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BGonline.org Forums
Hockey ruling(?) -- OT
Posted By: scotty In Response To: Hockey ruling(?) -- OT (Chuck Bower)
Date: Monday, 23 March 2015, at 1:41 a.m.
I've seen it a few times, and had questions similar to yours. The problem, as far as I can see is that the league commissioner has his origins in basketball, and knows nothing about the sport of hockey. He certainly understands how to promote professional sport in the USA, but certainly doesn't understand the culture behind the sport. This has resulted in the bastardization of hockey as we know it, here in Canada.
Gary Bettman, the league commissioner, is so out of touch with the reality of the sport, that he has allowed it to become something like 'gladiators on ice'. He seems to believe that publicity surrounding near death experiences on the ice are good for the game. A few years ago there were nation wide protests against the serious degree of violence in the NHL. The NHL was forced to recognize that families don't want their kids to view manslaughter on the ice, and the NHL responded by creating a department of player safety, which hands out suspensions of up to 5 games for attempting to maim the opponent during play!
The league is making small progress however. A recent meeting of the general managers decided to take sanctions against teams who crash the net in a deliberate attempt to injure goaltenders. Last season, a team made it to the Stanley Cup finals by removing one of the leagues few remaining superstars in a net crashing incident. It remains to be seen what sort of sanctions will be taken: perhaps a 2 minute penalty for goaltender interference?
I'm a big time hockey fan. There are still great examples of the sport to be found, expecially in international hockey. The Canadian Women's National team expemplify the best aspects of the sport, and are well worth watching.
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