I’m still getting my head around the ultra-violent junior hockey game that dished out 568 penalty minutes

What would you think about a small group of people who started yelling at teenagers in, say, an atrium at a shopping mall? How would you react if they followed the kids up and down the corridors, swearing at them and yelling insults and other abusive language?

No one would put up with it.

And yet it’s much too common at hockey rinks.

So too is fighting on the ice, and off.

The most recent wild example happened this weekend in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John’s. It was junior hockey, where the age range is from 16 to 21 (depending on when birthdays fall, for the oldest players). In other words, many of the players are still in their teens.

On Saturday, the St. John’s Junior Caps and Southern Shore Junior Breakers played a game in a playoff series, although they did not so much play as beat the crap out of each other.

From my former colleague Terry Roberts’s reporting:

According to the game summary from the league’s website, the two referees handed out 568 minutes in penalties, with 320 of those to the Breakers.

That far exceeds the record for most penalty minutes in a single NHL game (419), which was set by the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators on March 5, 2004.

Incredible.

That’s almost 10 minutes of penalties for every minute of scheduled game time.

It’s not quite accurate to make that ratio, though, because the game did not even finish.

Instead, in the third period, the game was called down because so many players on the Breakers side were unable to play. They were already out for penalties.

I was, sadly, not one bit surprised to hear that aggression off the ice was also a part of the story.

A statement from the St. John’s team said “alcohol was seen in the stands, and the crowd was loud and antagonistic, with threatening comments directed toward the Junior Caps.” A complaint has been filed with police over what coach Steve Callahan described as a death threat that a fan delivered right into the Junior Caps bench.

From Roberts’s story for CBC:

Callahan said a group of about two dozen young people elevated the tension in the arena and “created chaos around our dressing room.”

Callahan said the crowd “prevented us for 20 minutes from leaving the room.”

The league itself issued a statement the next day condemning the violence, saying that what happened will not be tolerated. We’ll see what comes of it.

Violence on the ice is not new. Neither is rowdy, unacceptable behaviour off it.

It’s been an ongoing concern for years and years that the kids who eventually play junior hockey are coming up through a system where abuse can still be hurled from the bleachers.

Underscoring the impact this can have on young players, my wife forwarded to me a video that is as powerful now as when a nine-year-old boy recorded it in 2008.

Have a look at the video that Miller Donnelly, who as a kid played in Sudbury, Ont., originally made for family.

Here are some key points from his presentation.

When I walk into an arena for a hockey game, my helmet is in my bag, and every adult I see treats me with respect. They are friendly to me, kind, and if I spill my pop, they are quick to forgive me.

But the minute I put on my magic helmet and step on the ice, adults streat me much differently. They yell at me, they curse me, and they call me names. They treat me like I’ve been playing hockey for 15 years and get mad when I make a mistake.

And I know it’s the helmet because when I go to a friend’s backyard drink and I’m only wearing a toque, adults treat me much nicer.

It astounds me that people think abuse inside a hockey arena is tolerable, when they understand that it’s not on the outside.