As kids we grow up playing the game and learning the rules. Off sides, icing, and what a penalty is are some of the easy lessons. As we get older we get taught that fighting is a part of the game, and that even if we are in the heat of battle that we should always respect our opponent. Sound lessons on the ice that carry over into every day life.
Once in a while you would hear about a player, although more likely a parent that would go nuts during a game and get into an assaultive situation. It was pretty rare, but it did happen.
Unfortunately in todays age, these assaultive situations are taking place more often, both on and off the ice. People have no self-control, and self-control is a learned behavior. A learned behavior is one that is taught to us from an early age. Self control teaching is as simple as don’t touch a hot stove, or don’t drink gasoline. Dont assault other people, is a pretty simple one.
Watch the video carefully…….
A two-handed chop with the stick to the players face, followed by the player jumping his victim and continuing to assault him. While this may work in the movies, there is no place for this in real life.
The swing struck the San Diego player squarely in the neck, what would have happened if the victims trachea would have been damaged? What if the victim would have died if he could not breathe? What if the two-handed chop would have broken the players neck?
The incident took place more than two months ago in Chicago at the Bauer World Hockey Invitational. Two months later and all we have learned is that the video evidence exists, and the offending player has been suspended until he has a formal hearing with USA Hockey. Does it really take two months to get a hearing?
Perhaps most disturbing outside of the assault itself id that this took place in the 1999 age group. Thirteen and fourteen year old players are acting this way? What does that say about the people who are teaching them, or is it a statement on society as a whole?
TJHN will update this story as it continues to develop.
