The players are speaking out, on social media and in lawsuits and beyond, finding the courage to crack and perhaps end the sport’s century-old engrained culture of silence. So is Stan Bowman, the general manager of three Stanley Cup-winning teams in Chicago, along with a fellow executive from the Original Six franchise that is now picking up the pieces from the fallout after being slapped with a $2 million fine by the league.Īlready sidelined are Bill Peters, the coach of the Calgary Flames who resigned in 2019 after it emerged that he made racist remarks to a player while in the minors, and Don Cherry, the once-beloved face and voice of hockey in Canada who was fired for an inappropriate rant about immigrants.Īll of this and more has forced the NHL to confront coaching practices and matters of systemic racism and misbehavior in a sport where coaches have ruled with iron fists and conforming is the expectation.
Gone is Joel Quenneville, who has won the second-most games of any coach in NHL history. The scandal that rocked the National Hockey League this week began more than a decade ago, and it's part of a painful, overdue reckoning that has transformed the sport over the past two years.
