FORMER NHL PLAYER DANIEL CARCILLO TALKS ABOUT ABUSE
On experiencing abuse: "When you're singularly focused on a goal, it's kind of scary what you'll accept in order to achieve that goal." / "It's amazing how you can bury emotional trauma and not even think about it and then something as simple as reading a paper or reading about somebody else's abuse can trigger all of these emotions and imagery... it's so vivid, you're right back in it."
On his rookie season in the Ontario Hockey League: "It was supposed to be the best year of my life and the culmination of my dreams and all my hard work and... we had to endure that abuse... it was something that I thought was normal and that everybody else was going through because I was told by my abusers..."
On seeing coaches participate in abuse: "it told me that I had nobody to turn to... to tell this type of stuff to... to tell these guys what we were going through."
On hazing in hockey culture: "I love the game of hockey. The game of hockey. I don't like hockey culture." / "It's almost like a ritual that you have to go through... hazing's abuse, and abuse is abuse. And if you're getting abused, you have to be able to find somebody that you can confide in and tell them about it, don't suppress it as long as I did."
