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What Colin Campbell should say tonight on NHL Overtime

Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell, NHL director of hockey operations, speaks to reporters during the league’s general managers’ annual fall meeting, in Toronto on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

AP

Tonight at 11:00 pm, embattled NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell will make a phone appearance on Versus’ new program NHL Overtime to discuss, we hope, what’s come out lately about him disparaging Marc Savard and being overtly critical of NHL officials regarding their treatment of his son, Bruins forward Gregory Campbell, during games.

We’re assuming that Campbell will be talking about these subjects and not about the handful of suspensions handed down today to Mattias Ritola and Olli Jokinen. With Campbell going under the microscope thanks to Tyler Dellow putting the pieces together to figure out that Campbell is potentially using his position to influence, he’s got a huge opportunity to do the right thing after all this. While we’ve already heard a little bit from Campbell regarding this whole thing, choosing to talk about one incident and chalking it up to being too much of a hockey dad, he can start to make things right in a different way. He can start by being honest.

If Campbell opens things up tonight discussing with Bill Patrick, Billy Jaffe, and Aaron Ward doing what we’ve heard from other’s in the NHL media by discussing his history in the game and having the respect of his peers, he’ll immediately be losing us. Colin Campbell the man has never been the problem through this entire escapade. I’m sure that Colin Campbell is a great guy, a good friend, and a loyal compatriot to have in any situation. If you look at his e-mails to Stephen Walkom and Mike Murphy in a certain point of view, that aspect of him is very evident. But that’s not the problem here. The problem here surrounds Colin Campbell the league executive.

What’s gotten lost in the discussion about this whole situation is how Campbell seemingly abused his role in an authority position to to get breaks for his son. That’s the part that’s got most people discussing this in an uproar. It’s not about how good of a guy Colin Campbell is off the ice and how a good guy doesn’t deserve to get treated harshly because of that. That’s about as far from the point as anything can get. Sometimes good people make mistakes. Sometimes good people can get carried away if they’re left unchecked in a position of power.

That’s why Colin Campbell has to show the rest of us that haven’t been in the locker room with him as a player, or worked with him in the media while he was a coach or as the NHL disciplinarian what makes him as good a guy as we’ve read or heard about the last few days. A good guy, a guy that won’t allow pride to get in his way, would own up to making a mistake. That’s what he’s done here, he’s made mistakes. We’re human, they happen and sometimes when family gets involved emotions get the best of us and our “ugly” side can come out. They just don’t usually come out in e-mail or make it appear that your potential conflict of interest is more than just a possibility.

So Colin, for the rest of us so we can go back about our business and talking about what a great game hockey is, fess up. Own what’s happened. Don’t try to give us a PR-friendly answer. Honesty is hard and it can sometimes seem like it’ll be the thing that stings you the most, but if he can go on NHL Overtime tonight and say this:

“I’m really sorry for what I’ve said about Marc Savard and I am incredibly sorry for letting the love of my son get the best of me and potentially interfering in my focus on the job at hand. I’ve learned from all this that doing the right thing for my family and doing the right thing for my job can sometimes get in the way of each other and it won’t happen again.”

I’m willing to bet that we’ll be able to see what others are talking about when they tell us about what a stand-up guy Colin Campbell is. Giving us a prepared statement that tip-toes around and doesn’t directly address everything that’s been questioned will just be damage control and appear to be dishonest. The fans aren’t the fools we’re sometimes mistaken for, treating us as such will only let fans continue to feel like aren’t capable of handling the truth. Trust us here Colin, we can handle the truth.