Hockey is the most beautiful sport in the world. It is fast, difficult, spectacular, demanding, unifying and robust.
• Also read – Gang rape in 2018: Where did the Junior Team Canada players go?
Hockey is also one of the most regressive, dangerous, macho, homophobic and violent sports.
Today we were once again treated to a day where the talents of ice hockey were showcased. The Tatas, who think on their feet and are all too often hockey players.
There are the young players of the 2018 edition who ultimately risk paying for what they would have done to a young woman. Instead of it being my money when I sign my sons up for hockey, it will be used to hide the affair.
There is Mike Riberio, who is on trial for sexual assault.
We learned this week that Milan Lucic will undergo a jury trial in February. He is said to have drunkenly tried to strangle his wife.
And I hear some people who want to answer me: “Let’s see!” We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be drawn into generalizations either. There are not only bastards in ice hockey. It’s not because there are these stories that are making the entire sport of ice hockey sick.”
Pickled
Actually no, hockey is not sick. But there are far too many sick villains in hockey. And that is a question of culture. It is well embedded. It looks like it's immobile. In ice hockey you give yourself the right to be stupid.
It is like it is.
If you play in a garage league, you know what I'm talking about. There are always one or two per team. At some point during the year, these players lose their temper, want to fight, swing the hockey stick at you, hit you in the goal because you crashed into their goalie.
There are others who see the referee as a burden. Others who get on your nerves or put you in the gang because they shift all the frustration about their bad day at the office or their marital problems onto you.
And all of this without the many blows that everyone gives themselves after a goalkeeper makes a save.
It's a free show that you can see at the end of the evening in almost every arena in Quebec.
Why are we like this? It's crazy though. Why do we allow ourselves to lose our minds from time to time when we go out on the ice to play hockey?
When we're angry in the office, it's pretty rare that we push our colleague against the wall to defend ourselves. Or that we catch anyone who insults our friend by the collar, even if it is insignificant.
As if we were someone else when we put on our hockey gear, even if it's just a garage league to stay in shape. We defend our goalkeeper as if he were the Messiah. We step in when things get difficult in front of the goal.
And usually everyone laughs about it soon after. The players who argued apologize and everyone thinks it's cute. We all admit and accept that we are crazy.
And in the next game we start all over again.
Culture
No, there is no connection between sexual assault cases and two idiots beating each other in a garage league. But all of this just serves to illustrate what hockey culture is.
The combat debate is also a good example of this.
For what? Because, strictly speaking, there is a debate. Nothing, absolutely nothing justifies combat gear in hockey. The stories that it prevents other dirty tricks, all the better if you want to console yourself with the fact that it's true.
I think it's nonsense.
The only argument for continuing to fight is that people enjoy watching two guys try to beat each other up. Nothing else.
Hockey would be less fun if we took them away. It's culture again.
As if it were okay in hockey to do things that would be completely crazy outside of hockey, like fighting with your bare fists.
We can also talk about NHL pride nights where several players refused to participate citing their religion. Or when Marc-André Fleury was not allowed to wear a helmet as a homage to the First Nations. Or when the league decided this year to ban the rainbow ribbon from players' palettes.
Hockey is the most beautiful sport in the world. But boy, sometimes being a hockey player or fan gets uncomfortable. It's time for us to do it.