I’m not a hockey fan.
This is fairly close to sacrilege for a Canadian but it’s the
truth.
I don’t like watching sports in general but I find
professional hockey particularly hard to follow. I probably could learn the subtleties of the
game if I wanted to but there’s a substantial reason why I don’t.
I don’t like the violence.
Physicality doesn’t bother me. I enjoy seeing a bunch of athletic strong men
moving swiftly and precisely. But a game
which allows flat out hitting of other people in order to gain control of the
puck (or ball) diminishes that. It’s
cheap. It’s much easier to hit someone
and then take what you want than to be good enough to finesse it away from
him. That’s one side.
The actual fist fights are worse. Two grown men squabbling and pounding each
other like two toddlers in the sandbox removes any pleasure I might have in
watching athletic men in competition. It changes them from men
into children, at least in my eyes. In
the sixth Senators-Rangers game, I watched one of the players slam his stick
down on the ice in a tantrum after the other team scored a goal. It’s evidence of a basic immaturity.
Ironically, I don’t have a problem with martial arts or
boxing matches. There’s a certain
violent grace to it, watching two people compete physically. But whatever Don Cherry says, the point of
hockey is not to beat up the other players.
People who compete in fighting matches know exactly what they’re getting
into, there are enforced rules and they take their training and matches
seriously. Hockey is supposed to be
about playing the game. A team composed
entirely of brutes would still lose because they wouldn’t score any points.
If people want to see on-ice violence, they ought to start
some kind of ice rink martial arts franchise.
Hockey should be about precision, speed and stamina, not fists.
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