No, Peterborough Petes’ Josh Maguire was not ‘a victim of wider culture wars’

Footage of the incident that led to the Peterborough Petes' Josh Maguire receiving a five-game OHL suspension for what league calls a "bullying action" has finally materialized.

Watching it again, after having seen it unfold in real time, it is hard to see why there was any hue and cry over the league's decision. Well, besides the sorry-for-being-cynical suspicision that National Post columnist Joe O'Connor came to his conclusion first and trimmed the facts to suit. The apologia for Maguire's misdeed cast the 17-year-old wing as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of "wider culture wars where kids aren't allowed to play dodgeball at school any more and where anti-bullying crusades are the norm."

Seven days ago, Maguire's Petes were about to go on the penalty kill late in the first period of Game 6 of their series with the Kingston Frontenacs after captain Connor Boland got whistled for tripping Sam Bennett. Playoff Hockey 101 says that the team getting the gate will try to take a man with it. Conversely, it's a cardinal sin for a player on the other side to negate the power play.

Maguire appeared to exchange words with the Frontenacs' Spencer Watson, but an official skated in between them. Moments later, as a shoving began between Bennett and the Petes' Matt McCartney, Maguire skated across the ice and began punching Henri Ikonen, who held on to his gloves stick. Clearly, neither Kingston player was willing to take the bait.

Those saying that Ikonen should have fought might be ignorant of one of the OHL's 'second fight on the same stoppage' rule. If a fight is already taking place, any others who brawl and receiving fighting majors also receive an automatic game misconduct. O'Connor
labelling the Kingston left wing as "the not so little Henri Ikonen, a six-foot, almost 200 pound Finn" comes off like pandering to the Don Cherry crowd.

One's height and weight does not mean having to be violent; that's outdating thinking. Ikonen's nationality is irrelevant. So is his discretion, apparently.

(How ironic is it that Ikonen was drafted to Kingston by Doug Gilmour? By the way, Gilmour stated the double minor Maguire received was insufficient, although many just took his comments as excuse-making for Kingston's loss.)

It's notable how TV Cogeco Peterborough commentators Pete Dalliday (play-by-play) and Brian Drumm (analyst), who presumably take in more OHL action than Joe O'Connor, reacted to what was happening. They saw Maguire would be in trouble. Each of the OHL players who have received bans for a 'bullying action' during these playoffs, Maguire and the Windsor Spitfires' Cristiano DiGiacinto, are 17-year-olds who were competing in their first series.

As Drumm put it: "Emotions are so high. Good athletes — great athletes — can control 'em and let it loose at the right time. You've got to pick your spot."

The crux of it was that it was a teachable moment.

How the conversation goes from that to this bit of retrograde revisionism — "On Sunday, in Peterborough, he didn’t quit. He wanted to win. He got in a fight, or thought he did. And that’s hockey, or at least it used to be" — is baffling. (How punching another player is part of wanting to win is neither here nor there.)

Or actually it is not baffling. One should see this tripe for what it is. It was a dog whistle to rile up all the keyboard knights in the Status Quo Army who refuse to admit the game has changed and have appointed themselves to call out 'softness,' so you will know they are tough and their opinion trumps yours.

All that O'Connor left out was a request for people to tweet the link to CBC's Coach's Corner account. Too obvious?

Every anti-violence rule the OHL has enacted recently is intended to avoid giving "fighting a bad name." It wants to adjust to a changing society, but only on its terms. It doesn't want to eventually have to resort to making fighting an automatic game misconduct. It sees a place for a good scrap born from a disagreement, or to avenge a dirty play. It's meant to maintain a limited place for fighting. It is also, in a litigious society where every sports-liking lawyer is probably reading League Of Denial, trying to show it did not create an environment where teenage players were expected to fight frequently at the risk of doing lifelong damage to their brains.

The OHL is fallible. It overreacts. In this case, as Kawartha This Week's Mike Lacey pointed out, though, it simply enforced a rule every team was onside with when it was enacted. Complaining about it is just whingeing.

It was unfortunate for Josh Maguire that he didn't get to contribute last Tuesday when the Petes scored the franchise's biggest win in nearly a decade by winning Game 7 over Kingston. However, one set of problems isn't the same as another. The "label" he supposedly got, however, will wear off. Having something out there in Google-land is not that chilling. Adults accept that everyone makes mistakes and learn to determine how people have learned and moved on from their youthful indiscretions. There is no doubt Maguire is a nice young man, but so is every player who's ever been suspended.

The OHL's vernacular, 'bullying action,' is obviously controversial, but it fit. A working definition of bullying is inflicting one's emotions upon others whether it's physically, verbally, philosophically or rhetorically. Hopefully this rebuttal didn't cross those lines. Dissent is necessary and welcome, but it needs to substantiated.

The non-denial denial of bullying,, always — always — is to try claiming to be the real victim. In this case, a columnist did it by proxy.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (video: TV Cogeco Peterborough).