What is Bob Nicholson's Hockey Canada legacy?
At best, the former CEO was a busy executive who was out of his element and asleep at the switch. At worst, he put medals and profits ahead of people. Either way, it's clear he has major regrets
In the 16 years Bob Nicholson was president and CEO of Hockey Canada, this country won three men’s Olympic gold medals, four women’s Olympic gold medals, five World Championships, six World Women’s Championships, five consecutive World Junior Championships, four World Under-18 Women’s Championships, three World Under-18 Men’s Championships and one Paralympic gold medal.
When Nicholson took the helm of Hockey Canada in 1998, the organization was largely dependent on government funding for its revenues and was struggling badly financially. On the ice, the game was being dragged down in the mud, largely because of the attitudes of old-time hockey people in Canada, who thought destroying a masterpiece was easier than creating one. Clutching, grabbing and checking from behind ran rampant and the skill level had eroded. It was showing on the ice with Canada’s results in international competition, including the year Nicholson took over, when Canada finished out of the medals in the first Olympics involving NHL players and eighth in the World Juniors, suffering a humiliating 6-3 loss to Kazakhstan in the seventh-place game.
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