The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Hockey seemed to be immune to corruption and scandal. When we hear about cheating athletes using steroids, booze cruises complete with strippers & sex or coke-snorting star players, we don't think of hockey. Football, baseball, basketball...that's where the problem lies. I have a feeling perhaps because the American media just simply doesn't care enough about hockey, or that Canadian journalists are just too polite to make an inquiry about their fellow patriots on their life outside the rink, we are just starting to learn hockey players are just as bad as the others.

Phoenix Coyotes' assistant coach Rick Tocchet has been ordered to head to New Jersey to answer to authorities about running an illegal gambling operation. Make no mistake about it, they're not asking him about a few hundred dollars he lost on the Seahawks...this operation has been linked to organized crime and it apparently also implicates other NHL players yet to be named and, to my shock, Janet Gretzky. Yes, Tocchet is still innocent until proven otherwise, but the state would no doubt in my mind HAVE to have the goods to make such a charge against a former athlete to not risk national embarrassment. Not to mention implicating the wife of the most respected and decorated athlete Canada has ever produced, Wayne Gretzky. This is early for me to say, but if Janet is somehow involved, there is no way you can then tell me Wayne didn't know about it and participate in some fashion. Rick Tocchet is friends with Wayne first, not Janet. I cringe to think how this could affect the Canadian psyche knowing Gretzky was rubbing elbows with the mob or he had at least known Tocchet and his wife had dealings with them. Hopefully, this is something that will not be uncovered by the investigation.

Anyway, after reflecting on all this, the thought came to me WHY would anyone in this day and age get involved in an activity that is SO easy to do legally? If you want to place a bet on a sporting event, just find an offshore internet company and boom, you're off the hook. That's all there is to it. And with all the money Rick Tocchet has made in his career and all the sweet coin Janet has been enjoying being married to the greatest hockey player ever, isn't that enough? Are you having that hard a time paying the rent that you feel the need to become a law-breaker?

These allegations couldn't have come at a worse time. Canada is heading to Turin to defend their gold medal earned in 2002, and with Wayne as the mastermind behind Hockey Canada the media is going to have a field day with him. The attention will be paid to what's going on outside the rink, not on it.

There is more to this than just Rick Tocchet and Janet Gretzky. This is the reputation of the sport that myself and fellow Canadians hold very dear. I hope at the end of the day, the damage done is minimal.