By Greg Sakaki
While some hockey scars heal quickly, the scar left on the game after the Marty McSorley incident may take a long time to heal.
Fans and non-fans alike have seen the replays many times of McSorley’s high stick to Donald Brashear’s head, and opinions are divided as to whether or not McSorley’s criminal conviction was just. No matter what people think about the decision, they tend to agree that unnecessary stick violence should be taken out of hockey.
Aidan Van Dyk plays hockey at Centretown’s McNabb Arena and believes the McSorley decision will affect all levels of the game.
“Where do you draw the line as to what’s considered part of the game and what isn’t?” he says.
While unsure of the effects this decision will have on the game, Van Dyk hopes that he never has to witness that type of violence on the ice again.
The National Hockey League has decided that stick-work above the waist isn’t part of the game. The NHL has instructed referees to call penalties on every high slash. Other levels of hockey will decide in the coming months if these sorts of rule changes are effective and worthwhile.
Scott Ferguson, the Ottawa District Hockey Association’s director of officials, says the McSorley decision will send a message to young players.
“You would hope that (the McSorley incident) will have a trickle down effect and reinforce the fact that kids have got to keep their sticks down.”
Ferguson says he thinks the rule changes will result in more penalties in the early portion of the season, but he believes that by the end of the season players will police themselves.
“The kids are pretty smart,” he says. “I think they’re going to learn what they can and can’t do pretty quickly.”
The Central Junior “A” Hockey has followed the NHL’s lead by making all high sticks above the shoulders a major penalty. There is no rule change at the junior “B” level this season, but Bruce Keeler, the president of the Eastern Ontario Junior “B” Hockey League, did not dismiss the possibility of changes to officiating next season.
Rick Ladouceur, coach and general manager of the CJHL’s Gloucester Rangers, says this is not the first time hockey has tweaked rules to deal with adversity. “I think hockey has a way of fixing its own problems,” he says. “There have been problems in the past, and hockey has done a pretty good job in keeping up with the times.” female classmates onto the ice.
When she arrived last year as a freshman, 15-year-old Daoust was shocked to discover that Lisgar didn’t have a girls competitive hockey team.
“I knew there was a league for girls and I figured that Lisgar would have a team because most schools did, and it is one of the bigger schools,” says Daoust.
Daoust, who currently plays for a competitive girls hockey team in Nepean, says girls should have the opportunity to play hockey for her school.
“So I thought why don’t I just make a girls’ team! It’s a great sport and it’s a lot of fun.”
Lisgar principal Angela Spence gave Daoust the necessary forms to register the team, and was impressed that Louise had made up a poster with her phone number on it by the first week of school.
“It is a positive thing when kids take the initiative to do this. It is great that Louise and the girls have got themselves organized to go ahead with this,” says Spence.
Due to the fallout from Bill 74, Daoust was forced to look outside of Lisgar’s faculty to find a coach, and she was able to recruit Mark Wight, her former ringette coach from six years ago.
“I think sports are an important part of kids lives,” says Wight, 45, whose two daughters hope to play on the Lisgar team. “I think part of their education is an opportunity to play sports as well as other extra-curricular activities.”
Though the team must wait until the end of the month for approval to join the league, Louise’s efforts have been applauded by all those around her.
“I think there is a large element of success in what she’s done, however it turns out,” says Wight.
“She strikes me as a well-organized young woman,” says Spence, who has coached for 15 years. “I think it is great that she might pull this off, considering that you need to not only organize the activity, but get the girls organized as well.”
Louise’s father Gerry, who co-signed many of the forms with Spence, says he thinks what his daughter is doing is terrific.
“You get out of something what you put into it, and she has put a lot of effort into this. If it doesn’t work out for her than it was a good lesson learned,” says her father.
It is only a matter of time now before Daoust will know if she can hit the ice to represent her school with her fellow classmates.
“Playing hockey has changed my life,” she says. “I just want everyone to have the opportunity that I had.”