Canadians are passionate about hockey. This passion leads Canadian dads to spend endless evenings making back-yard ice rinks in sub-zero weather. It leads thousands of volunteers to devote countless hours to coaching, convening, managing and organizing minor hockey so that kids can experience the greatest game on earth.
Being passionate about something is great, but being too passionate about anything, including hockey, often leads to warped judgement and bad choices.
Jared Murray* is an 8 year old hockey player, and a pretty good one at that. He plays for a novice B house league team in Shawville, Quebec, a small town located on the Ottawa river. Jared has had a very good season, scoring 51 goals in 17 games.
Jared is a big kid (photo), 4"9' tall and 110 pounds, but novice house league hockey is non-contact so his size is not a huge advantage. In a radio interview Jared's dad said the kid took one penalty all season (for tripping) and that he was scolded for doing so by his mom, who also happened to be the time-keeper for the game, so it's not like the kid is some kind of cross between Zdeno Chara & Derek Boogaard.
Sadly, Hockey Outaouais, the body that governs the league Jared plays in has decided he's too big and strong (and good?) for his league. In a remarkable example of bad judgement Hockey Outaouais have banned Jared from participating in the end-of-season tournament. Somebody need to remind the suits at Hockey Outaouais that Jared is EIGHT. He's playing HOUSE LEAGUE HOCKEY. He's playing at the NOVICE B level. Lunacy.
This is not the Danny Amonte case. Jared is big and obviously talented, but he's playing by all of the rules. Fifty-one goals in 17 games is pretty good, but Wayne Gretzky scored 310 goals as a novice and while parents on opposing teams surely whined about it, nobody banned the kid. You can bet that every kid who played against Gretzky as a novice looks back on the experience and tells anybody who'll listen that they "played against the Great One."
To protest the decision, the Shawville Hockey Association has opted to withdraw all 8 of its teams, across all age levels, from the year-end playoffs. This also feels like a questionable decision. It makes sense for Jared's team with withdraw in support of their teammate, but the entire association? Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
To add a little spice to the dispute, media reports hint that the Shawville decision is linked to long-standing tensions between Shawville (a mainly English-speaking town) and Hockey Outaouais (an association with a largely Francophone executive, representing mainly French-speaking communities). For many years Shawville fought having to join Hockey Outaouais, prefering a long-standing affiliation with the Ontario-based Ottawa Valley Hockey League.
*Jared Murray has an admirable hockey pedigree. His dad, Tim Murray, is a scout for the NY Rangers & his great-uncle is Ottawa Senators coach Bryan Murray.
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