I agree in the general public but professional hockey players have been conditioned all of their lives to come to the defense of teammates.
They've also been conditioned to not question the coach and to do what he tells them to do. There's always punishment if they don't
Speaking of that if Wing's Players believed it was that bad why did Shanahan court and hire Babcock?
He wouldn't have hired Babcock if there had been as much of a public stink about his antics back then, like there is now. Anything to win, just as long as it doesn't come with bad press. He looked the other way because it didn't affect him personally and no one had the courage to make a big enough stink about it back then, now it's turning into a "me too" kind of thing with people willing to speak up. (Babcock did have a .649 record over ten seasons with Detroit.)
Rumors of Babcock being a dick have been around for a looooooong time, yet he still finds a job. (That alone gives me the impression that upper management knows what's going on and doesn't care, if I were a player.)
We gave Mitchell Miller the boot due to bad publicity and then Boston plays stupid and picks him up, until the bad publicity hits.
Daryl Sutter kept getting a job until the players found the courage to speak up, and it hit the media.
Professional sports teams sure seem willing to overlook things as long as there's no bad publicity to go with it. Once there is, it's phony apologies and backtracking to the press. Hell, John Tortorella is supposedly a jerk too, but he's got no bad press attached to him.
While I acknowledge that would be difficult for a young player to stand up to the coach I see zero reason Chelios couldn't. Or Shanahan?
Watching Babcock go out of his way to make life hard for the players he doesn't like might have made Chelios think twice about getting on his bad side. Probably wasn't sure who's side upper management would take either. Even a high paid veteran NHL player doesn't want going to work being something they dread. Maybe, since it wasn't directed at him, he chose to overlook it too.
20 players not in the Babcock doghouse are just happy they're winning with Babcock and probably aren't going to be motivated to speak up for the few being abused, like Kindl.
These are all just ideas of course.
