First things first.
For once, I see eye to eye with my colleague Dave Pollard. There is absolutely no excuse for that disgusting brawl involving eight-year-olds at a tournament in Guelph, Ont., this past weekend.
Yes, let that Stupidity Spotlight shine brightly.
News came out Tuesday that an advocate — and I get nervous every time I see that word — believes the time has come to ban competitive hockey for kids under 12.
Gee, nothing like a knee-jerk overreaction.
Emile Therien, whose son Chris played in the NHL, argues that allowing children of that age to play hockey competitively "smacks of child abuse."
Give me a break. "Child abuse"? A tad dramatic, I reckon.
The answer isn't depriving kids of playing sports against one another, regardless if it is in a competitive environment. As troubling as the events in Guelph were, let's not forget this was quite isolated incident and is by no means a barometer of the goings-on in minor hockey.
If anything, the coaches and parents involved in this ordeal were far more childish than their offspring.
Minor hockey tournaments at every level have been staged for decades, and very seldom do we witness anything like we did this past weekend at the Guelph Power Play Tournament.
Banning competitive hockey is not the answer. Not even close.
If you take the family down to the local playground, and a six-year-old picks up a handful of sand and fires it into your kid's eyes, do you cry out for a ban on sandboxes?
While neighborhood strays would likely be doing back flips at the thought of having some large litter boxes to do their business in, it just isn't feasible.
Punishing the children, of course, is not the answer.
Reprimanding the parents and the coaches who seem to take the game more seriously than their kids is what is needed.
Hand them suspensions, forbidding them from the rink for a week or two. Get the police pressing charges against those who step over the line.
As Pollard points out, the game is about the kids themselves, not the overburdening parents who, when they look at their kid in a mirror, see the reflection of Sidney Crosby staring back at them.
The kids aren't to blame. They don't know any better.
They're kids.
And the point Therien misses altogether is it's still a kid's game.