Wednesday was a big day for the Edmonton Oilers organisation, but not quite in the way they would have hoped. They announced the hiring of Stan Bowman as General Manager and Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, and the backlash has been brutal.
The ink is barely dry on Bowman signing his deal with the Oilers, but there are already plenty of people who want him out before he even begins doing his job. If they have their way, the 11th general manager in team history will also have the shortest tenure in the position.
Passions are understandably high, given the controversy surrounding Bowman's time as general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks. To many it doesn't matter than he oversaw that organisation wining three Stanley Cups, a feat which Oilers fans are desperate to see repeated in Edmonton, but not at all costs.
Bowman's ultimate failure in Chicago
Bowman was banned by the NHL, after he failed to deal properly with the alleged sexual assault of former prospect Kyle Beach by then Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich. The failure to deal with the matter correctly included not reporting it to the appropriate authorities, resulting in Aldrich going on to commit further acts of abuse.
As a result of all this -- and keep in mind we've only scratched the surface of everything that happened -- the backlash of the Oilers hiring Bowman is entirely understandable. In fact there is even a change.org petition, to get rid of the 51-year-old.
Actually, more specifically the petition is to keep Bowman out of the Oilers organisation. It was actually started back on July. 1, which is noteworthy in that there was speculation (and a fear) that he could get the job as the next Oilers' general manager, more than three weeks before his actual hiring.
At the time of writing, the petition is up to 5,251 signatures and working towards its next goal of 7,500. Whether this can have any impact seems extremely unlikely, but it will be interesting to see how many more signatures the petition accrues in the end.
Words mean nothing
For his part, Bowman tried to appease the masses during his introductory press conference on Wednesday. He said: "I can tell you in this room and everyone watching, as well as something I’ve said directly to Kyle Beach, that my response was inadequate back in 2010. I didn’t handle things properly. I should have done more. That’s something I regret and it’s something that I’ve had a chance to reflect on and try to learn from."
The thing is though, it wasn't about not handling things properly - it was about not doing anything to handle things properly. Bowman just tried to sweep it all under the carpet, with any regret likely coming from being caught rather than his inaction in the matter.
Let's be clear in this - if the allegations hadn't come to light, there's no chance Bowman would have voluntarily stepped forward and offered the necessary and relevant information. All that mattered to him above everything else was winning, which is a claim you can now make against Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson.
It really is crazy how Jackson has so rapidly undone all the good work of these past few weeks since the offseason began. It's truly tough to quantify the rationale behind a decision which goes beyond polarising.
Overall, there is a distinctly bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people associated with the Oilers, and you have to wonder how much this extends beyond the fans and media, to within the organisation? There has to be a very real concern this could destroy the trust and morale among players, wondering how much Jackson and company truly care about their well-being after hiring someone who failed to protect and help one of their own.