Don’t Blame the NHL for Junior Hockey’s Cage-Match Culture

The media firestorm over the antics of the Roy family is so great that the Quebec government is wading in, demanding answers from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League:

(Education) Minister Courchesne has requested that the QJMHL and Hockey-Québec submit for approval, before the end of June, a by-law proposal aimed at stopping acts of violence in hockey.

The Roy incident generated extra headlines because it involved a goaltending legend and his offspring. But the debate it set off is valid, and the government is right to take notice.

This is junior hockey we’re talking about. The players are teenagers. Their bodies and brains and characters are works in progress. Most have no future in the game – only a chosen few will make decent money as pros.

Is it unreasonable to expect the adults who run (and profit from) the game to discourage the kids from beating each other senseless?

It’s not unreasonable. But it’s unrealistic. A ban on fighting – or any measure to greatly reduce it - would require a massive, massive sea change in the culture of Canadian junior hockey.

The argument we often hear is that young players take their cue from the pros, so shame on the NHL for promoting a brawler-friendly game. In fact, fighting is far more prominent in junior hockey than it is in the NHL.

The Roy brawl, which resulted in suspensions to six players, fills just one page of the rap sheet compiled after the first week of the Quebec League playoffs.

Around the Q, eight other players were suspended for dangerous hits or incidents related to fights. And Patrick Roy isn’t the only coach in trouble. At a game I attended on Tuesday, a coach received a one-game suspension after leaving the bench and throwing a water bottle at an arena maintenance worker.

All this after a single week of playoff games. The NHL is a tea party compared to this outfit.

You can’t always blame the pros. And you can’t expect brawling habits to change overnight, especially when the fights bring thousands of fans to their feet.

But if the game is to be a “bona fide education tool” as the education minister insists, it’s about time the QMJHL and the rest of the Canada’s junior leagues started answering for the operations they’re running.