Why was Colin Campbell inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Why does it sometimes seem like there is some kind of machine somewhere in the NHL offices that can teleport people directly between the walls of the Hockey Hall of Fame?

In 2018, Gary Bettman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame while still serving as commissioner of the NHL (he is still in office) and this news caused immense unease across the country.

A pantheon (sporting or national) is not a sugar shack. It is in principle a very serious institution to which only men and women who have marked their time and inspired their contemporaries by accomplishing extraordinary things are admitted.

Furthermore, in order to be able to measure the contribution of a future inductee in a fair and objective manner, we generally wait until a few years have passed after his retirement (or his death) before proceeding with his nomination.

When Gary Bettman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, he seemed like a guy whose statue might one day be torn down. In fact, he still looks like one.

As commissioner, he notably presided over the triggering of three lockouts. It deprived an entire generation of hockey players of participation in the Olympic Games. And above all, he jeopardized the health of hundreds of athletes by refusing (this is still the case) to recognize that a direct link exists between repeated blows to the head and degenerative brain diseases.

So why was it so urgent to nail his plaque to a wall at the Hall of Fame?

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In 2019, a year after Gary Bettman’s admission, it was the turn of his chief publicist, Frank Brown, to be immortalized in Toronto.

To make a place for Frank Brown in the Hall of Fame, he was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Award, which is usually intended to recognize the exceptional career of a journalist assigned to hockey coverage.

However, Frank Brown worked in the communications department of the NHL for 20 years when he was awarded this prestigious prize. As it was a bit embarrassing, we went back 20 years to recall that he had previously covered hockey for theAssociated Press and the New York Daily News.

It is also interesting to recall that two years before he was admitted to the Hall of Fame, the content of certain emails written by Frank Brown had been made public as part of a lawsuit filed against the NHL by former players (on concussion management).

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) published an open letter condemning the lack of will and rigor of the NHL to reduce violence and the proliferation of concussions.

Brown had written to his colleagues at NHL that the letter of theAMC was an assembly of idiotic recriminations made by retarded doctors who have no idea what they are talking about.

As part of this same class action brought by former players, we also learned that the same Brown watched the documentaries broadcast on the platforms of the NHL and demanded that passages referring to head injuries and their consequences be cut.

Is this the kind of accomplishment that should lead directly to the Hockey Hall of Fame?

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In short, the past inductions of these leaders of the NHL lead us directly to that, Monday evening, of the circuit’s director of operations, Colin Campbell.

After a career as a defender which made him wear the colors of six teams (one in the World Association and five in the NHL), Campbell had a career as an assistant coach and head coach for a dozen seasons beginning in the mid-1980s.

Shortly after being fired as head coach of the Rangers of New York, in 1998, Colin Campbell was entrusted by Gary Bettman with the positions of executive vice president and director of operations of the NHL.

Like Bettman in 2018, Campbell saw the doors of the Hall of Fame open for him on Monday while he is still active in the world of hockey. He still serves as director of operations for the NHL.

And it causes the same kind of discomfort.

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In the early 2010s, Campbell found himself at the heart of a huge scandal that severely damaged his credibility and that of the NHL.

Considering that he had been unfairly dismissed because of his union activities, arbitrator Dean Warren challenged his dismissal to the Ontario Labor Relations Board. Colin Campbell was then forced to produce the emails he had shared with his colleagues at the NHL about Warren.

It was then discovered that the vice-president and director of operations of the NHL had lobbied the head of refereeing, Stephen Walkom, for two seasons to have referee Warren fired. But that wasn’t all: Campbell also wrote to refereeing officials to complain about the penalties imposed on his son, Greg Campbell. The latter successively wore the colors of Panthers from Florida, Bruins of Boston and Blue Jackets the Columbus.

Upon reading these emails, we also learned that Colin Campbell hated striker Marc Savard. Campbell had already managed Savard among the Rangers and he accused the latter of being a simulated penalty artist . A penalty for high stick taken by Savard at the expense of Greg Campbell (and awarded by referee Dean Warren) had also prompted Colin Campbell to express his fury to the refereeing officials.

A few seasons later, Marc Savard was the victim of a terrible check at the head of Matt Cooke. Savard, who never had the chance to defend himself, left the ice on a stretcher and his career somehow ended with this terrible assault. He never became the same again after that.

However, Matt Cooke was never suspended by the prefect of discipline of the NHL (Colin Campbell) for this revolting gesture. And many suspected that the enmity that Campbell felt towards Marc Savard was at the origin of his inaction.

Someone in Boston should have taught this kid to raise his headColin Campbell reacted when Mike Milbury wrote to him to congratulate him for having done nothing.

After this storm, although he had been publicly defended tooth and nail by his superiors, Colin Campbell had to relinquish his duties as prefect of discipline.

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When former players initiated legal proceedings against the NHL in the mid-2010s about the effects of head hits and concussions, however, another tranche of emails from Colin Campbell was filed in court.

It was then revealed that Campbell was speaking with certain journalists about the relevance of suspending certain players. Darren Dreger, TSNdid not like Quebec defender Denis Gauthier while his colleague Bob McKenzie believed that Dan Carcillo should be monitored closely.

And novembre 2009, Mark Van Ryn, dec Maple Leafs from Toronto, received a violent check from behind from Tom Kostopoulos, of the Canadian. During the game, Van Ryn suffered a broken nose and a broken hand.

However, in his role as prefect of discipline, it is surprisingly the victim that Colin Campbell would have preferred to attack. Van Ryn should be punished and suspended for putting himself in this positionhe then wrote to his colleagues at the NHL.

In May 2013, Senators head therapist Gerry Townsend wrote to doctor Ruben Echemendia. The latter leads the committee of NHL which focuses on the problem of concussions.

Townsend relays to the NHL the concerns of several other therapists across the league who feel that players are not adequately informed, that the league does not take concussions seriously, that the officiating is terrible and that hits to the head are raining down everywhere.

When this email was relayed to him, Colin Campbell responded to his colleagues: This guy is un first class idiot.

And a little later, in another email, Campbell wrote that therapists should be told to keep their opinions to themselves.

For all these reasons, it is far from certain that Colin Campbell is part of the category of people who marked their time and accomplished such extraordinary things in the world of hockey that they inspired their contemporaries.

In fact, as in the other two cases mentioned above, his rushed entry into the Hall of Fame seems much more the result of a return of the favor than of the careful examination of a remarkable career.