Violence in Hockey "The Medium is the Message"

     In the Islanders vs. Penguins hockey game no player was safe from the violence, not even the goalie. There was 15 fighting majors, 11 game misconducts and 346 penalty minutes according to an article by Dylan DeBourdais (http://islanders.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=552496). This is just the third period of this game, you can see the first period of the fights at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lakYThmwPho) and the second period of the fights at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nezw-aL1xFQ&feature=related).

     The message you get from watching this game or being in the stands is that the more fights there are in the game the better the game. Even the commentators emphasize the fights happening and just the way they're saying what's going on is promoting these fights in hockey. If any one of the fights that happened in this game had happened at an Olympic game, the game would be over. All the players that were involved would be kicked out. It's wrong to encourage this when in the highest league of hockey it's not about fighting it's about skill. This game is just ridiculous.

     In the articles in the newspapers that came after this game it listed all the fines, suspensions et cetera that came out of this game. The newspaper articles are sending a completely different message by listing all the punishments handed out to the players. The newspapers are condoning it more so than promoting the actions of the players. Even with the punishments that they handed out, I still don't feel that the punishments they handed out were adequate to everything that went on in this game. This is a great example of just how much "the medium is the message."