People LIKE to say hockey is violent, but it is a physical game as much as football. No one complains that football is "violent," yet hockey has far fewer injuries than football, and deliberate intent to injury IS punished heavily and proactively. The physical side of the game comes not from league money motives, but from the pond hockey of young boys using their brute strength to vie for ice position.

People also do not understand that what is called "hitting" in hockey is, in fact, a skill move that frees up the puck, not something done for nastiness. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it, and the object is to win puck possession and ice position.

People also do not understand that the forces applied to a skater on ice-- a slippery surface-- are dissipated by the recipient's movement on that surface, unkike the unyielding surface of a football field.

Avoiding a "hit" also is a learned skill.

There are no victims in hockey.

If you don't like hockey, that's fine, but decrying it on the basis of what is not understood is just mean-spirited.

And equating hockey with figure skating-- that's just ridiculous.

So hockey is not Zen Buddhism. It's not trying to be! :~)

~Susan