Akim Aliu sits down with Ron MacLean to share his side of the story.

Akim Aliu tells his side of the story.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Akim Aliu sits down with Ron MacLean to share his side of the story.

The National Hockey League was hit with a major controversy last year off the heels of the decision from the Toronto Maple Leafs to fire head coach Mike Babcock. As stories regarding Babcock's treatment of his players began to make their way into the public sphere, former National Hockey League defenseman Akim Aliu appeared to come out of nowhere and completely flipped the script. 

Instead of discussing a topic like overbearing coaches the hockey community was suddenly thrust into a discussion about race and what role it plays in the modern days of the National Hockey League. Although it was well received by some there was a ton of backlash directed at Aliu, a player that many perceived as disgruntled or someone trying to make a quick buck after failing to make it as an NHL player. That was only amplified when former Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters was fired for having allegedly used a racial epithet to describe the music that Aliu was listening to at the time, 10 years prior to him being fired by the Flames over the incident. 

Regardless of how you feel about Aliu I think it is fair to suggest that many have already made up their minds about his intentions for the sport, whether that be for the good or for the ill. That being said though we have not heard a great deal from the man himself outside of his initial statements regarding the racial abuse he allegedly suffered as an up and coming hockey player, but over the weekend Aliu sat down with Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean to discusses some of the hot button issues that were raised by his decision to speak out against Peters.

Although Sportsnet no doubt intended to help get Aliu's message out to the public, it seems this interview has thus far been very poorly received. On Youtube the video of the interview currently has a 2 : 1 dislike to like ratio, and the comments have been pretty harsh as well. Whether that is a product of the residual effects of MacLean's split with longtime broadcast partner Don Cherry last year, or merely a dislike of Aliu himself is unclear however. 

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