The Shane Doan controversy seems to be spiralling.
The politicians are being idiotic and self-serving, but hockey's old-boy network kind of created their own problem with their usual code of omerta. Doan's "four French refs" comment was pretty innocuous, so why did they not just come out with it at the time of its initial investigation? Instead, they fell back on the old "it's being handled internally" and people were left to believe the worst and form half-baked conclusions. That's why anyone who says "he was cleared by the league," end of discussion, comes off as being disingenuous by half.
The truth will always set you free and a truth here is that Doan apparently said something irreverent and off-the-cuff to calm down his teammate, Curtis Joseph -- which is what a captain is supposed to do. If the NHL had been more open on this matter, then the bipartisan fools' brigade on Parliament Hill would have had nothing to work with -- not that they have too much right now. In other words, the hockey establishment has not done right by Shane Doan; protecting him has actually done possible harm to his reputation, and that's regrettable.
It's strange this raises more official government hackles than Todd Bertuzzi being placed on the Olympic team in 2006. Don't think for a moment, though, that the way Bertuzzi was so quickly embraced by the NHL and Hockey Canada in the second half of 2005 and early 2006 is unrelated. It undermined hockey's credibility in a lot of minds, and the politicians are (clumsily and hamfistedly) trying to preach to that choir.
Thanks to the readers for leaving feedback here -- have to admit it was unknown that the feds do contribute money to Hockey Canada, which might appreciate more than ever before that federal money put toward athletics in this country tends to be a double-edged gift.
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This is snowballing and getting dangerous. It is threatening to open up amother Quebec vs. ROC chasm based on what appears to have been a rather trivial incident 17 months ago.
I also suspect that those in Quebec who want a separate Quebec team in next years World Tournament, held in QC and Halifax, will use this furor to bring more politicians to their side, in order to pressure Hockey Canada to agree to the idea.
What bugs me is this whole notion that somehow there are taxpayer dollars going into funding the National Men's Team that is currently over in Moscow. Far from costing any money, that team acts like a football team does for a Division I NCAA school, making money for Hockey Canada that they, in turn, can spend on their programs. Those pros are over there for three weeks, not getting paid a dime, and somehow Denis Coderre thinks they answer to him? Give me a break. This is a complete red herring -- Shane Doan was not charged with a crime, nor was he given any supplementary discipline by the NHL. It's a dead story, but one that some politicians are anxious to flog in order to hopefully curry favour amongst Quebeckers who ironically couldn't care less. The only people who are the people inside the bubble -- media, politicians, and the usual hangers-on.
Oh, and Quebec will get its own team for international tournaments and such when pigs fly. You'll note that hockey people never float that story -- only hard core Quebec separatists who know that it is always guaranteed to get a reaction and hit the news.
If I read the pie chart on hockey Canada's correctly, hockey Canada gets about 1/8 of its budget directly from governments. If I were Bob Nicholson I would be tempted to tell government tommorrow, to take their money and do what they want with it. Hockey Canada will replace the gov't money (1/8 of their total budget) by appealing to the public and private sector and act independently without gov't interference.
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