A Social-Cultural Approach to Current State of NHL Aggression

I've done some reading because my college courses aren't starting till next week, and I have entirely too much free time. My mind is engulfed by hockey (as it usually is) to a crazy degree because it's the playoffs. I'm always particularly interested in the social and psychological aspects of any subject, so naturally I am always exploring the social-psychological influences at play in the crazy actions taking place in the NHL.

Does Shanahan understand what he is doing? He doesn't appear to have a grasp on the idea of the appropriate degree of punishment necessary to deter dangerous actions. Players don't usually make decisions beforehand to do something dirty, and that's why you need to be particularly harsh in deterring that behavior by embedding it every aspect of a player's subconscious so that when that split second comes where he may or may not do something stupid, he had become conditioned to avoid the dangerous play at all means necessary.

Players are conditioned to be violent, to accept fighting, and to accept hitting, and nothing will significantly change the head injury problem the league has until something gives with the culture of the NHL. I don't know if that can ever happen. The articles linked, quoted, and reviewed below provide some useful insight (for me, at least).

Called Ugly, Shanahan Cries

The following is a chapter called "The Grate Combeback" (pp.183-187) from the book In the Bin: Reckless and Rude Stories from the Penalty Boxes of the NHL by NHL Official Lloyd Freeberg (Triumph Books, Chicago, 1998). It's a particularly hilarious story of Shanahan, made more hilarious by his position in the league now.

With the second selection in the 1987 entry draft, New Jersey had a tough decision to make. Buffalo had already chosen high-scoring Pierre Turgeon from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Still available to the Devils was an even higher scorer in Joe Sakic, who was filling the net for the Swift Current Broncos. Having finished the season out of the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, NJ desperately needed the soft hands of a natural scorer, and Sakic's 130 points proved he had those.