Operation slapshot

[JerryBeeds]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=2324030

Sounds like 'Ole Wayne might be in some trouble. I think his wife was placing bets for him. He knew this was risky and that it was untenable for him to be directly involved so he had his wife place the bets for him. I'm mean seriously, how do you not know that your wife is dropping 500,000 ger on gambling? Thoughts?

[WayzUp]

My thought is that Wayne is about to become the Pete Rose of hockey.....
:rolleyes: dummy :rolleyes:

[cocky4ever]

I agree with you. The man made money but not THAT much money. He would certainly be aware of the fact that she was gambling like that. They have it on tape that he knew about the operations. Does his wife even work? If not she was gambling with his money whether he told her who to bet on or not. I personally think he advised her in at least some of her bets, and even if he didnt he almost certainly knew his own money was being used to bet. Oh well.....good thing I dont like hockey:p

[Jordan]

I really like hockey, and for being back from a 1-year lockout it's not good to have news like this floating around everywhere.

With that said, I don't think at this point anything in "Operation Slapshot" can even remotely be compared to the Pete Rose scandal other than the fact that they're gambling through an illegal book keeper. Right now, it looks like these hockey players bet only on sports other than hockey. Pete Rose bet on baseball games, and even bet on Reds' games while playing and coaching for the Reds. If I remember my facts correctly, some paper published evidence that he bet on about 50 Reds' games in a single season at over $10,000 a pop. I think his agreement with the MLB kept this out of the courts though.

It sounds like this scandal might just play out to be players/coaches/relatives betting on non-Hockey sports through this illegal bookie. As long as that's the case, we might see some people wind up in court and get some hefty fines.... but it would be nothing like the Pete Rose scandal. I doubt the NHL or NHLPA would even be involved in it, other than encouraging players/coaches to use common sense when doing things like this. If you want to bet on sports, there's legal channels to do it through.

[JerryBeeds]

But you don't have to bet on hockey. As a player, coach, team official, etc.; you are privy to all kinds of inside information. Organized crime is involved. This looks very bad.

[Jordan]

But you don't have to bet on hockey. As a player, coach, team official, etc.; you are privy to all kinds of inside information. Organized crime is involved. This looks very bad.
I agree that it looks bad. I'm just saying that in no way does it compare to Pete Rose, unless something weird turned up that Gretsky or anyone else was betting on hockey... especially their own team(s).

But with all the crime we see everyday in life (sadly) nowadays, I just don't think it will have much of an impact on the hockey fanbase if it turns out to be illegal betting on "non-Hockey sports". If it turned out to really deeply tie back into the game of hockey (ie Pete Rose with baseball), then at that point I think there would be a lot of hockey fans looking for answers.

[WayzUp]

I agree that it looks bad. I'm just saying that in no way does it compare to Pete Rose, unless something weird turned up that Gretsky or anyone else was betting on hockey... especially their own team(s).

But with all the crime we see everyday in life (sadly) nowadays, I just don't think it will have much of an impact on the hockey fanbase if it turns out to be illegal betting on "non-Hockey sports". If it turned out to really deeply tie back into the game of hockey (ie Pete Rose with baseball), then at that point I think there would be a lot of hockey fans looking for answers.
Remember Jordan, when the Pete Rose story first broke, it wasn't known that he bet on baseball. That little tidbit didn't come out until a good bit into the investigation when Paul whats-his-name got sick of Pete rolling over on him and produced the now infamous betting sheets in Pete's handwriting that blew everything into the open, including Pete's betting on baseball & his own team.

I wouldn't go as far as to assume anything at this point but once the prosecutors get their ducks in a row and start showing those involved what they're facing penalty-wise, more than a few will roll over to ease their punishment and there will be a flood of information as to how involved Gretzsky was, if at all.

Tocchet & Jones are in neck deep from the sounds of it, though. Those two better have made enough to hire some damn good lawyers....I heard the NHL hired the attorney general who handled the Unabomber investigation.