Robin Lehner unleashed chaos and fury over the weekend but had a change after speaking with the NHL.
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On Tuesday afternoon, the goalie of Las Vegas appeared stressed. He held a press conference about his shocking tweets from Saturday night in which he accused teams illegally passing out Ambien and benzodiazepines.
I will always advocate for mental health. But moving forward, Im looking to help more privately, said Lehner. He has spoken out about his battles with addiction, depression, and bipolar disorder. This weekend was a call for help from the league. This league is something I love and it has given me so many things. However, Im trying to protect the younger players and the only way to make that happen, to my mind, is in a private manner. The talks that I have had with the league are very encouraging.
Let's be honest. Lehner put his future prospects at risk. Organizations will not sign anyone who might expose the league's corruption. It takes courage to speak up about such things and the league clearly pointed out that Lehner was losing his job prospects.
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He also expressed dissatisfaction with the way teams handle mental illness and injuries. He called out Buffalo's treatment of Jack Eichel. Eichel, who requested a trade during the offseason was stripped of his captaincy. He remains on injured reserve due to a herniated disc in his neck. Eichel is being offered fusion surgery by the team. Eichel prefers to have disk replacement surgery. This will allow Eichel to avoid further complications and has a better chance of success.
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He also demanded that Alain Vigneault, Philadelphia Flyers coach, be fired. He called him a dinosaur. It appeared that his stream-of-consciousness tweets connected Vigneault to the pill-pushing, but Lehner later clarified that wasnt the case.
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Vigneault, who never coached Lehner in the past, held a press conference Monday to deny that he was involved with distributing drugs.
Lehner believes that being all Joker is not the best way to do business.
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I don't want to fight the league. I want to bring about change. There are many ways to achieve this, but I do what I believe in. I am willing to speak out publicly about these issues to bring about change.
It is yet to be seen whether the NHL will address Lehner's concerns. This league has repeatedly denied any link between hockey and CTE. The league is trying to hide the scandal surrounding the Chicago Hawks' sexual assault. Akim Aliu was promised by the NHL that it would investigate allegations of racial violence and discrimination at the hands former NHLer Steve Downie, a junior hockey teammate. This was two years ago.
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Players have never had success in standing up against sports leagues for their rights or for social and/or racial justice. Eric Reid, Colin Kaepernick and Curt Flood. It's hard to blame Lehner, who, after much reflection, decided to reverse course and take a more private action. We can be sure that the NHL will try to sweep away as many scandals as possible, until proven otherwise.
