Hockey violence: all part of the great game's history

Fans love hockey punch-ups - always have, says Dr. Dan Mason.

Jane Hurly - 08 April 2011

When violence erupts on the ice during Canada's favourite game, there are those who love it and want more, and those who decry it. And, invariably the question gets asked: is hockey becoming more violent?

Absolutely not, says Dan Mason, a business of hockey expert at the University of Alberta. "I don't think the game is any more violent today than it was in the past," he says. "The problem with today's hockey is that you have bigger, faster, stronger players so the severity of the injuries is greater, and when they hit each other they're more likely to hurt each other."

Media and technology play a big role too, he says, magnifying incidents on the ice with the action filmed from multiple angles, technological features like slow-motion, and instant replays, and the fact that just about everyone has a camera, which we're quick to use and post these transgressions on the internet.

"When Max Pacioretty was hit by Zdeno Chara, people who don't even watch hockey took an interest in the incident," explains Mason. "Thanks to the media we've seen that hit over and over again. Yet on YouTube there are many examples of egregious behaviours by hockey players and violence in the NHL that happened in the past that were equally violent but were not treated the same way by the public back then."

Violence in hockey is, and always has been, part of the game says Mason, who calls hockey a "collision sport" - principally because of the speed at which the game is played. It's inevitable, therefore, says Mason that, "there are always going to be collisions and players whose tempers are going to flare and the possibility of violent behaviour on the ice."

And fans of the game enjoy the sport for different reasons. "Some people enjoy hockey because of the violence and others appreciate the aesthetics: the skating, the skill and speed - but they are all bound up together and that's critical for the NHL in terms of marketing and branding its product," Mason says, adding that research studies have shown that the more violent the game, the bigger the attendance.

"The NHL knows that this is its bread and butter, so it has to create an environment where there is going to be aggressive play."

But the violence is nothing new, says Mason. "Almost all of the popular team sports we know today evolved in the mid-to late 19th century from the British school system where sports like rugby, which begat American football, and football (soccer) were played."

These sports, rough at best, became even more so as urbanization increased, says Mason. "Men who worked the land showed their manliness by how they worked in an agrarian environment, but with the move to the city, it was harder to prove one's manliness if you worked as a bank clerk, for example. Sport became a way through which men and boys could show that they were men."

And hockey was played with fierce gusto, says Mason, but in conditions very different from a modern-day arena as we know it. "Arenas were not built to standard; they were all different in size and amenities; some had posts in the middle of the ice. Players didn't wear helmets; goalies used cricket pads; there were no penalty boxes." The ice was natural and with no Zambonis to smoothe it, playing was hazardous at best, notwithstanding the all-out skirmishes that occurred.

Mason says news coverage of one of those early games describes players ramming each other's heads into the boards, and one player pinning another player's head down on the ice by placing his stick across his neck and kneeling on each end of the stick!

As interest grew in this most manly of sports, athletic associations, founded by Canada's moneyed elite, took root to control the game - and keep the working classes out.

"The upper and middle classes in the larger urbanized areas took a leadership role in organizing the events, so hockey was the exclusive preserve of the amateur associations in Canada," says Mason. "Then the sport became more popular, with more people - and more classes of people - playing, and issues rose about the control of the sport and perceptions about why people were playing it."

Amateur sport was seen to be the more noble way to participate in sport and the powerful Ontario Hockey Association actually banned any players paid to play.

One such player, dentist Jack Gibson, found himself banned from playing after his team won a lower tier championship and was given money by an ardent supporter. When the OHA found out, Gibson's team was banned.

It's here that hockey's history takes a remarkable turn, for Gibson relocated his practice to Michigan, where professionalism was not frowned upon and formed the International Hockey League. The IHL, which operated from 1904 to 1907, was the first openly professional hockey league, drawing many fine Canadian players, many of whom had been banned for playing for money in Canada, to play in the US.

"Michigan is a lot like Canada," says Mason, "long winters, lots of snow, there was a copper boom at the time and a disproportionately high population of working class men with little to do and plenty of discretionary money." So they played or watched hockey, gambled on the games and drank - all of the social evils that Canada's amateur leagues sought to curtail.

And while the OHA defended the virtues of amateurism, around them teams found a way to 'pay' players they wanted with jobs, "broken-time payments" (payment for time lost from one's job while playing for the team) and ultimately leagues in Canada turned professional, preferring, as one newspaper of the time said "… to be an honest professional than a dishonest amateur."

The rest, as the cliché goes, truly is history and today the NHL markets the greatest game on earth as one of the fastest, most ferocious, most manly and aggressive games to an audience that hasn't changed much since the 19th century though Mason says the game itself is "not even close to the same sport today."

He adds that despite some of the spectacular hits and jaw-dropping fisticuffs, hockey is more popular than ever. "However, as an entertainment option there has been fragmentation of the market with many more things vying for our attention.

"Still, few things unite - or ignite - Canadians like hockey."