{"id":22493,"date":"2025-07-26T01:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22493\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T01:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:42:13","slug":"nhl-delivers-a-lesson-after-the-hockey-canada-verdict-be-nice-or-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22493\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL delivers a lesson after the Hockey Canada verdict: Be nice, or else"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A courtroom sketch of Justice Maria Carroccia delivering her ruling in the Hockey Canada trial on Thursday. All five players were cleared of sexual-assault charges.Alexandra Newbould\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Throughout the Hockey Canada trial, what everyone seemed to want most was that someone be taught a lesson. That someone varied \u2013 the accused, the accuser, their critics or supporters \u2013 but people were united in their hope that some blanket realization be come to. <\/p>\n

A few hours after the not-guilty verdicts<\/a>, we got our teaching \u2013 be nice, or else. <\/p>\n

The NHL was the enforcer of this excellent rule for life. Immediately after learning Justice Maria Carroccia\u2019s judgment<\/a>, it decided that the five parties involved won\u2019t play in hockey\u2019s top league. Not until everything is \u201creviewed\u201d \u2013 whatever that means. <\/p>\n

Since none of the five are getting younger, better or more palatable to a general audience, that sounds like being sentenced to bureaucratic limbo. <\/p>\n

The key legal issues at the heart of the Hockey Canada verdict<\/a><\/p>\n

The league\u2019s key point doesn\u2019t refer to any rule. Instead, it is an assertion of normative values: \u201cThe behaviour at issue was unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people will think this is unfair, the NHL Players\u2019 Association<\/a> prime among them. The players should have \u201cthe opportunity to return to work,\u201d the PA says, like we\u2019re talking about striking coal miners. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re right. It\u2019s unfair. That\u2019s what the \u201cor else\u201d is about. When you make bad decisions, bad things can happen. <\/p>\n

The players made a lot of terrible choices. One of them was choosing to work in the entertainment industry. Nobody has a right to play in the NHL, any more than you or I have a right to join the circus. <\/p>\n

Can you walk the tightrope? That\u2019s part of it. Do many people dislike you? Well, that\u2019s going to be a problem in our ticket-sales-based enterprise. <\/p>\n

Were I running an NHL team, this case would be first among the behavioural study sessions they give to recruits. I\u2019d stay out of the weeds about what men need to know about modern sexual mores. Any 19-year-old who doesn\u2019t already understand what those bright red lines look like is too stupid to risk putting on the payroll. What I\u2019d focus on is being nice. <\/p>\n

If you want to make a million dollars skating around in short pants, you have an increased interest in making sure that your public interactions go well. You aren\u2019t just being paid to score goals. You\u2019re being paid to be likeable. If you don\u2019t like that part of it, nobody\u2019s stopping you from getting into the insurance business. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Restorative justice could have offered a better path for everyone involved in the Hockey Canada trial<\/a><\/p>\n

So when people approach you, be reasonably accommodating. Do not treat them like they\u2019re the animals in a human petting zoo. Imagine that everyone you meet is your dad or your sister. How would you like famous strangers to act toward them? Do that. <\/p>\n

That means you cannot punch anyone, unless they have punched you first. You cannot berate waitstaff, cab drivers or hotel maids. You don\u2019t get to swan around like the rest of the world is beneath you because they aren\u2019t members of your tribe. <\/p>\n

If you choose not to behave decently, you may get away with it. The system is set up to protect you. But ask yourself this from the outset \u2013 am I good enough to get away with it forever? <\/p>\n

If one of the players was a perennial all-star under long-term contract, I suspect the NHL would have a different perspective on what is or isn\u2019t acceptable behaviour. But these five misjudged what unofficial rules their level of talent allowed them to break. <\/p>\n

Some people can be terrible and get away with it for a whole career. But in today\u2019s world, that\u2019s getting harder to do. All it takes is one video with sound to burn the brightest talent to the ground. <\/p>\n

More people get that than don\u2019t. Eighteen players on the Canadian junior team got Michael McLeod\u2019s \u201cWho wants to be in a 3-way quick\u201d group text. The majority didn\u2019t show up. <\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re nice, but they were smart enough to follow the \u201cbe nice\u201d rule. Because anyone with a scintilla of common sense could see how that text at that time of night is an \u201cor else\u201d situation. <\/p>\n

Robyn Urback: #MeToo changed our culture, but it couldn\u2019t change our courts<\/a><\/p>\n

Athletes talk about being role models to children. What they seem to mean in the current context is that kids will see them and think, \u201cI can do that.\u201d They can\u2019t, and they shouldn\u2019t be advised to try. <\/p>\n

Play sports, sure, but if a 12-year-old had to pick one person in that London, Ont., courtroom whose job they might dream of doing, it\u2019s the lady in the high chair wearing the robe. Dream of being a judge. Those, we actually need. <\/p>\n

The only useful way pros can lead the youth is in comportment. I\u2019m not talking about delivering TikTok-ready banalities in a second intermission interview. I\u2019m not even talking about being nice. Everybody\u2019s nice enough when they know the microphones are on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about having a healthy respect for others when you think nobody\u2019s watching. Not because you\u2019re a good person \u2013 though that would be lovely \u2013 but because you understand that actions create reactions. That when you do something to someone, they will feel a way about it. Think hard about that before you do anything. It\u2019s much better, cheaper protection than a half-dozen Bay Street lawyers. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there is no great way to prove the positive of this moral instruction. Nice people tend to be nice because they were raised well and they just are that way, not because they think they will get something out of it. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s only when someone famous does what we would all (I hope) agree isn\u2019t nice that we are reminded why it\u2019s wrong. Not criminally wrong, but wrong nonetheless.<\/p>\n

But seeing that it\u2019s wrong isn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t until the \u201cor else\u201d lands on them like a piano that we are really taught why we should respect the feelings of others, or why we should fear what could happen to us if we don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

The lesson works just as well both ways. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A courtroom sketch of Justice Maria Carroccia delivering her ruling in the Hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,22599,22598,575,21363,85,22600],"class_list":["post-22493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hockey-canada","tag-hockeycanada","tag-nhl","tag-noastack","tag-sports","tag-topstory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}