After the investigative report was released on Tuesday, the N.H.L. fined the Chicago team $2 million for “inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response,” and more consequences have followed, like the resignations of two top Blackhawks officials and of Quenneville. But that’s not the hard part, said Kennedy, who believes that talking about difficult issues and reporting abuse must be embedded in a team’s ambitions, just as trying to win the Stanley Cup is.
“Those are easy responses,” he said. “We are going to fine you. You need to resign. Those are the norm. That’s your lawyer advice. To me, this is about culture change.”
His message was echoed by Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens and a former Canadian cabinet minister who in recent years has been a prominent critic of how the league has handled concussions.
“Often on big questions like this, it ends up where the only voices heard are those of the commentators, and the decision makers get let off the hook,” Dryden wrote in an email, declining to be interviewed. He added, “To me, anybody else’s voice is just a distraction.”
Statements — from the N.H.L., from the Blackhawks, from the players’ union, from Quenneville and from Stan Bowman, the president of the Blackhawks who resigned Tuesday after the investigative report’s release — have been plentiful in recent days. Less plentiful have been apologies and admissions of culpability.
“Today’s fine represents a direct and necessary response to the failure of the Club to follow-up and address the 2010 incident in a timely and appropriate manner,” Bettman said in a long statement focused on process and full of legalese.