FTB: Once again, CHL, I ask you to behave

It's been a long time since a junior hockey team has done something stupid so I'm sure you can forgive me for complaining about it again.

Yes, three days IS a long time, thank you for asking.

I am coming close to running out of frustrated people stock photos, so hopefully we go, maybe a week? without having to bust out another one.

This time folks, we go to Red Deer, Alberta, home of the Red Deer Rebels. They named their leadership group for this season and their captain is Kai Uchacz!

Who? You may ask. Well I googled his name and...oh.

This was @NortonSports' statement when Kai Uchacz was dealt from Thunderbirds (who’d removed him from the team after “a racist taunting incident in which the squad's lone Black player alleged he was called a racial slur and a banana was waved in front of him.”) to the Rebels. pic.twitter.com/lazPbdh45L
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) September 29, 2023

Okay. Great. Can people learn and change? Yes. Have the Rebels shown us this? No. Should we automatically believe that's the case? That is up to you, however I do not. After all this is the same WHL that has had a coach suspended for conduct before the season even began and hired Bill Peters, someone who hadn't worked in years because he kicked a player on the bench and, the bigger reason, he unapologetically called Akim Alui the N-Word while they were both in Rockford.

Well, he did reach out to apologize, moments before his announcement as head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. You know, to save face.

I am begging you. Hockey. Please. Just one week.

Sigh

Here's some news to chat about.

Easton Cowan is missing the London Knights home opener, but is keeping an eye on things from camp.

no bigger knights fan than Cowboy 🤠 #Leafs | #Knights pic.twitter.com/7hiG8l7RGk
— London Knights (@LondonKnights) September 29, 2023

In Saskatchewan, a new stick is looking to tell stories while scoring goals.

Thousands of new orange and black Every Child Matters hockey sticks now on shelves of sporting goods stores across Canada are meant to do more than just send pucks into nets.

Clay DeBray designed the sticks to spread awareness about what happened to generations of Indigenous children who were forced into Canada's residential school institutional system.

"My oldest son is a junior hockey player and I want him to have a stick so his teammate sitting right next to him can look at that stick and ask the questions about what that stick is about," said DeBray, a Métis man originally from Duck Lake who is now manager of the Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence retail outlet on Flying Dust First Nation in northwest Saskatchewan.

Oh, and speaking of the CHL, they have to pay more than $30M in one of their class action lawsuit settlements.

Roberts wrote in an email to TSN that her clients believe those funds can help bolster the amount paid out in the minimum-wage lawsuit. Roberts wrote that she has not yet confirmed if that’s realistic. A lawyer who is not involved with the minimum-wage lawsuit said it’s possible that fund money could be used for the minimum-wage lawsuit, depending on what the contracts between the CHL and Hockey Canada say. Those contracts have never been made public, the lawyer said.

“When we first signed on to this worthy cause, we were promised a monetary award and a cultural change to the system of major junior hockey,” Walter wrote in a June 14 email to Ted Charney, a Toronto-based lawyer for plaintiffs suing the OHL. “In 2019, we entered good faith negotiations with the defendants. We now have documented proof to demonstrate that the defendants were not forthcoming with their financial position, nor can they accept responsibility or implement change given their conduct over the last four years…”

We demand more Maple Leafs! More competitiveness! Are we getting it?