Hasn’t he at least somewhat admitted fault? I forget the exact words he used in his interview with Strick but I recall him admiring some fault.
Beyond that, I get your point. But I’m sure the Ducks did their due diligence. And they’ll make sure to instill a culture that doesn’t allow for such crap. They’d be morons if they didn’t. And I’d have to think or at least hope the odds of having a sexual predator on an NHL staff would be incredibly rare. But the most important would be Verbeek making sure the culture is open.
He "somewhat admitted fault" in the same way that I am somewhat admitting fault when I tell a potential employer that my greatest weakness is that I work too hard. More accurately, Quenneville made up a fictional version of events that made him look like a mostly innocent bystander and then 'admitted fault' by saying he should have done more to intervene.
All the involved parties were asked about and summarized their recollections of the meeting where the abuse was reported.
Quenneville claims that all details about what happened between Aldrich and Doe were kept from him and that the other people in the room were trying to tell him that "an event happened without saying what happened." He doesn't believe John Doe's name was mentioned in the meeting, doesn't recall whether Aldrich's name was mentioned, doesn't recall anyone saying 'it was hard for the team to get where they were in the playoffs,' and claims that there was no resolution of the situation at the meeting. He's maintained that he had no idea what happened and has since realized that he should have asked more questions to learn the truth so he could have done something about it.
No one else who was there supports his version.
Bowman's account of the meeting is that it was reported that Aldrich had tried to climb into bed with John Doe and that after learning of the incident, Quenneville shook his head and said that it was hard for the team to get to where they were, and they could not deal with this issue now.
Gary (the guy who reported it) specifically describes telling the group that Aldrich was pressuring John Doe for sex and threatened his career if he didn't comply. He specifically reported that during the meeting Quenneville appeared angry and was concerned about upsetting team chemistry. He also reported that 'they' decided to hold off talking to Aldrich about the situation until the season was over.
MacIsaac also remembered Gary telling the group that Aldrich tried to 'get under the sheets' with John Doe.
McDonough also stated during his interview that he believed Gary explained during the May 23 meeting what occurred, but he could only recall that Gary mentioned Aldrich’s name and how the situation was embarrassing for John Doe. He also recalled that Quenneville appeared to be agitated.
Cheveldayoff recalls that the group was told that there were allegations that Aldrich was socializing with players outside the arena, Aldrich sent inappropriate texts to players, and Aldrich made unwanted advances on players. Cheveldayoff recalled that John Doe and Black Ace 1 were specifically referenced during the meeting.
Quenneville is the only person claiming that people were being vague. Quenneville is the only person claiming that John Doe wasn't specifically brought up. Quenneville is the only person who doesn't remember whether Aldrich's name was brought up. Multiple people refute his claim that the meeting had no resolution. Two describe him as angry/agitated while a third specifically says that Quenneville was the one who first advocated to put team success over dealing with it. The report published firmly suggests that Quenneville was told exactly what happened in that meeting and was either the first or loudest voice in the room advocating to bury the information in favor of team chemistry.
And yet Quenneville maintains that his error was simply allowing the rest of the group to keep him in the dark and that if he had asked questions like he should have, maybe he could have prevented them from burying it in favor of winning some hockey games. Spare me.
Crocodile tears from a coward. I hope for nothing but the worst for him and the Ducks organization.
