Is Hockey the New "Extreme Sport?"

Last Friday's column addressed the NHL's image problem - the tendency for many to dismiss the game as a blood sport for the bloodthirsty - and concluded that it is mainly a problem for profit-driven team owners. Hockey fans can worry about their sport, but the public image is not worth bothering with. Ken Dryden begs to differ.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' exec and Hall of Fame goaltender says hockey's declining reputation could sabotage its future.

He warns that even Canadians are being driven from the game.

"Hockey has always been dead-square mainstream Canadiana," said Dryden, in a speech to a hockey symposium at the University of New Brunswick. "But hockey today is at risk of becoming an extreme sport with the excitement and danger, thrills and spills but without the same emotional, in-the-bone connection."

"This is what is at stake. It is up to us to hear all those voices not just our own. We need a complete, thorough, ambitious and fundamental review of all aspects of the game and we need it now."

"We need to look at the way we play and the code of how we play and we need to look at public standards today, what is acceptable and what isn't."

Worthwhile points, to be sure.

In the meantime, any resemblance between Dryden and one of the most famous characters in children's literature should be considered purely coincidental.

Turkey Lurkey: "Hello there, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, and Goosey Loosey. Where are you all going in such a hurry?"

Chicken Little: "Help! Help!"

Henny Penny: "We're running for our lives!"

Ducky Lucky: "The sky is falling!"

Goosey Loosey: "And we're running to tell the king!"

Turkey Lurkey: "How do you know the sky is falling?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"

Turkey Lurkey: "Oh dear! I always suspected the sky would fall someday. I'd better run with you."