Goodbye Perrier. It's not entirely about what happened, but rather, entirely what has happened since.
Neepawa Natives head coach and general manager, Bryant Perrier quit his team amidst the seemingly most-publicized hazing incident in Canadian hockey history.
He walked up to Natives president Dave McIntosh, and admittedly, handed him his resignation.
While Perrier now asserts that he changed his mind, he did clean out his office and didn't show up for a scheduled game.
Taking your belongings, handing your boss a letter saying you resign and then not showing up, is rather telling.
His "change-of-heart" and near-immediate retention of legal counsel suggests this isn't a man who wanted to continue coaching the Neepawa Natives but rather somebody who wanted to cut and run... with a paycheque in his pocket.
Perrier has resorted to blaming an outstanding, passionate, responsible, altruistic, caring Neepawa Natives organization and a bunch of teenagers under his care, for screwing up his life and career.
Perrier laments that he should not be held responsible for juvenile, immature actions of his players while he was not present.
If Perrier was ignorant of annual rookie initiation practices in competitive hockey that have been going on for decades, he was either incompetent or complicit.
If he ever coaches again, he needs to know, if you are the coach and general manager, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct and performance of your team.
Period.
And in the second period, and in the third period… but more importantly, in the dressing room.
Let's face it, nobody would envy Perrier's position — hate mail, a struggling team and a very tough road ahead.
Perrier says all he wants is his name cleared.
A good coach and general manager would have stuck with his team, learned from it, and moved on in a positive manner… with the focus of improving both the club's on-ice and off-ice performance.
Not only would that have gone a long way to clearing his name, but also help restore Neepawa's good name.
But anyway you look at it, he left.
Obviously, Perrier couldn't care less about Neepawa's reputation. Just his.