Why I No Longer Watch the NHL

The first time I remember watching a National Hockey League game was when my parents woke me and my brother up to watch the Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley cup.

To say it was a formative experience would be an understatement. The next winter my brother and I would start playing hockey.

My sister too once she was old enough.

For the next dozen years we spent more time at the rink than in our own home. Often getting there when it opened and staying till dinner on the weekends.

There is ice in my veins and hockey was what we did. The NHL was a big part of that too. When we weren’t at the rink we’d watch the Red Wings at home.

My brother and I would pretend to be our favorite players in the driveway. We had posters of NHL legends on our walls.

Then something happened recently and I found myself no longer able to watch the NHL without feeling bad.

You see recently a new goaltender just got his first start for the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

His name is Carter Hart,

If you don’t know that name, here is some context.

In 2018, Carter Hart along with his teammates, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, and Alex Formenton, while members of Team Canada’s World Junior Team assaulted a woman after a gala celebrating their gold medal.

The men did not let the woman, identified only as EM to protect her identity, leave the room after the five of them showed up.

They then forcibly made her record a video giving consent to the encounter after the fact. Allegedly threatening her with their golf clubs if she didn’t make the video.

In the article, “Sexual Assault Survivors Provide Context On Hockey Canada Trial and Carter Hart,” by Ken Boehle, he talked to Kristi Lee host of the Canadian True Crime Podcast put the video in context saying:

“There is no such thing as advance or retroactive consent, and it can be withdrawn at any time. This is why a “consent” video doesn’t prove it.”

The five men said that the woman was a willing participant.

Although afterwards they made a group chat where they could get their stories straight.

The five hockey players would stand trial for sexual assault where they were acquited because a Canadian judge did not think there was enough evidence to convict them.

Despite the objections of survivors’ groups, the men were allowed to continue their hockey careers.

Hart signed with and is now playing for the Golden Knights. Foote also signed with a minor league affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes.

When Hart made his debut he made a brief statement. He said all the right things. He said he was excited to get back to the game.

It was disturbing how little pushback there was from any of the hockey media.

In fact, most of the reporters, announcers, and media members seemed more interested in helping Hart rehabilitate his image than asking anything about the case.

Hart faced zero questions and almost no scrutiny.

The only mention of the assault case was a brief display by ESPN.

It was terrible.

You would think a reporter could ask a few questions.

I’m sure Hart has been advised not to say anything but just a bit of journalistic doggedness would be nice.

How do you just let him come back with hardly no mention of the trial? About the young woman’s life who has been ruined. About the threats the woman covering the story in the summer got.

It just felt wrong.

The NHL would prefer the story just go away. It will just be a footnote in Hart’s career.

Which may be true.

But I’m not going to be watching it happen.