Excerpts of Glen Sather’s letter to NHL

April 27, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Normally, I don’t pay any mind to what our President/GM Glen Sather has to say. However, out of curiosity, I glanced at his letter to the NHL regarding the lack of security for Game Five in which our coach John Tortorella lost it squirting water and tossing a plastic bottle which hit an innocent female bystander to earn a suspension yesterday.

I have supported the league’s decision because our coach as fiery as he is needs to know better and set a proper example. Instead, a game after benching Sean Avery, he embarrassed the Ranger organization and paid the price. Judging by the team’s play yesterday, it couldn’t get much worse with Tortorella watching helplessly from a luxury box.

However, there is always more than meets the eye to these kind of incidents. Apparently, some pretty disturbing behavior took place that ignited the Ranger coach.

Here are some excerpts from the letter Sather sent to league commish Gary Bettman:

Neither the NHL nor either team has had the opportunity to conduct a full investigation or to interview all witnesses but the television coverage and the statements made by Rangers bench personnel make clear that Washington utterly failed in its security obligations to the Rangers, not to mention its own fans. The tension was evident from before the opening face-off. Throughout the game, several people seated immediately behind the visitors’ bench took advantage of the looseness of the glass panels and the unusually wide gaps between the panels to assault the Rangers with some of the most obscene language imaginable.

Because of the way the glass is installed, the patron sitting behind Coach Tortorella (the gray-haired, bearded man in the white T-Shirt) could literally scream into the coach’s ear. According to Rangers trainer Jim Ramsay, one patron was screaming at the team, in graphic language, about whether Dan Girardi and Marc Staal have a sexual relationship. This was within earshot of several children seated nearby. Several other fans also made repeated homophobic remarks. Moreover, Mr. Ramsay reported that he and other bench personnel were spit on by one or more “fans” as they yelled through the gaps in the glass.

Let me just preface by saying there are always going to be bad fans at any event. This situation obviously escalated and wasn’t properly handled by Washington Capitals security. The behavior is despicable. However, it doesn’t condone what Tortorella did. He should’ve ignored it and filed a complaint. Instead, he put his team in a very bad spot and now, they may not get out of it.

What can be done if fans can’t control themselves? Tighter security should be essential for Game 7 Tuesday night. I just hope there aren’t anymore ugly incidents like this which hurt the sport.