Beyond the dust of the NHL’s settled concussion lawsuit, the self-inflicted wounds of two lockouts within eight years and never-ending complaints against the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, hockey hasn’t dealt with a major, league-wide scandal on the professional level. No tiffs with China. No steroid epidemic. And definitely no deflated pucks.
That changed this season. Don Cherry’s nonsensical ramblings strayed into anti-immigration rhetoric, resulting in his resignation. Mike Babcock made then-rookie Mitch Marner fill out a “hardest working Leafs” list—and then made it public to the locker room. Benign? Maybe, but more on Babcock soon.