{"id":137206,"date":"2022-11-23T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=137206"},"modified":"2022-11-23T08:50:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T14:50:51","slug":"this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-past-week-has-conference-facing-extraordinary-times-both-on-and-off-the-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2022\/11\/23\/this-week-in-big-ten-hockey-past-week-has-conference-facing-extraordinary-times-both-on-and-off-the-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Past week has conference facing extraordinary times, both on and off the ice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Matthew Knies and his Minnesota teammates went into Yost Ice Arena last week and took both games from the Wolverines (photo: Big Ten Network).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By every possible measure, the past seven days have been extraordinary for Big Ten hockey.<\/p>\n

Minnesota swept Michigan at Yost Ice Arena.<\/p>\n

Michigan State \u2013 the team picked by coaches\u2019 preseason to finish last \u2013 split a pair of road games against Penn State, and the Spartans sit in second place, one point behind the Golden Gophers.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions \u2013 the team picked by coaches to finish one spot above the cellar \u2013 are in third, a point behind the Spartans.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re eight games into the B1G conference schedule, and Minnesota, Michigan State and Penn State are the only teams with league win percentages above .500, but six out of the Big Ten\u2019s seven squads are above .500 overall and Big Hockey has the best interconference win percentage (.761) in D-I.<\/p>\n

As interesting as all of this is, though, not a bit of it is so far out of the realm of possibility that it\u2019s difficult to believe. Interesting to discuss, perhaps unexpected, but nothing unimaginable. The fortunes of individual programs wax and wane all the time. Sure, for a few years some teams are up while others are down, but that rarely lasts forever \u2013 especially in a conference as loaded with talent and resources as is the Big Ten.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s extraordinary is that a Michigan State player went public with the news that he was repeatedly targeted because of his race by a player on an opposing team during the playing of a hockey game.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s extraordinary is that a Michigan player was hospitalized because of a virus that was once considered a routine cause of the common cold and that his condition was so serious that he was put on a ventilator.<\/p>\n

These are two very different stories. They are grouped together here not because the reality of each player\u2019s situation is comparable in any way except in that each player experienced genuine trauma.<\/p>\n

And the experience of one of these two players, MSU senior Jagger Joshua, illustrates a big problem that hockey culture is long overdue in addressing.<\/p>\n

Joshua tweeted a statement Monday, Nov. 21, that read in part, \u201cOn Nov. 11 in our game against Ohio State, one of their players called me a racial slur multiple times. One of the officials heard the slur and gave the player a game misconduct penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua didn\u2019t name the player. At 10:39 in the second period of that game, Ohio State\u2019s Kamil Sadlocha was given a game misconduct, the only misconduct of the game.<\/p>\n

In his Twitter statement, Joshua said that he was left feeling \u201cconfused and pessimistic\u201d after the Big Ten and Ohio State took no further action.<\/p>\n

Joshua\u2019s statement on social media was the first nearly everyone in the hockey world had heard about the alleged incidents, and that is extraordinary in itself. Even more extraordinary was the stream of statements that followed in response \u2013 from Michigan State, the Big Ten, Ohio State \u2013 and the attempt by two of those institutions to write this off as a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n

A student-athlete playing for one of the most elite conferences in the NCAA felt the need to make public his experience because he perceived \u2013 and correctly so \u2013 that many people in a position to protect him were not, in fact, protecting him.<\/p>\n

To be clear, Joshua is very brave. He knows full well that he\u2019s exposing himself to derision and worse. Victims know the risks when they speak up. It\u2019s why they so often choose to remain silent.<\/p>\n

The statements by Michigan State vice president and athletic director Alan Haller and Spartan hockey coach Adam Nightingale are supportive of Joshua<\/strong><\/a>. They\u2019re also coated in the kind of careful, noncommittal language that legal departments of large organizations encourage. Haller praised Joshua for the player\u2019s \u201ccourage\u201d and said that the MSU athletic department is \u201ccommitted to providing opportunities for all student-athletes to compete in a space free from discrimination, racism or hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

That word, \u201copportunity,\u201d is troubling. It literally means that students are given the possibility of competing in a hate-free environment. Not the probability. Not the guarantee. Just maybe the chance.<\/p>\n

Nightingale said that he is \u201cproud\u201d to have Joshua on the Michigan State team, and he echoed that Michigan State is \u201ccommitted to a safe and welcoming space\u201d for its student-athletes.<\/p>\n

Both statements are supportive, and Joshua himself thanked his team, the coaches and staff at Michigan State. Neither statement condemns racism itself, in overt terms. Language like \u201cracism has no place in hockey\u201d from an institution like Michigan State would directly address one of the many toxic elements of current hockey culture.<\/p>\n

But it may be that neither Haller nor Nightingale could say more than they did, given the statement released by the Big Ten itself. Three paragraphs long, the meat of it is this:<\/p>\n

The conference office collected and evaluated information from the Big Ten Conference ice hockey officiating crew, The Ohio State University (OSU), Michigan State University (MSU), and available video footage stemming from the incident involving ice hockey student-athletes from both member institutions at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing on November 11, 2022. The conference supports the decision by the official to levy a game misconduct penalty on OSU. Due to the absence of indisputable evidence presented to the conference, the conference has not imposed further disciplinary action.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are two glaring issues with this language.<\/p>\n

The first is obvious: what evidence does the Big Ten need beyond the word of the official who levied the penalty? If what he heard was good enough for the call he made on the ice, why isn\u2019t it conclusive enough to impose further disciplinary action?<\/p>\n

The second is a little more nuanced. The conference gathered information from all parties about \u201cthe incident involving ice hockey student-athletes from both member institutions.\u201d The language here is problematic in that, as written, it makes both players equal participants in \u201cthe incident.\u201d That certainly isn\u2019t how the on-ice official who levied the game misconduct against Sadlocha saw it. Joshua wasn\u2019t penalized. The parties involved were not equal participants because one was an aggressor and the other was the victim of aggression.<\/p>\n

Ohio State\u2019s statement makes no mention of disputing the game misconduct and it, too, is full of language designed to commit to nothing.<\/p>\n

The Ohio State Department of Athletics and the men\u2019s hockey program worked collaboratively with the Big Ten Conference to come to a resolution in response to the allegation of misconduct toward the Big Ten sportsmanship policy. Ohio State is focused on providing an inclusive and supportive environment for all. Our Buckeye Inclusion committee has done an outstanding job with providing education and awareness across our department, both for students and staff. We are committed to recognizing our remarkable diversity and utilizing our core values to ensure everyone attending or participating in an athletic event feels safe and welcome.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The heavy lifting in this statement comes in the first sentence, when a \u201cresolution in response to the allegation of misconduct\u201d is referenced. What resolution? What does that mean?<\/p>\n

And the allegation of misconduct is at the heart of this, turning the entire \u201cincident\u201d \u2013 not my word, but the Big Ten\u2019s \u2013 into a he said, he said situation. It\u2019s not difficult to read between the lines here. Joshua said that he was targeted. Ohio State said that he wasn\u2019t. As far as the Big Ten is concerned, that\u2019s the end of the story.<\/p>\n

But we know it isn\u2019t. This will fester. And all because the Big Ten is more afraid, legally speaking, of what will happen if this is pursued than what will happen if it is not.<\/p>\n

Extraordinary. Also sad. And infuriating.<\/p>\n

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith also released a statement Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

\n

Statement regarding Ohio State men\u2019s hockey pic.twitter.com\/AcDyZOpoBi<\/a><\/p>\n

— Gene Smith (@OSU_AD) November 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n