NHL senior executive vice president and league disciplinarian Colin Campbell came under fire Monday, after e-mails in which he spoke poorly of a referee who made a penalty call against his son and criticized Marc Savard as being a "fake artist" were publicized on the Internet.
Though the news brought about a firestorm of reaction among hockey fans, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly came out in support of Campbell.
For his part, Campbell said he's not worried.
"For me, it's much ado about nothing," he told TSN.ca. "[Former director of officiating Stephen Walkom] and I would have banter back and forth and Stephen knows I'm a dad venting, and both of us knowing it wouldn't go any further than that. Stephen would laugh at me. The game in question [when Gregory Campbell was penalized late in the Atlanta-Florida game) wasn't on TV and I was asking Stephen to find out for me if it was a soft call. That's all there ever was to it. The (refs) working that game are still in the league, aren't they?"
The e-mail Campbell is referring to came from November 2007, when Gregory Campbell was penalized late in a game when he was playing for the Florida Panthers. Campbell told Walkom that he had only listened to the game on radio and had not seen the call in question.
Though he did not actually see the play, Campbell was angry enough to write the following e-mail to Walkom:
"Keep [referee Dean] Warren and gas this [expletive]-head. 90 seconds left and he calls a weak penalty…tripping. Makes me sick."
In another e-mail, it is believed Campbell was referring to Savard in calling a player a "little fake artist" and the "biggest faker going." Names were redacted from the e-mails, but the date and game situation suggest he was referencing a high-sticking call on his son, with Savard getting hit with the stick.
Campbell explained to TSN that he only sent e-mails such as these to provide answers to GMs when they disagree with calls, and that it has nothing to do with his son's involvement.
"[Walkom] handled the officials, just like Terry Gregson does now, and I've got a lot of e-mails to those guys asking about this soft call or that soft call and that's in a lot of games," Campbell told TSN. "I'm not ultimately responsible for the … but I have to answer to GMs on these calls."
