Fighting and Brawling in the QMJHL
Tonight begins the QMJHL season and, although we at CHL News have stayed out of the controversy until now, the issue of fighting/brawling in the Q has arisen again after yesterday's news conference of the league's officers.
Everyone knows about the incident last Spring, where Jon Roy attacked Bobby Nadeau. A court review of that attack is expected later this month. The question is what should the league do about future incidents.
A committee was formed in March to investigate the issue and report to the league its recommendations for ways in which to "take the appropriate measure to eradicate all forms of violence during [the league's] games." Fourteeen members participated, including some of the highest ranking sport officials in the province, and in August a report was issued. Basically, after all the analysis, the bottom line is stated on page 3, "tolerance of violence has no place in Junior Hockey and has never had any." Duh!
The committee goes on to say that "[n]ew rules of conduct and ethics ... as well as disciplinary measures must be spelled out and rigorously applied every time robustness inherent to this sport and deliberate violence can be confused." Okay, when reading this I started to worry what was coming next, and in the next line, there it was. "Examples of such situations are blows to the head, checks from behind, hits with the stick as well as any verbal exchanges during stoppages of play."
For the record, Roy has not been thrown out of the Q under the previously "enforced" rules. Nor would he immediately be under the new recommendations (which the QMJHL says it adopted for this season), where Roy would be given a 10-game suspension. That I believe is a mistake, in that there really should be no place for crossing the ice to attack a goalie that has no interest in fighting in the game. There are some violations that should get you kicked out of the league, and that is one of them. What happens with the authorities is a separate issue. There are some things even a teenager knows is beyond the bounds of what will be accepted even once.
However, mouthing off during stoppages and some checks from behind should not be included in the list of "offenses" that will not be tolerated. Let's be honest and say that, at this level, the goal of hockey is almost entirely to provide the player with the opportunity to play the professional game. Yes, as the league boasts, for some the education provided is important, but ask the players, and almost all will say that education is secondary to getting to play on the stage that provides them the greatest opportunity to fulfill their dream--to play professional hockey. If it wasn't, they would have taken another route to play the game. Let's be more honest and say that is the goal of the teams too. The teams make lots of money off the players on the ice. But NHL development fees for draft picks are not insubstantial. Further, NHL teams develop informal relationships with major junior teams that can be worth lots of money to the junior team if an undrafted player is signed to an NHL contract.
I am getting to my point right now. If, in actuality, the point of major junior hockey for the players and the teams is to prepare a player for professional hockey, and one of the selling points for the CHL is that play closely mirrors what the player will face in the pro ranks, then mouthing off and some checks from behind are part of the game. Additionally, I would submit that instead of increasing violence, mouthing off could avoid it. Yes, sometimes, it can cause a fight, which appears to be okay with the Q, in that it has not banned fighting. Sometimes, mouthing off can just let off steam for some real or perceived on-ice injustice and keep things from escalating.
If players are no longer allowed to mouth off, how can they engage in fisticuffs. How are they supposed to agree on this, because if there is no goading, no "do you want to go," how do you know the other player wants to fight? And if you don't know that, suddenly one player is pummeling another, which can result in a 10-game suspension.
I feel that the Q has taken the wrong approach. After saying fighting is a part of the game, which it is, and I am all for preparing the players to face that in professional hockey and to demonstrate their skills at it, the league then takes out the intro to every fight I have ever seen. As everyone knows, there is a Code to fighting in professional hockey. That's what should taught in the CHL. Break the Code and you should be gone form the league. It's easy, and if players know that if they break the Code, and commit cowardly acts against others, that they are out of the game, this stuff will almost never happen.
Additionally, the league should have one more responsibility, and for this, I have to be circumspect because of Canadian law. So don't ask me who the player is and expect me to answer, as minors are protected in this country. If the league has notice that a player is a problem, and still invites or encourages a player to join that league, then one has to wonder if that league is serious about eliminating violence. For all the counseling that can be given, certain humans are more prone to violence than others, and for the safety of the whole, don't you want to weed these people out ahead of time? Obviously not, when a CHL team recently allowed a young man that lost his head in another venue and attacked someone who died as the result of the attack play hockey in one of its leagues. If you really want to avoid violence in junior hockey, wouldn't you weed out a kid you know has impulse issues out ahead of time, and not invite him in?
That's why, although I applaud the thought of eliminating violence, I scoff at the what is being implemented. If you are serious, make as sure as you can that the players on the ice are of the psychological makeup that they don't have the propensity for violence. If you find out that they do have that propensity, have the guts to get rid of them before they serious injure or kill someone. But don't take mouthing off and every hit from behind away from the game (in fact, some such hits are so minor they don't even get called).
Now, get serious and do the right thing, before one of these eager decent young men gets killed.
posted by CHL News @ 7:13 AM
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