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What has happened to the ‘hockey code’ in the NHL?

“They’re looking to make the coaches responsible, make the ownership responsible, but until the players accept that this is beyond the limits, nothing is going to change,” said Quinn. “I played without helmets and I don’t remember that kind of stuff happening.

“It’s a hard game and there are inadvertent things that happen that will cause problems. But there are still a lot of intentional things going on. I haven’t seen this hit, but if it was intentional, you have to deal with it harshly.”

“There has been a change in how players conduct themselves out there and how the league responds to it,” Quinn said. “I think that old role of the ‘60s policeman is long gone. You did look after it and you did it within the set and guidelines of the rules, a players’ code. There was a real code and not many guys went outside that. Today a lot of guys don’t have a code it (looks) like.”

This is so much truth to what Edmonton Oilers coach Pat Quinn has to say above it hurts.

I have to admit that I wasn’t around in the days when hockey players wouldn’t wear helmets, but talking to my mother (who is a huge hockey fan and who introduced me to the sport) she says that she never saw any of the dangerous, high hits the NHL is afflicted with today. Thinking back to the ‘old’ hockey of the late ’80’s and 1990’s, I can’t remember anything like we’re seeing right now when it comes to dirty hits. Sure, we had some every now and then (Hatcher on Roenick’s jaw comes to mind) but no where even close to the plague of dirty hits we debate each week.

What’s changed? Is it just a new generation of players that have grown up with better equipment than at any other time in history, to the point where a player doesn’t feel a big hit as much as they did in the past? There’s pretty much a suit of armor on these guys, and the most unprotected part of the body is the head.

What about the ‘code’ of hockey, the respect players supposedly had for each other. Sure, not every player is supposed to like each other, but there was always a measure of respect between teams. Perhaps it’s the way that young hockey players are raised in an ultra-competitive environment, where winning is the only option. It creates a higher level of hockey, but one where players will do anything and everything in order to win.

Something has to be done to change the mindset of hockey players, and it’s going to have to start at the higher levels of hockey before anything is changed among the younger players. The NHL is going to have to get stricter and stricter with punishments to send a message that these sorts of hits will no longer be tolerated. The players are going to have to somehow alter their approach to the game, or the NHL is going to lose more and more fans as the game devolves into endless debates about dirty hits.

(Quote courtesy of Derek Van Diest, Ottawa Sun)