Boston Sports Desk Correspondent
Colin Campbell, vice president of hockey operations, is right up there on my list of losers when it comes to the Marc Savard- Matt Cooke incident last season. Therefore, the emails leaked by blogger Tyler Dellow do not surprise me. No, the three year old emails sent to former director of officiating Stephen Walkom, related to NHL official Dean Warren’s complaint of wrongful termination to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, are not surprising.
The real issues raised maybe much larger than one man’s biases and terse demeanor: does the NHL need an overhaul of the disciplinary body ?Out of an abundance of caution and not wanting any appearances of impropriety, Colin Campbell recuse himself from any decisions involving his son Gregory Campbell’s team. He even goes so far as to leave the room when tape with his son is being reviewed. Well, that sounds fine and dandy until the emails revealed that Colin Campbell could not keep his opinion to himself; however the correspondence below speaks for itself.
To Stephen Walkom/Tor/NHL@NHLSubject Re: Delayed Penalties/High Sticks 02/#/2007 4:24 pm
A bend in the road is a dead-end if you round the corner and Dean Warren is standing there. Your answer re: his high stick calls and the score of the game were horse [bleep]. The 3rd call on [player] was while they were down 5 on 4 and on a def zone face off vs that little fake artist [player] I had him in [city] biggest faker going. And Warren fell for it when he grabbed his face on a face off. Your supposed to see the act, not call the embellishing act. Dean Warren has to go with [referee] There must be a way to get rid of this guy. Is there a way we can tract (sic) and total minors called by referees this year. We could then get the minors they call per game. … or with 2 [referees on the ice] it is impossible? Warren and [referee] out of [club's] games. Give them to [referees].
Re [player]Colin Campbell to Stephen Walkom, Mike Murphy 02/#/2007 09:21 AM
I know Murph and Kinger like [player] as a player but my view of him is this exactly…he puts his whining ahead of the game. I don’t think this is a regular occurrence (…..getting screwed) and …..exploded ………over the disallowed goal. He may be uncontrollable by ………….and……………..as I think his frustration level has hit a high point. He hates officials as well. He is still pissed off at [referee] for a call he missed in the playoffs years ago as I remember him bugging Murph about it. Let’s give him Warren and [referee] than (sic) he will really have something to whine about.
Tape sleuthing of these games reveals that the player in question in the first email is Gregory Campbell, then playing for the Florida Panthers, son of Colin Campbell, and the second email refers to Marc Savard. Colin Campbell’s inability to keep his familial basis and a widely speculated grudge against a former player of his from his coaching days to himself are now part of the permanent record.
So what; should we care? Do these emails highlight a larger problem in the NHL: discretion of the disciplinary board? Players say they are confused about the new rules about blind hits to the head, and what constitutes a suspension versus a fine. This dilemma goes back to the days of Brian Burke, Campbell’s predecessor. Since no two plays unfold exactly the same way, doling out discipline has been subjective.
Perhaps, the league needs a ban on all hits to the head, so when players retire and end up in the war room of the NHL disciplinary board they have the good sense to not wind up in a mess like Campbell. Much of Campbell’s opinion of Marc Savard came from the rookie years of our beloved forward, when he played for Campbell. While Savard made a name for himself by embellishing calls in his youth, thanks to rule changes after the lockout and maturity he no longer sells penalties like he once did. Campbell dubbed him the little fake artist and I suspect it clouded his judgment on the review of Matt Cooke’s hit to Savard last season.
Sure there was no rule on a hit to the head at the time, however, to say Campbell was correct in not penalizing Matt Cooke because there was no rule against head shots is plain ridiculous. This guy has no problem letting us know how he feels with unabridged candor. Campbell could have set precedent by suspending Matt Cooke, who most people agree did not deliver a clean hit. I dare say Campbell would have ruled differently had the hit been by Savard not to Savard.
Alas, the question remains; what does Daddygate mean for the NHL? A need for rules as clear as the moment your skate hits the pond for the first time would be nice. But for me, it just means while the sting of Michael Ryder’s transgressions of the Savard hit begins to wane; Colin Campbell remains an overbearing hockey dad with a misinformed grudge, unwilling to admit that he made a mistake.
I’ve thought all along that this situation is much ado about nothing. However it does illustrate very nicely how inadequate and inept the.NHLs front office and especially their top enforcer are.
Through his indecision and lack of correct interpretation Campbell comes out of this looking like…. dare I say. .. a douche! And that is thecrux of the issue here with the NHL. The discretionary disciplinary actions need to be corrected. How better than to start with the man responsible? Clean some house NHL. Campbell makes you look like a bush league and you can do better
If we learned anything from last year’s debacle of not fining or suspending Cooke, it is that Colin Campbell is not the right man for this position… I mean this is a guy that suspended Steve Avery for talking about another player’s girl friend publicly and yet watched Cooke nearly take Savard’s head off and did not feel it warranted punishment.
These types of decisions should be made by a small group of people (vs. a single person) to ward off any future “guy with an agenda” actions from policing the league. That being said, Roger Goodell (pres. of NFL) gets it. if you are consistent and firm with your punishments, players and fans will take notice.