One of the biggest concerns parents tell me about hockey is violence, fighting, and pressure to excel. We have recently witnessed the death of a young man who tragically died after being in a coma for 3 weeks, a coma resulting from his head hitting the ice after his helmet came off during hand-to-hand combat.
As a parent, it literally makes me cry at the thought of attending my own son’s funeral and I hope and pray that I don’t have to for ANY reason. (I am a very lucky person in many ways and I do not attend Sunday church.) The national media were out of the funeral and interviewed Don Cherry, who chimed in quite strongly when asked. Mr. Cherry, I think quite rightly, spoke out against the anti-fight lobby on the steps of the door of tragedy saying that this was not the time or place. Furthermore, I in no way trivialize this terrible loss to this man’s family and friends; Fortunately, few people experience the loss of their child in the way that it did. Hundreds of thousands of people experience the loss of a loved one to alcohol, car accidents, shooting, cancer … not hockey fights. Is rare. Many people play hockey. Lots of people get into fights. This was a horrible accident.
Could it have been prevented? Yes. But it could also someone’s cancer if they had quit smoking or someone’s car accident if they had taken a taxi.
This event has really galvanized the debate, and while I know everyone wishes there was a very different circumstance surrounding this, it makes it very clear to me, regardless of how one feels about it: fighting in hockey in North America is not going. to disappear in no time. early.
What does that mean for junior hockey coaches?
Certainly, in the early stages, fighting cannot be part of the game. The initial stage should focus on the development of skills so that these children have a positive relationship with the sport. We need to allow children to reach a level where they can play decent hockey their entire lives. This goes way beyond hockey, but hockey is certainly to blame for this – I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to whose parents drove them so hard into a sport (not hockey) that they just didn’t enjoy it. Guess what the result is? They still do not enjoy that sport to this day, and with their own children, they will not be introduced to the game of hockey specifically because the perceived pressures of hockey are so high. This result results in many children who will never know the joy of hockey. I feel like this is doing the kids an injustice, robbing them of years of fun playing a great sport after work and on weekends.
From an economic point of view … what is the cost of the fight?
At the upper echelons, there is certainly the argument that fighting helps fill the seats. It’s a show people seem to enjoy watching, so for the sake of selling seats and negotiating lucrative contracts with the media, the NHL says ‘let them fight.’ Realistically, these guys are consenting adults; the rules are that they can fight now and therefore they must be allowed to make their decisions for a living. If they don’t want to fight, they retire or leave the NHL; no one has a gun to their head here. Sometimes they have black eyes, a broken nose, pain in their knuckles, I’m sure, a nice bruise here and there, but hey … they’ve made informed decisions, they get paid a lot of money, they are consenting adults and many say it was fun to watch. There are some terrible incidents of aggression where unsuspecting players are attacked and the consequences for the injured are very dire – some are robbed of a career, a pain-free existence, or their entire sight. The NHL feels this is a separate issue and says they are dealing with it. It’s certainly not like the Cage Match fight where the only rules are if the other guy concedes that you have to stop fighting. Let’s face it … once they hit the ice, if one of them isn’t in a coma, the game continues.
However, at the local level, we have these kids who are doing other things because of what’s going on in the NHL. I bet there are tens of thousands of children in North America who never darken the doors of the local arena because of these perceptions. What is the lifetime economy of a beer league player? Doing simple calculations it’s $ 450.00 per season per player, between $ 20- $ 40 for a pint, salad and wings after the game, a couple of dollars for gas and the statistics would have me include the car’s depreciation around $ 0.15 per km. Add in a summer season, new skates every two years plus updates to the gear as we all get better and wear things down by playing hard at a game we love. Multiply all of that by 25 years of playing hockey (minus the beer money for anyone under 18 and designated drivers) and multiplied by the legions of kids who never learned to play hockey. It’s imperfect, to be sure, but the number is starting to look a bit higher for the local economy.
People will argue against my case, but my point is this: It is up to us as junior hockey coaches to manage expectations with parents and make sure these young children have fun as the primary goal. That will mean dealing with bullying from kids and parents alike I’m sure, but for this great sport to continue to grow, for local venues to continue to make money, or even to really raise funds, we need to encourage fun and excellence, not in the fights. but in The Game of Hockey.
