NHL needs a strong stance on racism, experts say

The NHL has been rocked by two high-profile racism scandals in recent weeks, and while it has condemned both incidents experts agree it needs to take a dynamic approach and tackle the issue head on. A head coach is under investigation by his team and the NHL over comments directed toward a black player 10 years ago, while hockey commentator Don Cherry was fired two weeks ago for remarks that were widely viewed as a racist attack on immigrants.

Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, co-founder of Respect Group, said better education for players and coaches is key.

“I think this is an opportunity for them to take the leadership role and to really make a difference,” Kennedy told Reuters. “This has to be embedded in our organizations. The efforts that we make have to become a priority in the way that we teach.”

On Monday, Nigerian-born former NHL player Akim Aliu said on Twitter that Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters repeatedly used racial slurs 10 years ago when he played under him in the American Hockey League. Peters, in an apology letter to the Flames organization Wednesday, acknowledged that he used offensive language and called it an isolated and immediately regrettable incident.

When asked to comment, the Flames said they had nothing further to add at the moment, while the NHL referred back to its statement on Tuesday when it called the alleged behaviour “repugnant and unacceptable.”

Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing expert at Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco, said because of social media, outrage over some incidents multiplies quickly and the NHL would do best to act swiftly.

“You may have to overreact, you may even have to fire people that may not necessarily need to be fired,” said Dorfman. “You have to take maybe a little more of an extreme viewpoint or extreme action in these kinds of cases just to set an example and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The headlines surrounding Peters and Cherry could not have been further from what the NHL envisioned when it launched its Hockey is for Everyone initiative in 2017, a campaign rooted in making the sport more inclusive.

“If you think about crisis management, there is a specific set of steps you always undertake,” said Ken Wong, a marketing professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. “The first is you recognize that there is a problem and you own the problem . ... Second, you want to suggest you are doing everything you can to understand the roots of that problem, and the third step is you are taking the appropriate actions to minimize the likelihood that it happens again.

“And if you can’t do those three stages, then the NHL and anybody else facing a crisis, frankly, they deserve whatever they get.”