Penguins pause to reflect on Blackhawks scandal

There are few, if any, direct connections between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the scandal that has enveloped the Chicago Blackhawks, who have been accused of ignoring an alleged assault on former player Kyle Beach by former video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.

No one on the Penguins’ active roster has played for the Blackhawks, nor have they ever crossed paths with Beach as a teammate at any level of organized hockey.

Coach Mike Sullivan briefly worked for the Blackhawks in a player development capacity, but that was during the 2014-15 season.

Regardless, the reverberations from the team releasing an independent investigation on the alleged assault and Beach revealing himself Wednesday to be the “John Doe” who filed a lawsuit against the Blackhawks have been felt in virtually every corner of the hockey map. Including Pittsburgh.

“We’ve obviously spoken about it,” Penguins forward Brian Boyle said. “The TV is on in the room. It’s important to pay attention to it because of the magnitude of what went on. We’ve speculated until we’ve heard what’s come down from the league.

“I’ll just say unanimously everybody feels for Kyle and what he’s gone through. It’s, unfortunately, a world that we live in that it happens in all different walks of life. These things, people get taken advantage of. A lot of times, people have to suffer in silence.

“It’s one of the evils in the world that … it just … you can’t even grasp. I don’t know. I have kids. If anything like that ever happened to them, it would be, I don’t know what I would do, to be honest with you. We’re sensitive to that. It’s just a horrible thing that happened to him. The bravery that he showed was tremendous. These things, you know you’ve got to bring them out into the light when they happen. And you have to make them right. Expose who’s at fault. “

“It’s just … it’s a horrible thing. It really is. It’s a horrible, horrible thing. And our hearts go out to Kyle. We commend him for his bravery. You need to continue to do that. Now that it’s out there, it doesn’t just stop for him, obviously. I’m sure he’ll get a lot more attention. So the bravery he showed was inspiring for sure.”

Sullivan was hired by former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman in 2014. Additionally, Bowman, as general manager of the United States Olympic team, tabbed Sullivan this past summer to coach that squad for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.

Bowman resigned from his posts with the Blackhawks and USA Hockey on Wednesday.

Sullivan largely declined to comment in detail on the matter Wednesday.

The fallout in Chicago comes as the Penguins still are dealing with a lawsuit filed in November of 2020 by former minor-league assistant coach Jarrod Skalde, who claims the team violated whistleblower laws in Pennsylvania after he accused former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli of sexually assaulting his wife, Erin Skalde, in November 2018.

Skalde was terminated from his position in May 2020 for what the team claimed was a staff reduction related to the pandemic.

In a statement initially issued in December 2020, the Penguins said, “We took this incident very seriously and acted immediately. The team investigated and addressed the alleged incident within hours of being notified in June 2019 despite the fact that Mr. Skalde delayed seven months before he made any complaint.

“Following the report, Mr. Skalde continued to coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an additional year, until we made significant staff reductions due to the covid-19 pandemic.”

As for the current members of the Penguins, they clearly recognize what occurred in Chicago has had a profound effect beyond the scope of hockey.

“Obviously, what happened to Kyle is just a horrible, horrible situation for him,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “Everyone that’s been made aware of the situation just can’t really fathom what he’s gone through. Everyone feels for him.

“Hopefully, he has a little bit solace in making things better for the future, which (it) looks like he’s done.”