This always feels like a dangerous blog for a non-hockey fan such as myself to write. Many of the people who are hockey fans and "fans" will take offense to this, but I'm here to write about the Hawks stuff as they sit down 3-1.
The one moment that is isolated in everyone's minds with the Hawks series is Hossa's concussion at the hands of Raffi Torres, who is currently suspended indefinitely. You know it's a big deal when media outlets that don't normally give a shit about hockey are reporting on it.
The game before, Andrew Shaw drew a suspension for his hit on the Coyotes goalie, a suspension that drew the ire of much of Blackhawks nation.
Many in the fanbase say that Mike Smith (the goalie) flopped to draw the penalty, but I suspect that if this happened to a goalie of the Hawks (Crawford or Emery), Hawks fans may react a little differently and that they wouldn't mind the suspension of a Coyotes player for a hit.
The Hossa hit appears more out of line based on the concussion and Torres' history with this, but you'd never know that the Hawks do anything like this (i.e. cheap shots that lead to suspensions) based on the comments I am reading on Twitter and Facebook after Game 3.
I asked a friend of mine who follows hockey (and is impartial to the Hawks) about everything. He agreed that the Hossa hit was ugly, but that the Hawks are not innocent of being civil on the ice. He reminded me of an incident towards the end of March (Duncan Keith elbowing Daniel Sedin) that can be seen here, with an explanation by Brendan Shanahan, former player and current head of player safety.
With Keith's lack of a record, he received a 5-game suspension for this penalty. He received a suspension because the elbowing incident was "dangerous, reckless, and caused injury."
Meanwhile, Sedin missed 12 games due to the concussion received from the hit, returning for Game 4 and helping the Canucks avoid a sweep in their first-round series against the Canucks.
Maybe it has to do with the rivalry with the Canucks, but I didn't hear a huge uproar about the Hawks being a dirty team (particularly from their own fans) after this hit from the general public. I do give credit to some of my Hawks friends though. I am looking back at a friend's thread about the incident, and most of the people that I know are Hawks fans (I can attest that all in this particular conversation are true Hawks fans and not the type that joined in 2009) agreed that Keith deserved to be suspended for the hit. However, the uproar of Hossa's hit generated more interest in part due to the hit being in the playoffs, and also due to the hit being against a Hawks star, not an opponent's star.
Part of the Game
Hockey is a physical sport, and the fans of the sport are proud of the physical nature of the sport. None of them want to see fighting and other physical acts from the sport banned, as many of them believe that would take away from the nature of the sport. However, fans do want the players to play within the "rules" when it comes to the hits and other hockey-related things that have always been "a part of the game".
I put these things in quotes because I find it hard for hockey to ever effectively regulate itself without pissing off all of the die-hard fans who expect the game to be played a certain way. A punch to the head of your star player makes you think about things a certain way, but if your third-string goon is doing the damage to another team's star, it's accepted as part of the game, how the game has always been.
Whether you like him or not, under the leadership of Roger Goddell, the NFL has done its best to eliminate the crap that has always been accepted as "part of the game". No one is naive to think that the Saints were the first to have a form of a bounty system within their organization. But with the repeated warnings that the Saints received about it and the organization pretty much ignoring it, the NFL had no choice but to lay the hammer down on the Saints for its ill-conceived program. This sets a precedent for future teams to consider before starting/continuing with their own programs. The concussion issue, especially with the players of the past suing the NFL for not effectively preparing them regarding player safety, is scaring the hell out of Goddell and his boys. It scares them in the present tense in the form of legal issues, but also in the future, where the NFL could face an uncertain future and potentially go the way of boxing if they were to completely ignore safety issues (even if they don't ignore it, it could still face an uncertain future - I don't think the NFL is invincible).
While the NHL is more of a Canadian sport, I do believe it should have the same worries about its sport fading into (further) oblivion if it doesn't start valuing player safety. After all, without players, you have no sport.
Is hockey too niched of a sport for the mainstream sports fan to actually give a crap on whether they change the rules to protect players from injury? From my perspective, it seems like hockey fans, like many football fans (myself, I don't need huge hits for football to be enjoyable), take great pride in their sport being a physical sport, one where their sport's athletes are modern day gladiators.
So you can forgive me when I say that I don't feel all that bad when players in such a sport get hurt. A sport that encourages physical play, where fights and hard hits are cheered upon instead of gasped at (like bench-clearing brawls in baseball and basketball).
I'm not sure where I was going with this - I think it was just to say that I don't think that what Torres did to Hossa is any different than what Keith or what many hockey players do to others. It's just that now, it was done in the playoffs and to one of their own instead of a star rival player's (again, I speak of those silent on the issue in March - many of my real Hawks friends stepped up and said Keith deserved it with the hit to Sedin).
I just find it hard to take critiques of hits seriously when the same judgment isn't applied to your own team. As a 49ers fan in football, if my team uses cheap tactics to win games, I expect them to be punished. I am objective enough to know when one of my own has crossed the line. Then again, the average fan (i.e. ignorant piece of crap) would probably be like the average Hawks (and average ignorant sports fan in general) and only care when the incident happened against their team. If their player does it, it's a case of "See No Evil, Hear No Evil".
Luckily, most friends of mine aren't average fans and aren't completely blind and know dirty, unethical sports when they see them. I'm glad that my closest friends who are true hockey fans don't apply to the idiot label and can agree that Hossa's hit, while dirty, is just among one of many dirty hits that occur in hockey all the time. Let's not forget that the suspension for the hit was indefinite.
Ok, I'm done. It's 3am. If you don't like this, tough.
Good night, and enjoy the rest of the hockey playoffs.
