Joel Quenneville shoots himself in the foot a day before crucial meeting with Gary Bettman

Joel Quenneville has already said enough, but it didn’t stop him from saying more on Wednesday morning when he met with reporters in Florida.

As you know, the Panthers head coach is under a lot of scrutiny since Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman “stepped aside” from his position following Tuesday’s release of an independent third party investigation into allegations that the team covered up a sexual abuse scandal from within the organization.

Chicago law firm Jenner & Block released a report today implicating Bowman, then-Blackhawks assistant GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and then-head coach Joel Quenneville in the cover up of sexual abuse allegations levied against former team video coach Brad Aldrich. Attorney Reid Schar outlined how the team’s executive staff in 2010 swept Aldrich’s assaults under the rug and enabled him to go on to commit even more crimes at his next job in the NCAA. Both Quenneville, now with the Florida Panthers, and Cheveldayoff, now with the Winnipeg Jets, have denied knowing anything about the allegations. But Schar has revealed both of these men to be liars. On top of that, the report shows that now Quenneville did not want to deal with this issue because they were contending to be Cup winners. Bowman told investigators that during this meeting McDonagh and Quenneville “made comments about the challenge of getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and a desire to focus on the team and the playoffs.” To make things worse, Quenneville wrote an evaluation on Aldrich, knowing what he had done, stating that he had done a great job while having several people relying on him.

On Wednesday when Quenneville announced that he would meet with commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday to further discuss the issue, the head coach was asked by The Boston Globe’s Matt Porter if he still stands by what he said back in July, denying knowing any information on the allegations.

Quenneville should have shut up (as a lawyer would have advised) but answered yes, shooting himself in the foot.

It might be too easy now for Bettman to show him the door…