Far From a Sure Goal: The Misconceptions of Hockey

Meeting new people sure is great. Personally, in engaging with new acquaintances, the small talk often trails into inane conversations about music or sports. In case of the latter topic, I am always faced with the question of which football team I support. The surprise comes when I answer that I don't really follow football, apart from the bigger tournaments like Euro Cup or the World Cup. The revelation is often accompanied with looks suggesting I had been living on Mars for the better parts of the past few centuries.

After my companions recover from their initial shock, I explain I don't follow football but hold a life long passion for ice hockey. I tell them I still play ice and inline hockey at very competitive levels. This is where people's eyes widen and I get the same question asked time and time again:

My companion: "So you get a lot of fights in hockey?"

Such questions have grown to affect me with such distain that I generally end conversation and walk away. Were I a calmer person, I would explain the truth is that fights are somewhat rare in hockey. Granted, inline- and ice hockey are both fast paced contact sports and risky body checks are common in the sport. These physical contacts fail to qualify for fights though, as they are something that a player regards as part of the sport. Actual fights do indeed also occur, as the game’s fast pace incites the flow of pure adrenaline that rushes through you after your opponent checks you to the boards. The adrenaline also flows from the joyful occasion of scoring a goal. Such surge of aggression can easily cause fights. Explaining this to my companion of conversation, I would be likely to admit that at times, the fights can get so bad that everyone from the two teams playing are on the ice fighting each other. This of course makes good television, and it is thus natural that a person less familiar with the sport would regard ice hockey as some cold-hearted bastard cousin of boxing.

However, I would explain to my new friend, there is more at play in the game. Recently, the highest league of hockey in the world, the NHL (National Hockey League, consisting of teams in USA and Canada, with international players), was forced into a lock out due to adults bickering about money. However the chance to review itself was seized by the league. The attention touted by sports media focused on the big hits, big shots and goals, and saves of the goaltenders that reached inhuman qualities of stretching and reaction. The game itself was far from the matches of high scores and fine playing that it was in the 80's and 90's. It rather resembled scores like 1-0, 0-0 and 2-1. The resurrection brought new rules. Without going into technicalities, the innovations include bigger goals and smaller equipment for goalies, which enables players and coaches to draw up more unique plays and restore the game’s adrenaline fuelled beauty. Perhaps the NHL will return to a high speed, high scoring affair, which is, above all, entertaining.

So, I stop to sympathise with my new companions misconceptions. Where does this image of hockey being a “tough” man's sport of violence come from? Perhaps a partial culprit are films like Happy Gilmore, or Slapshot 1 and 2 where fights have been dramatise and spark up the entertainment of otherwise insipid films. Further blame can be based on different associations trying to sell the game to the public by only focusing the viciousness of the sport. This naturally draws in a very mixed crowd. In effect, especially in countries where ice hockey is not a main-stream sport, followers of the sport will be more focused on the possibility of a bloodshed rather than the possibility of a nice goal to the top right hand corner.

Such a crowd will dispense misguided and quite frankly irritating youths who will go and try playing hockey just 'because it is violent and you can hit people'. They are naturally ill-fitting with the crowd who are playing the game for the sake of the sport. Those out in the ring to hit and hurt find tough lessons ahead. From my experience, players maintain general respect for each other, despite the hits and fights. If one does not respect these rules and hits another player in the face with a stick (which obviously can cause serious, ugly damage) it is quickly seen that every other player is against his actions, despite the team-colours. It is actually a game of courteous respect, not pointless brawling.

The depicted disrespectful stick-wrangler might quickly receive a body check. And if he does not know how to be the receiving end, he will be seeing stars for a couple of weeks. From personal experience, I remember my first training with a senior team. I kept playing like I did at junior levels, with my head always down. The biggest player in the team checked me during a practice match in training. It was a clean body check, but due to me holding my head down I ended up seeing stars for few weeks and with a terribly stiff neck. The game might appear rough, because it has such qualities, but as I mentioned to my companion before, clean body-checks etc are a part of the game, not fighting. There is plenty of protective gear to keep one safe from permanent damage.

Furthermore, the lack of media attention can give another misconception of the sport, that being its actual popularity. Even though ice-hockey, or inline-hockey for that matter, do not make it to national press or receive national coverage, I’m certain my hypothetical companion would†be surprised at how many people are actually interested in the whole of the sport. The support that the teams receive in their respective local towns is actually phenomenal. For an example, on the Isle Of Wight, the ice hockey players from the men's premier division team enjoy the similar admiration a top-line footballer would anywhere in the world.

I hold my stance as an avid supporter of the sport. In fact, my passion has lead to my involvement as a player for a Southampton based team. Ice Hockey, by large, does not deserve the misconception of a game of fighting. After explaining all this to my new companion, he might still hold to the sentiments he expressed with his question. If so, I might recommend him to go and actually watch a game, and see the lack of colossal fighting. Otherwise I might have to get petty, and point out how many of the football players “injured” during games might be better off auditioning in Hollywood, where over-acting is more appreciated.

By Janne Virtanen

Copyright October 2005