Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Again, I don't see it as the team using this to cover for Dube. At least we don't know that. We don't know what happened leading up to announcement. Mental crisis takes several forms.
- He could have checked himself into a medical facility
- He could have reached out to a team-mate or coach if he was in crisis
- He could have gone through his agent to formally request leave for mental health reasons.
We don't know. And we may not. But these are not black and white things. The Flames released a pretty fact-based announcement that he was away from the team to attend to mental health, noting that he was under the care of medical professionals.
Did they need to say all that? Maybe. Maybe not. We don't know enough to judge. If there was a blunder here it indeed was not just saying that he was taking a leave of absence and that's it. But I don't think that was to cover something up. IF they knew what was coming, they would also know how ineffective that would be.
Depending on how things played out, there may have been no direct contact between the organization and team, but instead they could have been notified by the agent and/or medical professionals.
Too many unknowns and on the list of parties who did things wrong, the wording of the statement from the Flames is waaay down my list. Particularly from an organization who have navigated some tough stuff recently fairly well (Peters, Kylington, Snow).
|
This all ignores the fact that he was a player on a team that had people under investigation. The other teams all managed to put it together somehow. If the Flames weren't communicating with either the league, Hockey Canada and/or looking into it themselves - for a guy they are signing and have under contract - they missed the bus. Burying your head in the sand isn't a defense on the PR side.