I’m not a fan of fighting in hockey, but I think you would be mistaken to assume that I’m for the wussification of the sport. Before I even became a teenager, I had two hockey injuries under my belt: six stitches above my right eyebrow from a skate blade, and a broken shoulder from an illegal check (I was pinned against the boards behind the net, the whistle had been blown, and a player charged in from the top of the faceoff circle. He was big for his age. I never had a chance to get out the way. He got a five-minute misconduct). I don’t have a problem with these injuries as part of the sport. Heavy hitting, fast skating and fast shots are okay. But professional hockey has sold its soul by becoming the professional wrestling of the ice. I don’t enjoy that spectacle, and I hope they extract themselves from that curse. How would you like it, if fighting were a regular feature of football?

Granted, you believed coach was acting like a bully. But the parent (and now convicted killer) was complaining to the coach that the practice game was too rough. Big deal (See my injuries up above — neither my father nor I complained about it). So the coach was too surly for his own good. It’s always been suggested that the removal of openly carried guns from society was followed by a reduction in civil manners. Perhaps we should reintroduce duels with six-shooters. Hockey High Noon.

As far as your going-postal event, I would have probably joined the lady and tried to verbally insult that adult boy by pointing out his deficiencies as a gentleman. The idea is to stir up the crowd to join in. I don’t know that he would decide to defend his "honor", but I’d be willing to fight if he thought it was that important. This is no boast from a distance; I’ve been in a similar situation. While Christmas shopping in a bookstore a few years back, a young "man" jumped in front of a lady to grab a just freed-up register. Now Christmas shopping is an irritating chore for me, so I intentionally held my tongue, since I was already in a poor mood. But I made a great show being a gentleman, and let her cut in front of me. She said loudly, "at least there are still some gentlemen around." That was enough for me. The young "man" pretended not to hear as he rigidly held his attention to the register. Point made.