Violence in hockey a "Canadian thing?!"
 

I just read an extremely insightful article about the culture of violence in the NHL that basically condems the Canadian system of developing players. There's a lot of information revealed here that I was totally unaware of being an American.
So what do you Canuks think, is this a fair assessment?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/column...jim&id=1757143

I'm going to kick your ass

damn fucking Canadians and their voilent ways.
wait...ima Canadian. Gotta go beat my wife with a puck now

Violence!

its a hockey thing period. fighting is a part of the game. if you cant handle it then stop watching and stop playing.

GO FLYERS!

What?? LOL ... hummm.... we canadians are ver very aggressive and violent. Look at crime rate! Speaks for itself! No really! :ak47:

The hockey allowing this is wrong anyways . It'S not nobody's fault except the NHL . Everything that is allowed to win will be made . Canadians are best at winning in hockey so they will use violence if needed...

That's what this article was trying to convey. It's NOT part of the game unless you're watching the NHL. I totally understand that hockey is extremely physical, but so is football and you don't see guys ripping off their helmets going toe to toe. And on the rare occasion that does happen in football, there are suspensions and fines.

There are fights in Football, basketball and even baseball.

The difference is how often. Let's remember that after each play in football, the whistle blows and everyone gets 30 seconds to cool down. Not so in Hockey, after a huge hit, play keeps going.

I thought Canadians were peaceful and full of love :)

In the good old days of hockey, players used to get into fights when they got pissed off but the league got thougher on fighting so the players started hooking, hitting others with there sticks, elbowing, punching from behind, etc. and the referees imposed ridiculous penalties on that kind of behaviour. Sometimes they didn't even penalise the players, so the whole thing got out of hand and hockey itself suffered.

I see nothing wrong with fights in hockey. But the vicious hits gotta stop.

I have been around hockey ever since i can remember. And i think that article is taking an extreme point of view. Yes toe to toe fighting is an element to the game of hockey. However its not the whole game... its very seldom i see a good hockey fight when i attend the games here in Van. It takes mad skill to play that game on a professional level. And i think the media needs to relax and stop blowing everything out of proportion. There is no one society to blame for what transpired this week with Bertuzzi and Moore. Its a high empact sport and accidents happen... I support Bertuzzi and so does alot of the fans in Vancouver.

:2 cents:

:thumbsup

Nobody forces you to play .
A looooong time ago , when I was a little kid , I got the boot for knocking another kids teeth out .
So what ???
He was about to nail me from behind , so I hit the brakes and put out my elbow .
Big deal .

:2 cents:

i read the article earlier today. i grew up in a hockey loving family (well all sports really) and i understood that fighting was 2nd nature for them, however i have to agree with Craig on this one.
coming from a canadian family where every male relative was on skates at an eary age, i know that they were all taught fighting was an essential part of hockey. being brought up that way, its understandable to me why many folks say "it's a part of the game".
that being said, i still think something needs to be done so that someone will not get killed. it is inevitable with those kid of blows to the face and head regions.
sometimes you have to look at a system that has been in place and say- although this is how we have always done things, although this is how we have always played..yes we need to take the bold step of revising the rules.

no way you can blame this shit on Canadians. That's bullshit. Fuck u Americans :feels-hot :feels-hot ! Why would it be a canadian thing? People in Canada are way more calm than u motherfuckers, u know why? Cuz we got somany cultures up here and when u chill with all these different people, you learn something from everyone and you learn to look at things different way you never though of seeing them before! We aren't as ignorent as Americans. Anyway we not the one walkin around with guns poping eachother on the street, there will be a revolution in the USA one day, they gonna call it "Planet of the Apes" hahhaha....

but yeah no its not a CANUCK thing!

I live in Philly, we do not have a problem with the players being violent we have to worry about the fans being violent. We have more fights that break out in our stands in all sports....As matter of fact we have a courthouse in our football arena

hockey rules

You probably never been to a Flyers game. They practically invented violence in hockey :)

sixxxth sense, that is really quite rude and childish.

fights are great, cheap shots are bad....."Man up":BangBang:

I'm just flipping the coin.

It's stupid to say that its a "Candian thing" in the first place!

Exactly. I'm going to shoot you now.

Oh wait... we don't have any guns here.

I guess you arent aware that most players on American hockey teams are from Canada

This is about the conditioning of hockey players in Canada, not an indictment of Canadian society in general. I'll be the first to admit America is a violent society with the astronomical number of gun deaths we have. And you're way off base on the whole culture thing too. Like the US doesn't have loads of diverese cultures within the country? Come on.
Stick to the topic.

That sucks

I am a canadian that now plays in a league in Jacksonville and I find the guys there are total pussies. You give them a love tap on the back of the calf and they nearly piss their panties.

Its very frustrating to play such a non contact, non physical game with them.


Hockey is violent, its chippy, its fast and its agressive. Thats what makes it the best sport and gives you the most adrenilne rush out there.

You wanna see the game get violent? Provide free equipment to the youth of America - and give them rinks and leagues to play in. Imagine Shaq patrolling the blueline, Warren Saap crashing the net, or Ray Lewis delivering an open ice hit. (Hey Bertuzzi, you feelin me?) I doubt we'll be seeing something like that ever happen, because
1) for the most part, America doesn't care about hockey
2) it costs too much fucking cash to play hockey

My nephew plays hockey (playing in a kid league championshitp game this weekend, too), and the fucking equipment is a rip off. On top of that, the two nearest rinks are a good 30 minute drive from home.

At least when I played football, you bought a cup, cleats, mouthpiece, and maybe a new face mask for the helmet. Wasn't too bad. And I rode my bike home from practice at one of the fields in town.

Well Whit, every time some serious injury like this happens, there's an outcry. I honestly feel Bertuzzi feels real remorse about what he did. However, the bottom line is if the retaliation mindset doesn't change in the NHL real soon, someone will die due to a hockey fight. A lot of these guys are too big and too strong, like Bertuzzi.

I was not aware of that. OMFG its like manditory to know that in Canada, if u don't know who's game it is, than they deport you!

shut up you beady eyed fuck - and we're STILL pissed off about Bryan Adams

problem is we reward violent players with fame and riches:2 cents:

Hockey is a tough sport and it requires players to play on the edge, but the players need to know how to control their anger... In bertuzzi case is I he meant to hit him but I don't think he could have imagined this sort of result. (btw I don't condone cheap shots like this either, but fighting is a part of hockey.)

did you read the article?
out of the top 15 MOST penalized players in hockey.. 13 of the 15 are canadians- none are americans. no one is arguing that canadians are more violent in general, just that they are taught that fighting is a part of hockey.

nope. I just like bashing the bashers!!!

Canadians play tougher hockey? Yes, you got that right.

But playing tough had nothing to do with the Bertuzzi hit. He hit him from behind like a fucking pansy.

Playing tough is part of the way to win in Hockey. Cheap shots are just BS. But there are idiots everywhere....

Seriously though, hockey is the best sport to watch.

Check out statistics on the number of Canadian PLAYERS, Americans, Fins and Checzs in the NHL.

You'll probably see WHY 13 of 15 penalties are canadians. because there are only 2 americans in the nhl.

To say that is only canada's fault is insane it is hockey in general

hockey rules. The league manager though is an idiot who screwed up and allowed the whole cycle of vicious hits to go on.

not exactly related to all this, but a good way to improve hockey would be to reduce the number of team.
At the same time, reduce the number of games a bit. (to like 75)


less players means better players.

:1orglaugh


we are so violent here, taht every murder is front page news!!

Had season tickets growing up ,my dad had all girls but he made us learn to like what he likes. I once saw some guy take out a guys front row of his teeth cause he was rooting for the rangers.

I was 5 when the flyers won the stanley cup i thought a war broke out on the streets I was so scared!

yep, I agree.

The 2 most violent hockey teams in history were american teams... the Broad Street Bullies (Philly) and Boston....

Yup .. The Flyers were so rough, that when the red amy team came to play in the United States, the russians didn't want to come out for the third period. Team officials had to tell the Flyers to take it easier on the russians.

Thats the dumbest shit I ever heard..

U think the NHL is about to throw money away???
No fucking way. They don't give a shit if anyone dies in the ring but no way will they reduce their profits ever ever!!!

They should get rid of that instigator penalty, then there will be far less cheap shots. Let the players patrol their own game.

So, Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz and all those guys... they were hometown boys from Philly? Or were they from Canada?

I saw Troy Crowder knock three Flyers the fuck out during one scrap - basically ruined Jeff Chycrun. He played for the NJ Devils. Guess what, he's still a Canadian. Don't matter where he is playing.

Boston and Philly were tough because the GM brought in tough guys. Not because they cruised the tough bars and alleys looking for local roughnecks.

But Boston and Philly's fans loved every minutes of it... encouraging them... Hockey is a Canadian AND US sport... the only difference is in the states, its a regional sport... its national in Canada... but share the same "hockey/rough sport" mentality.... I think hockey was invented in Minesota btw...

Oh, no denying that USA hockey fans are no different than Canadian fans. It's not like I wouldn't want Bertuzzi on the Devils tomorrow.

What the article was about is how Canadian players go thru their minor levels of hockey with a lot more mean shit than a European or American player will. They dont drop the gloves during the Beanpot Tourny, or the College Playoffs.

Me personally, I dont have a problem with the way hockey is played, by the way Canadian players play the game, fighting in the NHL, or anything like that. I like it. Just call more holding and interference penalties so teams score more than 2-3 each game and I'll be happier. And lose the instigator rule.