Disgraceful brawl breaks out in Hong Kong at youth tournament

Not even kidding... I'm pretty sure I saw a few karate chops in there.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Disgraceful brawl breaks out in Hong Kong at youth tournament

It's no secret that the NHL is desperately trying to make inroads with the game in Asia ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. The NHL has staged exhibition games with the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins all playing China as part of its NHL China Games. It's no surprise really, with a population of over one billion, China represents a huge market of potential hockey fans. If the NHL can manage to generate interest in even 1% of the populace, it would be an enormous windfall for the world's biggest hockey league.

Aside from showcasing its own players and teams though, the NHL has partnered with hockey programs across Asia to pique interest in the sport among young people. You may recall that The Great One himself Mr. Wayne Gretzky was helping to run youth hockey clinics in China last season.

"Good on the NHL for realizing [the game is increasingly popular in China] and they've stepped in," Gretzky said at the time. "They were over there last year and they're really trying to put a bit of an imprint of our game and our sport in China, and it just helps make our game bigger."

So, while the sport of hockey seems to be growing in Asia, there have been growing pains. For example, take this disgraceful conduct from this past week's youth games in Hong Kong, which sees just about every player on the ice break the code of hockey fighting.

Check it out:


Third man in, gloves on, punching in the back of the head... how many violations of the code can you count here? It's an absolute disgrace and these kids and their coaches should feel ashamed of themselves. We'd never condone fighting in the sport at lower levels, but if you're going to throw 'em at least drop the gloves, square up and throw 'em properly. This is just embarrassing. 

Source: Pavel Barber