Hockey, The Right Way
- Charlie Teljeur
- Jan 8, 2024
- 3 min read
I was watching a special segment of the Pat McAfee Show which was called Hockey Is Awesome! McAfee is an outspoken and surprisingly brash former NFL punter who’s done pretty well post playing-career trying to keep himself relevant. At least as relevant as an ex-punter can be.
Among the things he highlighted was an incident that happened after Boston’s Johnny Beecher boarded Chicago’s Cole Guttman. Right after the hit, Beecher, who actually let up and could have made the situation a lot worse, was of course challenged by Guttman’s teammate Jason Dickinson. There was no preamble, there was no running for cover, just two guys doing what hockey players tend to do in that situation.
For those who really know the game, this was no big deal. It’s what hockey players do and is an admirable part of the hockey culture.
To those who don’t know the game the incident provides more evidence that hockey is a game of brutes and will use any excuse it can to add more fighting (read: sellability) to the game.
McAfee, who’s from Pittsburgh and has a cursory knowledge of hockey, basked in the honest integrity of a sport where an unwritten set of principles called The Code dictates a price to pay for violating it.
All you need to know about hockey's (yes I said) "noble" Code is that nobody knows exactly how to define it, but everybody knows what it is.
“This is one of the reasons hockey is so great,” said McAfee. And he’s right.
ESPN has been using segments like these to promote its upcoming NHL coverage and what’s particularly interesting is how America has finally seemed to have come around to recognizing the true essence of the sport. And more incredible is that the networks are now actually willing to promote it that way.
It’s been truly baffling and quite ironic to say the least that, for decades, the American sports fan has lazily stereotyped hockey as a knuckle-dragging, barbaric free-for-all.
Americans (and American sports fans) love violent spectacle, whether it’s through movies, video games or other sports, and yet somehow we're supposed to believe that the rough and tumble world of the NHL is too rough for them.
A good portion of the difficulty in marketing the game in the U.S. comes from so much of the country being winterless, at least compared to what most of us consider to be "real" winter. The simple truth is that if you aren’t naturally exposed to a cold climate you’re not going to naturally take to the game.
What also needs to be said however, is that the NHL has only themselves to blame for this. They’ve never known how to properly market the sport in the USA and they've taken the tact of doing whatever it takes to appeal to the casual fan which means contorting the game in any number of ways to feed that fleeting desire.
Truth be told, NHL hockey was even "uglier" in the 1970s, when America first really took notice of the game. The talent of that era took a backseat to the thuggery of teams like the Philadelphia Flyers (Broad Street Bullies) who literally pounded their competition onto submission.
Old Time Hockey it was called, and as much as it was widely celebrated for the small American fan base who loved it, that style of play held limited appeal to the majority who had no interest in the NHL.
Unfortunately the NHL, with its succession of waffling leadership, never knew how to properly deal with this stereotype. It did put intense focus on the league, but for all the wrong reasons.
Of course, league “leadership” didn’t really care. Bloody eyeballs are better than none at all. Bad PR is better than no PR.
As sacrilegious as this may sound, fighting for fighting’s sake, has truly been an ugly stain on the sport. It has stigmatized and limited the NHL's growth globally for decades.
I’m not advocating for a fight-free league. If you want proof that a massive lack of physicality in the sport doesn’t work just try and watch the vapid spectacle known as the NHL All Star Game.
Fighting and physical play certainly has a role in hockey but it needs to be said (and understood) that fighting is simply a strategic part of the game, and NOT the game itself. True hockey fans have known how important it is to differentiate the two.
And so now, here we are. Inquisitive American fans with a sincere curiosity for the game. They’re now as interested in knowing the Why, as much as the What.
Fighting, when properly understood in the deepest historical context of hockey, now is beginning to make perfect sense.
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