Playbook Incident Is Now Closed, Hotel Manager Says

DETROIT — The great playbook caper ended Thursday with the firing of one employee of a Detroit hotel and the suspension of two others who found St. Louis Blues forward Brian Noonan’s copy of the team’s scouting report on the Detroit Red Wings and gave it to a Detroit radio station, which in turn gave it to the Detroit News.

The newspaper reprinted the comments Tuesday, to Noonan’s embarrassment and the anger of St. Louis Coach Mike Keenan. An internal investigation by the Atheneum Suite hotel discovered that Noonan and his roommate, Shayne Corson, had left their scouting reports atop a table in their room after they checked out, along with other papers. Only Noonan’s copy made it into the hands of radio station WDFN and the News.

Cary Turecamo, manager of the downtown Detroit hotel, said Thursday the hotel’s internal investigation concluded that the employees had violated provisions of the employees’ handbook regarding property left behind by guests. Turecamo would not identify the employees or specify the sanction against the two who were not dismissed, other than to call it “a minimal suspension.” He said the hotel filed a report with the Detroit police, as requested by the Blues.

“Our investigation is closed and we’ve done the necessary things we felt the situation merited,” he said.

Turecamo said he had made several calls to Blues executives in St. Louis and in Detroit to apologize, but his calls were not returned. The Blues stayed at a different downtown hotel before Game 7, which they lost in the second overtime, 1-0, Thursday.

“If you see them, tell them I have the playbooks in my office and they can pick them up,” Turecamo said.