Soakin’ in the Tubb: Hockey failed Kyle Beach

By JAMES TUBB on October 30, 2021.

In all sports, but very much so in hockey, the focus has always been on team success and the betterment of the group. Which is not the worst, as for a team to succeed, it needs a group of individuals to work together to achieve their goals.

But when did the focus shift to being solely on the team’s success and leaving each individual to their own devices? It’s long been a form of ill-guided honour for hockey players to play through sometimes extreme injuries as their teams chase the Stanley cup. Patrice Bergeron is famous for playing through a punctured lung and broken ribs during the Boston Bruins loss in the 2013 Cup Final. It is instilled in players from a young age to do whatever is best for the team and gut through an injury because a team’s best player at 50% health is better than their bench player at 100%.

But at what point does someone step up to say that the individuals on the team matter more than the team itself when it comes to health and safety? Or are they just a part of the process?

This question about the priority of team over individual comes as the Blackhawks released the results of an independent investigation they commissioned into sexual assault allegations against former video coach Brad Aldrich this week.

For those who don’t know, in May a former Blackhawk filed a lawsuit against the team alleging he had been sexually assaulted by the video coach Aldrich in 2010 and that executive members on Chicago were made aware of the assault and covered it up to not derail their run to a Stanley Cup. Those allegations were confirmed this week by the independent investigation and as a result, Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman, vice president of hockey operations Al MacIsaac and former head coach Joel Quenneville have all stepped down from their respective NHL positions and will have to re-apply through commissioner Gary Bettman if they wish to return to an NHL job.

The former player at the middle of the scandal, Kyle Beach, was referred to as John Doe for the entirety of the investigation until Wednesday night when he came forward for an interview on TSN about the abuse and investigation. He says he was threatened with career punishment by Aldrich if he made the sexual assault public and when he did seek help from those above him, they turned their back on him. Only because he was a 20-year-old call-up on a team that was heading to the Stanley Cup, those who were supposed to help him, covered it up for weeks. They allowed Aldrich to celebrate the Stanley Cup win in front of Beach and eventually assault an intern on the Blackhawks during the celebration.

The concern amongst Blackhawk staff was if they punished Aldrich for the assault on the Stanley Cup run, it could affect team chemistry and cost them the championship. Instead of removing a non-vital person from the equation, the Blackhawks continued status quo and left Beach to as he said, feel he was alone, as though there was nothing he could do and nobody he could turn to for help. It’s no secret, the Blackhawks and the NHL failed Beach by covering up his assault and ruining his career. Which isn’t an overstatement, as Beach, who was drafted 11th overall in 2008, is the first player in 50 years picked at 11th to never play a game in the NHL.

What’s wrong here, besides the assault, is how easily this was covered up for 10 years without a peep. Beach and others on that Blackhawks team said that everyone knew and that some players taunted Beach about it. But we’re just hearing about this now? Chicago would go on a run with two more Stanley Cups in five years and Beach would play in the American Hockey League a few more seasons before joining a team in Europe, where he still plays today. Something isn’t right there. A question to ask is, if it was Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane who were assaulted by Aldrich, would the Blackhawks have actually helped their young stars? Or because Beach was only a call up, was it an acceptable cost to sweep it under the rug?

BothÂ Kane and Toews, prominent faces of the hockey world, have mishandled themselves this week as instead of taking ownership for being in that room and not stopping the taunting or offering help to Beach if they did in fact know, they instead offered their support for the former Blackhawks’ executives who ‘were good people and worked hard’ but have also stepped away from hockey for covering up sexual assault.

The culture around hockey has become dangerous in that if you don’t fit the mould or could potentially hinder that team’s chance at success, there is no place for you. Which leads to guys covering up injuries that may diminish them for life or not bringing up personal issues like addiction or mental health in fear of being a distraction to the team. It was only 10 years ago that three NHLers, Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, all passed away in the same summer. All three were enforcers and suffered from depression. There were people who tried to help all three of them but the damage had already been done, after years of being the tough guy and hiding pain for a team that would have found a new tough guy the second they needed one.

Something needs to change in hockey and maybe the Blackhawks scandal will cause that. If not, we’re at the point that someone is going to have to die from covering their injuries and unrelentingly having a team-first mentality for the mindset to shift focus. Because obviously sexual assault wasn’t serious enough for people in hockey to worry about the person before the team.

James Tubb is sports reporter at the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached at jtubb@medicinehatnews.com