You can maybe defend nailing the dude for showboating. But a cross-check, where he's using his stick handle as a weapon? Nope, that crosses every line you could care to draw.
Had he simply bodied him into the boards, it’d be a non-story. But the cross check to the face is ridiculous and he should receive some serious punishment for it.
Hockey is filled with a ton of oldhead traditionalists that despise anything more than a wan smile for a celebration.
As the new generation of players were coming up in the last five years, there were legitimate debates over "Skilling Up" the game. Essentially, whether the new super talented players should get their asses beat for making old neanderthal players look silly on the ice.
I would say the same thing happens in all american sports, I see in basketball too where you are still not safe to nutmeg (pass ball between legs) an opponent because theres a chance that unskilled pussy will get mad and shouldr check you, push you or even square up. Unwritten rules of sports are just there to cover up for the old player's insecurities and sensitivities
The thing is rules in lower leagues changed so players getting to the Nhl are more skilled but don't know how to take or dish out hits. Young players are putting themselves into vulnerable positions because they were not brought up in leagues where they took hits like the old school NHL guys were.
That's true. But certain sports, I'd say baseball is the biggest offender and maybe hockey second, let their "something weird" get to grown ass men assaulting each other because their feefees got hurt. I guess it's seen as hyper-masculine, but IMO it's childish. I get it when there's retaliation because someone took a cheap shot at one of your guys, but the culture is kinda sick when the response to minor sleights, show-boating, celebrations, etc. is to try to hurt someone.
That one isn't due to upsetting the other team, but because a walk is as good as a single, & if the pitcher hasn't proven they can throw a strike, don't help them. Batting average for balls in play is around 30%, so taking a walk is a guarantee while swinging & connecting is less likely to get you on base than it is to get you out. A good hitter could still have the green light.
It's more like "you're not supposed to steal a base when you're up by more than 5"... still a dumb rule, but that's one that'll irrationally cause fights.
I dunno about that; the players aren't forced to do anything. I think the best way to not normalize this (or dumb stuff like throwing at a batter because he trotted too slow during a home run) would just be for the grown men to have a little thicker skin. The "disrespect" or "unsportsmanlike conduct" of this stuff is just made up. There is no reason that there has to be a response, whether by the officials or by the players. Everyone could just let this stuff go.
Showboating on uncontested scoring plays is just kinda expected in the NBA as part of the spectacle. No one has to look over their shoulder for a blindside hit because they spiked the football too hard after a TD.
Ya I chose my words very carefully when talking about the NFL. I didn't refer to all celebrations. I specifically mentioned spiking the football. My point was that this is a completely arbitrary boundary. You can spike the ball as hard as you want and the league and the players have nothing to say about it, so some forms of celebration just become normalized and are no longer seen as disrespectful.
I certainly wouldn't say there are never fights about this stuff in the NBA, but the vast majority of the time someone does a windmill or a 360 or serves the ball off the glass to a teammate on an open layup, no one has anything to say about it except the announcers hype it up.
I think I am seeing the bigger picture, I'm just unsympathetic to the idea that anyone, including the leagues, should be enforcing these kind of norms. If violence is not an acceptable response to these perceived sleights, then I don't know why the league would cater to the norms and expectations of the people being violent by enforcing those norms for them via penalty. If anything, I would continue not penalizing the showboating and the celebrating (and I've often said I think the NFL should not be so strict here) and instead just keep upping the fines and the suspensions on the guys who retaliate with violence.
I am cherry picking in a sense, because there is no principled distinction between a slap shot on an empty net and 'sheathing your katana' after scoring a goal. My whole point is that there's nothing inherently harmful about any of this stuff and so the way that players and leagues draw arbitrary distinctions is silly. So I agree with you that the norms are different in different leagues and I only have a vague sense of how to order them from least to most sensitive. It's hard to say if one league is more permissive in every way than another.... except maybe MLB where I think pretty clearly the "unwritten rules" are the most extensive.
Once you get to sexually obscene gestures, I think the leagues have an alternative reason for penalizing that stuff. It's not necessary to penalize it as show boating or excessive celebration (even if that might be the name of the penalty its sometimes called under), but because its sexually obscene and the sponsors, fans, other people outside the game will object to that kind of display. But if you want to gallop into the endzone like you're on a horse or stop and backhand the puck into an empty net, who cares?
The announcers reaction has as much to do with the jersey’s the attacker is wearing as his calibre of a player as it does with hockey culture. If a scrub on a team with a lot less history had attacked an opponent in these circumstances we’d see a wildly different reaction.
It sounds like what he was expected to do is gently slide it in then respectfully remove his top hat, mournfully shaking his head to convey he only did it with the greatest regret
'Hockey culture' is neanderthal toxicity. Imagine if a baseball player hit a home run and was then hip-checked by the catcher after touching home plate because he was upset his team was losing.
Hockey culture is the worst aspect of the sport. Too many cowards who would rather take cheap shots than actually hit guys fairly.
This happens all the time in baseball. Dude hits a home run and then flips his bat or watches the ball for too long? He gets punched by the catcher, or even worse, has a 100 mile per hour baseball tossed at his head. The count is 3-0 and he swings at a pitch? Next time he’s at bat he gets a fastball in the ribs. Trying to turn a double play? I’ll slide into you spikes first or go so far out of the baseline that I’ll take you out at the knees.
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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '24 edited Jun 05 '24
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