On Friday morning, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds issued a statement regarding an incident at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontatrio, where an unidentified fan threw a banana onto the ice while Simmonds took his turn in the shootout.
Simmonds scored on a nifty backhand as if nothing really happened, but the Flyers dropped a 4-3 decision to the Detroit Red Wings.
On Friday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman issued his "condemnation" of the incident.
"We have millions of great fans who show tremendous respect for our players and for the game. The obviously stupid and ignorant action by one individual is in no way representative of our fans or the people of London, Ontario."
What Bettman misses in his obvious attempt to merely smooth things over, is that when you're dealing with something like racism, the actions of one person are simply going to taint everyone around that individual.
While it's a given he'll defend hockey fans as a whole to stem the tide of media hyperbole, who cares if the people of London, Ontario are or aren't racists? It's a minor-league town with a long and proud tradition of junior hockey, but after what happened last night, really not worth courting its fans to buy into the NHL product.
Time to move on, Mr. Bettman. Plenty of other towns to stage a preseason exhibition.
As far as Simmonds is concerned, it's his life and his career, but I am disappointed that he's not taking a stronger stand. Nobody's expecting the young man to be hockey's version of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, but some pointed words on the 23-year-old's end will absolutely be crucial in not letting this incident pass.
Perhaps his quick dismissal -- mistaken for being classy and taking the high road -- and hopes that life will return to normal without further discussion is an implicit reminder that speaking out may not be the best choice for him to be able to continue his career.
If his own teammates, including James van Riemsdyk, who said "we've got his back" in reference to the Ontario native, truly want to make an impact, they should not simply circle the wagons. That's convenient against an attack by an opposing player or outside threat, like the media or the public away from the rink.
But for an internal threat such as fan behavior inside an arena during play, they're better served to band together and suggest a boycott of London outright -- even though it's going to cause a problem high up since Global Spectrum -- a cousin entity to Comcast, which owns the Flyers, also owns and operates the Labatt Centre.
There are nearly 30 players of at least part-African descent in the NHL, and they are not on the margins.
Try telling that to Winnipeg's imposing Dustin Byfuglien, or Colorado's slick-skating forward Chris Stewart, or Trevor Daley of the Dallas Stars, who rose above an ugly name-calling incident in juniors by John Vanbiesbrouck to become an impact defenseman on his club.
It would be easy to use that collective influence from the team reps to the NHLPA leaders and so on up the chain, to let the real power-brokers know that nothing of this sort should be tolerated anywhere and for any reason.
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