Quote:
Originally posted by streak_56
I'm tired of all the frickin people bitchin about how violent hockey is today. Let me take you back about twenty years where bench brawls were almost common place. It a part of hockey, accept it, or watch something else. I've been hit in the head many times before with a stick and all I did was get up, suck it up and went on playing. Though I had a mask or face sheild on, I did get hit with the same degree of force as Stafford.
I've also gotten into stick swinging bouts with people and I thought nothing of it. And I've only got one more thing to say:
ITS ALL PART OF THE GAME! SUCK IT UP
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I would just love to see you get a two-handed axe chop square in the face with a hard composite stick, sans faceguard, then see you come out with that self-triumphant attitude, bleeting;
"Hey guys! I'm sucking it up. In fact, I'm sucking my meal through a straw as we speak."
You think this shit is part of the game? I don't care what happened twenty years ago. A hand is not as hard as a composite stick, nor can it be swung with as much force. You were wearing facial protection. He wasn't. Yet you sit there and say this man who had to be carried off on a stretcher, and who lost several of his teeth should just suck it up because it's how the game was meant to be?
Violence has been, and will always be a part of the sport of hockey. Hell, I dig it, as do many others, but there's a line that can be crossed. Not only did Perezhogin cross that line, but he stopped to take a big sweaty dump all over it and brought down the reputation of the sport yet another step.
If this man had gone unpunished, it would have sent a message to all other players that this shit will be tolerated. A year suspension was the bare minimum that league could have imposed. A much clearer message would have been to kick that bastard out the door, and tell him to never come back. That way, all the real hockey players could continue to play the game.
If you don't think this deserves retribution because you got hit with a few sticks in pee-wee hockey, you don't get what hockey is about.