Hall: Hockey's 'old boys' club' culture needs to change

As the ramifications from the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal continue to sweep the league, Boston Bruins forward Taylor Hall called for change.

"Every culture needs to keep getting better, and hockey is no different," Hall said Thursday after the Bruins' 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. "This is a game that's, I guess, what you would call an old boys' club, and there's definitely some secrecy and things that need to change. Hopefully, they can."

Hall added: "You never want to think of an incident like this (having) positives coming from it because it's been so terrible, but there need to be changes and, unfortunately, people need to be held accountable."

An independent investigation found that Blackhawks executives were informed during a May 2010 meeting that former video coach Brad Aldrich acted in a sexually inappropriate way toward a player, later revealed to be Kyle Beach.

However, per the investigation, the franchise didn't act on that information until reporting it to human resources three weeks later, days after the team won the Stanley Cup.

In the aftermath of the investigation, general manager Stan Bowman and senior vice president of hockey operations Al MacIsaac, who were found to be present in the meeting, both stepped down from their positions with the Blackhawks.

Joel Quenneville, who was Chicago's bench boss from 2008-18 and who also attended the meeting, resigned as the Florida Panthers' head coach earlier Thursday night.

"Our hearts go out to Kyle Beach," Hall said. "We were playing junior at a similar time. It's just so unfortunate that he had to go through that. I think everyone, we were talking about it last night, everyone just feels terrible for him and hopes that he can get some solace (at) the end of this."