Quebec Separation Anxiety

I love Quebec. Montreal is a beautiful city. In fact, Montreal would probably get ranked the coolest Canadian city, due to its being bi-lingual and teeming with gorgeous women and indie musicians.

Quebec has also produced some of the NHL’s finest hockey players; Mario Lemieux, Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, Maurice Richard and Vincent Lecavalier off the top of my head, and they always have the best goalies. Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, and Roberto Luongo all hail from La Belle Province.

But for all the good that Quebec hath brought us, they’ve done some weird stuff too. In 1995 they tried to separate from Canada, staging a referendum in an attempt to become their own country. They felt they weren’t getting enough respect, but the vote lost narrowly and Quebec remained a part of Canada.

Last April Canada sent a team of NHL players to the World Championships in Moscow, captained by Phoenix Coyotes forward Shane Doan. Doan was accused of uttering a discriminatory remark about a French player during a game, and the government of Quebec wanted him removed from the team (Doan was absolved of uttering any such slur after a league investigation).

Now, Quebec is at it again. This time, instead of trying to separate from Canada, the government in Quebec is attempting to do something much, much worse.

The Quebec minister of sport, Michelle Courchesne, has called for a committee to be formed in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) to ban fighting in Junior hockey.

To give you some background (because some of you may be wondering what Major Junior hockey is), the QMJHL, is a branch of the Canadian Hockey League, which features three leagues (Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League) spanning the country. Players are between the ages of 16-20, and are generally the best players in this age group. Many are drafted into the NHL at the age of 18, and turn professional after their stint in Major Junior. Players of this age group come from all over the world, because the CHL is the considered the best preparation for the NHL game.

The fighting debate was sparked because of this:

Jonathan Roy, back-up goalie for the Quebec Remparts and son of NHL legend Patrick Roy (who coaches the Remparts), went ballistic on Chicoutimi Sagueneens goalie Bobby Nadeau during a brawl that broke out at the end of a playoff game. Roy also shows his classy side as he then flips the bird to the crowd, all in the course of a 10-1 QMJHL loss. Jonathan was suspended 7 playoff games, Patrick was given 5 (accused of signaling his son down the ice to attack Nadeau), and the guy fighting Roy at the end was given a 6-game suspension, 5 of those games because he came out of the penalty box to defend his goalie. I won’t weigh on the suspensions, because this column would get extremely long.

The clip is pretty surreal. Starting with the title ‘Jonathan Roy, Son of Patrick, Destroys Bobby Nadeau. The general unruliness, Jon Roy giving the whole crowd the finger, Patrick Roy covering his head as he goes off the ice, the French voice over…the whole clip has a strange feel to it.

This is a high calibre of hockey we’re talking about. This is not Slapshot. These are talented young men who live and breathe a certain culture; a culture that sometimes leaves us with situations like the video above.

My knee-jerk reaction is to think that banning fighting is ridiculous. I wrote a column for the BWC a while back that mentioned why I think fighting in hockey is awesome, and I showed a video in a column about a month ago that celebrated Toronto Maple Leaf great Wendel Clark for pummeling various people on a nightly basis throughout his career. (Ed. note: Here it is again. With an awesome Metallica soundtrack.)

You see, I grew up with hockey, and thus I grew up with fighting. The true pugilist was celebrated as the epitomy of respect and toughness. It was normal for me to watch two guys on skates try to punch each other, providing that it was for something noble, like defending a teammate who had been suckered or trying to inspire the troops.

But that being said, there’s undoubtedly something wrong about what happened in that game. Jonathan Roy’s actions are unexplicable, and Patrick, as the coach, should be held accountable. Fighting in hockey is supposed to be about honor, bravery, toughness and, of course, the code. The code holds, among other things, that you never pummel someone who doesn’t want to fight. If your counterpart is pinned down on the ice, you don’t procede to punch his face in while he tries desperately to cover himself.

I recently sat down to interview the woman’s basketball coach at my university, and before the interview started, we somehow got to talking about hockey. He said that he didn’t watch much, because he grew up in the States, and remembered watching Wayne Gretzky break Gordie Howe’s all-time goals record. Then he said something that stunned me; he doesn’t let his kids watch hockey because it’s too violent.

I have to admit I was a little shocked. Up here we usually pray that our young will enjoy watching the game, I would’t think twice about letting kids watch the game. Nor would I, come to think of it, think twice about letting my kids fight. I remember teaching my cousin how to stick up for himself so he didn’t get pushed around out there. He was 6.

I was especially surprised because the American Flagship, the NFL, is similarly violent to hockey. Both games feature body contact that is impossible to comprehend, both take a great deal of courage to play. In one game though, you are allowed to let out your frustrations a little more than the other. If need be, you can drop your gloves with a willing combatant and let out some of the intensity and frustration that builds up with competition of this nature.

Until talking to Coach Court (great name for a basketball coach) I had never considered abnormal to fight. Say what you will about the Jonathan Roy incident; there are similar events in all sports. Baseball has bench-clearing brawls and the Delmon Young bat-throwing incident. Football had the Haynesworth stomp, the NBA had the Carmelo/Little Fiddy incident, and the Malice at the Palace. Soccer has its riots and murdering of players and officials alike.

Essentially, what I’m saying is, there is a good and bad to everything. The good part about fighting in hockey is that it demands accountability amongst the players. You can’t just go out and do whatever you want; you have to respect your opponent, lest you get beaten by a giant man who makes millions of dollars because he can fight on skates. But occasionally, because of pride, because of an inherent hockey dictum that leads to brawls whenever a team is getting badly beaten, things get out of hand. If you can’t beat ‘em in the rink, beat ‘em in the back alley, goes the expression.

I don’t think that they’ll take fighting out of hockey, and I don’t think they should. But I have to admit that talking to the Coach got me thinking that not everyone sees it as cut-and-dry as I do.

So I bring the debate to you America: Should there be fighting in hockey? Is it true bravery or phony bravado?

Discuss.