Final Draft:

Hockey:
The Violent Truth
By: Luke Trepanier

This past winter has been one of the most popular and exciting times for the fans, players, coaches, and followers of the sport of hockey. Things really started to get interesting when the 2010 Winter Olympics kicked off in Vancouver. The games were some of the most popular in years and obtained record breaking television ratings. The gold medal game which pitted the underdog Americans against the hometown Canadians, received the highest rating ever for a television program in Canada. While Olympic hockey showed an increase in popularity, ratings in the NHL boosted slightly too after the conclusion of the games. Things are starting to heat up in the playoff race, and some of the most pivotal games of the year are coming up. Lastly, and a little closer to home, was the State High Hockey Tournament held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Friday night semi final session seated of 19,000 fans. To put that in comparison, the hometown NHL team, the Wild, consider a sellout to be 18, 568 fans. I was in attendance for a majority of the games in the AA class, and the tournament was one of the most memorable in years. The only knock I had was that Edina came out on top in the championship game against Minnetonka. But all said and done, the state hockey tournament was a remarkable experience.
While things seem to be looking up for the sport of hockey, there are some issues that are currently unresolved in the game. Most notably, violence. While I consider myself an avid hockey fan, and I played for fourteen years of my life, I too have noticed some troubling problems for the sport in recent months. Yes, the Olympics shined light on the sport and showcased virtually every superstar in the game, but there are some major differences between Olympic and professional hockey. One major difference is fighting.
In the NHL, fighting is a way of life. It’s and integral part of the game. Players have made their careers by fighting. The enforcer is one of hockey’s traditions, and quite frankly, a necessity. It’s entertaining for one. Many hockey fans would agree with that. But, more so, fighting is strategy. It can sway momentum one way or the other. It can be the turning point in the game. It can neutralize players from the game. When I say that, I do not mean to injure a player or take him out of the game. What I do mean, is that some teams will send players to “shadow” superstars, heckle them, chirp them, get in their face. Now, all of these tactics are legal. But if a team sends out their 6’7”, 260 lb. enforcer to entice him in to a fight, that will eliminate the problem right there and then. I asked a fellow hockey player, Eric Ritacco, his opinion on fighting, “it can change the momentum of a game and it has been a part of hockey since the game began”.
I agree with Eric on his stance on fighting, but one issue that I believe needs to be addressed by hockey executives is the presence of cheap shots. Cheap shots are somewhat of a gray area in the sport. What is a “cheap shot”, does it have to be blatant? How is it defined in the rule book? Unfortunately, there is no precise answer to any of these questions. But the one question I do want to address is how to stop them from happening, and eliminate this cheap aspect from the game altogether. The type of plays I’m talking about are intentional, dirty plays. More specifically, head shots, or hits that intended to injure other players. One blatant play like this occurred a few weeks back when Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins was blindsided by check that left him motionless on the ice for minutes, before he was carted out of the rink on a stretcher. He suffered a concussion and is still not playing. While this was an obvious cheap shot, some other plays that have occurred in more recent weeks have been less serious, but the assailants were still harshly punished. This past week one of the game’s premier players, Alex Ovechkin, was suspended for two games for his hit on Chicago Blackhawk defenseman Brian Campbell. I witnessed replays the hit on Sports Center, and I wasn’t completely sold that it should have been classified as a cheap shot. While I believe there is no place for cheap shots in the game, I understand that sometimes these types of plays are hard to recognize.
While I understand it’s no small task to eliminate cheap shots, I feel like steps could be made towards minimizing them in the future. First of all, the NHL needs to specifically define a cheap shot in the rule book. This would eliminate much of the gray area surrounding these kinds of hits. The next step would be to clearly spell out the types of punishment administered for those kinds of plays. When asking what an acceptable punishment would be around the hockey community, I noticed a common trend; Suspensions and fines. In reality there isn’t much else to be, besides possibly banishment, but this isn’t baseball folks, and we’re not talking about Pete Rose here. The closest thing to it so far has been a one year suspension. It has been administered twice in NHL history. Firstly to Marty McSorely when it two-handed Donald Brashear across the back of the head years ago. The next was more recently when Todd Bertuzzi, then of the Vancouver Canucks, committed a similar offense against Brad May. May was severely injured, and due to that play, has no longer been able to sustain an NHL career. I believe harsher penalties, fines, and suspensions would deter such heinous acts, and help to preserve the game of hockey.
While I do not have all of the answers right now, I do have the hope that someone of higher power in the NHL can answer them, and soon. Something needs to be done to protect the integrity of the game, protect the players, and protect the diehard fan base that the sport possesses. It would be a shame for such disgusting acts to override such a beautiful sport.