I don't know if there's any acceptable way to think except that the Hawks organization failed completely, nobody in management or coaching should be allowed to work in the NHL again, (looking at Cheveldayoff), and that players (Kane/Toews) are most likely lying about "not knowing".
I'm sure many have made similar comments, but I'm a Bruins fan so I heard this one: Taylor Hall's statement last night re: hockey being an old boys club that needs to change rings pretty true. That said, I don't think much will change.
I was impressed by Hall's comment, actually. "Every culture needs to keep getting better, and hockey's no different. This is a game that's a little bit of what you'd call an old boy's club. ... there needs to be changes." I don't know, it just seemed to be mature, or something. lol. It acknowledged a lot of things in a few words.
But yeah, it's pretty horrifying, this story. I keep wondering what would have happened had it not predated Sandusky/Penn State. (That's just a curious thought, not any justification or excuse or anything else. I just wonder if the Hawks would have been a little better about it.)
And for sure, the culture is not just the old boys club and the locker room/frat boy grossness, but also the stuff that all of us respect and enable: the single-minded drive To Win The Cup. Everything else is secondary. So we
all need to examine ourselves, you know? There is a hockey forum where a bunch of Florida Panthers' fans are doing everything they can to excuse Q. Speaking of, yeah, he was the Avs' coach for a while, of course, and I personally know of some really amazing things he did for people and the community behind the scenes. This is all so sad. Humans are frail. He realllllly fucked up. I don't even care if he didn't know the specifics, it doesn't matter, he was completely wrapped up in the Cup. He has kids. How would he feel? And that's not even a rhetorical question ... I honestly feel like some of these guys would be like, "Yeah, ok that sucks, but we will deal with it later" EVEN to their own families.