#kyle davidson

Important Info:

- The NHL has agreed to the termination and the NHLPA does not seem to intend to appeal it either. (Read: whatever happened was bad enough and provable enough that they don't want to get involved and lose face.)

- As per GM Kyle Davidson in his press conference, "no players or their families were involved", and to say otherwise is "frankly disgusting". (Read: stop with the Perry fucked Bedsy's mom rumors.)

- Also as per Kyle from Chicago, the incident(s?) in question DID happen at work and were a "personnel matter". (Read: likely had to do with Perry and a Hawks employee.)

- Davidson also said they're trying to "change culture" and "have a culture of accountability". (Read: workplace harassment?)

- What happened was "very disturbing". (Read: possibly Perry was verbally harassing a Hawks employee, or even physically/sexually, but it was bad enough to disturb the GM of the racist team with the history of sexual assault.)

- That being said, "law enforcement is not involved". (Read: likely did not reach the level to warrant criminal prosecution, but bad enough that the NHLPA will not appeal, which is a very thin line to walk.)

Watch the entire presser here.

Soooo... like a very inappropriate but not criminal action towards a team employee?

Why such a severe emotional reaction?? Is it something that requires criminal investigation/charges/ is this something that is being quietly brushed away with money to the victim and removal of the attacker???

Do you already need to improve anti-harassment training for staff and especially players??? Is hockey culture still ruling your fucking stupid ridiculous team???!!!

About why he didn't clarify on the issue earlier, when perry was first scratched:

Management actually gives a shit about the players!! I know that's like, basic human curtesy, but knowing a huge reason that Kyle Beach went through what he did was because management did not give a single shit about the players and only cared about the cup, it's a huge relief to see Davidson and Richardson being really supportive of the players and making decisions based on what's best for them, not just the hawks overall.

A big purpose of this camp was to allow the prospects to develop off-ice and get to see the city that they're (probably) going to be playing in within a couple years. I mean, they went to a Cubs game, took a boat tour on the Chicago river, took a cooking class, played floor hockey with a local boys and girls club, went to Second City (comedy club), and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. Management isn't hanging them out to dry in that respect, and I am very glad for that.

Player interactions!! The episode was great in that it showed off so much personality, and it didn't just focus on the first-round draft picks, although of course they did get a bit more attention. We got to see a ton of different players doing things and interacting with one another, and it seems like the goal of team bonding was achieved. As Nazar said in the episode, you've got guys from America, Canada, overseas, and it's good that they're able to talk to each other and develop the kind of relationships and camaraderie that's necessary for a winning team (and also just really fun to watch). Sure, some of the players might have been up against each other in their league or in a tournament or maybe have been on the same team, but that's not really conducive to building team chemistry anyways.

Another two big reasons why they took the camp off-ice this year was to avoid causing or exacerbating injuries and to remove the stress of trying to perform well in a short period of time in front of management. I mean, these guys have already been playing hockey for a really long time, and scouts have already been watching and evaluating them, so why have them play high-stress, mostly meaningless hockey and put them at risk of somehow getting injured or making something worse. Yeah, you probably don't run into that many new injuries at dev camp (except for that kid up in Toronto who got a concussion the other day), but if players are trying to prove something to management, they're gonna be a lot more likely to play through something they should probably be leaving alone. It just seems like a better solution to me, and they're still going to be getting ice time in training camp in September.

Even though the camp was off-ice, the players were still doing a ton of conditioning. They boxed, did regular weight room stuff, probably some other things, and they took a class with Oduya on breathing techniques that can be used in a number of different ways. Richardson was directly involved in the boxing, too, which is great for a number of reasons, especially to help player-coach interactions.