Neutral-Zone Crap: Rocky Wirtz gets off Scot free
Bettman will not sanction the Blackhawks owner after his pathetic outburst over the Kyle Beach scandal. Quelle surprise. Plus Pat Vebeek's soft side
Despite the fact he technically works for Rocky Wirtz, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was fully within his rights to sanction the Chicago Blackhawks owner for his tirade earlier this week. Bettman has chosen not to do that. Instead, he characterized Wirtz’s comments as “a moment.”
You may recall two nights ago when Wirtz, at a town hall meeting with Blackhawks’ season-ticket holders and media, responded to a reporter’s question about what the Hawks are doing to prevent future situations like the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal from happening again. He was defensive and dismissive, calling it “old business” that the organization “has moved on from 2010.”
It was roundly criticized as tone-deaf, insensitive and damaging to both the Blackhawks’ and the league’s efforts to reform and improve. Rick Westhead of TSN, who has been at the forefront of the story, said three more potential plaintiffs are considering taking legal action against the Blackhawks. Under the league’s constitution, the commissioner has the power to suspend or expel anyone connected with the league or a member club for, “conduct that is detrimental to the league or the game of hockey.”
Bettman said the situation has been, “very emotional and frustrating and draining for the Blackhawks and Rocky in particular,” and chalked up the testy exchanges between Wirtz and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic and Phil Thompson of the Chicago Tribune as something regretful that was said in the heat of the moment. Which should not come as any surprise. The hockey culture uses the old ‘heat of the moment’ defense to justify excessive violence on the ice, so why not dust it off and pull it out for something that happened off the ice?
“It was an emotional moment, which Rocky, on his own apologized for,” said Bettman, adding the Blackhawks are doing all the right things and going above and beyond what the league is doing. “All of us, at one time or another, have a moment. And this was a moment.”
This says so much about the culture of this game, from its perceived concern for sexual assault victims to how it deals with players who step over the line on the ice. Far too often, we’re led to believe that hockey is different, that the people who play it and work in it are far more emotionally engaged than those in other sports. That emotion sometimes causes them to do things they later regret and, while the tongue-clucking from that segment of the league is loud and disapproving when it’s egregious, it’s something we all have to deal with occasionally. Because it’s hockey and it’s emotional.
That’s basically what Bettman has said here. Well, he’s also clearly condoned the culture of silence and keeping problems in-house that Wirtz was espousing when he told Lazerus that what the Blackhawks were doing was “none of your business.” The commissioner has a duty to uphold the integrity of the game and the league, and to see him wave off Wirtz’s tirade as “a moment” was disappointing. Expected, but disappointing.
LITTLE GM OF HATE
Two weeks ago, Glenn Healy received a telephone call out of the blue from his old teammate and friend Pat Verbeek, who was out walking his dogs and wanted to pitch Healy on an idea he thought would make life a little better for former players. As the executive director of the NHL Alumni Association, Healy has devoted much of his post-hockey life to helping turn sad stories for former players and their families into happier ones. He doesn’t have to worry much about the Pat Verbeeks of the world.
Considering that Verbeek was the assistant GM of the Detroit Red Wings and, at that time, was probably in the midst of landing the Anaheim Ducks GM job, Healy was impressed. “He doesn’t have to do that,” Healy said. “Like, really? He’s doing OK. But he just thought, ‘Can I make life better for a bunch of guys?’ So we talked about the idea and some of it has legs.”
It's fair to say the Ducks went off the board when they hired Verbeek, a guy who had absolutely no previous connection to the franchise, one who had been working in relative anonymity as Steve Yzerman’s right-hand man, both with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Red Wings. It’s probably easy to forget that, when he landed the job in Anaheim, Verbeek brought with him 15 years of scouting and managerial experience with him. He has learned under some of the best executives the game has ever seen. It remains to be seen how he does with a Ducks team that seems to be on the cusp of contending, but nobody should be worried that he enters the team’s executive suite without the requisite experience.
And if you’re expecting Verbeek and Ron Hextall to be kicking each other under the table at the next GM’s meetings, it’s not an issue. Like many of the enforcers in the game, the on-ice persona and the off-ice person could not be more different. Verbeek is an introspective, analytical, compassionate guy who perseveres because he’s patient and builds consensus. On the ice, he earned the nickname ‘Little Ball of Hate’ because that’s exactly what he was. Among his borderline Hall of Fame credentials, Verbeek is the only player in NHL history to have accumulated 2,500 career penalty minutes and score 500 goals and 1,000 points. And in 1989-90, in the second year of a two-year deal with an option, Verbeek held out of training camp with the New Jersey Devils, which forced a trade to the Hartford Whalers. The GM with whom he crossed swords? Current New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello. Verbeek was the first player to take such a stand against Lamoriello.
Healy has been credited with bestowing the ‘Little Ball of Hate’ moniker on Verbeek, going back to their days as teammates with the New York Rangers. Healy is happy to play along, even though he says he has no idea whether he was the one who actually came up with the nickname. “Whoever did it, it was so appropriate, so appropriate,” Healy said. “Never has a man been named more appropriately. He was everything you’d want in a player. A ridiculous compete level. And his ability to bring people into battle. I know that’s an overused word, but it’s overused with the wrong people. It’s underused with regard to him.”