![]() ![]() A cameraman for a local television station grabbing some footage at Spitfires practice happened to catch a wild fight between Aliu and a veteran, Steve Downie, a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. Three weeks after the hazing on the bus, a video showed up on the news, first in Windsor, then nationally, and soon thereafter on YouTube. The arena became his safe place and comfort zone. When he started playing minor hockey, his parents bought him a pair of second-hand skates and a hockey bag of well-used equipment for $50 and teams found ways to wave fees and carpool him to games. Aliu didn’t speak English at first, which made him the target of bullying, even though he soon grew a head taller than kids in his class. ![]() Born in Lagos, he’d spent years of his youth in Kiev before moving to Toronto, where he grew up in hard-scrabble circumstances, his family living on welfare for a time. He was the son of a Nigerian father and a Russian mother. People who knew Aliu before he arrived in Windsor knew he was a kid who always stuck up for himself. He also wasn’t going to suffer that treatment in silence. ![]() Aliu didn’t like it one bit and refused to play along. (Former Flyers chairman) Ed Snider came and sat next to me just to make sure I was doing OK.In 2005, Akim Aliu was a sixth-overall pick in the OHL draft beginning his first year with the Windsor Spitfires, when a bunch of older players forced four rookies to strip and locked them all in the cramped bathroom at the back of the team bus on the drive back from a pre-season road trip. "When I got a concussion in Philly i spent 3 days in the hospital bed. They actually sent me to a knee doctor haha," Downie write. "I got a concussion with Arizona they don't call or check up. On Saturday morning, he compared Arizona's organization to the Philadelphia Flyers. The 29-year-old Downie started with a series of tweets about the Coyotes' handling of various players' injuries and the treatment of John Scott, the veteran enforcer who was voted into the NHL All-Star tournament last season by fans but was traded by Arizona to Montreal and was briefly left out of the showcase by the NHL.ĭownie also said the Ontario Hockey League's Peterborough Petes are a better-run organization than the Coyotes. He had 76 goals, 120 assists and 1,057 penalty minutes. He played for the Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche and Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as 26 games with the Coyotes last season. Who is playing in NFL's Week 11? Here is the full scheduleĭownie was drafted 29th overall by Philadelphia in 2005. Sad thing is I listened to you," Downie said. "Sorry Don, but you called me a (coward) for wearing a visor and trying to protect my eyes. Wish I never played."ĭownie then added another tweet, criticizing Cherry for his stance against visors. "But again, I did what don cherry said to do every Saturday night. I still think about what I did to Dean macomond and what I caused him to go through with his family. Nothing good comes from those vids," Downie said from his verified account. "That hit is what happens when you watch don cherry rock em sock em videos from age 5 to 18. Downie retweeted the gif and then spoke about his regrets from the play. In response to some of his tweets, a fan tweeted an animated gif of Downie bodychecking Pittsburgh Penguins forward Dean McAmmond in 2007, a play that left McAmmond concussed and Downie suspended for 20 games. Former NHL forward Steve Downie went on a lengthy Twitter rant Friday night, taking aim at hockey commentator Don Cherry and the Arizona Coyotes.ĭownie, who played parts of eight seasons in the NHL, criticized the culture of violence that he believes Cherry perpetuates through his "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em" series of videos. ![]()
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