As someone who started playing ice hockey as an adult and been at it coming up 15 years I think this is like a completely different thing. When they say "hockey culture" I'd say you're looking at organized competitive hockey that starts with youth and build a system that pushes the best into a professional career.
As with anything you can get some idiots and most players will come from that system but this your career is over and it's just beer league hockey, same sport but a completely separate entity. Get some players together who've been around long enough and you can get some terrible stories but for like 99% of the games it's just a bunch of dudes and the occasional lady slowly chasing a puck around for 40 minutes. Though to be fair, I suppose playing somewhere like freakin Whitehorse is going to be different than the city. Also when a 50+ team occasionally got sent down to my div they were the dirties teams we'd play, though not in a dangerous rage issue way but more of a classic Gordie Howe hockey way.
I'd say you can't really "end" this stuff in beer league but in my opinion a good way to curtail is to put up cameras and when shit like this happens get the cops involved. Unlike a professional hockey player when you play your league dues maybe an errant puck or stuck could knock some teeth out if you're only wearing a visor but you're not signing up with the assumption of direct bodily harm. Treat it the same way you would if this happened out on the street.
Finally to throw out a classic from one of my '1%' games, earlier on in my career playing up in North Van we had this one kid show up for a game with us that start with him bragging in the dressing room how he played junior hockey and started trying to organize the bench and ended after the final whistle with him tearing off his jersey to show the refs the 'wounds' he received from all their missed calls. Yeah we didn't invite him back
I'm not really sure how your post counters the notion there's a problem with hockey culture, even at the level of adult rec leagues.
To chime in with
RandV, I also started skating and then progressed to playing hockey in my early to mid teens, so I was never a part of the organized side of hockey so I think we have had similar experiences with hockey.
There are a few types of guys who give even mid to low level hockey a bad name. The ones who wish they had been part of organized hockey as a kid and are trying to live out the fantasy as adults. The ones who never made it past junior as a teen and are now as adults living in the delusion that they can still make it to the show, they think that every game is the next chance to prove they have "it", or in some cases you have guys who are just ass-holes in all aspects of their life and hockey is just one of many avenues they let it out in. Some people also just take things way to serious, in trying to give their all and get better they forget to keep their emotions in check.
You combine those types of players with the game of hockey that is played at a pace that ramps up the adrenaline and emotional intensity of almost anyone and you will have the odd outburst, sometimes ending in a fight.
Even at lower levels of play the amount of mind body control that is required to skate, stick handle, pass and make plays requires a crazy amount of focus. That's not to say other sports are not just as challenging in their own rights, but as an amateur player of all types of sports, hockey IMO is the hardest and the most intense. Even just frustration at your own mistakes can build over a game if your not careful. Now yes there are players who either because they are lazy or are actually dirty love to hook, trip, slash, etc, which can egg on someone who normally is very calm and collected by nature, but dirty plays exist in all sports.
Hell I have lost it on guys before, never to the point of actually fighting, but its easy once your emotions start to boil over to understand how you can loose your cool, especially if your looking for it in the first place. That has nothing to do with the culture of hockey and everything to do with people not being taught from an early age to respect other peoples well being as a fellow human.
Loosing your cool and getting aggressive happens in all types of activities. You should see the fights that can occur in bowling alleys/ pool halls in small towns, never mind the heat stroked and alcohol fueled dust ups that occur at weekend baseball tournaments, often times with chicks throwing the first punches.
As others have mentioned the issues with fighting and aggression in Rec level hockey is not so much about the "Culture of Hockey" as it is about the culture of society and how that's connected to not just hockey but all competitive sports/activities.
Don't take this the wrong way, I am not justifying this behavior as okay, far from it. Its simply starting to feel like throwing out that the ' Culture of Hockey" needs to change is the lazy catch all response to any and all bad press the game gets.
The organized side of hockey has its issues, we know this. Does even rec level hockey have people who should be seeing therapists for anger-control issues? You bet, but is hockey one of the most rewarding games you can play? You better believe it, I will play until I physically am unable to.
