It’s my Parting Shot to wonder which line of thinking will eventually rule the day…

The game, sport, business of hockey has been taking a beating recently…and to my way of assessing the situation, there are mixed messages throughout the dialogue!

The culture of hockey is getting lam-basted as tales of physical and verbal abuse from years ago are being recounted and doing severe damage to the reputations of long-time respected coaches!

There seems to be an almost daily serving of controversy in the N-H-L when it comes to heinous acts by players against one another and the league’s Player Safety Department taking very inconsistent paths towards dealing with each incident!

Meanwhile, at the feeder levels to the N-H-L, there are moans of discontent with regards to flagging attendance. If you read the comments on Twitter or fan pages on Facebook, you quickly find that the hardcore supporters, for the most part, aren’t all that enamored with the move towards cleaning up the game when it comes to hard hits and fights!

All of these points are tied together, believe it or not! For many of the blue-collar, everyday working stiffs that are looking for ways to spend their entertainment dollar, hockey’s current malaise is turning them off and turning them towards primal sports like Mixed Martial Arts. Many hard-working fans haven’t evolved a lot from the days of the Christians against the Lions in Roman times!

Hockey’s attempt to be more civilized and inclusive…weeding out the unscrupulous leaders and tightening up on violence in the game…is commendable. My only hope is that in doing all of this modernization, they bring along a base of support from the paying public…both corporate and rank and file!

That’s my Parting Shot, I’m Les Lazaruk…