I don't know how many people on this list are hockey parents, like myself.
We take a lot of abuse from others for our "violent" sport. Two things we
need to think about today particularly, is it the sport itself and the
people drawn to it, the emotion of it all, or is it parents, particular
parents, who are too emotionally involved, who are playing (winning/losing)
through their children? I hope it is the latter, because we can fix that.

I think of many times I have felt my "blood boil", many times I've seen
parents losing it in the stands, or even going on the ice. Because I'm a
woman, I could step in, the man wouldn't hit me. Once we did have the rink
manager call the police.

In this case, where were the other parents? Did nobody step in and say
that's enough?

We don't know the "story behind the story" in this case. MAybe there is more
going on between these men than we know. We know it's a tragedy,
particularly for those four children left parentless. The lesson is to look
into our hearts and what we have done over the years. We can't take lightly
the idle threats we may make in the stands or in the foyer of the rink. We
need to take better care of each other.

Susan S. from Boston