Montreal City Weblog

Kate 21:22 on 2024-04-16 Permalink Reply  

• Ian 07:47 on 2024-04-17 Permalink

  Not THAT good evidently.

• Kate 10:31 on 2024-04-17 Permalink

  And as usual, the team crashes and burns, and sports writers expand on the hopeful signs for next season.

• EmilyG 10:50 on 2024-04-17 Permalink

  I was shocked at what he did (the story we all know.) I was surprised at the time, but I’ve since learned that there’s quite a culture of sexual assault in male hockey. It makes me not even want to follow men’s hockey.

• Kate 12:30 on 2024-04-17 Permalink

  My eye fell on this other story recently, as an example, although this one is about male hockey players assaulting each other.

  For all that we hear about sports being healthy activities and good for young people, they do seem to generate a lot of accusations of abuse.

• JP 11:04 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  Don’t ever say you don’t worship at the altar of hockey on Canadian national television though. The trolls will come after you and try to ruin your career.

  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5361608

• Kate 12:44 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  Noted!

• CE 12:55 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  My experiences playing hockey as a kid weren’t great. I enjoyed the game but there was a general macho bullying vibe from a lot of teammates and coaches that pushed me out of the sport halfway through high school.

• Tim 13:26 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  My two cents: I think I had similar experiences to CE. I played mostly house league, played through high school and maintained zero relationships after high school. I do believe that there is a big difference between non competitive hockey leagues and the ultra competitive leagues. The largest problem lies in the structure of how competitive hockey is setup.

  A player striving to make the major junior system literally has no agency and it is not surprising that there are problems. Impressionable youth, as young as 14 years old, are far away from their families, the hierarchy requires absolute compliance with no individuality and literally nobody cares about anything the outside of hockey. A reset is needed and maybe this lawsuit will help: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-nhl-major-junior-hockey-154100100.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIzbFeNiMKZsc4an2bjvOIVks_qTKBBLXD0wXVAY8Tc5wifmIm9gHCxuTN-Wcg4S0glQYmc-eXTEpn6G7LpYHrRpMfWopmZ1IDBEjCe_PhdFUBqobO73gs4nxkyYM8q8NYULQXF8SXBzGTZ6zEKVf4vXv52TmUNeSHfQfejYIL2Y

• dwgs 15:20 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  I actually have a son who plays competitive hockey, although his goal was never major junior. There are a lot of kids these days whose goal is to go the college route. The number of people who get paid to play is vanishingly small but it’s a good way to get an education if you have the skill.
  “Impressionable youth, as young as 14 years old, are far away from their families, the hierarchy requires absolute compliance with no individuality and literally nobody cares about anything the outside of hockey.”
  Wrong, wrong and wrong. The major junior draft in Qc takes place when the kids are 15, nobody is playing major junior before 16 and those that do are an extremely small cohort. Of the roughly 700 kids playing AAA hockey in my kids birth year maybe 10 played in the QMJHL as 16 year olds.
  The kids act like individuals just as much as any other group of teenagers do, there is no pack mentality and no hive mind.
  Are there problems with the system? Sure, just as with pretty much any organization. Are there many good things that come out of it? Absolutely. Everybody likes to dump on these kids but if you saw the effort that they put into succeeding against incredibly long odds I think you might change your mind.

• Tim 17:11 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  While it’s not common, there is an exceptional player clause (courtesy John Tavares) for 14 year olds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Hockey_League#Exceptional_player_status

  That is great that your son is enjoying hockey. How would you feel if he was drafted and had to move to Halifax to play in the Q? That is a dilemma that many families face. Players have no say in where they play with the current system. This is the lack of agency to which I was referring. At least great basketball, baseball and football players can choose the college they go to.

  I did not mean to dump on AAA kids, going out and playing and having fun. I have issues with the CHL.

• dwgs 21:36 on 2024-04-18 Permalink

  A grand total of 9 players have been granted exceptional status in all major junior leagues across Canada over the last 19 years so it’s not really something that people need to consider. The exception proves the rule. My son wasn’t drafted to the Q and if he had been he wouldn’t have gone. Just because you are drafted doesn’t mean you are obliged to go, there are other options. As a matter of fact if you spend more than a couple of days at a major junior camp or accept any sort of remuneration from a major junior team (t shirt, cap, equipment etc) you lose your NCAA eligibility.
  The CHL is a meat market, it serves the top 10 or 15 per cent of elite players well but leaves a lot of kids effectively washed up at the age of 20 or so. I also have issues with the CHL, I know a few great kids who got burnt badly when they believed the hype and went that route. It’s sad that there is a whole industry built on selling kids dreams of glory that will likely never pan out.
  My son was recruited to play prep school hockey in the NE US, which is where a lot of Qc kids go because there aren’t many other options here for high level play aside from the Q. Other provinces have well developed Junior A and B leagues but not Quebec. Hockey Quebec is an old boys network that is probably the least progressive in the country.