Blackhawks Captain's Words Ring Hollow In The Face Of Scandal

Chicago IL

28 October, 2021

7:08 PM

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CHICAGO — The moment Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews offered his take on the sexual assault scandal that envelopes the franchise, he became part of the problem. His tone-deaf words didn't help anyone. Not himself. Not his teammates. And most of all, not Kyle Beach, who identified himself as the "John Doe" who sued the Blackhawks for not having his back when he told team leaders during the 2010 Stanley Cup title run that he had been abused by an assistant coach. Independent investigators this week determined that the team put winning ahead of everything in ignoring Beach's claims against former video coach Brad Aldrich. When given the chance to support Beach, condemn the decision to keep the allegations quiet and help the team heal, Toews remained loyal to the cover-up. "When you're chasing your dream of a Stanley Cup it becomes the only thing," Toews said in a post-game interview Wednesday night. "They say winning is everything. It just consumes your whole world. It's a special memory in a lot of ways, but when something like this tarnishes it, it definitely makes you realize that there's more to life than hockey. In so many ways, it's an unfortunate situation. Winning the Stanley Cup that year is beside the point." Wrong answer. Chasing childhood dreams and believing in the team's catchphrase — "#OneGoal" — is no excuse for how the Blackhawks valued winning over doing the right thing. A team captain should know that. Instead, Toews, who was in his third NHL season in 2010, told reporters all he heard were rumors until training camp months later. He said the sexual assault Beach reported was treated not like "a joke, but something that wasn't taken super serious." "At the end of the day, I don't wish to exonerate myself from the situation in any way by saying I didn't know," Toews said, adding, "it doesn't change what happened, it doesn't take that away, it doesn't make it go away." But that's what happened. The Hawks allowed Beach's abuser to resign rather than report him to police or conduct an investigation. Toews — like former general manager Stan Bowman, coach Joel Quenneville, who resigned from his job with the Florida Panthers Thursday night, President John McDonough and other executives — chose to look the other way in exchange for adding names to the Stanley Cup three times in five years. While offering up empathy to Beach, Toews also said former General Manager Stan Bowman, who resigned this week and others "weren't directly complicit" in happened to Kyle Beach. It doesn't make sense, Toews said, to "delete them from existence" and "we'll never hear from them again" because it won't make this go away. That makes the Blackhawks' captain sound like a guy who doesn't want his franchise to take responsibility for not looking after a teammate. "At the end of the day, I feel a ton for what Kyle went through and what he's going through now, too," Toews said. "I don't know what else to say, and I think all the guys who were part of that (group) wish they could have done something different." Wishing isn't good enough. Perhaps, if Toews doesn't understand that, he doesn't deserve to wear the "C" on his sweater.