Hockey Violence

Is Hockey Too Violent?

Hockey, along with Lacrosse is considered Canada's national pasttime. Both are hard hitting, very competitive sports that can become very emotional. Any competitive sport can get emotional, but in a game such as ours, where close contact, hitting and fighting are all a part of it, emotions can come to a boil very quickly. The players are larger, faster and in better shape than ever before. Add that to the ice, which that has not increased in size for a long time, and you get players doing what it takes to get some space. In this game you have penalties for things such as cross-checking someone with your stick, slashing someone with your stick, and elbowing a player in the face. Should we be outraged when we see incidents such as what occured to Brasher? It could be considered part of the game, could it not?

Players in this sport have roles. For one or two players on each team, that role is to be an enforcer, or goon as many people call them. Their job is to cause trouble for the other team and protect their own teammates from anything nasty. They get paid huge sums of money and get the respect of their peers, along with adoration of the fans for the job they do. No other sport has a type of player such as a goon. It should be no surprise that hockey is so violent.

But that is not what hockey is all about. For every violent move in hockey, there may be ten more gracious moves and unbelievable passes and goals. In some games, hockey can be smoother than figure skating, only way faster, and even the goons are only going for the goal.

The best player ever in the game of hockey was Wayne Gretzky. He was a man who used his gifts only to score goals and set up others to score goals. The Great One never fought in his life; he was only there to score goals. In such a violent game, Gretzky could not hit, fight or even check very well, so how did he become so good? Gretzky had a good sense of the ice, he knew where everyone was on the ice, and was nimble enough to dodge most checks coming his way. For the times that Gretzky did get hit or picked on, there was his enforcer. Gretzky was effectively off limits, because everyone knew that if you hit him, a goon was coming for you, hard. During Gretzky's career, he had many enforcers, but on a couple of those teams, Marty McSorley was his "body guard" on the ice and did his job well.

The man that Gretzky beat in all the scoring record books was Gordie Howe. Howe was known for his many elbow shots to protect himself from players gunning for him because he was such an excellent player. What I am trying to say here is that there is a balance in hockey between the harder edge of it and the graceful pure part. Hockey is one of the best, if not the best team sport there is. The players have to work together to win, but also protect themselves. After the McSorley hit on Brasher, the whole Vancouver team was ready to help Brasher. Even the Vancouver goalie, Garth Snow, fought McSorley after the incident. Something such as that can bring a team closer together and make the players work better with each other.

So is Hockey too violent? I do not think so. There is a balance though, and sometimes players like Marty McSorley step over the line and do something out of pure emotion, not even thinking about hockey at the time. These instances are punished by the National Hockey League and even the law sometimes, such as in this case. Whatever his final punishment , it is nothing compared to him losing, most likely his job, his fans, and his respect from his peers. Even today, fighting is down in the N.H.L andit looks like the trend could continue. Some are even saying it should not be part of the game anymore. Any traditionalist will say that fighting belongs in hockey and nothing should change. It is a very emotional game that will continue to be so, meaning that the hard edge of hockey will not go away.