Hockey has and always will be one of my very favorite sports. I enjoy watching a game regardless of who is playing and absolutely love playing whether it is a pick up game or local playoffs. Hockey is a very emotional game and it is often times easy to let these emotions get the best of us but in some cases it is downright embarrassing to the game of hockey and to the other players.
Obviously all emotion does not need to be taken out of hockey, this would be terrible, but hearing about instances where players try to fight referees or fans is ridiculous. Hockeyrefs.com have a blog regarding one of the most recent incidents here with video of the event. This happens rarely but when it does I think we can all agree that is is an embarrassment to those involved. In understanding that there are stern penalties for such incidents, the punishment is not in question, but trying to nip it in the bud would be nice.
There needs to be a certain respect for referees and fans, the refs who help to keep games fair (from what they see, not how you feel) and the fans for if whom did not exist, well, much of your hockey programs would not either. There are great team leaders and captains out there that would never stand for incidents like this and making this clear to the team is the number one defense against altercations that demean the name of the team and of hockey in a whole. Refs are usually pretty good at letting you take your aggression out on the other team whether during a fight or after the whistle altercation so why take it out on them? Are there not any players on the other team that render you angry thoughts, can’t we move past those who are less likely to defend themselves?
let’s not let the past rule the future of the game, we can learn from mistakes and regain a handle on the shortcomings. A few will not speak for the sport and we will see hockey prevail as hopefully players can negotiate a happy medium between raw emotion and respect for the game.
Tags: Blogs
