Hockey violence and the 2012 NHL playoffs: Why a moral panic won’t change the NHL’s cultural tolerance of violence

April 23, 2012 by 8 Comments

Image from: http://www.senatorsextra.com/

There has been no shortage of ink spilled in the past weeks about the surprising and upsetting levels of violence that have characterized the 2012 NHL playoffs thus far – including insightful posts from Hockey in Society’s E. Martin Nolan about psychosocial understandings of hockey violence and the fantastical nature of “hatred” between players.

NHL VP of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan has certainly been a busy man during these playoffs, handing down suspensions to eight players and fining two other players. The standard of discipline has varied wildly, with Shea Weber getting just a $2,500 fine for slamming Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the boards and Raffi Torres receiving a 25-game suspension for a leaping hit that sent Marian Hossa off the ice on a stretcher. The level of violence, which to most observers seems unusually high even for the emotionally-charged playoff season, has created a moral panic about the state of hockey and an unsurprising bevy of counterarguments from entrenched interests in the sport. At the same time, television ratings have soared in spite (or because) of the on-ice violence.

While I sympathize with the crusaders at the vanguard of the moral panic, my optimism about their ability to fundamentally alter NHL hockey is limited. As this post will explore, the NHL has a tightly controlled and insular culture that militates against outside interference. While some influential media members may hold some sway in the NHL boardrooms, it is hard not to see the league swatting away much of the outrage with minimal damage to its brand or popular integrity.

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Hockey and Regulation Part I: Who’s a Better Referee, Bob Probert or a Referee?

February 14, 2012 by 2 Comments

from http://panthers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=37514

Backhand Shelf’s Daniel Wagner thinks it’s weird that Ralph Nader entered the public debate over fighting in hockey. He also thinks Nader’s open letter to Gary Bettman exposed Nader as a hockey know-nothing. He’s wrong on both accounts. On the latter point, Wagner employs an unspoken double standard to dismiss Nader’s argument. Although he only dismisses it half-heartedly, Wagner does successfully attack the multiple holes in Nader’s argument. But be that as it may, Wagner’s counterargument is trivial and incomplete, because he does nothing to attack the core of Nader’s argument, which is that if the NHL were serious about dealing with head injuries, it wouldn’t take risks with players’ health by allowing fighting, even if the risk involved there were slight. Instead of taking that argument head on, Wagner pokes insignificant holes in that argument, missing the woods for a couple trees.

For instance, Wagner blames Nader for relying on “intuition” instead of “science.” Let’s stop and think about this for a second. Wagner’s claim is that there is no overwhelming scientific evidence that fighting causes brain injuries. Fair enough (Nader also notes this), but why is it necessary to unquestionably prove a link between fighting and brain injuries before arguing for a ban on fighting? Why is fighting innocent until proven guilty? The answer to that question leads us to the unspoken double standard Wagner, and many other fighting apologist (or half-apologists) employ. Wagner accuses Nader of using intuition instead of scientific evidence, but what is it that leads fighting defenders to believe fighting should have a place in the game? Scientific evidence? Right. For defenders of hockey fighting, scientific evidence only works in the negative sense of poking holes in anti-fighting arguments, never to defend fighting itself (sounds kind of like global warming skeptics, huh?).

Do they use logic then? Well, a kind of logic, and one that relies heavily on intuition. As Simon Darnell has pointed out on this blog, there is a twisted logic in the hockey world that supports the fighting tradition. That logic has it that fighting establishes a kind of justice in the game. There’s been no lack of discussion over “the code” that determines this fighting-based justice, so I won’t go into it here, but I do want to mention one thing about “the code:” it is a form of regulation. Regulation, broadly defined, refers to any overarching entity that governs the particulars of an environment, be it business, a school district or a sport. It is generally thought of (outside of Reagan-worshipping circles) as something directed at maintaining the public good by providing a check on powerful interests, be it an oil company or a big strong power forward. And that is exactly how hockey fighting proponents see the tradition: as a positive thing that stops nice little skill players from being beaten up by big strong goons or cheap-shotters. Read more of this post

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Weekly Links: Mainstream Media and Bloggers Tackle Mental Illness; Winter Classic Details; Ralph Nader Calls for NHL Fighting Ban

February 12, 2012 by Leave a comment

Image from: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/09/winter-classic-heads-to-big-house

Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.

Hockey Links

  • February 8 was Let’s Talk Day, an event organized to raise awareness and provide support for sufferers of mental illness. Kent Basky at Nucks Misconduct had a moving and personal post about about the issue. [Nucks Misconduct]
  • And Michael Landsberg, host of TSN’s show Off the Record, also spoke about his own battles with depression. [TSN]
  • If you read Ted Nolan’s post this week, you already know that although the next Winter Classic will be held in Ann Arbor, at Michigan University’s “Big House,” Detroit will host a variety of events at Comerica Park. Puck Daddy has the breakdown of these events, which include NCAA, OHL, and high school games. [Puck Daddy]
  • Meanwhile, the NHL is aiming to break an attendance record at the Big House: at least 115,000 tickets will be available for the game between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. [Puck Daddy]
  • An interesting article about the ways in which Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used hockey as part of his political PR. [The Guardian]
  • Chris Lund discusses the fan movement to return an NHL team to Quebec City. Hard to imagine Gary Bettman being keen on reversing two 1990s-era franchise relocations. [Backhand Shelf]
  • Speaking of relocated franchises… A report suggests that Winnipeg’s love affair with the Jets will lower support for other cultural or artistic institutions in the city, including the CFL’s Blue Bombers. [Globe and Mail]
  • Boston Bruins players are not happy about it, but it appears that the NHL’s tougher stance on illegal plays has forced them to change their style of play. [SB Nation]
  • Tim Thomas continues to make public political statements – this time via his Facebook page – and then refuse to discuss them with the media. [Backhand Shelf]
  • Ken Campbell weighs in on this latest controversy, arguing that if Thomas passionately believes in his political stance then “he probably shouldn’t be afraid to discuss his views when someone puts a microphone into his face and asks for an explanation.” [The Hockey News]
  • Ralph Nader’s League of Fans, an organization that lobbies for changes in professional sport, published an open letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman calling for a ban on fighting. [League of Fans]
  • While I agree with Nader philosophically, Daniel Wegner raises good points about some problematic aspects of the letter – in particular, its conflation of fighting and concussions. [Backhand Shelf]
  • Minnesota, AKA The State of Hockey, is taking tough action on headshots in an effort to increase player safety at the high school level. [KARE 11]
  • 24 Women’s and 32 Men’s national teams have applied for qualification to the 2014 Winter Olympics. The list includes the usual suspects, as well as lesser-known hockey nations such as Spain, South Korea, and Hungary. [Puck Worlds]
  • I strongly believe that there is a fascinating research opportunity to trace how, as part of flows of globalization, hockey has spread to and taken root in different parts of the world. This article looks at some of the reasons behind the sport’s recent growth in the United Arab Emirates. [NHL.com]

General Sport Links

  • Hockey in Society blogger Courtney Szto looks at how sports fandom is a masculine realm, and the resultant social expectations placed upon female fans. [The Rabbit Hole]

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