Hockey’s dark side

Hockey’s dark side – From The Rink:

I haven’t yet tackled the trial of former NHL agent David Frost on this site, and that’s been for a couple of reasons. Most of all, what I don’t want to happen in this space is for anyone, no matter what your opinion of the parties involved, to be deemed guilty before their day in court.

That said, this case needs to be talked about more than it has been in hockey circles.

Yeah, but it probably won’t, just like the Graham James came and went and more or less got buried as quickly as possible.

The good news is — in both cases, there are people who are motivated to make changes that will reduce the possibility of this stuff happening again, but most of their work is grass roots and you won’t see it.

The bad news is — most people find this stuff very uncomfortable (for good reason) and rationalize away denial (it can’t happen here”) and move on. And a few are like the ones that enabled Graham James: if you win, the rest can be ignored.

Unfortunately, the Laura Robinson book is out of print, but used copies are available via resellers on Amazon, or I’m sure you can find it via one of the online used book systems.

This problem isn’t new. I’ve talked about it before. Sadly, looking back for some of my previous comments, they date back to 1998 and 2000. That’s why, unfortunately, I think that the Frost case will go the way of the Graham James one; Frost needs to be convicted and put somewhere dark and smelly for a long time, but the problems that enable people like that to hover the periphery of hockey and feed on the children won’t go away because of it.

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