Kristi Allain (researcher & narrator), with Stephanie Dotto (writer) and Cory McKechnie (editor)
Show Notes:
Elite men’s hockey in Canada does not have a reputation for conviviality, kindness, or even civility. Beyond the on-ice violence, off-ice scandals involving players or coaches committing sexual assault and sexual abuse have become a regular feature of in Canadian news — with revelations of sexual assault cover-ups at the highest levels of Hockey Canada making national headlines last year.
But such behaviour does not have to be intrinsic to the game. In this podcast, I speak to male hockey players who are part of the Silver Skaters division of the Real Oldtimers Hockey League. The men in this division are at least 70 years old, and they’re playing a slower, more careful version of the game where their focus is on safety, fairness, and support for each other. They even show the door to players who won’t slow down or get too angry on the ice.
That might seem strange or even boring to those raised on the violent, hyper-masculine version of the game. And while we’re not suggesting Bettman turn the NHL into a version of the Silver Skaters, there are some important lessons for professional men’s hockey — and us all — in the Silver Skaters’ attitudes towards the game, their team, their opponents, and themselves.
Allain, K. A. (2020). Winter of our contentment: Examining risk, pleasure, and emplacement in later-life physical activity. Journal of Aging Studies, 55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2020.
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Allain, K. A. (2021). Beating the buzzer: The construction of aging hockey masculinity. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 57(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690221990597
Robinson, L. (1998). Crossing the line: Violence and sexual assault in Canada’s national sport. McClelland & Stewart.
Ward, R., Guerriero, L., Angelovski, I., & McKeown, B. (2022, September 29). Sex and shame in Canada’s national game. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/
alleged-group-sexual-assault-junior-hockey-canada