“It was like looking through a mirror at what I went through years ago,” Greg Gilhooly says. “It was soul-destroying watching him there just dripping with such pain.”
Gilhooly was among the millions who have now watched the interview between TSN’s Rick Westhead and onetime top hockey prospect Kyle Beach, in which Beach identified himself as the John Doe of a lawsuit that claims the Chicago Blackhawks management failed to take action after he told them he had been sexually assaulted by one of the coaches.
“I buried this for 10 years, 11 years,” Beach told Westhead, “and it’s destroyed me from the inside out.”
Gilhooly knows the feeling. Once a rising young goaltender in Winnipeg and today an Ontario lawyer, the 57-year-old is still in therapy over what hockey coach Graham James did to him some four decades back. James was eventually convicted of his crimes against several players, including future stars Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy, and served time in jail. Gilhooly originally told his story to The Globe and Mail, and in 2018 published his own account of those years of abuse, I Am Nobody: Confronting the Sexually Abusive Coach Who Stole My Life.
The John Doe lawsuit led the Blackhawks to commission an outside investigation and the 107-page report on the issue could not have been more damning. In it, Beach says that video coach Brad Aldrich threatened him with a baseball bat, telling him, “If you don’t lay down and act like you enjoy it, I’ll make sure you never play in the NHL or walk again.”
Beach, then a 20-year-old desperate for a professional hockey career, did as he was told. He said the coach then told him, “You can’t tell anyone about this; it is our little secret; no one can find out or I will make sure you never play in the NHL.”
Beach did, however, reveal that “little secret” to mental-skills coach Jim Gary, who took it to a meeting that included, among others, Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman, then assistant GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and then head coach Joel Quenneville.
Nothing, however, was done. The Blackhawks were in the playoffs and this claim was seen as a distraction. Three weeks later, Chicago had won the Stanley Cup. Aldrich was in the parade, his name would be etched on the trophy – though likely soon to be removed.
“It made me feel like nothing,” Beach said to watch all this unfold. He never played a game in the NHL. Now 31, he is playing out his career in Germany.
Aldrich did leave the team that summer, but not before Quenneville praised him for “a great job” in a job assessment. Aldrich moved on to coach a high-school team in Michigan, where he was later charged and convicted of sexually assaulting a young player.
The fallout from all this? The NHL has fined the Blackhawks US$2-million. Bowman and others in management lost their jobs, as did Quenneville, who had moved on to coach the Florida Panthers. On Friday, Cheveldayoff met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and it was decided, as Cheveldayoff was not a member of the senior leadership team in 2010, he “should not be subject to discipline.”
Cheveldayoff released a statement through the Jets expressing “my support of and empathy for Kyle Beach and all he has had to endure since 2010.”
Beach had also approached his union, the NHL Players’ Association, about the incident and, again, nothing was done. The union has since apologized. “There is no doubt that the system failed to support him in his time of need,” said NHLPA head Donald Fehr, “and we are part of that system.”
Gilhooly believes that not only does the system need an overhaul, but the whole culture of hockey needs to change. He says the reason so very few speak out about abuse is because of the intense homophobia that is rampant not just in the NHL but in hockey from the minor leagues to the beer leagues. Homophobic slurs are not only hurled in anger, he says, but in dressing-room banter.
“There are people who use words without knowing or thinking about the underlying meaning,” Gilhooly believes, “and there are people who use those same words with meaning. The difference is as with manslaughter and murder. Either way, you’re going to jail for a long time. We hold out hope that the first group can be rehabilitated, while we walk in fear of ever having to deal with the second.”
Gilhooly believes the culture can change. “It’s about education,” he says. “You only learn to ski and skate by falling down. We have to have a world where you can make a mistake, learn from it, and move on.
“The league is sending the right message – you can’t just sit around and do nothing.” Gilhooly was younger than Beach when he met with his abuser James. He was only 14 when James made contact with him, telling him and his family that he was scouting for talent.
“I would call it ‘trolling,’ not scouting,” Gilhooly says.
He scoffs at those who wonder why the young, fit and much larger Beach didn’t just overpower the small video coach. Gilhooly says these people simply do not understand the power a coach can hold over a young player desperate to succeed.
“I’m 6-foot-7,” he says, “I was big and fit and I could have ended it with one punch. I didn’t. Maybe I should have…
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.