16 Year Old Ontario Hockey Player Charged With On Ice Assault...It's About Tme!

[WIrinkrat]

I continue (???) room or lobby, but NOTon the ice.

Just bc somethings always been one way doesnt mean thats the best way. Goalies didnt wear helmets for 70 years either...didnt mean it was a wise decision

 

[AggiesHockey]

Re: 16 Year Old Ontario Hockey Player Charged With On Ice Assault...It's About Tme!

I'm old school and I firmly believe police officers have absolutely no place on a hockey rink. We can and always have policed our own and don't need police, courts, Judges or lawyers involved.Maybe in the locker

I'm old school too, and I firmly believe hockey rinks are for the game of hockey. Pulling off an opponent's helmet and wailing away on his or her head, causing a broken nose and concussion, is not hockey. It is battery.

While hockey is a fast contact sport, where the risk of injury is always present, I have never seen a person waive their right to due process and protection under the criminal justice system.

The fight that started this thread is not a legal hockey maneuver. Battery is battery. If you deem the rink to be a "no-law" zone, then where do you draw the line? What if the offender had kicked the player in the head with his ice skates -- maybe severing an artery in the process? What if he caused permanent brain damage or death? What if he had a spike in the end of his stick used to injure opponents? Are there no circumstances where the criminal justice system gets involved?

I say, if there's intent to injure, it's a crime.

I'd also say that if the officials would take a hard line at the little stuff--minor unsportsmanlike conduct, hooks, trips, late hits, roughing, snowing the goalie, hits from behind, etc., and called all this consistently across hockey, teams would not feel a need to try to intimidate or fight when their opponent did something cheap. Teams that play cheap would be killing 5-on-3's. Hard to win games that way.

As I said earlier, I don't want to see hockey turn into a lawyer love-fest. I'd rather see hockey police it's own. But incidents like this--which are all too common--are a sign that "policing our own" is failing. Unfortunately, it's gonna take criminal cases, big money law suits, and more paralyzing injuries to wake people up enough to demand real changes.

 

[UCONN FAN]

Re: 16 Year Old Ontario Hockey Player Charged With On Ice Assault...It's About Tme!

I'm old school too, and I firmly believe hockey rinks are for the game of hockey. Pulling off an opponent's helmet and wailing away on his or her head, causing a broken nose and concussion, is not hockey. It is battery.

While hockey is a fast contact sport, where the risk of injury is always present, I have never seen a person waive their right to due process and protection under the criminal justice system.

The fight that started this thread is not a legal hockey maneuver. Battery is battery. If you deem the rink to be a "no-law" zone, then where do you draw the line? What if the offender had kicked the player in the head with his ice skates -- maybe severing an artery in the process? What if he caused permanent brain damage or death? What if he had a spike in the end of his stick used to injure opponents? Are there no circumstances where the criminal justice system gets involved?

I say, if there's intent to injure, it's a crime.

I'd also say that if the officials would take a hard line at the little stuff--minor unsportsmanlike conduct, hooks, trips, late hits, roughing, snowing the goalie, hits from behind, etc., and called all this consistently across hockey, teams would not feel a need to try to intimidate or fight when their opponent did something cheap. Teams that play cheap would be killing 5-on-3's. Hard to win games that way.

As I said earlier, I don't want to see hockey turn into a lawyer love-fest. I'd rather see hockey police it's own. But incidents like this--which are all too common--are a sign that "policing our own" is failing. Unfortunately, it's gonna take criminal cases, big money law suits, and more paralyzing injuries to wake people up enough to demand real changes.

Well you could make the case that EVERY slash is an assault with a deadly weapon. I agree that fighting has no place is in amateur hockey at all but I would still like to the "adults" handle the situation.

 

[gojackets]

Re: 16 Year Old Ontario Hockey Player Charged With On Ice Assault...It's About Tme!

Of course you can't forget this one....should the police have stayed out of it??