NHLPA Still Trying to Grow UP

In keeping with tradition, the NHL Players' Association has fired its executive director. Ted Saskin follows Bob Goodenow, who was dumped because he wouldn't cave on the salary cap, and Alan Eagleson, who was fired for being a crook.

A search committee will soon be seeking a new leader. As Stephen Brunt writes at Globeandmail.com, the union membership could use the transition period as an opportunity to grow up:

There's a pattern here, one of passivity and apathy and cultivated naiveté. You'd never know, on the face of it, that these are adults we're talking about, people who manage multimillion-dollar salaries and who grew up in a world where the gee-whiz athlete, just-happy-to-be-there, was long extinct...

But you can't have it both ways. You can't opt out of the process, then claim to be innocent victims. No more blaming the bad teacher, blaming the bad coach or blaming the bad parent. Lay blame where it belongs, with the hockey player in the mirror, and then, finally, take charge.

Postscript: The Toronto Star says Saskin will be paid $1 million and fired "with cause." Thanks to Tom Benjamin at Canucks Corner for the link.