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Psycho
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A sportswriter for the Washington Post says this:
Quote:
You Don't Understand Hockey
By Sally Jenkins
Monday, March 15, 2004; Page D01
You know what your problem is? You don't understand hockey. See, if you knew more about the game, you would understand that fighting on the ice is part of a century-old tradition, and that what happened between Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore is just an "unfortunate incident." If you knew more about hockey, you'd understand the code of retribution, which says that bare-knuckled swinging is actually healthy because it prevents worse things, like, you know, cheap shots and high sticking.
The people who really know hockey understand why Bertuzzi did what he did, and feel bad for the guy, and if you understood the game and all of its finer shadings, you'd feel bad for him too. Instead, all NHL critics keep talking about is Moore 's broken neck, and how yesterday he was moved to a hospital in Colorado that specializes in spinal cord injuries.
Real hockey people wear "Free Bert" T-shirts, like those fans in Vancouver who rallied in support of Bertuzzi over the weekend, led by rally organizer Sean Carl. According to Carl, who is a real hockey guy, Bertuzzi is being persecuted and Moore's injuries have been exaggerated by the Colorado Avalanche. "He's got whiplash," Carl told the Canadian Press wire service. "Steve Moore will walk."
Real hockey people know Bertuzzi didn't mean to half-kill Moore, he only meant to catch him with a fist from behind and maybe give him a bad concussion and some payback, which is why he drove his forehead into the ice. A real hockey guy is a guy like Canucks Coach Marc Crawford, who's clearly unhappy with the NHL's suspension of Bertuzzi for the rest of the season and the $250,000 fine of the team, and who complains that Bertuzzi has been "crucified" in the press -- which by the way is full of a bunch of know-nothing non-hockey people like that guy Damien Cox of the Toronto Star, who has charged Crawford with "smirking" as Moore hit the ice, and who is convinced that had Bertuzzi not been stopped by Andrei Nikolishin, he might have administered a death blow, because he had his fist raised to hit him again.
If you know hockey, you know there was a "bounty" on Moore because two weeks earlier Moore delivered a hit to the head of Canucks captain Markus Naslund. If you really know hockey, you take umbrage at the squeamish outside commentators who criticize the NHL ethic of payback and retribution, and who have a problem with the fact that the Canucks and the Avalanche had no fewer than four fights before Bertuzzi laid out Moore. Or who wince in disgust when they hear that the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers combined for a league-record 419 penalty minutes in a single game.
These are the same squeamish commentators who feel the stylish and relatively non-violent hockey played at the Olympics makes NHL hockey look like an inferior spectator product. There is hard checking and plenty of smashing into the glass, but almost no fistfighting. Throughout the Salt Lake Olympics, some NHL all-stars talked wistfully of how they wished the game could be played that way all the time. But that's exactly the kind of ridiculous view that turns people off to the game.
A real hockey guy is Don Cherry, the host-commentator of "Hockey Night in Canada," who shows highlights of fights, and has railed against the NHL's decision to fine the Canucks. In the view of Cherry, the Colorado coaches were partly at fault for not knowing that the Canucks were coming for Moore, and putting a protector on the ice with him. Cherry doesn't go over very big with people who don't know hockey, like Emile Therien, president of the Canada Safety Council, who complained to the CBC that Cherry has been "a willing participant in condoning violence and fighting in hockey."
There are even some people within hockey who aren't real hockey guys. For instance, there are some traitors to the game who actually feel that Bertuzzi should be dealt with more harshly, and be prosecuted in a court of law. Among them is Hall of Famer Mike Bossy, who wrote an editorial for the New York Times on Sunday in which he suggested Bertuzzi ought to be thrown out of the game all together. Bossy says, "I've been preaching to deaf ears for the last 25 years that one day someone is going to leave his house to go to a game and he is not going to return." Bossy says, "Our tolerance for illegal acts is astounding and our acceptance of them is unacceptable." Bossy says the league's suspension of Bertuzzi for the rest of the season is "ridiculously lenient," and, "Anybody who thinks Bertuzzi received the correct punishment is in fact condoning his actions."
If you want to hear from a real hockey guy, listen to former NHL player Nick Kypreos, who advanced the alternate view that while Bertuzzi was out of line, there's nothing wrong with brawling on the ice, and in fact it keeps people from getting hurt. "Fighting's something that keeps your opponent honest. It was the one thing to keep another team from taking cheap shots and taking liberties at your teammates. It's supposed to be a valve, an outlet, an alternative from using your stick as a weapon."
Basically, there are two kinds of hockey people, the people who understand hockey, and the people who only think they understand hockey. They keep arguing about what happened between Bertuzzi and Moore, and they won't let the matter rest. Maybe the reason they keep arguing is because what's at stake is the definition of hockey itself.
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I was surprised that I agree with her on much of the stuff she writes about, including this. |