The brutally violent NHL playoffs may be good for TV ratings and provide comedy for American sportscasts (although not as funny as NBA fights), but it's a disaster for Canadian minor hockey where the movement to sportsmanship and protection of children's heads will be derailed by the pros. It's a case of monkey see, monkey do, especially among teenage players.
Worst was Shea Weber, captain of the Nashville Predators and an elite defenceman any team would welcome. But his slamming of Detroit Red Wings star forward Henrik Zetterberg's head into the glass. It was a stupid WWE moment. Just substitute "glass" for "turnbuckle". How do you convince kids to respect heads now?
My No. 1 stupid playoff moment - so far - is a Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers game in which the world's greatest player, the face of the pro game, a usually class guy, turned into a petulant child instead of a leader of a pro team. Following a scrum, Sidney Crosby knocked away the glove of Jake Voracek
(its at the 2:25 mark of the video). How to minor hockey coaches tell kids to be sporting when an icon like Crosby behaves like a twit?
Trust me, the spectacle undoes much of the progress and good work done by minor hockey, from tyke house league all the way up to the future pros of major junior.
Hockey's a sport, not a circus.
Worst was Shea Weber, captain of the Nashville Predators and an elite defenceman any team would welcome. But his slamming of Detroit Red Wings star forward Henrik Zetterberg's head into the glass. It was a stupid WWE moment. Just substitute "glass" for "turnbuckle". How do you convince kids to respect heads now?
My No. 1 stupid playoff moment - so far - is a Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers game in which the world's greatest player, the face of the pro game, a usually class guy, turned into a petulant child instead of a leader of a pro team. Following a scrum, Sidney Crosby knocked away the glove of Jake Voracek
(its at the 2:25 mark of the video). How to minor hockey coaches tell kids to be sporting when an icon like Crosby behaves like a twit?
Trust me, the spectacle undoes much of the progress and good work done by minor hockey, from tyke house league all the way up to the future pros of major junior.
Hockey's a sport, not a circus.
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