Hockey N.L. president says increasing altercations behind decision to axe post-game handshake

Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador president Jared Butler hopes that by eliminating the post-game handshake the organization will reduce what he sees as a trend in escalating incidents in minor hockey.

In late December, Hockey N.L. — the sport's amateur governing body in Newfoundland and Labrador — announced it was discontinuing the practice and replacing it with a pre-game acknowledgement.

Butler pointed to a Hockey Canada report that found N.L. had the second highest number of maltreatment and discrimination complaints, which he called "concerning" and in need of correction.

"Now one event is too many, one event is too much in the handshake lineup for us. But the pattern of events and the intensity of those events when they do happen, the gravity of them, the ages we're seeing them at, are concerning," Butler told CBC News on Tuesday.

He said they vary in intensity, "from full-on altercations to verbal altercations." There are incidents that start at the handshake and go off ice, with some spilling outside the arena.

Butler said the long-standing handshake will now happen at the start of the game. He said it might reduce the risk of "inappropriate interaction" between players, "while still at the same time looking at health and safety for everybody involved in it. It's a tough, tough balance."

Moreover, Butler said, dealing with the few "troublemakers" by giving suspensions hasn't curbed bad behaviour. He said the decision announced last month wasn't based on a single incident but a pattern over time.

The pre-game acknowledgement is a trial and they will see if it makes a difference, said Butler. From there, they'll examine the outcome and whether to continue with it.

"But if we don't try anything, we're going to be doing the same thing over and over again and not shifting the underlying challenges that we're seeing in the game."

Butler said the decision was reached after looking at other jurisdictions and other organizations that do pre-game acknowledgements.

The decision has gotten a lot of reaction, with even Premier Andrew Furey weighing in, and made news across Canada and at the world junior hockey championship in Sweden.

Butler is aware of the discussion about the decision and said it's had a big impact on the organization and its volunteers.

But he said it wasn't a decision they reached on "a whim" but was analyzed from multiple perspectives, "with an effort to try to do something different for health and safety reasons, while maintaining sportsmanship and reducing some of the challenges that we were seeing in that trend over time."

Dr. Carla Edwards, a sports psychiatrist in Waterdown, Ont., said she was shocked when she heard the news that Hockey N.L. was suspending the post-game handshake.