CKNW Editorial
for February 23, 2000

The Marty McSorley assault on Donald Brashear was cowardly and disgraceful and must bring charges from the authorities. That looks like what will happen.

What it has brought so far is a great deal of righteous clap trap not the least from NHL players and the officials themselves. Ray Bourque, an admirable player with the Boston Bruins, said that McSorley went over the line. Over the line, for God’s sakes, the man committed a brutal assault.

Brian Burke, the incompetent and arrogant general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, thinks the matter should be dealt with by the league. Really? Give to the National Hockey League, that self congratulatory pack of corporate hyenas, which has been soft on violence for 80 years, the power to investigate and deal with this matter? They’re not the custodians of the Criminal Code of Canada though they often have been permitted to act as if they are.

Let’s get real here. The National Hockey League has encouraged violence for years. Fighting has been encouraged. Kids have been taught to admire Gordie Howe for getting away with elbowing adversaries. Players past and present who, unlike Howe, only had talent as policemen have not only been tolerated they’ve been actively encouraged. It’s a bitter irony that the victim of this brutal assault is himself a goon. One of the first things a hockey player is taught is to get even if a teammate is badly done by.

It’s bred into every boy – and now girl for all I know – that you have to be able to stand up for yourself and good players, who don’t want to fight, are disparaged. Yes, Don Cherry is amusing – but only if you like blood with your hockey.

This has been, since time immemorial, the macho image Canadians must give off in order to cover up their inadequacies and inferiority complex. Videos have been made exclusively of violence. TV cameras focus on the blood in living colour while the broadcasters, who profit from it all, piously declaim the violence … as they report it in every gory detail.

When Canada got involved in international hockey they complained for years that they were getting unfairly penalized. Now I’d be the first to agree that much of the international refereeing over the years has been inadequate but the essential point was that the Europeans did not massage each other with sticks. Yes, I know, they often did other little nasties but the hard fact for Canadians to swallow is that they did not permit dangerous play while we smugly stated that it was part of our game.

There have been promising careers ended or shortened because of this blind eye to brutality – many of them - yet we soon forget it.

Hockey finds itself in a hell of a mess. People are staying away in droves. The seat prices are prohibitive. Salaries are beyond the ridiculous into a stratosphere all their own. There are so many games that players are exhausted by the end of the season and must, often I’m sure unconsciously, dog it for much of the time. There are so many teams only the dedicated can keep up to who is playing where. Damn near everyone – everyone except the Burke led Canucks – makes the playoffs. And there’s the roller derby, World Wide Wrestling Federation aura around the playing of the game and the running of it.

And it goes back a long way. Conn Smythe had the slogan "if you can’t beat ‘em in the alley, you can’t beat ‘em in the rink" posted inside the Leaf’s dressing room. For all I know it’s still there. What kind of message is that for a young man?

Hockey has for decades prided itself on its violence. And when you start violence you can’t circumscribe it by saying you can do these illegal acts and only be punished a little bit but if we think you’ve gone too far – and somebody actually gets seriously hurt - we’ll give you a suspension. We’ll make the rules up as we go along. Fighting, especially in the suits of armor now worn will, if permitted, lead to an escalation of the violence until there is real damage done. In fact, what will happen in this case is that McSorley will likely pay a huge price because the hypocrites, who lust for blood and broken bones night after night, will want to assuage their guilty consciences by dumping all over this particular, and admittedly serious case.

It wasn’t just McSorley who crossed the line – the game of hockey did and it started a long time ago. This case isn’t for the NHL to handle – it’s for the criminal courts as are all aggravated assaults whether on or off the ice.

It’s well past time that the NHL had to obey the laws of assault just like the rest of us.

That, plus a few other reforms, might just bring back the game of hockey to the point where parents from both a financial and social aspect might take their kids to hockey games again.

And it might also just become a sport again.