I’ve started writing this post in my mind for several days now. Training camp has started and this is a hockey blog so I should be excited.

YEAH!!!🥳

Except I’m not. I feel so separated from that old passion which drove me, so removed from the joy of a new season, that I don’t even know that I care. It’s not the Toronto Maple Leafs’ job to make me care about them (except it kind of is). It’s not the NHL’s responsibility to inspire my excitement about the upcoming season (except it kinda is). It’s for me to decide what I am inspired by, what I give my attention to, what I spend my energy on. So what has changed?

Not much, as far as I can see, and that’s my problem. I’m watching all the interviews and listening to all the news as it drops. Everyone in Leaf land is excited to start fresh, another kick at the can. LET’S GO!!! Right? Some guys have put on weight, some dropped weight, they’ve picked up some new tricks and they’ve worked on their fundamentals and all the hope you could want is just bubbling around. The optimism of September washes away the pain of June. Same as it always was.

But the world outside of hockey is shifting. Not slowly, not anymore. The lines that are being drawn are getting thicker, the gap between US and THEM is getting wider. And as I listen to these athletes talking about their training or their process I can’t help but feel a sense of impotent fury. These are leaders. These are role models. What is the model they are presenting? Keep your head down and focus on what you know. Pay no attention to what’s outside your gym. Have no concern for the people of your community. This is not a role we should model.

We are , all of us, a global community. We, all of us, are accountable for the impact we have on our community. Yet the hockey community seems to mirror the larger world stage in the desire to hide from things that are hard. There are some words that keep ringing in my head as I write (with my thumbs) “evil thrives in silence” and these days those words seem more like a prophecy than a warning.

So what do I expect? These are athletes not scholars or philosophers. They don’t owe us their opinions, especially when they are not informed. All true.

SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING?!?

We tell these boys, with our silence, that they can behave however they want and we will protect them from accountability as long as they are good enough at the game to make money for their owners. We tell them to sweat for the fans and smile for the cameras , and in return we will turn a blind eye to any domestic violence or sexual assault or whatever else. Just as long as they win enough.

This is not okay.

Human rights are being violated in the name of corporate interests and the difference between US and THEM is becoming the difference between humanity and not. Maybe that’s the point I’m trying to make. I wanted my hockey heroes to be real heroes. We need real heroes, people who are willing to say the hard things and stand for those who cannot speak or stand for themselves.

But who cares about genocide or pedophiles or a planet in crisis or corruption or rape or an abundance of human suffering when hockey is back.

I mean it… who? Where are you? We need you.