[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I take a different viewpoint from these other guys.

Boxing and MMA are the only sports in which the competition demands, and rules allow for, physical harm to be done to your opponent in order to win. These are the ONLY essentially violent sports, therefore. (And they should be banned, IMO, but that's for another thread someday).

Hockey, to answer your question, is not inherently a violent sport. The rules of hockey do not call for harming your opponent in order to win.

HOWEVER, to the extent that bad behavior like excessive checking and high sticking are treated with slaps on the wrist (in the form of mere penalty minutes), then hockey becomes violent. When fighting is permitted (yes, permitted if not tacitly encouraged) as part of the game and allowed to be part of its appeal and excitement, then hockey becomes violent. When goons are recruited and retained as players who really aren't that good at playing hockey but are very good as "enforcers," then hockey becomes violent.

Hockey, the game, is not a violent sport. Hockey, the spectator extravaganza, is indeed violent.

You hit the nail on the head. Absolutely right.