The Duncan Fremlin Blog

Politics of the Hockey Dressing Room

This is a subject I think I'm qualified to discuss - the goings-on in a hockey dressing room.

I've been playing this game for the better part of 57 years.  I've seen a lot of players in action, both on the ice and in the dressing room.  While I hate to stereotype generally, I have no qualms about categorizing hockey players.

There is a lot of hostility between players.  It's the nature of the game.  Most of it simply stems from accidental encounters that occur in a fast paced game on a small sheet of ice.  In spite of that, there is mostly a respect and a camaraderie that prevails.  We all kind of know "stuff happens" and we happily accept it.  No, I'll take it a step further and say we "like" it.  It's part of the charm of the game.  

However, there are certain male types who stand out from this crowd and don't really belong to the family.  They can best be described as follows:

1.  Unlike players who learned to play hockey in the rest of Canada, particularly in Quebec and Northern Ontario, West of the Rockies is not exactly a hot bed of quality hockey players.  Mostly, they might be able to score the odd goal but when it comes to the grind of a hockey game, they remain on the periphery and seldom are they seen in the corners or in front of the net.  As a result, when they do get a bump or get involved with some on ice fracas, they usually begin by whining a great deal and then opt to "sleep in" rather than drive to the rink to risk a hockey encounter.  

2.  These are the pretty boys of hockey.  They have nice hair and no scars.  They dress well, everything matches.  They wear helmets because they have to.  There's never any threat that they will hurt themselves because they're never seen in front of the net fighting for the puck.  Nor are they seen in the corners with the grinders so there's virtually no risk to their body or face. 

3.  These are precious men who only like to score goals.  They never seek the puck or fight for it.  Rather, they float around the middle part of the rink and let the real players fight for possession.  Then, much like lazy seagulls, they wait for the scraps to appear so they can scoop up the bounty and enjoy the benefits by skating in alone on the hapless goalies only to score the occasional goal.  The sad part of this stereotype is their false bravado at actually having achieved something worthwhile.  Yes they scored a goal but they didn't actually earn it.  Sort of like Jeb Bush, the son of a president and a senator and the brother of a president bragging to the world that he is a self made man.

4.  Some fellows see themselves as tough guys.. they holler obscenities and bash around smaller and older players than them and then they puff of their hairless chests and pretend they're big men.  Sad is the only description for these alleged hockey players.

 

 

My Video Producer Interviews Lightfoot on Hockey

If you've received an email from me lately, you've maybe seen my new promotional video embedded in my signature.  It was produced by Tim Thompson, a young film maker who's making a mark for himself in Toronto and beyond.   His company is called Boundless Productions and he creates much of his work at Hockey Night in Canada (CBC).

He just recently sent me his latest project.  I'm not often envious but I sure wish I had been asked to come along and hold up a microphone or some other menial task that I'm barely qualified to perform.  

Check out Tim's interview with Gordon Lightfoot and his musings on hockey in Canada.

  

Fighting in Hockey Debate

As we all know, this debate has been going on in Canada forever.  Are we any closer to achieving a consensus?  Perhaps.  

What is clear is that the issue is not really about fighting any more.  That issue is pretty much settled.  It's really about who is going to control the game of hockey.  Will it be the "old boys club" that have been running things forever?  I know these people and have listened to them rant in the dressing rooms for the 57 years I've been playing the game.  Thankfully, their numbers have dwindled quite a bit over the years.  On the lowly amateur level I play, they barely have a voice and if they do, the usually keep it to themselves.

On The CBC and the local sports stations, that's an entirely different story.  They are the fight broadcasters who have the media and the team owners to answer to.  They will continue to promote this style of hockey because that's what they are paid to do.

Give the Canadian hockey public a fight-free NHL and my guess is, many of the former fans will return.  Take the meanness and brutal cruelty out of the game and even more will return.  

Those that say they like fighting will forget it was even there in very short order.  We're not talking mensa here folks.  These guys are not the thinkers of the world.  

I'm all for replacing fighting with hugging.

Paradise Canada Style

We discovered Tofino British Columbia last week. I had no idea it was so exotic. How else to describe this place?  It matches the wonders of the world in it's alluring potion of history, geography, nature, drama and beauty.  The residents are a big kooky, arising before sunrise to don their wet suits so they can splash around in the ocean and pretend they're surfing.  At least to me it looked like "pretend surfing".  I've heard it's the bohemian lifestyle that attracts them but who knows what they're story is.  

The weather isn't too bad either (occasionally from what the locals tell me). It's pleasant enough to allow palm trees and 1000 year old cedar trees to proliferate.

The community is youthful and exuberant in their enthusiasm for out door activities.  They run and bike and hike and anything else that keeps them moving.

However, I kept the best for last, the food. The seafood we've sampled has been the best I've perhaps ever enjoyed. I can't describe the flavours and freshness of this fare.  I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy Toronto's 3 or 4 day old mussels, Lin cod, halibut or salmon ever again. Eating freshly caught fish is exquisite, pure and simple.

One more joy to share. We felt the rush of a 30 ton gray whale rising to the surface a few feet from our boat. If I hadn't been so startled, I might have reached out and touched him.  The boat next to us took these photos.

A Concussed Hockey Player

There are some so-called news items that never go away.  They will take a reprieve from time to time, if nothing else out of boredom.  But eventually, the media will return to the topic for another kick at the can.

I'm referring to the ongoing debate about hockey violence, or more specifically, the repercussions of this violence, concussions.

I've been playing hockey and have been around hockey players for 55+ years.  Me and my hockey buddies are generally reserved enthusiasts who think of the game only as a fun way to get some exercise and and participate in inane dressing room banter (the two are equally important).

The men who are getting in the news by having their heads slammed into things are not in the game for the same reasons as most of us.  The fact is, they're freaks, as in, not human.  I wish I could say they became this way honestly, but that wouldn't be true.  They were created in the tradition of Frankenstein.  

It starts with a parent or two who have this idea that the hockey community in Canada has a lot to teach their kids about life.  The child enters a program at 5 or later and the coaches and parents begin the endless process of shaping their attitudes towards absolutely everything, including how to treat their women, their team mates and people of authority.  If they happen to have gay tendencies, I pity them.  Believe me when I say nothing good will come of this. A hockey dressing room in an organized Canadian league is one of the most homophobic communities in sport.  It is not about fair play and justice for all.  It's about kill or be killed.  Bullies in the school yard are woosies compared to these boys/men.

Those that go into serious programs like Junior hockey stop living in the world the rest of us know.  They're removed from their home early in life and ride buses full of kids who are going through the same indoctrination.  They feed each other's biases and values and learn to speak as one.  If they dare to have a thought of their own, the team will take care of this in some very nasty way, be it physical or emotional.  They will experience ridicule that most of us could never imagine.  Oh, and this would be very public ridicule so it would have a greater impact.  Oh, and those who would be dishing out the ridicule would be praised and encouraged by everyone, including their coaches and probably by many of the parents.The rinks in this country are full of Don Cherry's and believe me when I say there is nothing good about this.  This is particularly true of the  99.99999% of these kids that eventually give up the dream and in many cases, give up the game entirely.  

Physically they're freaks.  For most of their young life, they ride on exercises bikes for hours a day.  Some take steroids.  Their legs become tree stumps.  As for the rest of their body, it's moulded to hit and be hit, over and over. By the time they're 12, not some but all of them have already had numerous concussions with no medical follow up and this is intentional.  They must be taught to never admit you're hurt and that it's noble to play through all injuries.  They must also be taught that when asked by someone "outside the club", they must admit that they like and need the extreme violence we've grown to expect in the game.  They actually believe this shit and forgive me for having an opinion on this but I find this disturbing.  The lack of individuality in the dressing rooms of the country is perplexing but understandable.  If you've heard one of these mouth pieces interviewed by the media you know what I'm talking about.   

Yes folks, these are not citizens of the world in the normal sense.  They are gladiators, paid to beat each other up for the entertainment of the general public, eager for a distraction from their day to day grind.  And that's OK.  

So, why should we care what happens to these people?  We shouldn't.  Let them do what they do and let's give up this debate about making hockey safe for these guys.  THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN.  

Let's fill the newspapers with more worthy information.

 

Globe Letter to the Editor on Don Cherry

I salute Dave Nonen from Victoria B.C. for summing up the Don Cherry - Dr. Tator controversy about concussions and head shots in hockey and pro sports in general.  Writes Dave:

"Shame on neurosurgeon Charles Tator (Cherry Calls Tator's Comments Unfair - online Dec. 19).  He has engaged in intellectual combat with an unarmed man".

High drama in the NHL Boardrooms

I've been playing hockey for nigh on 55 years.  I like that part of it, the playing.

However, the professional leagues have little appeal.  The players are ruthless, and mean spirited with little or no regard for good sportsmanship or each other.  There are few personalities any more.  Sean Avery showed some individualism and was quickly punished and labeled "unstable".  If Eddie Shack played today, he'd be medicated.

Therefore, the drama that's unfolding in Phoenix Arizona is the best hockey I've seen in years.  The upstart hockey fan, Jim Balsille (RIM) battling the soulless suits from the NHL head office with no one having any idea who is going to win.  If this could be televised, it would be more exiting than Crosby and Ovechkin any day of the week.

I've been trying to find a real estate metaphor in all of this but it escapes me.  There is ruthless behavior in this business of course but it pales in comparison to the Balsille/Bettman battle..  This is war and it is for keeps.

Somehow, the gleeand relaxed manner than Balsille exhibits is compelling.  Bettman is playing with other people's money and he's pissed and performing in a desperate manner.  Balsille  on the other hand is risking his own money and he's relaxed.  

I'd say if this was a chess game, Bettman would be in trouble. 

Hockey Night Theme Song

Come on guys.  Give it a break.  No more inane banter about the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, please.

In some of the pick-up hockey dressing rooms I've been in recently, all the talk has been the outrage and disgust at the CBC for letting this song go to CTV.  Of all the things to be outraged about! 

It's not a particularly good song.  In fact, we, as a country, have been annoyed every Saturday night with the song blaring out of our TV screens and elsewhere and quite frankly, I'm glad to see it go.

So, thankfully, there is a contest to select a new theme song and the CBC has honoured itself by coming to the Joker's dressing room to get our OPINIONS.  Let it be known.  If anyone out there ever needs any opinions, this the place to be. 

Check out the video.  It's short but visually stimulating as you will soon see.

Cliches and more cliches

Seldom is professional sport compelling.  You'd have to watch or attend many games to experience a memorable game or play.  Hockey seasons are many months long and they play over 80 games so it only makes sense that most of the season is BORING.

Monday night had the makings of an exceptional game.  The Toronto Marlies were playing the seventh game of their semi final playoff series at the Ricoh Coliseum and you know what's coming next... "do or die, backs against the wall, it's now or never, one shift at a time" blah blah blah...  Professional athletes are not idiots I'm sure.  They just talk like idiots when there's a microphone in front of their nose.

So, my brother Jimmy James came with me and we bought seats at ice level because it's the Marlies and no one attends thier games.  After all, this is Toronto and we're not "hockey" fans.  We're Leaf fans. 

It was a great game.  These guys really put out.  They're huge, particularly at ice level and they're fast.  When they collide with the glass in front of us, it's a violent collision. 

Win some, Lose some

It's been called the ying yang of hockey.  One team (The Jokers) is a happy-go-lucky assembly of misfits who are more interested in finding the humour in a situation that winning hockey games.  They love to play against the teams who share that appreciation for the "silly" in life.  That is pretty much all of the teams in this Exclaim Cup Tournament.

The host team however, the team that was instrumental in the creation of this tournament, is just the opposite.  They stack their team with the best players allowing no room for women or the marginally skilled.  You see, for them winning is everything.  They even have the nastiest player in the tournament.  When he gets suspended repeatedly for goonish behaviour, they won't accept that his actions are punishable so they whine and bitch until he gets reinstated.  The commissioner of the league plays for this team so the other teams naturally assume there is a special set of rules for his team, be that true or not.

So, if there wasn't a team like this in the tournament, we'd have to create one. 

What's really cool about this is that it unites the rest of the teams.  There is a camaraderie in this notion that it's them versus us and that's great fun.  Even the referees get into it and mock this team with the rest of us. 

After winning our first game yesterday, we played these fellows in our second game and lost (after beating them two years in a row) and we're OK with that.   We had great fun as you can see in these photos.