1957 & Waiting
04-08-2005, 08:01 AM
McKenzie: Hockey attitudes must change
http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20050407/nhl_51792.jpg
TSN.ca Staff
4/7/2005
If there is a message from Thursday's meeting in Detroit, it should not be so much that we need to change the game of hockey as much as we need to change our attitudes.
That means all of us.
We can talk about the hot button issues all we want - smaller goalie equipment, bigger nets, no touch icing, shootouts, the lines on the ice and the hundred or so other concepts floating around - but until we change our attitudes and philosophies, the game will be in the muck.
The fact that the league's general managers met but included a cadre of players, on-ice officials and even NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, is a good thing.
http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/ad/tsn/nhl;mode=;loc=;adpg=nhl;sect=;arena=tv;arena=sports;unit=dhtml;kw=;pos=;sz=300x250;tile=n;ord=2005471849520? (http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/jump/tsn/nhl;mode=;loc=;adpg=nhl;sect=;arena=tv;arena=sports;unit=dhtml;kw=;pos=;sz=300x250;tile=n;ord=2005471849520?)
At a time when the waters between the league and the players are pretty much poisoned, it's refreshing they were all able to sit in the same room and have a respectful and constructive dialogue on the game. Player involvement in this process isn't nice; it's imperative.
One day this labour war will end. The combatants will have no choice but to work together to re-build the game, on and off the ice.
And in some small way, that process may have started Thursday in Detroit
Of all the things discussed, and there were many, the one thing that will have a greater positive impact on the game than any other is simply to call more penalties, use the existing rule book and empower the officials to do their job.
A penalty in the first period should be a penalty in the third period; a penalty in October should be a penalty in May.
But here's where our collective attitude adjustment comes in.
In theory, everyone agrees with the notion...call the penalties, allow the stars to flourish, end the rodeo. But then the games begin, the refs blow their whistles, they call it tight and the entirely necessary parade to the penalty box to condition the players to behave differently is on.
And then it starts.
The players start complaining.
There are 'too many penalties.'
Then the coaches chime in.
Then the general managers speak up.
Then the owners throw in their hats.
Then the media gets in on it.
Don Cherry goes on Hockey Night in Canada and says he didn't come to the rink to watch the referee.
Next thing you know the fans complain: "Let the boys play. This isn't figure skating."
And then there's such a chorus of criticism that the league cracks, tells the referees to back off and that's it, it's officially a lost cause.
A few months later, when the rodeo is back in town, all the same people - the players, coaches, managers, owners, media and fans - who complained about the parade to the penalty box are the ones who are publicly running the game, their game, our game, into the gutter.
It is a uniquely hockey thing to savage our own sport on a consistent basis and it has to stop.
Because if it doesn't, you can dress the goalies up in whatever you want, put in soccer nets, paint the ice pink, but none of it will amount to anything if our attitudes don't change for the better.
And maybe, just maybe, that process was started on Thursday. We can only hope.
For TSN.ca, I'm Bob McKenzie.
http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20050407/nhl_51792.jpg
TSN.ca Staff
4/7/2005
If there is a message from Thursday's meeting in Detroit, it should not be so much that we need to change the game of hockey as much as we need to change our attitudes.
That means all of us.
We can talk about the hot button issues all we want - smaller goalie equipment, bigger nets, no touch icing, shootouts, the lines on the ice and the hundred or so other concepts floating around - but until we change our attitudes and philosophies, the game will be in the muck.
The fact that the league's general managers met but included a cadre of players, on-ice officials and even NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, is a good thing.
http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/ad/tsn/nhl;mode=;loc=;adpg=nhl;sect=;arena=tv;arena=sports;unit=dhtml;kw=;pos=;sz=300x250;tile=n;ord=2005471849520? (http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/jump/tsn/nhl;mode=;loc=;adpg=nhl;sect=;arena=tv;arena=sports;unit=dhtml;kw=;pos=;sz=300x250;tile=n;ord=2005471849520?)
At a time when the waters between the league and the players are pretty much poisoned, it's refreshing they were all able to sit in the same room and have a respectful and constructive dialogue on the game. Player involvement in this process isn't nice; it's imperative.
One day this labour war will end. The combatants will have no choice but to work together to re-build the game, on and off the ice.
And in some small way, that process may have started Thursday in Detroit
Of all the things discussed, and there were many, the one thing that will have a greater positive impact on the game than any other is simply to call more penalties, use the existing rule book and empower the officials to do their job.
A penalty in the first period should be a penalty in the third period; a penalty in October should be a penalty in May.
But here's where our collective attitude adjustment comes in.
In theory, everyone agrees with the notion...call the penalties, allow the stars to flourish, end the rodeo. But then the games begin, the refs blow their whistles, they call it tight and the entirely necessary parade to the penalty box to condition the players to behave differently is on.
And then it starts.
The players start complaining.
There are 'too many penalties.'
Then the coaches chime in.
Then the general managers speak up.
Then the owners throw in their hats.
Then the media gets in on it.
Don Cherry goes on Hockey Night in Canada and says he didn't come to the rink to watch the referee.
Next thing you know the fans complain: "Let the boys play. This isn't figure skating."
And then there's such a chorus of criticism that the league cracks, tells the referees to back off and that's it, it's officially a lost cause.
A few months later, when the rodeo is back in town, all the same people - the players, coaches, managers, owners, media and fans - who complained about the parade to the penalty box are the ones who are publicly running the game, their game, our game, into the gutter.
It is a uniquely hockey thing to savage our own sport on a consistent basis and it has to stop.
Because if it doesn't, you can dress the goalies up in whatever you want, put in soccer nets, paint the ice pink, but none of it will amount to anything if our attitudes don't change for the better.
And maybe, just maybe, that process was started on Thursday. We can only hope.
For TSN.ca, I'm Bob McKenzie.