Atrocities on Ice and the Good Old Days

By Jeff Z. Klein

Just got back from Montreal, where hockey is so exhaustively and smartly lived, breathed and covered. It’s a real pleasure to be in a place like that — but of course, not everything that’s said there is entirely smart. Like the radio commentator who complained on Wednesday that the night before a recent game against Boston, he actually saw a Hab and a Bruin out together at a Montreal club. Unthinkable! What is wrong with today’s players?!!

That was part of a more nebulous rant about how in today’s N.H.L. players don’t stick up for each other, don’t respect each other, etc. etc., like they did in the old days — a pretty general Canada-wide line of complaint for a while now. And plainly a ridiculous one.

Players in the old N.H.L. routinely tried to injure one another, and whether or not they stood up for teammates in such instances, it got so bad that in 1959 the Rangers’ Andy Bathgate was compelled to write an article for True Magazine, headlined “Atrocities on Ice.” As this post from the blog Fellowship of Hockey relates, Bathgate’s article actually named the league’s guiltiest parties when it came to spearing: Montreal’s Doug Harvey and Tom Johnson, Boston’s Fern Flaman, Chicago’s Ted Lindsay and Pierre Pilote, and Lou Fontinato from Bathgate’s own Rangers. “None of them seems to care that he’ll be branded as a hockey killer,” Bathgate wrote — for which the N.H.L. fined him and installed a rule, still in force, prohibiting players from writing articles of this nature.

Imagine the outrage from some of Canada’s hockey commentators if a current player authored such an article today. “What’s wrong with today’s players?” they’d cry. “Have they no respect for the game? Didn’t used to be that way in the old days.” Tell us about it.

Here’s an interesting sidenote. Bathgate was generally a gentlemanly player. But as this clip from the fine series “Legends of Hockey” shows, Bathgate actually hit Jacques Plante in the face with a shot after Plante showed him up. And if you watch closely, at around the 4:30 mark you’ll see Bathgate lose a faceoff to Alex Delvecchio — and give Delvecchio a two-handed slash across the arm for it.

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Brian Briggs March 19, 2009 · 6:06 pm

Hah! I love Canadians, but I know all too well of how they complain about anything and everything after spending years serving as a ref or shagging pucks as a linesman for USA Ice Hockey; it’s got to be in the genes or something. No matter how well or badly you call a game, drop a puck, signal for or wave off an icing, call or don’t call offsides, and if you missed a two line pass… nuff’ said!

Thank God the two line pass is a thing of the past…

I often wondered if all Canucks used complaint as a conversation starter, like Americans use the weather. They act like they’re 70 years old at age 12, griping to each other on the bench about how back in the past people knew how to do whatever you’re doing the right way. They’re sick of playing at rinks that don’t know how to make good ice; seems like they never skate on good ice anymore. Does anybody know how to sharpen skates anymore???

But my favorite of all time; A Canadian kid broke his composite stick and skated to the bench to grab a new one. After his shift was over, he turns to a teammate and complains:

“Easton just doesn’t make sticks like they used too; you’d think I was playing with an old wood style stick like they used to use!”

But God help me, I love our Canuck brothers to the North; At least they are rational enough to have universal health care coverage. Imagine if they had to deal with an HMO? Then it’d be God help us all…
//nationsocialretardation.blogspot.com/

Fellowshipofhockey.com – David Gross March 19, 2009 · 6:08 pm

Great article … thanks for the link back … keep up the good work … Much Love

zoroaster March 20, 2009 · 12:40 am

The guy on the radio was right. First of all, NEITHER guy should have been out in a club the night before the game. If two guys from different teams who are friends, ex-teammates for example, want to get together the night before a game, they should do it privately. The Canadian radio guy knew what he was talking about–from a professional standpoint and from a competitive standpoint. It was very bad form–especially in a club, especially the night before a game.

DarkStar50 March 20, 2009 · 6:51 am

^^^^^ I’m sorry to be the guy who breaks the news to you but these hockey players have been A. going out to bars the night before a game since Jr hockey days and B. going out to bars the night before a game with players from the other team since Jr hockey days. I understand your feelings about the circumstances but it’s just not the way it is.

Pete March 20, 2009 · 9:23 am

I lived three years in Montreal and the media there can make a story out of nothing, it is kinda of a sick art. I pretty much agree with Brian Briggs (first post) except for the notion that universal health care is “rational”.

But if you’re in Montreal and you can’t get to the Bell Centre for a game, try Chez Serge, it can be more fun than box seats. Pretty much the opposite of the “good old days” of suits and ties at the forum!

zoroaster March 20, 2009 · 1:03 pm

DarkStar50:

Thanks for breaking the news to me. I am not sure what you’re experience is, but I’ll take it that you have been around the hockey scene. I can only tell you that I, too, have been around the scene a fair bit. Based on my experience, NHLers don’t go to bar or clubs the night before a game and don’t fraternize publicly the night before a game. The key parts here are “the night before a game” and “publicly.” I understand that there are exceptions, but who in this day and age, in Montreal, New York, or Columbus, for that matter, would be so stupid as to be seen in a bar or club the night BEFORE a game? Restaurants? That’s a different story and sometimes the lines between restaurants, bars, and clubs are blurry. That said, I have been around NHLers more than somewhat, and the ones I know were never so stupid or inconsiderate to themselves or their teammates to party the night before a game. Now back-to-back game nights might be another exception…. Cheers and see you at the bar–after the game. First round’s on me.