On February 16, 2004, late in the second period of a game against Colorado, Vancouver’s Markus Naslund was elbowed in the head by Colorado rookie Steve Moore. Naslund suffered from a concussion and a chip in his elbow. The Vancouver bench was infuriated that a penalty was not called on the play. Three weeks later an enraged Todd Bertuzzi decided to get even with Moore. During the third period, he sucker punched Moore to the temple and hurled him onto the ice. Moore’s head collided with the ice and he was knocked unconscious. Bertuzzi, his teammate Sean Pronger, and Colorado’s Andrei Nikolishin landed on Moore and the pile up added to Moore’s injuries: a concussion, two fractured neck vertebrae, and facial cuts. Moore was taken off the ice on
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As Jonathon Gatehouse has reported in his article “Our National Blood Sport,” the National Hockey League is an “institution that celebrates violence” given that hockey “was always about dominating or intimidating other players…through skill, or bodychecking, or speed, or fighting.” While we know that violence is common in the National Hockey League, most of us did not know that it was Chara’s hit that caused the emergence of the five-point …show more content…
Additionally, 60 percent thought that professional hockey has become more violent since 2007 (in the 2007 survey, 48 percent thought the same). Furthermore, 90 percent of Canadians rate the “national game as a significant risk, compared to 83 percent for boxing, 71 percent for football, and just 53 percent for mixed martial arts” (Gatehouse “It’s”). Among “true” hockey fans the rating was higher at 94 percent. In 2011, Deacon reported that the continuous violence “turns off the very audience the NHL yearns to attract.” 34 percent of respondents of the Angus Reid poll said that they were considering watching fewer games. A smaller audience was a dangerous sign for a league that counted on its Canadian fans for support through thick and thin. Along with the risk of a smaller audience, “Air Canada’s much publicized threat to end its sponsorship arrangements with the six Canadian franchises,” drove the league to enforce the five-point
As Jonathon Gatehouse has reported in his article “Our National Blood Sport,” the National Hockey League is an “institution that celebrates violence” given that hockey “was always about dominating or intimidating other players…through skill, or bodychecking, or speed, or fighting.” While we know that violence is common in the National Hockey League, most of us did not know that it was Chara’s hit that caused the emergence of the five-point …show more content…
Additionally, 60 percent thought that professional hockey has become more violent since 2007 (in the 2007 survey, 48 percent thought the same). Furthermore, 90 percent of Canadians rate the “national game as a significant risk, compared to 83 percent for boxing, 71 percent for football, and just 53 percent for mixed martial arts” (Gatehouse “It’s”). Among “true” hockey fans the rating was higher at 94 percent. In 2011, Deacon reported that the continuous violence “turns off the very audience the NHL yearns to attract.” 34 percent of respondents of the Angus Reid poll said that they were considering watching fewer games. A smaller audience was a dangerous sign for a league that counted on its Canadian fans for support through thick and thin. Along with the risk of a smaller audience, “Air Canada’s much publicized threat to end its sponsorship arrangements with the six Canadian franchises,” drove the league to enforce the five-point