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Hockey’s black eye

All of a sudden our puck-loving nation is in a snit about violence in our national pastime. That would be hokey, I mean, hockey.

It’s that hit by Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara that left Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty with a concussion and broken verterbra, that has caused the latest flurry over violence in the game.

Parents of puck-playing tykes have entered the fray. Now they’re worried about what bad habits their kids might be picking up from their NHL heros. Shock and horror, what’s Timmy been watching in the basement?

Excuse the language but, give me a fuckin’ break. When it comes to violence in pucks, Canucks are the biggest knuckleheads of all the hockey-playing nations. Walk into any rink in the GTA on any given Saturday or Sunday and you’ll know what I mean.

I seem to recall some hostility directed toward hockey legend and Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux when he blasted the National Hockey League a few weeks back for not doing more to crackdown on hooligans ruining the game – that after a bench-clearing brawl in a game between Lemieux’s Pens and the New York Islanders.

The league handed out 10-game suspensions to those involved in the fracas. Lemieux argued the NHL missed an opportunity to send a clear message that fighting won’t be tolerated. He went so far as to question his own continued involvement in the game.

The howls on local talk jock radio were heard clear across the nation – and they were directed not at the NHL, but Super Mario. After all, his team employs one of the biggest goons in the game. Fellow NHL governors bristled. Guys who live in glass penalty boxes, right? Not exactly.

Lemieux was trying to make a more subtle point – that the growing violence is not good for the game, fundamentally changing how it’s being played for the worse, and turning off generations of newer fans. Has there been a recent NHL champion without a few designated fighters in the lineup?

Indeed. After a couple of years of wrestling with fighting in hockey, or at least giving lip service to curbing the violence, the NHL has turned its back on reform, partly because the game won’t sell south of the border without the fisticuffs. The result on the ice has been a return to the bad old days of the 70s, when teams like the Philadelphia Flyers ruled by intimidation.

The on-ice brutality is on the upswing, despite the league hand-wringing about cleaning up the hooliganism and getting the good old hockey game back to the basics of skating, passing and shooting.

It seems every so often we go through the same debate about violence in hockey and nothing ever comes of it. Maybe the Chara incident will change all that.

NHL corporate sponsors like Air Canada are now talking about withdrawing their financial support. VIA Rail has also expressed concerns about the NHL’s ambivalence toward the brawling.

A little ironic that it has come to this now, really, since Chara’s hit was, on the face of it, not intentional at all. By comparison, there has been less outrage about reining in the questionable hitting from behind and elbows to the head to prevent concussions. And that, even with Sidney Crosby, the biggest star in the game, sidelined with a head injury that may force his retirement from the game.

Let’s face it, most Canucks are a little stupid (sorry to say) when it comes to the on-ice brutality. We love, no glorify, the rock ‘em, sock ‘em. The late-night sport shows invariably lead with highlights of fisticuffs, living by the maxim, if it leads, it bleeds.

And some guy named Cherry has been making a killing every Christmas for the past 22 on DVDs showcasing the biggest hits and fights of the year in the NHL.

We Canucks relish being tougher than the rest. Our tough-guy complex is evident in the way we talk about the game.

Those fans who profess that punch ups are just part of the rough and tumble of hockey – it is a contact sport after all – are lauded as “purists.” Those who think fighting has no place in the sport are what, sissies or Europeans?

When Dan Sanderson, a player for the Whitby Dunlops, died after hitting his head on the ice during a fight in 2009, the reverberations were felt across the hockey world – for all of a minute. Condolences were expressed, but most players and hockey establishment types asked about stiffer penalties or a ban on fighting, held to the opinion that fighting was just, well, part of the game. In other words, shit happens.

There are tens of thousands of new Canadians who don’t identify with the game – and never will – precisely because of the goonery. It’s part of the reason enrolment in organized puck programs is down right across the board.

These days one big question in the boardrooms of Hockey Canada is: how can we get more immigrant kids to play? After all, they’re the ones who’re supposed to be filling our ranks in the future. That cultural divide needs bridging and violence in the game isn’t helping.

By ignoring renewed calls for a crackdown on violence, the NHL risks turning the game we love into an outdated symbol of who we are as Canadians.

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