Will Kennedy Suffer Taunts From Insensitive Opponents?
Around the NHL
In the NHL, you exploit weakness. You are always on the lookout for an edge, for an advantage. It’s that way with Wayne Gretzky, studying a goalie and noticing a slow glove hand. It’s that way with Claude Lemieux, studying an opponent’s background and firing an insult that rattles his composure.
The results are the same: an edge that helps you win. Like a boxer mercilessly working the cut over an opponent’s eye, NHL players have never been afraid to exploit a weakness. It can get dicey out there.
Over the years there have been hundreds of stories of racial epithets being hurled at players by opponents looking to unsettle the competition. It’s no different than what Jackie Robinson faced in the 1940s, and it probably still happens in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.
So, what of Sheldon Kennedy? You can accuse some NHL players of being Neanderthals, and you would be right in many cases. So, we must ask - what of Sheldon Kennedy? What is his life going to be like now in the NHL?
Kennedy, 27, is a forward for the Boston Bruins. But when playing junior hockey in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, in the mid to late 1980s, Kennedy was sexually abused by his coach, Graham James, more than 300 times.
After years of struggling with the horror of abuse, after his life spun out of control from the drugs and alcohol he tried to mask the pain with, Kennedy finally came forward and leveled criminal charges against James. And then Kennedy took the courageous step to go public with his story.
Thursday, Kennedy played his first home game since James was sent to prison for 3-1/2 years. Kennedy scored a goal. Later, in the locker room, he laughed easily with teammates.
“I ran and ran and ran for years,” Kennedy said. “It wasn’t much fun. I feel like I lifted a tremendous weight off of my shoulders.”
On the ice, Kennedy said he has heard nothing derogatory from other players, and it would be a wonderful thing if he never does.
“I say nobody in the NHL would say anything,” Kennedy’s teammate, Rick Tocchet told the Boston media. “I don’t think there is a guy in the NHL low enough to say something like that.”
Shutouts abound
The way things are going in the NHL this season, not even a shutout can assure a goaltender of victory.
There have been a record-tying four scoreless ties in the league so far this season, part of a remarkable shutout total of 73 by the midpoint mark.
Putting it into perspective: the record for shutouts for a season is 99, in 1993-94.
“It’s a very funny year with all of these shutouts,” said Los Angeles Kings executive Rogie Vachon, a former goaltender. “And it isn’t just in one conference or one division or just two or three goalies. It’s all around.”
Such goaltenders as Colorado’s Patrick Roy and Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek have had their usual share of shutouts with six and five, respectively. But the wealth has been spread around this season.