When you sign up for Andrew Shaw, you sign up for all of him.
The stupid penalties. The willingness to absorb punishment in front of the net. The ugliness meant to get under opponents’ skin.
You saw the sausage being made Tuesday night. You found out it wasn’t pretty. A national TV audience saw Shaw use a gay slur during Game 4 of the Blackhawks-Blues series.
It was incredibly distasteful, which is why the NHL suspended him for Game 5. But it was about as surprising as a hockey player with missing teeth.
Anyone remotely associated with the Blackhawks – player, coach, media member or casual fan — who expresses shock that Shaw would use a gay slur is a person disconnected from reality. His lone duty as a player is to irritate the other team. He will do that by any means possible. If you told him that his only opportunity to stay in the NHL was by attaching razor blades to his gloves, he’d ask, “Gillette or Schick?’’
It doesn’t make what Shaw did any more palatable. Just understand who and what you’re dealing with here. This wasn’t heat-of-battle stuff. This was a guy doing what he has done most of his professional life: be a highly-skilled idiot on ice skates.
Shaw got a dumb, costly interference call late in the third period. While he was in the penalty box, he screamed a gay slur at someone on the ice.
“I am sincerely sorry for the insensitive remarks that I made last night while in the penalty box,” Shaw said in a statement Wednesday. “When I got home and saw the video, it was evident that what I did was wrong, no matter the circumstances. I apologize to many people, including the gay and lesbian community, the Chicago Blackhawks organization, Blackhawks fans and anyone else I may have offended. I know my words were hurtful and I will learn from my mistake.”
The NHL has been as progressive as any sports league on gay rights, but that doesn’t mean its players are enlightened. I’m guessing that Shaw isn’t the first to say something offensive during a game. The difference is that we could read his lips Tuesday. This time there was someone in the forest to hear the falling tree make a noise.
After the game ended, an enraged Shaw was in the middle of a huge scuffle. When everyone was done rubbing a glove in an opponent’s face, Shaw emerged with his hair in his face, a modern-day Shemp looking for more antics. That is Andrew Shaw.
