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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hull Puts His Foot Down Over U.S. Room-Trashers Blues Star Wants Guilty Parties To Admit To ‘Deplorable’ Act At Nagano Village

Associated Press

Brett Hull wants confessions.

The St. Louis Blues star says the U.S. players who trashed a suite at the Olympic village should step forward and apologize for a “deplorable” act. Otherwise, he said, all the players are tainted.

“There comes a point in time where you have to stand up and be a man,” Hull said. “It’s up to the people who did it … to come forward and have respect for the other players and say, ‘It was me. I apologize. It was a stupid thing to do.’ There’s nothing that can be harder, but bigger, to do.”

U.S. coach Ron Wilson, who coaches the Washington Capitals, also called for the guilty players to come forward. He also said those players should never again be involved in international play.

“It is an unfortunate incident and I’m embarrassed by it,” Wilson told the Washington Post. “It is inexcusable what they did. It shows no class at all. Unfortunately, everybody is guilty by association.”

Hull was blamed in initial reports, along with suitemates Chris Chelios, Gary Suter and Joel Otto. Upon returning from Nagano, Japan, Hull angrily denied it, vouched for his suitemates and threatened to sue those “slandering” him.

Tuesday, he blamed media in Canada, contending they resent his decision to play for the United States and not Canada in international competition. Hull, who has dual citizenship, said there will be no problem for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“We don’t have to worry about that anymore because I’m finished,” said Hull, 33. “There won’t be any more Olympics for me. I don’t even know if I’ll be playing then.”

Hull said he has a “pretty good” idea which players caused $3,000 damage to rooms and furniture. The suite in question was on his floor.

Hull said an NHL official gave him the names. But league spokesman Arthur Pincus said Tuesday the league has not finished its investigation and does not know which players are involved.

Hull isn’t sure how the guilty parties should be punished.

“That’s not up to me,” he said. “But I think the humiliation or whatever comes with that is probably enough.”

Hull was critical of some media coverage of the team in Nagano, particularly reports that some players, including Hull, were out late two days before their game against Canada. CBS taped Hull and Chelios singing at a karaoke bar.