Brandon Carlo weighs in on PA issues

Before Monday’s meeting was held by the NHL Players Association, Bruins – at the instigation of the captain Patrice Bergeron and coach Bruce Cassidy – sat and watched together as a team the gut-wrenching TSN interview with survivors of sexual abuse Kyle Beach.

To say that it had an effect would be an understatement.

“Butchie thought it was important, and Bergy, I think they had a little discussion,” he said Brandon Carlo, the team’s PA representative, Tuesday. “I think it was a great thing for all of us to do. It was very brave of (Beach) to come out and do all this. He does not do it for no reason. He does it to put an end to things like this. When you first see it, you see the emotions involved in it and also get an understanding that things like this are happening.His message was also very clear that one does not have to be alone about it.It was huge to see and very powerful, and it was amazing that we all saw it. But it was also very difficult to see. ”

Last Wednesday in the interview with TSN reporter Rick Westhead, Beach revealed himself as John Doe in the midst of the Chicago Blackhawks’ sex abuse scandal, dating to 2010. Beach, the 11th overall election in 2008, not only described the Chicago management’s mismanagement of the situation – GM Stan Bowman and former coach Joel Quenneville (who had moved on to the Florida Panthers) is now out of the game – but also said it was brought to the attention of the PA head Donald Fehr‘s office, and little was done to help Beach, who never played a game in the NHL.

The alleged perpetrator, former Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich, was allowed to leave the Chicago organization on his own without investigation and work in several jobs in hockey after that. He was eventually convicted of having sexual contact with a 16-year-old hockey player from Houghton, Michigan, in 2013.

The revelation that Fehr was made aware of the Chicago situation early prompted Monday’s meeting in PA.

“Overall, I feel like there was a good discussion,” Carlo said. “(Beach) was obviously trying to show a message to all of us (in the interview), said it and had a lot of courage to do it. It was obviously very powerful and it affected us all in a way that one could feel. First of all, I would like to commend him for his courage, and from then on, wherever it goes, one feels a responsibility in the Players’ Association … to further investigate the knowledge and information given to certain individuals who did not act accordingly, in terms of making a greater effort to stand up to Kyle. ”

Asked about the tenor of the meeting, Carlo said: “There was a certain amount of frustration that basically questioned what was going on and a great responsibility to make it known that we want an investigation and further review of how things are going. was handled.Overall I think it will be achieved and it is very important for the players at the moment to ensure that things are handled properly going forward and also get knowledge out there about who was involved in all this. ”

As to whether there was a feeling among the players that there should be a change at the top, Carlo said the players are not there, at least not yet.

“Personally, I think everything will be reviewed and it starts with step 1 and gaining an understanding of how things were really handled in the whole thing. It’s hard to say necessarily,” Carlo said. “I feel like some guys would be passionate and motivated in a way and frustrated with the way things were handled. Then there is the other side of things, where you really need to get all the information you can before making a hasty decision. ”

Bergeron takes a day

Bergeron, who trained on Sunday, did not skate on Tuesday. Cassidy said it was a maintenance day and that the captain will be back on ice on Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s return to the game against the Red Wings.

Bergeron has yet to score a goal in the first seven games of the season, which Cassidy sees as a feature of the entire top-line recent games.

“At the end of the day, they have to find their game again,” Cassidy said. “I do not worry too much about the guys after this small sample size. If it now snows over time, then yes (it’s a concern). But his release is still good, we see it in practice, we’ve seen it in fights , but the goalkeepers have saved. It’s just that over the years the teams play them a little better or harder, whatever you want to call it. So they have to keep developing their game. Powerplay, the puck has not found either way in. That’s usually where he’s getting started … the line would sit there and say that offensively their numbers are typically where they are used to. They keep painting. I know that. The work ethic is huge. They just need a few games to get started and get some breaks. “…

After taking a maintenance day on Sunday, Craig Smith was back for training on Tuesday after a player day on Monday.