from Melissa Martin of the Winnipeg Free Press,

This week saw the release of a massive cache of internal NHL emails, part of an ongoing court case regarding the league’s handling of the concussion issue. Though MacLean is, famously, not exactly chummy with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — it was widely debated their rift could have influenced MacLean’s removal from the HNIC host gig — he thought Bettman came off "very well" in the emails.

"He looks like the lawyerly ethicist he is," MacLean says. "That’s the thing I would emphasize above all. I think Gary, if you listen to everything he says, it’s with an eye to getting it ethically right. And it’s extremely complicated in the issue of fighting."

It’s a tangled issue, MacLean agrees, tied up in knots of culture and mental health. But he muses it is money, above all, that can put players in a vulnerable position. The old-school idea of "suck it up and play" — an attitude on display in the unsealed emails, from former players turned NHL executives — may be changing; the pressure to hang on to a roster that is constantly in flux is not.

"The fact of the matter is, professional sport is a livelihood," he says. "And every man or woman is in it for themselves. That’s why there’s an element of, ‘you never let your guard down, you never show weakness.’ You’re fearful of your job, pure and simple. That’s the biggest reason why it gets done."

more topics from Ron MacLean...