NHL concussion e-mails released

[CarltonTheBear]

Several e-mails from NHL officials have been released due to the ongoing concussion lawsuit filed by some of the leagues former players. PuckDaddy's done a nice job of compiling some of the more interesting ones, which you can check out in their post here: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/searchable-nhl-concussion-lawsuit-emails--correspondence-published-070940232.html

On the bright side, our very own Brendan Shanahan seems to be one of the only (if not only) level-headed people in all of this:

 

[Peter D.]

I just skimmed through these quickly and would have to give them a more thorough read later, but Colin Campbell comes across as a grade A asshole.

 

[Kin]

Unsurprisingly, Bob McKenzie seems pretty close with Campbell.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I just skimmed through these quickly and would have to give them a more thorough read later, but Colin Campbell comes across as a grade A jerk.

Just some highlights of this, via BostonGlobe.com:

Campbell didn?t pull many punches in the e-mails that were released.

In one November 2008 exchange with Bettman, Campbell criticized Toronto defenseman Mike Van Ryn for sustaining a concussion, broken nose and hand after being checked from behind and into the boards by Montreal?s Tom Kostopoulos.

After calling Van Ryn ??soft,?? Campbell suggested, perhaps sarcastically, that Van Ryn should be the one punished for putting himself in a bad position. Kostopoulos was issued a three-game suspension. Van Ryn missed a month and played just 13 more games that season. He later cited Kostopoulos?s hit as the reason he retired.

In one message to then-Anaheim general manager Brian Burke about a December 2006 fight between Washington?s Donald Brashear and Aaron Ward of the New York Rangers, Campbell called Brashear a ??bully?? and Ward a ??punk.??

In that same e-mail, Campbell referred to critics of the NHL?s handling of safety issues as ??tree huggers.?? He used the term ??Greenpeace pukes?? to express his disdain in a separate exchange with Burke in March 2007.

In his response to several league officials regarding a May 2013 proposal to the NHL?s concussion working group from Ottawa head athletic therapist Gerry Townend, Campbell wrote simply, ??This guy is a freaking idiot!??

 

[Peter D.]

Bobby Mac's a legend, but what has he done to have the clout he has?

 

[Kin]

Bobby Mac's a legend, but what has he done to have the clout he has?

Decades of being a highly visible reporter that's never overly critical of anyone who could be a potential source.

 

[Kin]

On the bright side, our very own Brendan Shanahan seems to be one of the only (if not only) level-headed people in all of this:

One of the maybe most important things I've read in all of them is an email from Shanahan where he talked about the widely acknowledged problem with Enforcers and the way they've come to rely on abusing prescription medication to cope with their jobs. That, maybe as much as the head damage being done, seems to be a pretty strong case that fighting has to be on the way out. Nice to see Shanahan on that side.

 

[Peter D.]

Bobby Mac's a legend, but what has he done to have the clout he has?

Decades of being a highly visible reporter that's never overly critical of anyone who could be a potential source.

For me, his squeaky clean image has taken a major hit based on these leaked emails.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

On the bright side, our very own Brendan Shanahan seems to be one of the only (if not only) level-headed people in all of this:

One of the maybe most important things I've read in all of them is an email from Shanahan where he talked about the widely acknowledged problem with Enforcers and the way they've come to rely on abusing prescription medication to cope with their jobs. That, maybe as much as the head damage being done, seems to be a pretty strong case that fighting has to be on the way out. Nice to see Shanahan on that side.

Yeah he comes across as someone pushing for change and I believe in one of the emails he talks about trying to take fighting out of the game being the "right thing to do".  Wonder if he got frustrated with people involved in high positions within the league resisting it.

 

[Kin]

For me, his squeaky clean image has taken a major hit based on these leaked emails.

That's certainly fair. I guess for me I never thought much about him. He's a big deal if you think learning about a trade four minutes faster than someone else is really important but I don't know if offhand I could even describe a single opinion he has about the game. He reports what other people think which is fine enough I suppose but to me a lot of that is meaningless without perspective.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Here's an interesting e-mail chain (start from the bottom up): https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2778912-NHL0091198.html

Kevin McGran asks Brian Burke to comment on something Shanahan said to the media about how the league needs to look at fighting. Burke forwards it to Shanahan saying that he won't give McGran a comment. He then tells Shanny "are we that worried about being politically correct that we have to say we're looking at it, even if managers are not?". Eventually it goes to Bettman who basically tells Shanny that he needs to be more careful when he takes about this stuff.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

That's certainly fair. I guess for me I never thought much about him. He's a big deal if you think learning about a trade four minutes faster than someone else is really important but I don't know if offhand I could even describe a single opinion he has about the game. He reports what other people think which is fine enough I suppose but to me a lot of that is meaningless without perspective.

Same with a guy like Elliotte Friedman. They're hockey insiders, not hockey analysts. When they do talk about hockey we like them more than guys like Kypreos and MacLean because they aren't insane, but they generally have pretty vanilla opinions.

 

[bustaheims]

Nice to see Shanny on the right side of history on this one.

 

[Peter D.]

That's certainly fair. I guess for me I never thought much about him. He's a big deal if you think learning about a trade four minutes faster than someone else is really important but I don't know if offhand I could even describe a single opinion he has about the game. He reports what other people think which is fine enough I suppose but to me a lot of that is meaningless without perspective.

Yeah, and that was what I was trying to get at with my previous question.  He's a great insider and has a pulse on the trade market like no other.  But how does that allow him to so closely opine on league matters as evidenced by the emails? 

 

[Kin]

Same with a guy like Elliotte Friedman. They're hockey insiders, not hockey analysts. When they do talk about hockey we like them more than guys like Kypreos and MacLean because they aren't insane, but they generally have pretty vanilla opinions.

I guess there's a part of me that desperately wants to believe that the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, that you don't have to trade incisive commentary for access but I'm jaded enough to know that's probably not the case.

I suppose at some point it becomes a matter of how much you're willing to trust that these guys aren't just mouthpieces for the hockey establishment and that's probably why I've largely tuned people like McKenzie and Friedman out.

 

[Kin]

Yeah, and that was what I was trying to get at with my previous question.  He's a great insider and has a pulse on the trade market like no other.  But how does that allow him to so closely opine on league matters as evidenced by the emails?

I guess the only answer I have is I think the two are connected. He's a "great insider" precisely because he's on such good terms with league/team officials that he can have frank email conversations with them in which information is traded. He's not overly hard on NHL officials so they leak him information because they know he won't kill them on it and, as a result, a cozy relationship ensues.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I guess there's a part of me that desperately wants to believe that the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, that you don't have to trade incisive commentary for access but I'm jaded enough to know that's probably not the case.

I suppose at some point it becomes a matter of how much you're willing to trust that these guys aren't just mouthpieces for the hockey establishment and that's probably why I've largely tuned people like McKenzie and Friedman out.

Chris Johnson talked a little bit about this on the Hockey PDOcast a few weeks ago, you might find it interesting: http://hockeypdocast.com/2016/02/28/episode-65-sources-say/. That topic starts at 8:30.

 

[bustaheims]

When they do talk about hockey we like them more than guys like Kypreos and MacLean because they aren't insane, but they generally have pretty vanilla opinions.

That's mostly true, yeah. It's also partly because they express themselves intelligently, and they don't dismiss advances in the way the game is analyzed. They may not have jumped straight into the advanced stats, but they've certainly accepted them as valid analysis tools rather than flat out dismissing them like so many others.

 

[Frank E]

Well, Campbell did say that he wanted to take an anti-fighting position, so I'll give him credit for furthering that.

The problem I have with the emails is that there still isn't anything conclusive that they were trying to suppress.  Nothing really juicy.  I'm disappointed.   

 

[herman]

I guess there's a part of me that desperately wants to believe that the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, that you don't have to trade incisive commentary for access but I'm jaded enough to know that's probably not the case.

I suppose at some point it becomes a matter of how much you're willing to trust that these guys aren't just mouthpieces for the hockey establishment and that's probably why I've largely tuned people like McKenzie and Friedman out.

Chris Johnson talked a little bit about this on the Hockey PDOcast a few weeks ago, you might find it interesting: http://hockeypdocast.com/2016/02/28/episode-65-sources-say/. That topic starts at 8:30.

Thanks, Carlton.