Morgan Rielly didn’t say it. That’s what the referee said when the NHL asked, and he was five feet away at the time. That’s what the audio confirmed, when the 10 microphones and both broadcasts were checked. Rielly was accused of yelling a homophobic slur at a referee Monday night, in a loss to Tampa Bay. The National Hockey League investigated, and said he didn’t.And it could have been left at that, even after social media was set aflame by people yelling at Rielly, or the people who yelled, So what if he did say it, and people who still insisted that the investigation was a cover-up by a league that fined Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf for calling an official a c---sucker in the Western Conference final in 2017, and suspended Chicago’s Andrew Shaw for one playoff game for calling an official a faggot in 2016. Rielly was cleared. The Leafs could have just let it lie.But general manager Kyle Dubas, with team president Brendan Shanahan, decided to turn this into something positive. So they tried.“It goes back to my time in the Soo,” said Dubas, at an afternoon press conference. “Our goal as an organization is ... if a homosexual, bisexual, transgender fan walks into the rink that they feel welcome here and safe here. If we have a player who’s contemplating what their sexuality is, if they feel safe here, they can be themselves here. That’s why the cause matters to me.”Dubas said he would have been surprised had Rielly employed even casual homophobia, where the word is used to hurt and denigrate rather than to describe. Rielly has tweeted in support of both the Vancouver and Toronto Pride Parades, and Dubas said a few weeks before the defenceman went to the team to say he wanted to march in this year’s Pride Parade in Toronto. Dubas, former GM Brian Burke, and Leafs such as Ben Scrivens have also marched, and Rielly admired that.“I think it’s important because there’s lots of p ...
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