November 8, 2021 by Mike Dirsa

I think the best way to describe what I am feeling as a hockey fan as of late is to quote the classic Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.”

On one hand, the Edmonton Oilers are off to a great start. On the other hand, I am deeply saddened, disgusted and angry regarding the Kyle Beach sexual abuse scandal with the Chicago Blackhawks, the NHLPA and the NHL. I will start with the Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks put winning a Stanley Cup above doing what is ethically, morally and the simply right thing to do when it comes to the handling of Beach’s sexual abuse. I can’t look at the above video any longer without seeing a bunch of people who failed another human being so badly. How can they be so proud of what they accomplished knowing what happened to one of their own? This is the opposite of the military way of thinking of “No man left behind.” How do you do that to a player on your team?

What Chicago did is the furthest thing from professional. To actively hide and cover up a case of sexual assault is completely heinous and wrong. The fact that their inaction and letter of recommendation for their disgraced former Video Coach Brad Aldrich led to another person, a minor, being violated is criminal. The culture of a once storied franchise is completely and utterly broken from the management on down. It infuriates me thinking about how badly broken things were in Chicago but they are not doing what is right now either.

They are still being defiant when it comes to doing right by Beach. So, not only did they fail him in the past they are not doing right by him in the present by prolonging the court cases. They can’t find Aldrich’s file from the years he worked for them. If that doesn’t make you roll your eyes, nothing will. As bad as all of this is in Chicago there’s more.

The NHLPA also failed him.

Beach did share his abuse story with NHLPA union psychologist Dr. Brian Shaw. However, the NHLPA did nothing with this information according to Beach. No investigation, no follow up, nothing. According to Rick Westhead an email regarding Aldrich was sent to Don Fehr on April 18, 2011. Rick Westhead points to Shaw, telling Beach he would handle things and make sure USA Hockey was made aware Aldrich was a sexual predator.

After one conversation Beach was dismissed from the NHLPA never to hear from them again. The problem I see with the players’ association is that it doesn’t seem concerned about individual players safety, but supposedly looks out for the greater good of everyone. It failed Beach on an individual level. It fails the victims on dangerous plays when it comes to player safety with the mandated maximum $5,000 fine, which do less than zero to curb dangerous play. Don Fehr’s status with the PA now is being debated amongst the 32 player representatives. Long story short, the PA, which is designed for players to file grievances, failed Beach.

As bad as the Blackhawks and NHLPA handled things, the area that concerns me the most is the way the NHL is treating this. If you were looking for the NHL to make amends with Beach and put in procedures to stop situations like this from happening in the future
like I was, prepare to be disappointed. Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, held a press conference on Monday, and began by apologizing to Beach. “What happened was inappropriate, it was wrong on every level,” said Bettman.

But then when questioned by TSN’s Rick Westhead if he supported the Blackhawks attempts to dismiss Beach’s lawsuit, he went into legal jargon and said “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on whether the lawsuit has merit.” If this kind of answer doesn’t infuriate you, I am not sure anything will. This answer immediately disqualifies his apology to Beach. The NHL didn’t want to field any questions from Westhead in the first place. Westhead, the person who introduced the world to John Doe number one as Kyle Beach had to wait almost an hour to ask his first question when other members of the media were asking their second question. In fact, it took Pierre LeBrun intervening on Westhead’s behalf for him to be able to ask a question. Rick Westhead asked Gary Bettman if the NHL will cover the family of the 16-year-old hockey player, that was abused by Aldrich in 2013 counselling costs. Bettman said, “I will need more information.” What more information do you need Gary?

Bettman couldn’t be bothered to meet with Beach in person, their meeting occurred over Zoom. To Bettman’s credit he did ask for the meeting but to not commit to an in person meeting with Beach sends me another wrong message. Not meeting Beach in person says
to me that Beach is not important enough for Bettman to sit down with. The level of arrogance and lack of compassion is off the charts.

Years ago, I coached a minor hockey Atom team in Clairmont, Alberta. After Sheldon Kennedy and Theo Fleury spoke their truth about their own sexual abuse at the hands of former coach of the Swift Current Broncos Graham James, Alberta Minor Hockey instituted some precautionary measures to try to ensure cases of sexual abuse wouldn’t occur again. I had to have a criminal record check done. I also had to take the Respect in Sport course. The most important thing was also agreeing to never meeting alone with any of my players. Whether that was in the dressing room, on the ice, at the movies, or anywhere. If I wanted to talk to my players, I had to have another adult with me.

LeBrun asked Bettman if he would reach out to Sheldon Kennedy for advice on what to do going forward and how to handle dealing with Beach, and Bettman’s arrogant response gave me zero faith that the NHL will safeguard anyone from this in the future and make amends with Beach. “We are going to reach out to anybody who is interested in working with us,” said Bettman. “Sheldon’s terrible experience was not at the NHL level, We have been focused on what we have to do for the NHL players and personnel. But certainly, if Sheldon has an interest in working with us, particularly as we seek to setup a network that can provide access for anybody involved in hockey at any level, we would be more than welcome to work with him and have his input.”

Really? That’s your response? The arrogance of that statement just highlights to me why this happened in the first place. It’s like the NHL under the direction of it’s commissioner took the attitude they were above things that happened in the Western Hockey League. Even when proven by the Kyle Beach abuse they weren’t above it, Gary still doesn’t see the relevance of what happened to Sheldon. This might very well be the most disturbing aspect of all of this. The NHL still can’t see. Kyle Beach was a Black Ace for the Chicago Blackhawks who was violated by Brad Aldrich, the Chicago Blackhawks video coach who used making the show as leverage to sexually assault Beach, but Bettman still can’t relate what happened to Kennedy.

If Bettman knows what happened to Kennedy how can he dismiss what happened to him as irrelevant to Beach. They are the same story. Coaches using wanting to play in the Big League as leverage to violate players. Alberta Minor Hockey recognized the problem and did something about it. Why can’t the NHL recognize they have a serious problem and take the right steps to rectify the problem. The answer for me starts at the arrogance of the man in charge of running the league none other than Gary Bettman himself. For all the good that Mr. Bettman has done for the league and helping to keep my beloved Oilers in Edmonton I think it’s time for him to go. At this very point in history the NHL needs someone at the helm who is compassionate, not someone who is very careful not to get himself into legal issues.

Bettman, at times, says what he thinks people want to hear instead of the truth. It’s clear to me that something is clearly broken and needs fixing immediately the very soul of the game is at stake.

In closing, I wrote this article because no one should suffer abuse of any kind whether that be in the sport of hockey or any other walk of life. No one should be forced to suffer in silence and think that they don’t matter. The game I love needs to grow and learn from what has happened.

Safeguards need to be put in place to try to prevent incidents like what happened to Kyle Beach from happening in the future. The time for the NHL to be arrogant is over. It’s time to listen, it’s time to heal and it’s time for accountability. The league needs to act like what happened is totally unacceptable but by allowing Joel Quenneville to coach after Beach’s interview showed that they care more about not getting sued than they do about doing what is right. Sounds familiar to the Blackhawks wanting to win a Cup over doing the right thing.

As a society we need to start listening to survivors. We need to educate ourselves. I’ve seen the question be asked, how does Brad Aldrich overcome the size disparity between himself and Kyle Beach? The answer is he preyed upon his insecurities of becoming an NHL player. Abusers are not always bigger than the people they violate. They break down mentally the people who are in their wake long before anything physical happens. They use a Superiority Complex to control. That is why we need to make it as comfortable as possible for survivors to come forward with their stories because their stories, if handled correctly can put a stop to predators continuing to destroy lives.

On a personal level I pledge to be available to talk and listen if anyone has a story they want to share without judgement or pressure. As much as I am looking for change in the NHL I will personally take the advice of Michael Jackson’s iconic lyrics and look firstly at the man in the mirror.