On Sunday evening, around 9 p.m., Joni Meyer-Crothers and Jamie Crothers, parents of Isaiah, were on the phone with Joel Ward. 

Ward, the ex-NHLer, is an assistant coach for the Henderson Silver Knights, Vegas’ AHL affiliate. He is a founding member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance. They were discussing the impact the Bruins’ signing of Mitchell Miller was having on Isaiah. Ward emphasized to Meyer-Crothers and Crothers that their son mattered.

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“Like Joel keeps saying, Isaiah’s the victim,” Meyer-Crothers said. “He keeps getting just pushed to the side. He’s not as important because he doesn’t have the talent, the hockey talent. But his life still does matter.”

Meyer-Crothers appreciated Ward’s call. They said goodbye. 

“We no sooner hung up the phone and my phone just started going nuts,” Meyer-Crothers said. “I looked down and everybody’s like, ‘I’m sure you heard the news.’ I was like, ‘Oh gosh, do I want to know? What’s the news?’ It was like I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the news.”

The news was that the Bruins, at 9:01 p.m., had issued a press release announcing their decision to part ways with Miller. 

#NHLBruins issue update on Mitchell Miller:

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 7, 2022

“It should have never happened, number one,” Meyer-Crothers said when asked how she felt about the team’s move to rescind the offer. “But this is what needs to happen. Mitchell needs to get help for what he’s done to our son. It could be a blessing in disguise. Get the help that you need. We want Mitchell to get help. That’s the most important thing. But maybe you need to rehabilitate first. Then get your hockey career back.”

In the statement, team president Cam Neely said the Bruins believed Miller’s behavior was limited to a “poor decision.” Neely was referring to when Miller convinced Isaiah, who is developmentally delayed, to lick a push pop that had been dipped in a urinal.

“The decision to sign this young man was made after careful consideration of the facts as we were aware of them: that at 14 years old he made a poor decision that led to a juvenile conviction,” Neely said. “We understood this to be an isolated incident and that he had taken meaningful action to reform and was committed to ongoing personal development. Based on that understanding we offered him a contract. Based on new information, we believe it is the best decision at this time to rescind the opportunity for Mitchell Miller to represent the Boston Bruins.”

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There was no new information. The Bruins had simply not pursued it.

On Saturday, Meyer-Crothers said nobody from the Bruins had contacted her family prior to Friday’s signing or after the transaction. As of 9:50 p.m. on Sunday, she had not received a call from the organization.

“Like the Bruins are saying, he said it was a one-time thing,” Meyer-Crothers said. “If the Bruins would have called us, they would have known that it wasn’t a one-time thing. I’m very happy they apologized to Isaiah. They owed Isaiah that apology. But there still is a victim that was re-traumatized again by all of this. What’s anybody going to do to help Isaiah?”

On Friday, general manager Don Sweeney explained why nobody from the team had contacted Meyer-Crothers before signing Miller.

“I think the sides of the story have been fairly well-documented,” he said. “Went through a court process. Mitchell has gone through some of the demands of the court as a result of that and what he has done since then to try and start his own rehabilitation and growth process. I think we have an understanding of the dynamic of the group that they were part of. I’d be fine if having a conversation with Isaiah subsequently to hear exactly how we feel.

“We don’t feel there’s necessarily forgiveness involved in this. We feel it’s an opportunity for a young man to have a career despite a very misguided and immature decision back when he was in the eighth grade. So I don’t feel it was necessary at this point in time to hear both sides of the story. Albeit, I think we take Isaiah’s side that this event happened and the culpability lies 100 percent with Mitchell, and he needs to live with that and work the rest of his life to have a better understanding of what it means to respect people. And live it.”

Meyer-Crothers is convinced that had Sweeney or someone from the Bruins called her during the team’s due diligence, the organization would have expanded its knowledge of the situation and understood the family’s suffering.

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“One hundred percent. One hundred percent,” Meyer-Crothers said. “They could have talked to Isaiah and heard Isaiah’s side. They could have talked to us. It would have kept it from all of this happening again. They might want to research about bullying and the victims. Because this is causing tremendous damage to Isaiah every time this happens. That’s not right. They could have called us. They could have talked to Isaiah. They would have known it was not a one-time incident.”

The Bruins would have learned of the abuse beyond the push pop incident. In the Bruins’ release on Friday, Neely said Miller had made a “mistake.”

Bruins Sign Mitchell Miller to Entry-Level Contract:

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 4, 2022

“To use the word ‘mistake’ is downgrading what he did,” said Meyer-Crothers on Saturday, prior to the Bruins’ cutting ties with Miller. “I just feel like people are missing the magnitude of all of it. Even if Boston would have said, ‘It was years of racially taunting him and years of racism and years of this and years of that,’ if even the Bruins would have said that, at least we know they acknowledged what happened to our son. That’s the part that’s upsetting. Nobody’s acknowledging that. They want to downplay it. But you can’t downplay that.”

An inquiry from the Bruins could have also informed them of how Meyer-Crothers and Crothers do not believe Miller is remorseful for his actions. Crothers said Miller reached out to Isaiah on social media approximately a week and a half ago. Sweeney acknowledged he made it clear to Miller that contact with Isaiah was paramount to proceeding toward a contract.

“The apology we got was because Boston said we’d sign him if he apologized,” Crothers said. “That’s dead and shallow. That means nothing. He did it on the premise that it had nothing to do with hockey. When, if you listen to Patrice (Bergeron), when he said that management talked to him a week or so ago, that’s exactly the same time that Mitchell started reaching out to apologize. So that just shows you right there he’s still lying about what’s going on. You have to be honest and you have to face your demons. You have to face what you did.”

In Sunday’s statement, Neely said the team will re-evaluate its internal processes for vetting potential players.

“To Isaiah and his family, my deepest apologies if this signing made you and other victims feel unseen and unheard,” Neely said. “We apologize for the deep hurt and impact we have caused.”

(Top photo of Don Sweeney: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)