Campbell
BOSTON — The Bruins’ PR staff made it clear this morning that Gregory Campbell was available to speak after the team’s morning skate today, but only about hockey.
That meant no questions related to the alleged Colin Campbell email scandal, which started with a post by Edmonton blogger Tyler Dellow last night.
So, no one talked to the Bruins’ fourth-line center some eight hours prior to Boston’s home game with New Jersey. Nor was center Marc Savard, the player most affected by the Colin Campbell emails, available to address the matter. Savard hasn’t spoken to the media for a couple weeks while continuing to recover from post-concussion syndrome.
For now, I’ll reserve judgment on the matter until the NHL acknowledges it and/or another major news source reports on the story. So far, TSN and ESPN have neglected to post anything on their Web sites on the matter.
For those not familiar with the situation, Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports has a great breakdown of story. If these emails are 100 percent legit, Campbell should obviously be forced to resign his position as the league’s disciplinarian as soon as possible.
Last October, Robert Cribb of The Star reported on other damning emails from the Dean Warren case, which do not mention any players but do prove that Campbell has a history of not being to smart about what he puts in an email.
[...] involved penalties assessed to Campbell’s son, NHL forward Gregory Campbell (who, by the way, had a Bruins PR gag on him today): "For me, it’s much ado about nothing. Stephen and I would have banter back and forth [...]
Nice one Matt.
Tyler Dellow’s conclusions about the identity of the players whose names were redacted from the emails is his own legwork; good on you for acknowledging that. But instead of reserving judgment, why not follow his method and compare the details of the games as described by Campbell in the emails with the details of games as described in the game sheets on the NHL website?
An “impartial report” doesn’t mean repeating statements from Tyler Dellow and the NHL verbatim and then stopping. It means looking at the claims of both sides and then telling your readers which claims are accurate. Sometimes you won’t be able to tell, but in this case, I think that you can get pretty close to the truth just from CanLII (the Canadian Lexis-Nexis, basically) and the NHL’s own website.
How about that, TSN picked it up: http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=341367
And Pierre LeBrun at ESPN, on the NHL defending Campbell: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=5809513
Matt,
Thanks for giving us what the facts are on this, as you know them. I think it’s very easy for us to form our own opinions about this that can be wild and ridiculous, but a story like this does call for as impartial a report as possible, which I thank you for delivering.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matt Kalman, Jonas Nilsson. Jonas Nilsson said: #Bruins Mum?s the word on Campbell email leak: BOSTON — The Bruins’ PR staff made it clear this morning that Gre… http://bit.ly/8ZM1N1 [...]
I can’t even access the original post on the original blog. I keep getting an error message.
I understand, all, that these are emails from an actual court case. But the conclusions the writer makes as to the ID of players/games — as far as I can tell from second-hand transmission of the story — is his own leg work.
Char, Woodward and Bernstein were paid. I provide you everything I do for free. So I’m allowed to take a pass. Thanks for reading.
wouldn’t hold your breath for TSN or ESPN to come out on the subject. What would that do to their precious access?
That’s pretty weak, Matt. You can’t comment until a “major news scource reports on the story”? Woodward and Bernstein would be so proud. Not.
Anyway, is NBC good enough for you?
http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/15/colin-campbell-exposed-says-marc-savard-is-biggest-faker-going-berates-officials-for-picking-on-his-son/
As for Greg Campbell, there is no way he should be badgered about something stupid his father did. It’s not his fault he has a jerk for a parent.
These emails came from court evidence. They’re real.
Hey Matt, It sickens me to even look at Colin Campbell’s picture! The man is scum how Bettman continues to protect him is beyond me!?
The Bruins front office should be placing calls to the NHL offices every half hour for an explanation.
greg good, colin bad.
The whole Bruins/Savard angle is blown way out of proportion in most reports I’ve seen today. Good on you Matt for steering clear. What’s concerning is the bias favouring his son and his inability to steer clear of meddling in decisions involving him. He thinks Savard’s a faker, so what, he’s bound to have opinions … probably shouldn’t have put them in writing, but its hardly damning evidence related to the Cooke incident.
Like Wyshynski says this is more confirmation than revelation. Campbell sucks at his job,I knew it, you knew it, people in Japan knew it.