Has the league become a little too sensitive?

Is it just me or are people seeming to take a great deal more offence to things these days and simple little things being frowned upon a lot more than they used to have been?

Now for one, hits seem to be taking a lot more attention than they used to. I am not going to begin defending some of the hits that have made the news lately but if you compare them to the hits of yesteryear they seem to be drawing a lot more attention and people are considering even the more mainstream hits to become suspendable offences or at the very least worthy of a fight.

The point I have a bigger issue with is the actions and gestures that are getting a lot of attention. Marchands golf swing message to the Leafs is what made me think this and some of the comments from the Leafs players and media about it seem to suggest he slapped someones mother or something. One of the things I love about hockey are agitators and how they wind over teams up to get them off their game. It is a valid tactic but doesn't always work. In this case the Leafs came back and won the game.

Gesture received, revenge given on the scoreboard, case closed.

So why all the fuss about it and even some suggestions of a suspension?

This goes along with the league taking action to any sort of gestures directed towards another player indicating any sort of threat. Maybe it is just me but who is this really hurting? I love seeing these things, what better way to follow up a monster hit than to point to the other teams superstars and say keep your head up or you're next? To me that has always been a part of the game and to be honest, actions like Marchants make me laugh.

I hate to say it....but even some of Averys actions made me laugh, at least his method of screening Brodeur took some kind of fore thought and it worked.....I will go wash my mouth out now.

Anyways maybe I am just a little immature when it comes to these things or maybe stuck in my ways or something, I don't know.

What do you guys think about the way these things are going?

i agree. like you say, some hits are indefensab;e, though some i think get too much criticism. But like you say it's spreading onto gestures and things like that. i also actually loved the avery thing. i love some of the things he does. some of them, like the thing with smid this season, i hate, but that brodeur screening was genius. those kind of tauntings i absolutely love, and i love it even more when it goes the other way. for instance, when carey price made a save in a shootout to beat pittsburgh, he did a cocky, folded-arms gesture. then when the two next met and the pens won, fleury returned the gesture. it was amusing and a bit of good, maybe not light-hearted but certainly not aggressive or offensive, taunting. i love that kind of thing. and like you say people seem to take too much offence to these kind of things.

Now there's a spooky thing. I'd logged in this morning to start a thread on pretty much the same subject (I was going to ask for everyone's favourite wind-ups) and was going to use the Marchand's golf swing, which I thought was bloody funny, even if Claude didn't, and Fleury returning the arms folded gesture to Price.

Admittedly Avery is in a class of his own. I laugh my head off every time I see the clip of him screening Brodeur; and while I was furious at the time, I think his clonking Thomas on the back of his head with his stick as he skated past him is pretty funny too.

So yeah, people should lighten up and it looks like I'm joining you guys in the immature corner.

In part, I do wish for the good old days. Watching Tie Domi lose it and chase an enitre team around the ice was one of my favourite moments, especially as the officials decided they certainly weren't going to stop him.

However, hockeys moved on and thus the NHL commission has decided in its infinite wisdom that these things were too harsh, and yes too a certain point they were. The idea of restricting head shots and cheap shots is fundamentally good, but how do you enforce such a thing? A accidental head shot shouldn't result in a punishment as harsh as a pre-meditated assault but if the cap fits as it were...

The windups however should stay a part of the game. Enforcers, hard men and goons need to have a place in the game (mostly because the Blue and White seem to be filling up on them!), as they can turn a game just like a skilled finesse player. So in summary, I'm in agreement with the rest of you, wearing my goon hat

My favourite Tie Domi moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcgivAeVlI4

Another one who is in a class of his own

That is a gooden CJ but my favourite Domi moment has to be this.
[I don't know what the random music at the of the video is for]
I imagine that was a very popular sucker-punch.

I also guess that sums up my attitude on violence in the game- yes I think we should tighten up on dangerous plays, but honestly, I love big hits and scraps !! Start by removing the instigator rule and see how it goes from there- I bet the number of dangerous plays (and subsequently the need to tighten up the rules) will drop.