Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Crossing the Line
Lines were
always drawn in the sand, with a stick, to let adversaries know how
far they could go. Nations, unfortunately, send the same message with
tanks and bombs. In all of our worlds, political, social, there are
lines that are drawn. If crossed, there are consequences.
Take Don
Cherry, for example. Without even realizing what he had done, he
crossed the line of political correctness, and lost his job. There
are those of us who believe that Don may have done the same thing
several times in the past, but managed to dodge the bullet and stay
in the “Coaches' Corner”. Don stood for many of the things that
we consider important to the game of hockey: toughness, positional
play, support of teammates.
But he was
careless with his comments over the years. He demeaned players from
Quebec, years ago. He did not like it when European players began to
take the place of North American players. He often strayed in his
discussions with Ron McLean to many topics that had little to do with
the game.
There will
not be any “tag days” for Don Cherry. He has made a ton of money
from sales of “Rock 'em, sock 'em Hockey”. He continues to do
radio work, and now has a podcast, sharing his ideas with listeners.
More
recently, many players, coaches, managers and fans have signed on to
state their cases about proper conduct in the game. One coach, Bill
Peters, was behind the bench in Calgary a week ago, but is now
unemployed. It was determined that neither his language nor his
behaviour was acceptable to team authorities, nor to the league
itself. In fact, most observers feel that he stepped way over the
line.
Peters'
situation came to light following an article in Sports
Illustrated. The article showed that Peters had a nasty tongue,
often laced with racial tirades. When he coached at lower levels in
hockey, he was considered to be a severe taskmaster. You may
interpret that any way you like. Much of the discipline that he
administered would have been behind closed doors, locker room doors.
But
Peters is by no means the only coach who has resorted to belittling
or bullying players. I would venture to say that such behaviour
occurs every year, in every sport.
Coaches
are paid to win. The people who hire and pay coaches are never happy
with failure. And so, the abuse just gets passed down the line, to
the players. Coaches are expected to “light a fire” to ignite
their teams to succeed.
Sean
Avery said yesterday that Marc Crawford kicked him while they were
both on the bench. Avery had cost the team a “too many men”
penalty, but another player was serving the time. Crawford, now an
assistant coach with the Black Hawks, has been put on leave while the
team investigates the incident.
The
Montreal Canadiens have run into hard times, lately. The fans and the
media in Montreal are calling for the head of Claude Julien. I
exaggerate. But they certainly want him ousted. A fly on the wall of
the Habs' dressing room these past couple of weeks likely has
received an earful
There
are many unwritten rules in the game of hockey, in all games for that
matter. Those rules must not be violated. More so today that ever
before, the world of social media will pounce upon situations where
either players or coaches have crossed the line, and heads will roll.
A
sticky wicket, as they say on the pitches.
James
Hurst
December
3, 2019.
A lot has transpired since I wrote this. Marc Crawford is back behind the bench in Chicago. Gallant was fired yesterday by Las Vegas, Vegas then hired Peter DeBoers, who was recently shown the door by San Jose.
Did you ever play musical chairs? When the music stops, grab a vacant chair.
# posted by James Hurst @ 4:20 PM 
