In the last 24 or so hours, my Twitter feed has included about 1 million messages condemning the actions of one Milan Lucic.
I think that although Twitter has many benefits, I believe that the way that a million people jump on one guy to shame his actions gets to be a little much and is often a little pathetic. Sure, individually it's just one person voicing his opinion on a hot topic, but collectively it seems like a million people beating a dead horse - not to mention that by doing so, they are ignoring things that could be termed as real problems.
Now, I get why a guy like Lucic, who spears people in the groin, charges over goalies and violates "codes" (groans) is not a popular player, but come on - it's not like he punches babies.
Lucic, like Cooke, is vilified to such an extent that it seems comical. Now, I don't think he's a great guy or particularly sportsman-like or whatever, but its a little rich that the same community of people who trained him (and Matt Cooke) to act the way they do, and which rewards them with fame and money for doing it, gets all high and mighty every once in a while, seemingly at random. It is my opinion that we are all hypocrites for forcing guys to make their living on the edge and then whining like offended wealthy dowagers whenever someone crosses the line.
Ironically, what Lucic or Cooke take the most flack for are plays that seem "disrespectful" while the truly dangerous plays get ignored by a "blame the victim" mentality that usually sees most talking heads defend the worst plays because the injured player turned his back, or kept his head down etc.
Lets be very clear: The NHL routinely suspends players for small amounts of time for terribly dangerous hits. Eventually, someone will be hurt very badly, or killed, and everyone will wonder why. There will be inquiries, and studies, and condemnation, even though it seems obvious that they could eliminate hits from behind and most other cheap shots from the game today with one or two 40 games suspensions. Yes, it would drastically change the game, but when the time comes when someone is hurt in a major way, it will happen anyway.
My point here is that we are all guilty of condoning violent and dangerous play in return for a hard-hitting, fast game, and my theory is that we over-compensate for what we all know in the back of our minds, by lashing out at guys like Cooke and Lucic and villainizing them to the point of ridiculousness. The NHL neutered the ability of players to police themselves when they eliminated the instigator penalty and relegated enforcers to the roll of staged fighters who only fight each other.
So it is my contention that people ought to lay off, especially on Lucic. He is one of the best power forwards in hockey, and one of its most entertaining players. Was he wrong to threaten another player, to disrespect the handshake protocol? Sure he was, but it's not that big of a deal - I tend to think it happens every series and that most guys just don't go whine to the media about it like the Montreal player did.
Besides, the handshake is lame. It might promote sportsmanship, and it might make sentimental people well up with tears, but ultimately it is a fake, a put-on. It's a meaningless convention I would bet most players could do without. Certainly it's about as meaningful as signing the national anthem is patriotic (i.e on a continent where child poverty approaches 20%, where the incarceration of minorities is so high it constitutes a human rights violation, where veterans who return from war are not properly cared for and voter turn out is at an all time low, singing the anthem rings kind of hollow).
So don't hate Milan Lucic - You know deep down it's hypocritical and that if he was on your team, he'd be one of your favorite players. Certainly we'd love to have him on the Coyotes.