Team Red and Team White logos are shown following the 2020 CHL Top Prospects Game in Hamilton, Ont.Peter Power/The Canadian Press
Media members were stunned. Hockey observers were left scratching their heads. Communication experts were perplexed too.
A post-game availability after a Game 7 win was an opportunity for the Barrie Colts to talk about their heady accomplishment of eliminating the favoured Brantford Bulldogs in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference final.
What followed was a bizarre 90-second interaction where coach Dylan Smoskowitz and captain Kashawn Aitcheson repeatedly answered questions by uttering a team motto – “No one cares, work harder” – in a session that went viral.
“I’m still not convinced it was completely real,” said reporter Peter Robinson, who covered the game Monday night for Barrie Today.
The OHL certainly wasn’t impressed, handing a $15,000 fine to the club for “conduct detrimental to the public perception of the league.”
“The OHL holds its member teams and their personnel to the highest standards of professional conduct,” the league said Wednesday in a statement.
“The post-game comments in question were determined to be highly unprofessional and represented a disservice to the dedicated media members who provide coverage of the Ontario Hockey League.”
After securing the conference crown with a 5-0 road win, OHL communications director Josh Sweetland started the proceedings by asking Smoskowitz and Aitcheson separate questions about the game.
The responses were identical: “No one cares, work harder.”
Reporters then got their chance, with Robinson asking about the contrast in feelings between the win and Game 4 loss that put the Colts in a 3-1 hole.
“Yeah, it’s a good question,” Smoskowitz replied. “No one cares. Work harder.”
Three more questions followed. Three pithy replies were capped with, “No one cares. Work harder.”
Sweetland then abruptly ended the availability. The league, in its statement, said it would have no additional comment.
“If [I’m] being honest, I still don’t think I completely understood what I saw,” Robinson said from Barrie, Ont. “It was that bizarre.”
In an appearance on Toronto radio station TSN 1050, Smoskowitz said he hoped his entire team could participate in the availability but was told it wasn’t feasible because of the room size at TD Civic Centre.
He said he chose to address the media in an unusual fashion – instructing Aitcheson to do so as well – and immediately regretted it.
“That one is on me,” he told the OverDrive show on Tuesday afternoon. “That was a big oopsie and something that I’ll learn from. And you better believe it won’t happen again.”
Robinson said there was no way the Colts could have brought the full team into a small room that already included about 10 media members and production staff.
“It just wasn’t possible and they would have known that because they had been there four times already,” he said. “So I just don’t understand why it played out that way and why they had such a beef with the league for doing it.”
Multiple messages left with the Colts were not returned.
“Reporters have a job to do and that is to ask questions,” said Morgan McLellan, a managing partner at Sovereign Advisory Inc., a Toronto-based crisis and strategic communications firm. “And when a spokesperson responds in an unprofessional or adversarial manner, the media remembers.
“Whether in sports, business, or politics, treating the press as the enemy is rarely a winning strategy. Best to keep the adversaries on the ice and out of the press conference room.”
The news conference clip took off on sports websites and social media, where several media members posted their thoughts.
“Unfortunate, and very disrespectful to people who have jobs to do,” longtime OHL broadcaster/reporter Terry Doyle said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
“These two look like idiots,” tweeted Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. “I will give Aitcheson a pass because he’s still a kid. The coach should know better.”
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug posted: “This is pretty ridiculous, whatever the context may be.”
Matt Larkin, the managing editor of Daily Faceoff, also offered his thoughts on X.
“Yeah this isn’t nearly as cool as they thought it was gonna be.” he tweeted. “It’s just cringe.”
The Colts were on the verge of elimination after a 6-1 loss at home in Game 4. Back-to-back 4-3 overtime wins followed before an emphatic 5-0 rout in Game 7 with Ben Hrebik making 40 saves for the shutout.
“Win and lose with grace,” Robinson said. “This whole idea of trying to send a message through the media, it almost never works. That’s why organizations hire media professionals.
“Just don’t do it. You’re just going to make yourself look dumb. I mean they thought they were being clever [on Monday] night. How clever are they now?”
The Colts were scheduled to open the OHL championship on Wednesday night in Kitchener against the Western Conference champion Rangers.