It’s Only Glorified if You Glorify It

Hockey Tall Tales, Fan Bloodlust and the Non-Inevitability of Gratuitous Hockey Violence

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In the Moment

Last month, Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski defended the fan’s natural inclination to root for an opposing player’s injury. The occasion was an incident in Montreal, where some fans cheered when opposing super villain Zdeno Chara was hit in the face with the puck (Chara was not seriously injured, but that was not clear at the time the fans cheered). In his piece, Wyshynski does not applaud Habs fans for this, but he understands their sentiment. It is natural, he argues, for fans to enjoy an opposition player’s pain, at least “in the moment,” and to his credit he takes full responsibility for this position. He might have cheered too, if he were a Habs fans. Given that, as a fan, “you’re paying money, spending hours and emotionally connecting with a sport in which one side is trying to physically punish the other into submission,” it’s okay to cheer an opposing player’s injury. “In the moment,” that is, when the intensity of play and rivalry might be expected to blur the line between athletic competition and actual battle. Afterwards, though, the reasonable fan will reflect on this moment with guilt and embarrassment, especially if the player in question turns out to be seriously injured. According to Wyshynski, “if I cheer an injured player and he ends up really, really injured, I feel terrible about it. Like, ‘where do I send the flowers and the apology card’ terrible.”

Wyshynski deserves credit for writing this piece. Rooting for injuries, he claims, is “part of my fandom. If that makes me a classless, insulting scumbag, then I’ll carry the membership card.” He is also right that “there’s too much politically motivated hypocrisy on fan behavior for me not to be honest with you.” The debate over violence in hockey is more well served by this kind of honesty than by moral grandstanding, because Wyshynski’s piece offers us an opportunity to discuss the very natural and understandable motivation behind fans’ appreciation of violence. At the same time, the fact that rooting for violence comes naturally for some does not mean it should be condoned. Professional hockey will, and should, retain a fair bit of violence no matter what, due to the nature of the game. And because violence–in the form of checking–is integral to the game, fans will, and should, cheer on solid checks that help their team gain an advantage. And yes, injuries will occur from these checks, but you can’t mitigate against injuries that occur within the rules the game?

But is it too much to expect fans to keep a level head about this? I don’t think so, and I think Wyshynski sets the bar too low in that respect. This is where Wyshynski’s off base: he recognizes the natural draw to violence, then accepts it because, well, it’s natural. He ends his piece by contrasting the incident in Montreal with one in Boston during the finals last year. Then, Mason Raymond was down on the ice, and it looked (and was) serious. The fans, instead of cheering, grew quiet in respect for the injured. Instead of just throwing that out as a contrast, as Wyshynski does, why not set that up as a standard? Instead, we get this, posted on the same day: a video of a CHL brawl in which one goalie sucker punches the other, hard. After the fact the offending goalie regretted his actions, saying “it was the heat of the moment” and that he wishes he just “tied up” the other goalie instead of “coming in with fists flying.”  But, presumably speaking for Puck Daddy, Wyshynski disagrees, telling the goalie, “we’re actually quite happy with the decision you made.” Puck Daddy is not giving this praise “in the moment,” but is celebrating a dirty play well after the fact, for its entertainment value. Why?

Goon: The Last of Hockey’s Tall Tales  Read more of this post