If the Boston Bruins truly were working on signing Mitchell Miller for “almost a year,” as general manager Don Sweeney says, it was an indefensible waste of time.
All those months of slipshod work culminated with a $2.585-million three-year entry-level contract — maxed-out with all the signing and performance bonuses a kid could dream for — and exposed the red-faced franchise as blatantly insincere and systemically inept by putting their on-ice goals ahead of what is morally right.
With commissioner Gary Bettman, loathe to give the power-wielding Bruins short shrift, declaring the 20-year-old prospect ineligible for the National Hockey League hours after the signing; with respected leaders of hockey’s first-place club — Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Nick Foligno among them — publicly questioning their organization’s priorities; and with loyal fans voicing their disapproval, the Bruins backed down.
“It goes against what we are as a culture and as a team, and for me as a person,” Bergeron said.
So, the Bruins are cutting ties with Miller.
They are apologizing.
Which is something Miller has yet to do in any meaningful way to Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, the Black classmate with disabilities Miller repeatedly bullied.
“He’s never reached out to my son. He never reached out to us,” Isaiah’s mother, Joni Meyer-Crothers, said in an interview with WBZ on Friday in the deafening aftermath of Miller’s signing.
“I don’t care how talented any player is. He could be the next Wayne Gretzky. But if your player that you’re taking doesn’t have character and isn’t a good human being, then you really might want to rethink what you’re doing.”
Only after backlash from all corners did Bruins president Cam Neely reconsider and swallow a tone-deaf signing that has deflected conversation away from his club’s scorching 10-2-0 start and placed Boston in the crosshairs of public opinion.
Favouring a flyer on a maybe stud right-shot defenceman over common decency will do that.
Speaking to reporters on a sobering Monday morning, Neely admitted that the Bruins had “failed” with this decision, that they had “dropped the ball.”
What a thud.
In Sunday night’s press release renouncing Miller, just two autumns after the Arizona Coyotes had done the same, Neely had the gall to state that “we understood this to be an isolated incident” and the call to cut Miller was “based on new information.”
The so-called “new” information is six years old and can be found by punching a few keywords into an internet search engine. (We’re guessing all the teams that passed on Miller in the draft took a glance.)
Suggesting otherwise insults the intelligence of the fan base.
More seriously, it delivers one more slap in the face to the bullied.
During the Bruins’ year of past-due diligence, a phone call to the Meyer-Crothers home would surely have revealed something more important than video clips of a teenager’s crisp breakout passes.
Imagine the trauma this signing has dredged up all over again for Meyer-Crothers.
“We didn’t talk to the family. We should have talked to the family,” Neely conceded.
(At the time of his presser, Neely still hadn’t contacted the family. He said he has plans to do so, though.)
“Initially I was thinking it was going to be ‘OK, this kid deserves a second chance.’ I thought there would be some people that were going to be upset about it. But to the extent of this, I misread that,” Neely added.
“So, we could’ve done a better job. We should’ve done a better job.”
That’s undisputable, and the Bruins are wearing their shame.
But if there is any positivity to be salvaged from this debacle, it’s that the fans piped up, players used their voice, and reporters sought out the other side of the story.
The B’s got called out on their BS.
Boston’s scouts are still confident that Miller could be a player. But at what cost?
“From a character standpoint,” Neely said, “that’s where we failed.”
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins will bring in another quarterback while starter Tua Tagovailoa deals with his latest concussion, coach Mike McDaniel said Friday.
For now, Skylar Thompson will be considered the Dolphins’ starter while Tagovailoa is sidelined. Tagovailoa left Thursday night’s 31-10 loss to Buffalo in the third quarter with the third known concussion of his NFL career, all of them coming in the last 24 months.
“The team and the organization are very confident in Skylar,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the team has not made any decision about whether to place Tagovailoa on injured reserve. Tagovailoa was expected at the team facility on Friday to start the process of being evaluated in earnest.
“We just have to operate in the unknown and be prepared for every situation,” McDaniel said, noting that the only opinions that will matter to the team will be the ones from Tagovailoa and the medical staff.
McDaniel added that he doesn’t see Tagovailoa playing in Miami’s next game at Seattle on Sept. 22.
“I have no idea and I’m not going to all of a sudden start making decisions that I don’t even see myself involved in the most important parts of,” McDaniel added. “All I’m telling Tua is everyone is counting on you to be a dad and be a dad this weekend. And then we’ll move from there. There won’t be any talk about where we’re going in that regard … none of that will happen without doctors’ expertise and the actual player.”
Tagovailoa was 17 for 25 passing for 145 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions — one of which was returned for a Buffalo score — when he got hurt. Thompson completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.
Thompson said he feels “fully equipped” to run the Dolphins’ offense.
“What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though,” Thompson said after Thursday’s game. “I feel like I’m ready for whatever’s to come. I’m going to prepare and work hard and do everything I can to lead this team and do my job.”
