Calgary Flames Fans Furious at Organization for Covering Up for Dillon Dube

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TJ Tucker
January 30, 2024 (6:21 PM)

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The Calgary Flames are taking a lot of flak online with fans wondering what the team knew when announcing Dillon Dube's leave of absence.

While everyone already had a pretty good idea of what was happening anyway, TSN has now confirmed the name of all five players asked to turn themselves in to police in London, Ont., in connection with an investigation into an alleged assault. All five were members of Team Canada that won gold at the 2018 World Juniors. While no one is happy with the situation, Calgary Flames fans in particular are blasting their organization for how it worded a recent announcement connected to the incident.

The five players told to surrender to London Police are Alex Formenton (Ambri-Piotta), Carter Hart (Philadelphia Flyers), Michael McLeod (New Jersey Devils), Cal Foote (NJD), and Dillon Dube (Calgary Flames). All five took leaves of absence from their teams over the last nine days. The four others didn't specify a reason for the leave. but the Calgary Flames did, saying Dube was attending to his mental health.

That's not sitting well with fans, with many wondering what the Flames knew in advance and whether this was an attempt to cover up what was happening with the investigation.

"Disgusted by the flames org for covering it up as 'mental health.'"

Disgusted by the flames org for covering it up as "mental health"- Nerdtestedtv (@NerdTestedTv) January 30, 2024

"I know it's been brought up a bunch but now that it's confirmed that Dube was one of the 5 it can't be overstated how shitty it was of the Flames to frame his absence as 'mental health related.' Unbelievably scummy. How hard was it to say 'he's away for personal reasons?'"

"Reminder that the @NHLFlames organization BLATANTLY LIED and said Dillon Dube was on leave for «mental health reasons». Disgusting. There have been fines for far less."

As hockey reporter Mike Stephens points out, there aren't many options for what the Flames did and why.

"There are three options here: the Flames didn't know anything at all, Dube lied to the Flames, or the Flames did know and tried to spin his leave of absence as mental health related."

If option 3 is the correct one, it's a terrible look for the Calgary Flames and the NHL itself. I have a hard time believing that the teams involved knew nothing of what was going on before the leaves were taken. I'm certain that will come out at some point, especially if the league starts getting questions from reporters.