I remember the complete opposite.... The NBA in the 90s is arguably their golden age. NHL in the 90s (known as the dead puck era) was on a downward trend coming out of the amazing 80s....NHL really didn't pick itself back up until 2005 after the lockout.

I think there's a big difference between what Peters did using slurs and what Babcock did to Marner.

The Babcock controversy reminds me of the moral dilemma in the film Whiplash. The big question is, can coaches (or teachers, or parents) push players out of their comfort zone, "break" them, to get the best of their potential? In some cases, someone doing that to you can have positive effects in the long run. I don't like this psychological exercise myself, but is it worse than shouting at the player in the dressing room? It's more difficult to judge than what people think.

The racial slurs, on the other hand, have no place whatsoever from a coach. This case is completely different.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we changed the coach in Toronto, and players are much better off with Keefe. Just saying, the three cases mentioned in the post are not a trend. They're distinct incidents without the same implications.

And how do feel about what Babcock did with Marner and on top of that being mental health advocate?

Yeah things don't just need to change in one aspect of this...It's easily more than one aspect.

Lol! What??

It's not rolling back to the 1970s. I love this back in my day, give "us" our game back, get off my lawn crap.

Everything has a shelf life including a way of doing things. The Don Cherry's, the Peters', the Babcock's way of doing things isn't tolerated anymore. They can sit back and sulk about how back in their day things were better until "you people" started doing things differently. That's fine they can be sensitive about their stuff all they want. But they'll get passed by like all dinosaurs do.

Brindamour said it best the other day. The gap in the power structure between a player/coach/ gm has been too large, that this dynamic is changing, players have more power, and more stories will come out - because fans and society doesn't tolerate this stuff.

It's simple, don't be an assh*le and there's nothing to worry about. Treat someone like sh*t and there's accountability now. That's a bad thing for "us"? .. lol. F'ing ridiculous take, Po.