Ohl Fines Barrie Colts $15,000 After Brantford Press Conference
The ohl fined the Barrie Colts Hockey Club $15,000 on Tuesday after a Monday night press conference in Brantford that the league said crossed a line. The penalty landed after Barrie’s Eastern Conference crown, with the league citing conduct it said hurt its public perception.
Brantford Press Conference Fallout
The league said the post-game comments were “conduct detrimental to the public perception of the league” and called them “highly unprofessional.” It also said they were “a disservice to the dedicated media members who provide coverage of the Ontario Hockey League.”
Dylan Smoskowitz was the coach at the center of the incident. He used the phrase “no one cares, work harder” after his team won the OHL’s Eastern Conference crown, then took ownership of the fallout in a Tuesday interview on OverDrive.
“That one is on me,” Smoskowitz said. He added, “A big ‘oopsie’ and you better believe it won’t happen again,” before calling the moment “a big, big mistake” and saying he failed to “be an adult about it.”
Dylan Smoskowitz Owns It
The 33-year-old coach said the OHL rejected his idea to bring the entire Colts team into the press conference. He also said co-captain Kashawn Aitcheson “was just being a good soldier” in following his lead.
That detail matters because the league response was not limited to a warning. The fine turned the exchange into formal discipline against a member club, and it came with the OHL spelling out exactly why it acted: the comments were seen as damaging to the league’s image and unfair to the media members who cover it.
Colts Face League Discipline
Smoskowitz had also been nominated for the OHL’s coach of the year award before the league gave it to Ottawa 67’s bench boss Dave Cameron. TSN was set to carry all three Canadian Hockey League finals starting Tuesday night in Kitchener, with the Memorial Cup scheduled later this month in Kelowna, B.C.
For Barrie, the fine is the immediate consequence. For Smoskowitz, the next task is simpler: move past a $15,000 penalty and a press conference that turned a title celebration into a league discipline case.
