Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi agrees with the indefinite suspension sanctioned by the NHL to their player, Slava Voynov, after he was arrested for the suspicion of domestic violence.
But aside from that, Lombardi believes that the NHL should build a better plan in preparing the players in the different aspect of life when outside the rink. He said" We need to do a better job. That's just the truth. I don't care if it's indicting ourselves or not."
Although Voynov has bot been charged yet, many believe that the sanction given by the NHL was very appropriate considering the recent cases of athletes getting involved in this matter, and that includes Kings coach Darryl Sutter.
Sutter said "We're pretty close as a team. It's not just (a) team. It's more of a family thing. We deal with distractions all the time. We've been able to handle a lot of adversity and pressure for three years now."
Voynov's teammates were careful on how they would address the absence of their team mate. All of them said that they were shocked over the incident. According to the team, they are still not aware on what transpired during that night.
According to Yahoo Sports, Voynov was booked and released at the Redondo Beach jail after his arrest early Monday morning at a Torrance hospital on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, Redondo Beach police Lt. Joe Hoffman said. The 24-year-old Russian defenseman posted $50,000 bail.
Sutter said that he went to Voynov's home at Redondo Beach but said that their contact with the player is limited as he had turned off his mobile phone.
Center Jarret Stoll said "Some of us have reached out to him, but we just hope everything is going to work out for the both of them. We're still a strong group. We're still a hockey team. We're still going to win games. Our goal has never changed. Our attitude in this room has never changed. It's adversity for us, but we're going to come through it."
Lombardi had thought of doing more educational trainings about domestic violence and other off-ice concerns last year and blames himself for ignoring his intuition.
He said "We have a bigger responsibility now. Just like we expect them to train, and we provide access to training physically, we provide meals so they eat properly, well, you know what? We've got a responsibility here now to train them in other areas, and I don't just mean having a guy come in and give a speech once a year. This is as much our organization's responsibility as anything. We have an obligation here, too. We have to do a better job in some of these areas."