CHICAGO — The Blackhawks locker room was alive with whoops, hoots and hoots Tuesday morning as players filed in after their morning skate. Seth Jones and Conor Murphy talked excitedly about the entry of their old friend Patrick Kane, of all places, Detroit, reporters happily mingled and the mood was good all around.
12 hours later, Ice Cube’s “Yo Check Yourself” — the team’s victory song this season — was blaring from the locker room and all smiles again after the Blackhawks pulled off a three-goal 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken. Down-six and 63 seconds into a five-on-three late in the third period.
In between, however, the Blackhawks went through an emotional wringer, with general manager Kyle Davidson telling them that Corey Perry is no longer their teammate following the “workplace” incident. As he did with reporters later in the afternoon, Davidson did not hold back many of the details that would justify Perry’s firing.
“To be honest with you, it’s amazing,” said Nick Follingo. “We all care about Corey. But we understand that there is a standard to be held. … So it’s a very difficult day for all of us and it’s hard to fully comment without having all the details. But you care about the person and we care about this organization and they do what’s best for all of us and we have to recognize that there is a standard that we have to meet.
Seth Jones called Perry a “brother” and called him a “difficult situation.”
“We don’t have any details about what happened, but I know the organization wants to maintain (level) behavior and (standards) here,” Jones said. “I think this is broken.”
The Blackhawks fired Perry on Tuesday, six days after the suspension. His only season in Chicago lasted less than two months, but the Perry saga — on the ice, in the locker room, on the front lines, in the minds of hockey fans around the league — resonated with some. time. Perry’s streak would be just 16-game in Blackhawks history, but his presence loomed large, and his absence loomed large.
You can see the loss over the past few days as he takes questions from reporters in search of answers that Davidson is not allowed to give. You can feel the weight of what happened in the grips in Davidson’s voice. It was undeniably frustrating that you couldn’t hear more than the general facts of the situation, and the franchise had miles to go before finding suspense in the most simplistic and dire situations. It will take years for the Blackhawks to do the right thing to regain lost credibility, but Davidson insists the Blackhawks have done so in his book — the new book, written by himself and his wife, Danny Wirtz, and president and head coach Jay Faulkner. Luke Richardson.
“More than anything else, I think it reinforces the commitment to change the culture and make sure we’re doing the right things,” Davidson said when asked if the organization would downplay the work it says it has done to improve workplace culture, which shed light on the 2021 Jenner & Block report on the Kyle Beach sexual assault allegations and the 2010 coverage. Adhering to our values and ensuring that we continue to build a culture of accountability. It’s my idea.”
Here are the facts presented by Davidson: An incident involving Perry last week in Columbus was brought to the team’s attention. It has been reported. The Blackhawks immediately kicked Perry off the team and launched an internal investigation. The investigation was quickly conducted and the results indicated that Perry “engaged in actions that were unacceptable and in violation of his (contract) and the Blackhawks’ internal policies intended to promote a professional and safe work environment.” For a team statement issued earlier in the day. Perry was quickly dismissed for purposes of terminating his contract.
All this happened in less than a week. Given how low the bar has been set for the franchise in recent years, it can easily be seen as encouraging. It was a problem. Someone felt empowered enough to report him. The team spoke to him quickly, and did so with no tolerance.
Of course, questions remain. The Blackhawks certainly have good reason to withhold key details of the incident, which is a workplace incident and an internal personnel matter. Identities may need to be protected. But the cover-up fueled speculation, and social media was abuzz over Perry’s mysterious absence over the weekend. For at least 24 hours leading up to Davidson’s press conference, that speculation was rife, especially with a bold and preposterous rumor involving the family of 18-year-old Connor Bedard. Call it either media illiteracy or willful ignorance or just plain polite “fun”, but a little twitter/X account with no credibility has managed to convince countless people that this rumor is true. Davidson was upset by the rumours. But perhaps a more nuanced explanation of why Perry left the group could have dispelled it sooner rather than later.
Davidson seems to accept that.
“What has been happening in the last 24 hours has been very stressful,” he said, fighting back tears. “And I feel like I’m wearing it. I carry that. It’s hard to just watch. Yes, it’s hard to see. “
For Blackhawks management, this was another challenge, an opportunity to prove that their newly defined values were more than just PR. In the year They failed in 2010, they failed again in 2021 when the Jenner and Block Report came out, and they failed again with last spring’s Pride Night fiasco. Maybe you got this right. Maybe we’ll find out one day. For now, they’ll have to continue taking slings and arrows from a highly skeptical hockey world and hope that one day hindsight will be kind to them.
For Perry, his storied career — a Stanley Cup, a Hart Trophy, 18-plus seasons since Anaheim’s old Mighty Ducks era — is now in doubt. He wanted to play in the 40s. He was the Blackhawks’ third-leading scorer and still has a few years left, a real chance to burnish his Hall of Fame credentials. That’s all up in the air now, his reputation is probably forever changed, his career is probably over.
For Blackhawks players, the blow is more emotional. Davidson moved quickly to replace his scoring punch, sending a fifth-round pick to Vancouver in the hours between the press conference and the puck drop on a day like that in Seattle for former first-round pick and 21-goal scorer Anthony Beauvillier. It never ends. But Perry lacks more than just scoring from deep and a clean frontcourt presence on the power play. He became a team father, leader and mentor to Bedard, the most valuable person in the entire Blackhawks organization. Perry had to show Bedard how to be professional. And as much as he was hated by fans around the league as “The Worm,” his teammates in Chicago adored him, as they did in Anaheim, as they did in Dallas, as they did in Montreal, as they did in Tampa. He talked to novices, led by example, spoke during team meetings, preaching “brotherhood” and “accountability.”
Then he threw it all away, leaving his brothers in trouble, not responsible for his own actions.
That hurts. That will be delayed. That leaves a big void in Chicago — and hardly the kind Davidson hoped it would leave behind.
(Top photo of Corey Perry and Connor Bedard: Melissa Tammes / Icon Sports via Getty Images)