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).

Goon

Tonight I ordered the movie Goon on-demand (bless on-demand for letting you rent movies the day they come out in theatres). Although it apparently was JUST released this past week to the US, I hadn't heard about the movie through any sort of advertising. I had only heard about it from many fellow hockey fans who talked about it. Since many of them spoke very highly of it, I wanted to see it for myself. I honestly am not a fan of the name Goon to begin with, because it already gives the wrong impression although I suppose it is appropriate for the film - just not for the reasons that are normally associated with the word "goon" to non-hockey or casual-hockey fans.