GUTS-GLORY........DAMN!

I am no longer a hockey fan. It is not because the Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since before the flood, but because the NHL now sponsors violence to make money. Are all those people in the stands truly hockey fans, or are many of them there for this new version of the Roman Forum invented by the Americans?  Bring on the lions! O.K. the old guy is sounding off once again! But what about those nine retired professional players who recently filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court saying, "The NHL intentionally created, fostered and promoted a culture of extreme violence." Cry baby you say. Hardly. Fans who know and love the game want the violence to stop. According to an article in The Huffington Press, "Most Canadians, about 78%, want fighting out of junior-level hockey completely."

Now I have to admit that hockey has always been a rough game. My shins still look like corrugated cardboard from years of pond hockey as a kid. As an adult I lost some teeth, dislocated my right shoulder, broke a few ribs more than once, and twisted my ankles as I slid into the boards after a hard, but honest, body check! In the very early days of hockey some of the professional players were actually killed on the ice! In recent memory some teams have brought in players who lack most of the finer skills of playing hockey. When I played in the industrial league in Sudbury, for example, some truly fine players were ignored by the NHL while the 'brutes' were drafted. It seems their role was to deliberately injure the better players on the opposing team.

Yes, hockey has always been a rough sport. But the referees enforced the rules and did not let the game get out of hand. The two-step rule prior to a body check into the boards, was strictly enforced, the penalty box door was open for those who kicked or hit another from behind. Jersey clutching, fighting, cross checking and high sticking got you tossed off the ice. And for more serious sins - suspension, in a few cases even for life! The referees today don't look the other way, they just do what they are told and let the bad stuff happen.

In the recent playoff game I was watching,  the referee was standing between two players and the camera. One player charges into the other, stick held high, and drives his opponent into the boards. What does the ref do? Nothing, of course. And that outlandishly dressed gentleman in the Coach's Corner, who played one game with the Boston Bruins, doesn't seem to get it either.

Even the Governor General got into the discussion a while ago when he said violence such as head shots, high-sticking and fighting should not be part of the sport. The New Yorker put it nicely, 'Hockey....is the most intrinsically beautiful and strategically lithe of all sports, now cynically samples pro wrestling to stir up the crowd." (The New Yorker - Hockey Without Rules - Adam Gopink) Good hockey is one of the most action packed and beautiful games in the world ...or was once.

I admit, in the little I have seen in the playoffs this year, there is  some beautiful skating - high speed and exciting to watch; wonderful positional plays well executed and exceptional goal tending. But the scrambling, bashing, punching and slashing resembles a gaggle of angry mad men. 

Most of us are shocked when we read of a young women in love being stoned to death by her own brothers, in front of a crowd near a court house. And so we should. But we are not shocked by the extreme masochism exhibited in violent  T.V. shows,  sports events, wars, and treatment of the poor. One Moncton man recently  learned somewhere to use Bruce Willis Die Hard macho violence against those he did not like!

Unfortunately, I am probably one of very few people who once was a dyed-in-the-wool hockey fan, but who has morphed into an armchair critic. Am I changing, or is the game changing? Yes, to both questions. And I just hate seeing a beautiful game, and the excitement and joy it can generate, turn into a battle of angry men carrying big sticks.

And That's Dick's View of the World this Week