God Don’t Like Ugly Blackhawks and Neither Do I
Kyle Beach was drafted #11 overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2008. In 2010, Beach alleges he was sexually assaulted by then Blackhawks Assistant Coach Brad Aldrich. Photo courtesy of NHL.
The puck went in the goal twice off of Blackhawks defenders’ skates on back-to-back goals against Carolina Friday night. Phillip Kurashev had a great curl move that was about to lead to a scoring chance, then Kurashev stumbled over his own skates and fell to the ice killing the chance. A few minutes later Tyler Johnson got cross-checked, was injured and never returned. Brandon Hagel was clearly hooked on a play that nine out of 10 times is going to be a penalty, but the referee, in his first NHL game didn’t see it. Another goal was disallowed later in the game by the same official on a questionable goaltender interference call. This was all in one bad game for the still winless 2021 Chicago Blackhawks. And it’s a sign of what more is to come for one of my favorite sports teams.
Karma is a bitch in case nobody ever told you. Not doing the right thing, especially when someone’s humanity is violated as Kyle Beach’s was, puts you behind the eight ball. You no longer have the moral high ground. You no longer are deserving of good fortunes. You are basically asking for it. And right now, the Blackhawks are getting what they asked for. They paid the band, now they get to do the dance.
Ticket sales have plummeted. You can get a ticket to a game on the secondary market for $4. That’s for standing room only, but let’s not kid ourselves here, nobody will be standing at Blackhawks games this year or probably for any time in the near future. Nobody will be buying new Blackhawks apparel either, TV ratings will drop and the Blackhawks are in serious danger of becoming an afterthought on the Chicago sports scene once again. This could quickly become reminiscent of the dark ages of Blackhawks hockey from 1997-2008.
The Blackhawks compromised their integrity, the good-will they had built up in Chicago, possibly damaged the inroads made to increase African American and women fans, their community relations programs and for what? To protect a video coach who nobody had even heard of. Brad Aldrich was not going to break or make a Stanley Cup run. I would have called the police on his ass myself while jettisoning him out of the NHL if I were Stan Bowman, who I once played on a recreational softball team with. And even if Aldrich was the next great hockey coach, too bad, you do the right thing, because not doing the right thing comes with a cost that is too much to bear.
And not that it matters much, but the victim in this case, Kyle Beach was a FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK! So, you invest all this time, money, scouting and training a guy who you thought was good enough to make your NHL roster at some point and you allow this to happen to him? It makes me question how you treat a fifth-round pick.
This is not just asking for bad karma, it’s just plain STUPID!
If the Blackhawks want to survive, they have to do the following:
1. Change the mascot. You have already been getting pressure about this for the past few years and the logo still offends many people. It is also the main symbol of your brand, which you have now damaged, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone and retire the nickname and/or logo all at once and start over.
2. Fire everyone who knew and did nothing about this when it was their responsibility to do so. Not allow people to quit. Not allow people to retire. Fire their asses in the most public way possible.
3. Trade Toews and Kane. Look, everyone on the 2010 team knew what happened to Beach. That includes the captain and your most talented player in Kane, who at the very least didn’t stop the taunts and at the worse participated in them. They also probably have the most trade value. Toews and Kane need to go for not sticking up for a teammate and because you need to get younger and save money during this rebuild/rebranding campaign anyway.
4. Fire Jeremy Colliton. Yeah, he had nothing to do with this, but he is just plain awful and you can’t rebuild with this guy.
5. Rocky Wirtz himself needs to sit down in front of the media and beg fans for forgiveness while also answering all questions that are fired at him. Rocky prided himself as a man of the people when things were going well. He was sitting down in the 100 level with the fans. Now he is nowhere to be found. These are cowardly actions and does not build fan trust. Go back to your seat with the fans Rocky and deal with the verbal barrage that will come your way. You can bring your security detail so nothing stupid happens, but you need to hear the smoke from the fanbase in person.
6. There needs to be a HUGE financial contribution to organizations that provide treatment for sexual abuse victims. In addition, the Blackhawks organization should make sexual abuse awareness a mainstay of their community outreach initiatives. They should become the charter franchise in sports for sexual abuse awareness.
7. Bring Kyle Beach back for one last shift (which actually would be his first). Look you are doing this for a lot of former, now retired players. Before you honor another retired player, Kyle Beach deserves a skate around the United Center so he can be honored by the fans for his courage. But you take it even further, sign him to a one-day contract, allow him to dress and play in an actual regular season game and the theme of that game should be sexual assault awareness. It can be the genesis of your new initiatives that I mentioned earlier. Let the young man realize his dream of playing in an NHL game. Especially since this season is turning into a nightmare anyway.
8. Settle the lawsuit for crying out loud!