As of last season, rookies no longer pick up pucks after warmups
I saw that and it's a start.
I'm glad Guest had the courage to speak out but I hope people understand this is a much deeper issue than simply "the team or the league has to be held accountable." Truth be told, this is all still related to a culture that is encouraged from a young age. It starts when they're 5 or 6. The hockey world is like any team sport world. The skilled kids are worshipped and glorified over all else and character issues are rarely addressed until it's too late. These kids are held on a pedestal by parents, coaches, teammates, etc.
Over time it creates an arrogance and entitlement that turns the majority of them into alpha males who carry themselves with an unhealthy amount of confidence and bravado and even the ones whom that doesn't come naturally to feel they have to play that role to fit in. What's different about junior is that they're now away from home at a time when they still lack the cognitive maturity to make sound decisions consistently. So remove supervision and add in the dynamic of constantly being surrounded by a large pack of alpha males and bad things are bound to happen.
I have seen it my whole life on teams and in school. I hate to say it, but any time you put 20 adolescent males in a room together without supervision, there is ALWAYS going to be an individual or small group who play the dominant and bad things will happen. And when those 20 males are all star hockey players whom fans (and girls) fawn over, it is even more potent.
What I'm driving at is that the fix isn't simple. People unfamiliar with the sport will propose ridiculous solutions like charging team officials or banning junior hockey, or at best not allowing kids to play away from home. In my opinion, the solution starts much earlier and is much harder to implement. Parents, coaches and teammates need to be taught and trained from a young age that what matters is how you treat others and how you want to be seen in 20 years, not how many goals you scored. As long as we have a culture that just fuels egos and entitlement, we're doing a disservice to these kids who are then being forced to pick a lane at an age when they're ill equipped to do so.
The teams and leagues can add resources and training, etc. But as long as this is being fostered throughout their upbringing, it'll always be an uphill battle. I played with loads of very talented kids who came from great homes with great parents, but the one common denominator I saw was these kids were always put on a pedestal and made to feel they were better than others. That's fuel for what comes in ages 16-19.
