I'm not sure hockey is much more violent than it ever was. Not too long ago, I came across an incidental reference in something I was reading - but danged if I can remember what or where - to a violent death in a hockey game around 1900, in Ontario. The reaction was similar to what it would be today, but, without mass media, on a smaller scale. There was a trial, and, if I remember correctly, the malefactor was convicted, but received a very light sentence.

However, I don't understand what the appeal of hockey fights is - the fans just love'm. The roar of excitement and approval at an NHL game when a fight breaks out mystifies me - and not for any philosophical reasons, but because a hockey fight is so clumsy that it just seems laughable to me. And it really slows down the game. I had long forgotten how exciting hockey can be before I watched the Canada-U.S. women's game in Salt Lake City (on TV). No fights, no commercials, just fast, impassioned hockey.