A rchive Date
[ 10-10-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[NHL delivers what the fans want to see
By HARTLEY STEWARD -- Toronto Sun
October 10, 2000The question is not whether Marty McSorley was guilty of assault when he hit Donald Brashear on the head with his hockey stick. Of course he was guilty. The videotape of the incident, played repeatedly in court, shows clearly that he swung his stick straight at the head of the Vancouver Canuck player.
The question is whether McSorley should have been charged and brought into a court of law in the first place. Is it the business of the state to determine what is acceptable conduct in an NHL hockey game?
Brashear crashed to the ice out cold. He suffered a severe concussion from a blow that certainly appeared to have been directed at his head. A defence against the assault charge was difficult if not impossible. Once the case was before him, Judge Bill Kitchen had no choice but to find McSorley guilty.
Had the judge been presented this sort of evidence of an assault on the street, it's hard to believe the perpetrator would not have ended up in jail. I suspect that the judge's sentence of 18 months suspended is an indication even he didn't really believe the incident should have ended up in a court of law.
In boxing it's called a knockout. You wouldn't take the winning boxer to court. You'd take him out for a celebratory dinner. On the street, it's called a brawl. You would, sometimes, take the winner to court. That's not a subtle difference, but it's an important one.
A hockey game has more in common with a boxing match than it does with a street brawl.
The fact of the matter is that boxing matches and hockey games are contests whose rules are set by the sports' governing bodies. If the boxing federation can offer up a contest in which the participants are obliged to try to knock each other senseless, then the National Hockey League can offer up contests in which players can use physical force to help in their teams' efforts.
If a boxer breaks the rules set by the federation - say, biting off part of his opponent's ear - he is not legally charged with assault. He may be disqualified, suspended or disciplined as the governing body sees fit. But you will not find the courts ruling on a low blow, no matter now much damage it does.
As long as boxing is legal and merrily presenting contests that would, if practised on the streets, result in participants being charged with assault, then hockey can do the same.
Marty McSorley should not have found himself in court.
The NHL has every right to allow the game - indeed, encourage the game - to develop along the present, more violent lines. That the league has every intention of continuing in that direction is not in doubt.
Listen to the reaction of some of the players to the McSorley ruling. The Toronto Maple Leafs' Tie Domi, a top-10 baddie like McSorley, found the verdict "absolutely disgusting.
"It's a shame that he was found guilty and I still can't believe he was found guilty," Domi said.
Former NHL goaltender, Chico Resch: "No player in the NHL will be happy with this verdict ... I think we may lose some of the intensity of the game with this ruling."
Kelly Chase, former NHL tough guy: "It's not good for sports for the courts to discipline a player."
In fact, the league will easily survive the latest attempt by the courts to have some influence on on-ice behaviour. The coaches know they have the right to send out players of limited skill to clutch and grab and bring the skilled players down to their level. They know the enforcer role is not something they have to abandon.
They know they are within their rights to send onto the ice players whose greatest asset is that they can throw punches - without falling down - while wearing hockey skates.
They understand well that this is the appeal of the present game of professional hockey. Take from the game the chippy players, the slashers, the sucker punchers and the fighters and you will disappoint most of its fans, the young men who buy tickets to get their violence vicariously.
The macho underpinning of the game is central to its appeal. The game of hockey, as played by professionals in North America, is not one that can do without violence. Despite the current posturing of NHL board of governors, everyone in the sport knows it is not going to happen.
Whatever is said, however many penalties the referees call early in the season, this NHL season will unfold the same as all the others. It will continue to be as comfortable for the Hulk Hogans as the Wayne Gretzkys.
That's its appeal.
Steward appears Tuesdays and Sundays. E-mail: hartleysteward@canoemail.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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