January 6, 2024 by Josh Boulton

Any “code” of honour between players of the National Hockey League is officially gone. Over. Finished. Kaput.

This topic recently came to light (yet again) after a series of incidents over back-to-back games between the Minnesota Wild and the Winnipeg Jets. If the way the players handled things wasn’t enough to prove the code is dead, fan support of ex-NHLer Jamal Mayers, who praised the players for handling it the way they did, surely should be. What he said completely erases any argument for keeping fighting in the game of hockey and allowing players to police their own game.

Let’s go back to the beginning.

The two teams played each other two days in a row with the opening game on December 30th, during which a crosscheck by Jets’ defenceman Brenden Dillon injured Wild superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov. This happened at the 16:47 mark of the third period.

In retaliation, less than two minutes later, Wild player Jake Middleton challenged Dillon to a fight. He accepted. According to the NHL’s “code”, that should have been the end of it. A player does something wrong. A noble warrior challenges the guilty party. The guilty party recognizes his mistake and willfully takes his licks. It’s very honorable. Respectful. Classy. Romantic. All the feels of “two good guys” that understand each other.

In the mind of some fans, they may even go so far as to believe the guilty party will never “mess around” again lest they may “find out”. Players around the league may even take note and rethink everything they’ve ever done wrong in their hockey lives. Something out of line happened. It was addressed appropriately. Handshakes and back pats all around for “those who know”. Now everyone could move on. Except not everyone did.

The very next day, also in retaliation, Pat Maroon of the Wild dropped the gloves with Adam Lowry of the Jets. Right off the opening faceoff, two seconds into the game. Hmmmm. Well that’s peculiar. I thought they already took care of it. Now, I guess you could say this second fight had to happen to set the tone for this game. Yes. That’s what we’ll say. Lowry is the Jets’ captain, see.

And Maroon is a veteran who “gets it”. That’s why those two players out of anyone decided they’d step up, so that everyone else could settle down for the rest of the game and just play hockey. Two leaders leading. Another W for “the code”.

Except they didn’t settle down and play hockey. Two minutes later, Wild bad boy Ryan Hartman high sticked the young Jets up-and-comer Cole Perfetti. In the face. Off a faceoff. And because Perfetti happened to be wearing a microphone, we can say with 100% certainty Hartman did it on purpose, and he did it to avenge Kaprizov. He had to. If the first two fights weren’t enough, what was the point of any of it?

Here’s where I know the old school hockey world has lost the plot. On a Sportsnet intermission feature called “The Dressing Room”, ex-NHL player Jamal Mayers defended Hartman, saying “At the end of the day, Hartman is sending a message that you’re not going to go after our star player. Whether you like it or not, it becomes a question of how am I going to defend (him)….Some people say Hartman should go fight him. I think he sent the right message… There’s still an element of fear, there’s still an element of being aggressive, of sending a message. These two teams could also meet in the playoffs. To me sending a message is important.”

Hockey analyst Sam Cosentino was only slightly less on board. He liked the revenge aspect. He just didn’t like Perfetti as the target. He went on to list several other Jets players by name who he felt would have been better targets for an intentional slash across the cheek. But rest assured, someone needed to be slashed.

It was only Jennifer Botterill who was the voice of reason, calling that mode of thinking archaic. Her main point being “there’s a difference between tough and physical, and cheap and dirty. And to me on a faceoff like that, that’s cheap and dirty”.

I couldn’t agree more with Botterill. And I know people are going to say I don’t understand. It’s not that. It’s that I do understand. I do get it. I just don’t think it makes sense. Hartman didn’t settle a score or make things even. It will never be even. Adding more dirty play, more cheap shots, isn’t going to reduce dirty plays and cheap shots, or even balance them out.

In fact, by the very reasoning used to support Hartman, Perfetti or any Jets player for that matter now has the right and the reason to get revenge on Hartman. And not only do they have the right, they have an obligation to do it. They have to, or else by Mayers’ own words, “Hartman has Perfetti in his back pocket. He’s scored.” Like he said, it’s a question of how are the Jets going to defend him. Plus, these two teams may play each other in the playoffs so sending a message is important. Is it not?

See how that works? Me neither. Because it doesn’t.