Quote of the Day

"The basic, unfortunate fact is the majority of players today -- and the majority of fans -- have little sense or understanding of history. That's why you constantly hear stupidity like, "Players don't respect each other like they used to." Balderdash. Players respect each other today far more than they did in the days when stick-swinging fights were common and brawls -- real brawls -- were a nightly occurrence. Maurice "Rocket" Richard once said that to understand the era in which he played is to understand how violent it was. But these players have no understanding of history and, even worse, are just lemmings when it comes to most issues. The lockout proved that. End of rant." - Damien Cox at ESPN

Cox's main point is on the money, players actually show way more respect towards each other than they ever used to. Not only are fights way down (and we can debate whether that is necessarily a good or bad thing), but so is hitting from behind, baseball bat swings, head hunting, tripping, kneeing, and my personal favourite, the obliterating body-check thrown at a player with his head down as he circles behind his net. Once upon a time, Wendel Clark threw one of those bone-crushing hits and became a hero to Leaf Nation for his efforts. Now, Steve Downie throws a virtually identical atomic bomb onto Dean McCammond and he is suspended. Can anyone argue that the current state of affairs isn't vastly superior?