Can someone please let this “Sports Psychologist” know that therew as fighting in hockey 30 years ago too!
The problem is with the fact that new media makes hockey fights more accessible to children via the internet etc.

Posted by Tyler from Saskatchewan on 12/20/07 at 10:28 AM ET

what is this guys field data to make claims that “respect” is less than 30 years ago? because of camcorders and youtube? if that thing wasnt posted on the internet, no one would even know or care about it - whats visual matters in our media culture. just like the kids being absorbed into visuals of NHL behavior, the ‘adults’ have been duped just as bad through their childhoods emulating ALL sorts of macho/feminine attitudes they take as “natural”, which is absolute bullcrap.

and lets not kid ourselves that chippy behavior didnt happen in some golden age of youth hockey previous to this. obviously it’s more rare with younger groups but as you get into the more skilled mites / squirt range there is chippy behavior. i can count numerous times in my youth growing up where kids were getting excessively violent with slashes. i had a fractured fibula around age 11 because of an opposing player slashing me. i ended up flipping the kid onto his back while locked up in front of the net. he cried on the ice for 5 minutes with the wind knocked out of him. violent? sure. self-defense, yes. i didnt know it was fractured until 2 weeks later after finishing that game and playing a 3 game tournament on it when another player slashed the same spot to cause some pain. i couldnt skate after that slash but no cast was needed cause it was mostly healed by the time i got to the doctor during the week. wheres the respect, right? and that was almost 20 years ago. i remember another game where a team we played was getting chippy and a teammate, tom rouleau who played in the ECHL, flipped a kid onto his back seconds before the game ended. again, he laid their bawling for 10 minutes and of course we were looked at as the bad guys from the opposing parents yelling curses at us as we walked by (im sure people could post countless examples like this). the opposition always thinks theyre on the moral high ground. did these break out into “brawls”? no, but they did ensue with counter-violence in defense of ones own safety. the key is to keeping chippy behavior under wraps to prevent kids to taking self-defense into their own hands. and lets face it, chippy behavior occurs when these ultra-competitive children, being pressured by their parents to succeed, cant keep up in competing and start to cheat by using sticks and chippy behavior. infantile temper tantrums from ALL AGES.

and how scared are these kids to get into ‘fights’ when theyre loaded to the teeth in padding like cyborgs? how many of those kids were actually hurt instead of just “playing” hockey fighter on their parents bill? it seems like everyones more appalled at the spectacle of emulated “adult” violence than the actual amount of ‘violence’ that happened in the video. a couple punches to helmets and some kids falling on their ass. there goes the social fabric in an already ultra-competitive, cannibalistic society. and lets remember that kids are not stupid or robots. theres plenty of things they know about that they do NOT emulate for numerous reasons.

do i believe this behavior is ridiculous? yes. do i believe respect is down in the league from 30 years ago? no. not until i see some massive data from this “expert” on incidents and why they erupted.

Posted by Freddy Krueger's Glove from Milwaukee on 12/20/07 at 10:35 AM ET

30 years ago there were probably a lot fewer youth leagues too. So over time as the number of youth leagues increase, you’d think that fighting may increase too?

Keep that “psycho” away from hockey.

Posted by TheFreak on 12/20/07 at 10:43 AM ET

Who’s to blame in order of priority:

1) Parents - far above any of the below.  They control what goes in their kids eyes and ears.
2) Coaches - enablers.
3) Teachers - they try to pick up the pieces left by the parents.

4) The NHL - a distant, distant forth.  They set the rules of the game.
5) NHL players - should they choose, they break the rules of the game.

Posted by Sig from Washington DC on 12/20/07 at 11:04 AM ET

To item 4, I would expand to include ‘and fail to enforce them properly/adequately.

Posted by Ted from Innisfil, Ontario on 12/20/07 at 01:25 PM ET