THN.com Blog: Time for hockey to change its culture of over-aggression
Derian Hatcher is hit by Mike Komisarek during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Adam Proteau
2008-08-13 13:35:07
Three cheers to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which ruled Wednesday that a Montreal radio station host violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics when he suggested the Montreal Canadiens should use egregious violence as a strategy to win hockey games.
Speaking with his co-host about the Habs’ lack of reaction to opponents interfering with their goalie, CKAC-AM talk show host Ron Fournier suggested that, after the second instance of future goalie interference, the Canadiens should (and this is a translation) “break (a) stick on the back of the (opposing) player's neck. [...] You cross-check him in the back of the head and he ends up with his face in the glass enclosure or in the ice!"
A ridiculous comment, to be sure. But it’s also one that hardly is rare among certain circles in the hockey community. Recall, if you will, when Sidney Crosby was still playing junior hockey and scored an astounding, lacrosse-type goal, then celebrated it.
A few very famous hockey people lambasted the then-16-year-old, including the expected as well as some NHLers now seen as progressive types – such as Brendan Shanahan, who told the CBC he’d go after the head of any player who had the audacity to be that creative and genuinely happy on the ice.
That, and countless other examples, show you Fournier doesn’t deserve all the condemnation here. His attitude is symptomatic of a sadly pervasive, warped machismo mindset that dictates the game be played at its highest levels by joyless, revenge-obsessed men with a set of rules above and beyond the actual rulebook.
You’d like to think Wednesday’s ruling might give pause to other media outlets – and perhaps even the NHL itself – that glorifies and promotes wanton aggression and sideshow shenanigans. But the truth is, most of them have pandered to the lowest common denominator for decades and don’t have the philosophical courage to switch gears now.
The best that can come of this news would be if the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council turns its attention to some of the more notable nonsense-disseminators in the hockey community and ream them out to the same degree.
Only then might we see the beginnings of base-level sportsmanship return to a sport that has lacked it for too long.
Adam Proteau is The Hockey News' online columnist and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Mondays and Wednesdays, his Ask Adam feature appears Tuesdays in the summer, and his column, Screen Shots, appears Thursdays.
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James Finney (Posted 2008-08-15 17:20:37)
what are you talking about ftg314? Players aren't allowed to push the refs around. They might be pulling against them to try and get at someone in a fight, but they aren't going after the refs. As for pushing after the whistle, thats just part of the game. Thats the time when players let the other players know they did something wrong. Thats just part of the aggression. NHL fans also shouldn't care about what the NFL, FIFA, or especially the NBA do - thats not Hockey. Hockey is different and better. We don't want the NHL to be basketball, or football, or soccer. Quit trying to make it like that.
ftg314 (Posted 2008-08-15 10:00:06)
Fournier is not the problem here, soft referees are. With tough refs you won't need enforcers.
And the fact is that refs are fixtures in the NHL.
Think about it: players are actually allowed to push and shove with referees during skirmishes after the whistle. What kind of bogus sport allows players to physically oppose the refs? Pushing after the whistle should be a 2 minute penalty every time and facing the ref wanting to go back to fight/push/shove should be an automatic ejection.
NFL, FIFA, NBA never tolerate players opposing refs. It's 15 yards, a Yellow card and a Technical, no time to fool around.
Jude Hannaford (Posted 2008-08-14 23:20:55)
I'll take the answer to my question I posed, as yes. Can my fellow reader fair_n_hite_451 be right? I hope not, but I suppose we'll find out soon...........
Jude Hannaford (Posted 2008-08-14 21:21:49)
Dude all I'm trying to say is misleading people in such a fashion does nothing to advance a truly valid argument. Grapes and Shanny were talking about sportsmanship, not creativity or joy. There was little if any sportsmanship in Sid's play, or do you consider it a classy move?
Habssuck (Posted 2008-08-14 12:55:44)
I agree in part with P Bat's comment... The Refs need to be scrutinized a lot more. Poor calls regarding goaltender interference, non-calls, game deciding phantom calls, omitted goals must be answered for. If i were playing i would tend to become more violent having this type of ref system. Also, the camera system around the nets should be consistent around the league as things get 'grey' in the low-tech arenas.
Jim Reinecke (Posted 2008-08-14 12:51:57)
You've really gotten the natives restless, Adam! Remember last week when I said that your "Improving the Discourse" piece was the best thing you had ever written? Well, you've just broken your own record. What you said in this blog took courage (more courage than, say, a savage like Todd Bertuzzi hitting someone from behind). I would be the last one to advocate the elimination of the occasional one-on-one fight, but when we start advocating the concept of assault with a deadly weapon, as this Fournier character seems to have done, we're really giving ammunition to all of the American sports media types that never mention our game unless it's for the sole purpose of knocking it. There's a difference between genuine toughness and thuggery. I'm glad that you recognize it , Adam. As for the member of the lunatic fringe who chooses to identify himself by a bastardized spelling of Ray Bradbury's great sci-fi novel (and Francois Truffaut's subsequent film) "Farenheit 451", please please PLEASE. . .leave the politics out. And regarding Shanahan's statement that he would have gone after Crosby after his goal celebration, it would probably be preferable than his going after Sid's significant other (the reason he was traded from St. Louis).
Josh (Posted 2008-08-14 10:03:59)
I am so sick and tired of writers and other media potraying hockey so violently. Ya Hockey is a rough sport. Always has been. It is not violent. And your comment about hoping hockey returns to its former ways of good sportmanship. Common, every sport in their history has had black eyes. Remember when Maurice Richard got clubbed on the head by a Bruin. Good sportsmanship in the "Glory Days" of hockey eh.
fair_n_hite_451 (Posted 2008-08-14 09:56:27)
Ah Adam, never met a comment he didn't agree with that he couldn't stretch to the point of breaking to make some farcical point. (Yes, that's right kids, I used "farcical" correctly. We'll pause while Adam goes to look it up). So, we have a radio announcer - paid to generate controversy - say something people are sure to have a problem with. And somehow that gets translated into Adam's typical "the NHL is run by neanderthals and needs to be cleaned up or it will lose its whole audience" rant. By that extension Adam, when Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern gets on the air tomorrow and says his next stupid blurb to generate listerner outrage ... will you be advocating that John McCain should step down from the presidential race because they're both right-wing, and obviously wrong, and therefore ... they shouldn't be allowed to say anything? Sheesh.
Mr not so manly (Posted 2008-08-14 08:43:27)
And how often do you see a "fighter" beating up on a "little guys?" I think fighting in hockey is regulated very well not only by the officials and the league but by the players as well. When was the last time there was a "brawl?" Or a real big problem stemming from a fight? Hockey has done well cleaning up the dirty stuff. There will still be some of that here and there that the officials dont see and the only way that will be monitored is by the participants, a.k.a. the players. I see more brawls in baseball and more dirty play in football in one season than I have seen in hockey since the Avalanche - Detroit fisticuffs. Why are Americans becoming so sensitive?
Mr not so manly (Posted 2008-08-14 08:34:04)
maybe we should eliminate checking and call penalties each time someones stick happens to touch the body. Oh yeah and if the stick even leaves the ice a hair, high sticking. Then maybe hockey will gain popularity in the states. Why is football so popular. I'm guessing its because of the physical team nature of the sport. Heaven forbid we have another team sport where people show some toughness and emotion. Matter of fact maybe there should be a penalty to anyone who displays both on the ice at once. Oh wait, even then Crosby, Ovechkin, Nash, Iginla and pretty much every other player in the NHL will be in the penalty box. I bet that will make for good hockey!
Picard (Posted 2008-08-14 08:08:18)
I gotta say, that as much I knew Adam Proteau was against fighting and violence of any sort in hockey, I never expected him to manipulate truths to help himself make a point. Shanny wasn't upset at the goal, it was the context the goal was scored in, and the celebration afterwards. The all-knowing unwritten Code in hockey doesn't condone players showboating in one sided games - you are to show your opponent respect at all times in those situations, and Crosby didn't. I also think its a little sad that you had to reach back to an incident that happened about 5 years ago as an "example" (manipulated as it may be) to prove your point. If the point had any real validity, there would be more recent examples of this mindset, no? The more you take out of hockey, the less like hockey it becomes, and the more ostracized the real hockey fans out there become. Leave or frigging sport alone!
EAB (Posted 2008-08-14 05:49:34)
I'm a Swede too. And Swedish refs don't instantly break up fights anymore... And Forsberg gave cheap shots as well as taking them. His injuries were also due to the fact that his feet are messed up which constantly gave his groin muscles trouble. If you were to take away the physical edge of Forsberg's game, I don't think he would have been as good a player.
I don't see how you can argue that if people followed the rules, no one would miss a game. People block shots, check hard, and do other things that are perfectly legal, and still get injured. Hell, you could injure yourself falling over. Assuming that all injured players get in their state because of illegal cheapshots is ridiculous.
gerald terriere (Posted 2008-08-14 05:48:25)
I'm sorry Adam, but after along serie of shared thoughts, i can only disagree with you.
Ron's a nice sensitive guy. He knows the hockey game pretty well, and like you, brings out more often than not the right point or an original point of view.
And like many others during the last playoffs, Ron and I were very upset of the officiating at that particular time of the year, so what the Caps or les Canadiens could have done, to stopped the flyers jumping on the goalie, hacking a Huet or a Price ?
Jake (Posted 2008-08-14 04:02:52)
As a European I have quite a different approach to hockey than most Canadians. In Sweden, for example, checks where the checker has taken more than a couple of strides before gets penalized. Fights are completely banned and broken up before they even start. The reasoning goes that hockey is a game of skill and creativity and in order to keep the skilled and creative players healthy you need to protect them through officiating. Look at last season: Crosby gone for 20 games, Forsberg, one of the best players of the 90´s sidelined mostly due to all the cheap shots he's received throughout the years, Keith Primeau who had to hang up the skates before his time had come because of concussions, Eric Lindros... and the list goes on. It sometimes strikes me strange that not missing any games at all during the season is seen as a merit. It shouldn't be one, it should be normal. And it would be if people followed the rules.
P Bat (Posted 2008-08-14 03:45:50)
It all goes back to poor officiating. If the refs called penalties as per the rules, there wouldn't be such an escalatation of violence... If players get away with dirty shots, then the opposing team's players need to do everything to get/keep respect. Eye for an eye, teeth for teeth.
Felix MacLean (Posted 2008-08-13 22:55:42)
While I certainly don't condone hockey thuggery, the Crosby goal in question was simply an instance of bad sportsmanship. Of course, Sid the Kid really was a kid in those days. On the other hand, if he had pulled that off in a close, important game -- for example, the Cup final, ahem -- I would have been impressed.
Norris Laitinen (Posted 2008-08-13 22:42:16)
anger and violence are a part of hockey. Anouncers shouldnt have to put sugar on the way the talk about the sport. If that wasnt the case would we all love Don FCherry as much as we do?
Tommy P (Posted 2008-08-13 22:25:51)
I agree with most. But the nature in which NHLers use their words is poor. Players have to walk a thin tightrope when speaking and acting. Follow that code.
Flyerfan52 (Posted 2008-08-13 20:34:52)
Hockey was always a tough sport. You gave everything you had to win. At the end of the game you'd shake hands because you respected your opponent. Notice there are cases of that not happening? If every player bears responsibility for what they do on ice, they can earn respect. Without the European roles they keep bringing in, player policed themselves. OV was proud of losing a tooth because it made him look like a hockey player. He's also the best player since Gretzky. If he thinks that way, why are you trying to change a great game into a mediocre one? NHL was never meant to be figure skating with pucks.
whatsthatsmell (Posted 2008-08-13 20:28:16)
What a joke you are AP. The instigator rule is the dumbest rule I have seen in any pro sport. The only thing dumber is not allowing bench clearing brawls any more. You must have shares in a helmet company, because following your line of thinking, the players today will need full face shields, jaw protectors, and enough padding to stop a freight train from cracking your skull open. How do you stop a guy from drilling another players head into the wall without some form of deterence? Suspensions obviously aren't working. Only if someone knows he is gonna get his head knocked off and maybe have his career ended as well. The only alternative is to get the courts involved, after all, a premeditated attack on another human is still assault at minimum. Add the sticks, body armor, boards, and so forth, and now it is assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, assault with intent to injure, you get the point.
Leigh (Posted 2008-08-13 20:18:05)
Stan Mikita proved that fighting doesn't have a damn thing to do with hockey fourty years ago, but it still goes over every ones head.
He went from being a rangatan to winning the scoring title, hart trophy, and the lady byng 3 years in a row.
When are the pinheads going to get it?
40 years and counting......not!
A.K. (Posted 2008-08-13 20:17:12)
Tom> i'll correct you because you're wrong. Shanahan never used the words "showboating", "gloating" or "blowout" in that interview.
Viqsi (Posted 2008-08-13 19:25:45)
As far as I'm concerned this article's subject matter has absolutely nothing to do with fighting in hockey, and everything to do with gutless, mean-spirited unsportsmanlike cheap shots. There's "don't pull that stupidity because the consequences will not feel good", and then there's deliberate intent to injure as a game strategy. Getting your just dues for being cheap is one thing. Bloodying the opponent so he can't play to give you an advantage is something else entirely, and attempts to do that sort of thing draw the attention of the local enforcer, the refs, and the NHL, and that's how it should be.
kyle (Posted 2008-08-13 18:15:13)
Fighting needs a place in hockey because of its nature, sure people like Simon and Burtuzzi are scum and their actions make the whole game look bad but back in the day there would have been a fight instead or a all out brawl instead of just letting hate simmer to a boil of unnecessary violence. Crosby's goal was BS given the situation and i too would have gone after him for showboating in a blowout game like that.
Alex in AZ (Posted 2008-08-13 17:47:41)
Fighting has a place in the NHL. Goonery in the form of checks from behind, slashing, and other intents to injure do not and should be handled with stiffer suspensions than are currently handed out.
blackhawks fan (Posted 2008-08-13 17:09:05)
its clear the montreal canadians need a lot more toughness... there soft with all there french and euopean players... if somebody pulled off a lacross type move when i played i would go right aftem them
t-murder (Posted 2008-08-13 16:32:16)
I think the occasional fight is nice to see and sometimes it actually energizes the team. For instance when its the captain or assisstant captain defending his teammate. When it becomes just a battle between heavyweights it loses its importance and becomes meaningless to the flow of the game.
danny boy (Posted 2008-08-13 16:25:04)
Back in the day there was no "cheap play", "showboating" or overt retaliation. "The Code" took care of that...Ask Gordie "Mr. Hockey" Howe how it was done...Now we're penalizing the discussion of the subject, by the frustrated few, in order to circumvent the actual issues of which such actions are symptomatic. Go figure. It's simply a case of institutionalized cowardice operating under the mantle of political correctness. Systematic dirty play *should* result in some form of retribution - Failing official, objective refereeing, who better than the players themselves to act as "The Left Hand of God"? Ahhh, yes - The instigator rule.
Tom (Posted 2008-08-13 15:47:37)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Shanahan's problem with the Crosby goal wasn't about creativity or happiness, but that Crosby was showboating and gloating in a game where his team was winning in a blowout.
James Finney (Posted 2008-08-13 15:10:43)
Part of that is the way hockey is meant to be played. Sean Avery's antics in front of Brodeur were creative, but he should have been leveled and gotten some lumber in his teeth. Crosby's 'lacrosse' goal was the result of non-aggressive defense and never should have happened. If you look, it was a powerplay for his team. So you are pro BS plays while a team is disadvantaged and cannot afford to play aggressive? Heres something you can throw into the argument, Gordie Howe (aka Mr. Hockey - the truest hockey player ever) once speared a guy in the nads at an Old Timers game - a meaningless game meant for enjoyment. He was also famous for throwing elbows and other things you want to get rid of. So basically, you are against one of the best players of all time who was everything that hockey should be. When players pull something dirty, someone should wreck them, thats all there is to it. When theres nobody to step up and wreck the dirty players, what stops players from diving, or pulling things like Avery's? Gordie Howe wouldn't have put up with it - and he should be the gold standard for the type of player you want.
Cory (Posted 2008-08-13 14:54:10)
Very well said. The next step is to remove fighting. Contrary to what most may think, hockey is still a tough, aggressive and highly physical sport even without the scraps.
george (Posted 2008-08-13 14:39:46)
Hockey's an aggressive sport. Take it or leave it. Its not like guys are actually breaking there sticks over guy's necks in front of the net. The "new NHL" got rid of any tough defense in front of the net anyway. Media people want the NHL to turn into the Show Boat League (NBA) so they have more to write about and more highlight reels to comment on. Hockey is hockey. I like fighting in hockey, am I the "lowest common denominator"? There aren't that many cheap shot artists in the NHL. With no aggression and retribution, guys will be diving way more and taking cheep shots and that is way more dangerous and un-classy. You would basically get Pro Soccer, the lowest, diving ballerina, whining, sniveling drivel of a pro sports league. What's the problem Adam? You take the worst instances of on-ice violence and turn them towards an agenda of political correctness, but I don't see the point. Hockey's a gladiator sport, what's the big deal, what are you worried about? You want it to be more accessible to the American consumer, to the casual Canadian fan? For what and why? I'd love to know what you think of lacrosse, or maybe I can guess.
Erik (Posted 2008-08-13 14:03:22)
I agree 100 per cent with everything this article says. Also enjoyed your interview on the Fan 960 in Calgary this morning Adam.
glenn (Posted 2008-08-13 13:52:22)
Wow. I didn't think anyone would have the font to speak the truth like this. I wish there were more of us.
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