Cancel culture’s next target in hockey: smelling salts

Fans call for the ban of the ban of ammonia smelling salts.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Cancel culture’s next target in hockey: smelling salts

If we as hockey fans have learned anything in the past week, it’s that Cancel Culture is alive in well in the NHL. From the Don Cherry’s firing to the stories that emerged after Mike Babcock’s firing in Toronto to the decade old story that recently outed Bill Peters in Calgary, long-time players, coaches and hockey executives must be standing at attention to see who will get “cancelled” next.

Well… here’s your next target: smelling salts.

Smelling salts?! You mean like the little ammonia capsules that players smell to essentially fire themselves up?

Like this things:



Yep. 

According to a report from the French-language Journal de Quebec, a group of doctors in the province are warning fans that smelling salts are no trivial thing and they can cause physical damage. As a result, the NHL should be removing them from players benches and dressing rooms.

“Just because it’s not banned does not mean it’s reasonable,”  When you breathe it, it’s so irritating that you suddenly feel energized and your heart starts beating fast. On the other hand, it strongly irritates the mucous membranes of the nose, throat and bronchi. It is an archaic practice that survives in time. It looks crazy. “- Madame Ayotte


I mean… it does look crazy. On the other hand… have you see what these guys do to themselves? They literally punch each other in the face and take hockey sticks to the teeth for a living… I don’t think they’re too concerned with the “mucous membranes” of their noses. 

At the risk of sounding like an out of touch old-timer… can we… can we PLEASE just let these guys play some hockey? Pretty soon each player will take to the ice in their own self-contained sleeper pod, complete with team nurse on speed dial. Good grief…

Now... should kids be doing smelling salts in minor hockey? Of course not. But, can common sense not prevail here? Children also understand that they can't drop the gloves and fight at the minor hockey league level too, surely they'd understand why they can't use smelling salts. Then again... perhaps the genie is out of the bottle. Enjoy the continued NERFing of pro sports, ladies and gentlemen.