparations and as much support as he wants but I don't think they should be offering him a job because that places an uncomfortable burden on him yet again.

I'd much rather see the HDA hire him in some capacity and have the B's cover his salary and expenses.
 

Bergs

funky and cold
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2005
21,613
Miller, the Miller family and the agent are all awful. I can’t believe that this agent has completely destroyed any semblance of credibility for this guy.
And for HIMSELF (the agent)!!!! Given his pedigree (the agent), it's kinda nuts.

Anyway, I'm revolted by this kid, and - like many others - feel bad for supporting the position he might be salvageable.

And then I remember the piece of shit is STILL only 20 years old. So I hope he really is salvagable and figures some shit out, not for his sake per se, but for humanity's.

Regardless, fuck his family and I'm glad he's not a Bruin.
 

durandal1707

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Apr 18, 2007
6,131
Absolute malpractice by Sweeney and Neely. One of them needs to claim responsibility for this and resign. If they refuse and point fingers at each other, I'd fire them both.

What we've learned here today is precisely why you need to contact the victim(s) in question in the case of dealing with a (even slightly) famous perpetrator. For one, they could've easily corroborated Miller's story if he indeed was trying to mend the damage done and become a better person. But even worse, by not doing this, an old wound was ripped open and now the victim is facing heaps of new abuse.

This team and organization deserves way better than its current leadership.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
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Jul 12, 2005
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One last remarkable thing about the HDA’s statement: O2K Management is Eustace King’s company, and includes a few major NHL players, like Jared Spurgeon, Vincent Trocheck…and Wayne Simmons, member of the HDA. One of King’s clients told him this wouldn’t fly, and he did it anyway.
 

Boston Brawler

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Jan 17, 2011
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I'm in the fire them both camp. I don't know what the bench looks like to replace them, or who out there is desired, but it's the right thing to do in this case when the excuses are so clearly bullshit.

Edit: I know Greg Campbell is GM of the Charlotte Checkers. Wonder what that would take...
 

cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
SoSH Member
Apr 23, 2010
6,247
from the wilds of western ma
Absolute malpractice by Sweeney and Neely. One of them needs to claim responsibility for this and resign. If they refuse and point fingers at each other, I'd fire them both.

What we've learned here today is precisely why you need to contact the victim(s) in question in the case of dealing with a (even slightly) famous perpetrator. For one, they could've easily corroborated Miller's story if he indeed was trying to mend the damage done and become a better person. But even worse, by not doing this, an old wound was ripped open and now the victim is facing heaps of new abuse.

This team and organization deserves way better than its current leadership.
The more it soaks in, the more mind-boggling it is that nobody reached out to Isaiah or his family before signing Miller. Your terminology is spot on: malpractice indeed. If nothing else, they’ve at least provided a blueprint going forward of how not to handle signing someone with black marks in their past. Because they could not have butchered this anymore than they did.
 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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Jul 15, 2005
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I'm in the fire them both camp. I don't know what the bench looks like to replace them, or who out there is desired, but it's the right thing to do in this case when the excuses are so clearly bullshit.

Edit: I know Greg Campbell is GM of the Charlotte Checkers. Wonder what that would take...
My guess is that there would be many qualified candidates that would be interested in the Bruins GM job if they had roster control, and didn’t have to answer to Neely.
 

cshea

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I'm in the fire them both camp. I don't know what the bench looks like to replace them, or who out there is desired, but it's the right thing to do in this case when the excuses are so clearly bullshit.

Edit: I know Greg Campbell is GM of the Charlotte Checkers. Wonder what that would take...
They’d slap the interim tag on someone in house then conduct a full search after the season.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,947
I have been following this story, but haven't been following this thread until I just read through it.

Just a couple of brief thoughts.

The Bruins completely fucked this up, but eventually got it right in the end. Miller deserves a second chance, as does anyone, but neither the Bruins nor the NHL are required to be the entities to give it to him. There are plenty of international leagues that I'm sure would bend over backwards to give him that chance. He'll play hockey somewhere, and he can be someone else's reclamation project.

Neely/Sweeney/the FO fucked this up a million ways from Sunday, but in the end, he never played for this team, they did their diligence too late, but came to the right decision. It's raw right now, but it'll be forgotten in short order. The New England Patriots drafted Christian Peter at one time too.

But most importantly, with regards to this thread, and this site, I want to commend @TSC and the folks who responded to him in the thread. As I was reading the thread this morning, I was infuriated at times with his defense of Miller (defense is probably the wrong word), but because I had the benefit of hindsight, as I knew more of the story and how it played out, I decided to bite my tongue and read the entire thread before making any responses. I'm glad I did. The way folks in this thread responded and discussed with him was great to see, harsh at times, but mostly constructive. But it was TSC's response and self-realization and mea culpa that stood out.

Why did it stand out? Because frankly, that shit does not happen enough online or in the real world anymore. People don't admit when they're wrong, not publicly, not privately, etc. They double down. That shit ONLY happens here on SoSH. Kudos to you @TSC and I mean that in all sincerity.
 

TSC

SoSH's Doug Neidermeyer
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Oct 25, 2007
12,280
Between here and everywhere.
I have been following this story, but haven't been following this thread until I just read through it.

Just a couple of brief thoughts.

The Bruins completely fucked this up, but eventually got it right in the end. Miller deserves a second chance, as does anyone, but neither the Bruins nor the NHL are required to be the entities to give it to him. There are plenty of international leagues that I'm sure would bend over backwards to give him that chance. He'll play hockey somewhere, and he can be someone else's reclamation project.

Neely/Sweeney/the FO fucked this up a million ways from Sunday, but in the end, he never played for this team, they did their diligence too late, but came to the right decision. It's raw right now, but it'll be forgotten in short order. The New England Patriots drafted Christian Peter at one time too.

But most importantly, with regards to this thread, and this site, I want to commend @TSC and the folks who responded to him in the thread. As I was reading the thread this morning, I was infuriated at times with his defense of Miller (defense is probably the wrong word), but because I had the benefit of hindsight, as I knew more of the story and how it played out, I decided to bite my tongue and read the entire thread before making any responses. I'm glad I did. The way folks in this thread responded and discussed with him was great to see, harsh at times, but mostly constructive. But it was TSC's response and self-realization and mea culpa that stood out.

Why did it stand out? Because frankly, that shit does not happen enough online or in the real world anymore. People don't admit when they're wrong, not publicly, not privately, etc. They double down. That shit ONLY happens here on SoSH. Kudos to you @TSC and I mean that in all sincerity.

I appreciate the kind words, but it's easy to be contrite when you're as spectacularly wrong as I was, about such a terrible human.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Good piece from Ty on this fiasco. Doesn’t sound like the Bruins are going to be able to run the clock out and have people forget. Neely is half way through his “give me a week” in terms of his investigation and internal discipline decision making. One source thinks Sweeney is responsible; another thinks Sweeney wouldn’t possibly do this on his own.

Oh and 60 Minutes is poking around.

View: https://twitter.com/_tyanderson/status/1590793858849378310?s=46&t=HaT-7c9rKT0ZwxMxhhhxwA
 

JayMags71

Member
SoSH Member
And then I remember the piece of shit is STILL only 20 years old. So I hope he really is salvagable and figures some shit out, not for his sake per se, but for humanity's.

Regardless, fuck his family and I'm glad he's not a Bruin.
Thanks for saying this. I’m one hundred percent in agreement with you. My twins are the same age as this kid, and I can’t imagine throwing this kid on the scrap heap.

He doesn’t deserve a hockey contract, but he needs competent adult to tell him “get your shit together and stop being a selfish asshole” - in those words. And he needs to hear them over and over again until he gets them through his thick skull.
 

GB5

New Member
Aug 26, 2013
675
A few thoughts:

1. Some of the statements from the Bruins on this have been absolutely amazing. Cam acknowledging that they misread the amount of backlash they would receive over this signing. This statement should be red flagged when the Bruins ownership decides how to handle this. The amount of tone deafness is staggering. When he was drafted there was an absolute firestorm. You saw how uncomfortable it was in a hockey outpost like Arizona where essentially nobody cares about the team and there is very minimal media coverage. So if it is a hard no there how do you think it’s going to play in an Original Six market with media everywhere? Also you have University of North Dakota sending him packing. I am 100% sure the Bruins knew all of this and still decided “let’s give this a go, we will be fine? I don’t want a braintrust who is that blind making executive decisions for my franchise.

2. I laugh about all the posts thinking Don or Cam will resign in shame. Hysterical. Truly. Don lives in a world surrounded by yes men. Harvard guy. A lot of arrogance a lot of lack of real world understanding. I feel strongly that he is still has no understanding of the depth of what just occurred. His people are surely telling him that it’s not a big deal or that it has already blown over.

3. There will be no tangible internal discipline. What would not be stunning is if Don and Cam through a level level person or people overboard. Compliance, Human Resources. Someone might get their walking papers. The exceptions to everyone being safe are two for me.(A) sponsors take a walk on the Bruins, costing the Jacobs money or (2), the national (non sports) media, I saw someone mention 60 minutes lurking, jumps on this and nukes the Bruins over this. Then you could see some action.
4. I haven’t seen this mentioned and maybe it was an i read around it, but I am absolutely 100% convinced that the following would be true. It immediately before the Bruins signed Mitchell they talked to the victim and his family, hell, spent 24 hours with him a listened to his story of terror at the hands of Mitchell, and the years of mental and physical torture, not one thing would have changed. They were locked in on this kid. They thought he could play and that is all that mattered. The background didn’t matter, he could have been a serial killer and he was still reporting to Providence on Monday.
 

bibajesus

Member
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Jul 15, 2005
965
I'm in the fire them both camp. I don't know what the bench looks like to replace them, or who out there is desired, but it's the right thing to do in this case when the excuses are so clearly bullshit.

Edit: I know Greg Campbell is GM of the Charlotte Checkers. Wonder what that would take...
Maybe skip Gregory Campbell. He was on the 2003 World Juniors team that gang raped a young lady. I'm not saying he took part, but maybe they should be extra careful right now and forever.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/cp-newsalert-canadas-2003-world-hockey-junior-team-also-accused-of-sexual-assault
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,840
What kind? Not showing up, or booing? If the latter, why should they direct their ire towards the players? The one group of people on the bruins who conducted themselves admirably in all this.
Of course they shouldn't boo the players. They can find ways to do it so that it's directed 100% at the FO/ownership. It happens in English soccer a fair amount.
 

Red Right Ankle

Formerly the Story of Your Red Right Ankle
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Jul 2, 2006
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Of course they shouldn't boo the players. They can find ways to do it so that it's directed 100% at the FO/ownership. It happens in English soccer a fair amount.
A good "Fire Cam! Fire Don!" chant would get the point across.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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Thanks for saying this. I’m one hundred percent in agreement with you. My twins are the same age as this kid, and I can’t imagine throwing this kid on the scrap heap.

He doesn’t deserve a hockey contract, but he needs competent adult to tell him “get your shit together and stop being a selfish asshole” - in those words. And he needs to hear them over and over again until he gets them through his thick skull.
I think what he needs to hear is: Son, you did really awful things. Do you understand that? Because nothing you do or try to do will matter if you don't start there.

Seems to me the fundamental question is this: Does he have the capacity to say to himself, "holy shit, what I did was really bad and I can't believe how I made that poor boy suffer." If so, then everything else should follow if he's willing to put in the work and if he recognizes that it's a long road.

If he's unable to do that, then what are we talking about? Then it's really just about whether he can fool everyone convincingly.

You'd like to think that people can discern the latter. We all think we can spot sincerity, and you'd like to think that if he's only going through the motions he will eventually run out of energy or even if he starts that way he will learn something along the way. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it works like that.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Sep 9, 2008
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Excellent point. That’s a more articulate making the point I was attempting to convey.

I agree with the rest of your post, too.
Yeah, that would be the place our kids would be starting from, or close to it. Or at least we would hope, right? I think it's possible and even probable that Mitchell is not even at the starting line yet.
 

cshea

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The Bruins are off until Thursday. This would seem to be an ideal opportunity to go public with any internal discipline from this embarassing chapter of team history.