EDITORIAL Hard hits and handshakes

The games have changed since Roman days, when young men were thrown before howling crowds in a stadium and told to fight to the death for fame, glory or just basic survival. Yet a Roman emperor brought back to life in the present day would find much similar between gladiatorial battles and the fierce, physical competition of young men playing hockey.

At CN Centre this week, the top six teams in male midget hockey (under 18 years old) in Canada are competing in the Telus Cup. The host Cariboo Cougars (and B.C. league champions) are playing against teams from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia to win their way into the championship final Sunday afternoon. This week is the round-robin portion of the tournament, with the six teams playing against each other.

While some players at this level of hockey are playing for spots in junior hockey (and ultimately the NHL), for many of them, this moment will be the highlight of their hockey career.

The players in this week’s tournament in Prince George are competing with as much intensity as the gladiators of old, donning their protective armor and helmets, wielding their sticks and fighting hard for victory.

IThe time-travelling Roman emperor might be disappointed at the lack of painful death but he would likely be impressed with the fast action and the bone-crunching hits into the board. The part he would really hate, however, would be the end.

Regardless of how hard they fight, of how many hits they give and how many more they receive, whether they win or lose, they line up at centre ice and they shake hands with their opponents.

Much has already been written about this hockey tradition and the polite formality of it.

In other sports, players drift around the field informally after time runs outs to offer congratulations and condolences to some of their opponents but they’ll pick and choose, avoiding those they dislike.

There is no such option in hockey, where the players who may have taken their gloves off earlier in the game to hammer on each other’s faces are now expected to take their gloves off and shake hands in good sportsmanship.

The rules are a little different (and frankly, a little better) than junior and NHL hockey, as local fans attending the Telus Cup have found out this week. Actual fighting earns players an automatic ejection for the rest of the game and fighting with less than five minutes left in the third period means a suspension from the next game. Every player wears a full face shield, icing is called when the puck crosses the back line and a four-minute penalty is issued for head shots. There was an audible groan in CN Centre Tuesday night when the game between the Cariboo Cougars and the Leduc Oil Kings ended in a 3-3 tie and the announcer informed the crowd that there would be no overtime or shootout, as per the round robin rules of the Telus Cup as set out by Hockey Canada.

The final difference is in the tournament structure itself, which is a grueling test of endurance the Roman emperor would surely have approved of to recognize the fittest of champions.

In no other league and at no other level of hockey, be it minor, college, junior, professional, Olympic or world, are teams required to play six games in six days just for the right to play in the championship game on the seventh day. That makes the Telus Cup a unique challenge, the hockey equivalent of an Ironman triathlon, to decide supremacy.

Even the teams that don’t make the sudden-death playoff round have to play five games in five days.

Still, at the end, after all of the skating, the shooting, the goals and the saves, they will meet at centre ice and shake hands.

For 60 minutes of play, arch rivals but, after the final whistle, united in their passion for the game they love and for their burning desire to be a Canadian champion.

Sadly, but rightfully, only one team will wear that crown Sunday.

— Managing editor Neil Godbout