NHL prospect Landon Sim was suspended 5 games for calling player Mennonite.

[LeafGrief]

Gentle ribbing up to moderate insults are a perfectly normal part of male socialization. Almost all of us have experienced this in some way or another, whether its calling your buddies losers when you greet them, calling your team board morons when they shoot down your hot take, or the gruff old fart (see what I did there?) at work seeing what you’re made of.

There are taboos and limits in this insulting of course, close knit friends can say just about anything, while opponents on a hockey rink are gonna get big mad real quickly, and insults can escalate to bullying and abuse, but that’s literally the nuance that socialization is about.

Stuff like the OHL’s decision here is just so darn goofy, because it’s trying to legislate this normal behaviour out of a normal place to exhibit this behaviour. Some guys are douchebags, Tony DeAngelo springs to mind (I did it again!), but the majority of guys who talk shit would turn around and buy beers all night for their opponent during the offseason. Does the OHL actually think they’re making the game safer for the players? Are they trying to avoid the softies in society getting up in arms about this sort of stuff? Because the bulk of hockey fans (as evidenced by this thread and anyone I’ve ever talked hockey with) don’t care or more actively think the league is ridiculous for making rules like this.

If your rec league wants to have rules like this, fine, whatever. But a semi-pro sports league that feeds young men into a professional entertainment product should let the young men act like young men. They’re going to want to fight and call each other p***y. Let them, because a whole lot of us WANT that edge to our entertainment.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Awesome. Teams are going to have to get a cultural anthropologist on their rosters to correctly identify the racially ambiguous for proper chirping.

Even in the 80s when I played we rolled our eyes at chirping based on race. Only smooth brains thought racist crap was witty. Girlfriends, sisters, and moms were the real pot of gold in chirping back then.

 

[Machinehead]

So calling someone a Jew is cool? How about a rag head?

Those carry with them strong ethnic connotations.

 

[3074326]

So calling someone a Jew is cool? How about a rag head?

Not even in the same ballpark

 

[Namikaze Minato]

This thread may be teetering now....


Men on knights though @BernieParent

 

[MK9]

Youre from Vancouver no? There's a tonne of them in the Fraser Valley

And to answer @MXD , you're sort of correct. People associate them with the Amish, but that's basically Pennsylvania haha. They're a branch of the anabaptist movement, fantastic farmers

You're also sort of correct. Mostly.

My dad hired a Mennonite guy and his nephew to do an addition on his place. When I was out there over the summer, the nephew was there working on the place. I had questions, so he and I got to talking about the differences. The Mennonites split off from the Amish around the time of The Protestant Reformation. Disagreements on how they should move forward, etc. Amish followed one guy (can't remember his name) and are old order, hence why the follow the simpler dress, little or no technology, etc. Mennonites followed...some other dude, can't remember his name either. He said a lot of Mennonites consider the Amish to be pretty impractical. Said they [the Amish] will spend insane amounts of money on those horses and carts.

 

[BernieParent]

This thread may be teetering now....


Men on knights though @BernieParent

Now I'm blushing.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

That’s pretty random/weird but also kind of creative lol

Don’t know the context and you’d think the guy would be careful given his history but I can say with complete confidence that there are lots of players out there in juniors and in the NHL saying things this bad or worse.

I wonder if he’s just throwing them out right in the refs face or something.

 

[Pestilence]

Then tell the player he's ugly

Yeah or that they play like a dairy farmer.

 

[Johnny HFBOARDS]

Is it just me but does this not seem ridiculous

https://x.com/i/web/status/1856396837831188688

Min max ...

 

[Oddbob]

I don't even think that is considered an insult, is it?

No. I am from the non amish mennonite background, so this would be a nothing issue to pretty much any of them. It is a lame insult as well.

 

[Oddbob]

They’re sort of like Amish people but not quite as extreme in their interpretation of scripture.

There is different variants of just the ones called Mennonites.

-Some don't drive or use technology or engines and the like. (Weirdly, most stricter Mennonites, some Amish as well, will accept rides from modern people in cars, but absolutely won't drive one themselves)
-There are some that use mechanical items such as small engines, but won't drive mechanical machines and such.
-There are some that are almost identical to the Amish, but don't call themselves Amish. Travel by horse and buggy, no hydro, etc.
-There are some who are completely the same as any other modern person but just come from the Mennonite background, which is where I fall.

It can be both classed as a religion and a group of people. If religion it is because they followed a Christian guy named Menno Simons, so they became known as Mennonites. Lots of people originally from this background are now following other Christian denominations, so from a religious perspective wouldn't be called Mennonites, not really anyhow. That is the case for me, from a Mennonite background and family, but consider myself Christian, and live very modern, like almost all of my extended family.

 

[Oddbob]

As a Mennonite that comes from names like Dyck, Dueck, Groening and Thiessen I’m calling on the OHL to just disband because they are cooked.

I know about 5 million Giesbechts. Guenther, Klassen and Sawatzky are some other popular ones.

 

[ijuka]

Why are some types of insults treated differently from others? Why is calling another player an idiot acceptable, for example?

I think that this is virtue signaling and nothing more.

 

[Oddbob]

Umm, junior hockey definitely needs a day of reckoning and to work on the bullying and misogyny from its players.

With this suspension they're focusing on the wrong things.

Also is it confirmed he said Mennonite? That's one of the weirdest chirps I've ever heard.

I see he is with the Knights. London is very close to a big Mennonite community and I believe he would 100% know the term, otherwise how know to even say it? That said, it isn't an insult at all, and he would get made fun of for thinking it was.

 

[Oddbob]

Why does a 20 year old kid know what a Mennonite is.

Where he lives is likely the answer. Lots and lots of Mennonites in the not too far away area. Though he should have known it isn't a good insult at all, and no Menno cares.

It is if you use it as an insult.

"haha ya f'ing menonite" is probably what he said. To someone who probably is one. It's a put down.

Haha, no it really isn't.

 

[Oddbob]

All joking aside, I live among both Mennonites and Amish in my region. Mennonites are similar to Amish in some ways, but allow more modernity. Matter of fact, some Mennonites drive the Amish to Walmart since Amish aren't supposed to drive. Last month I saw an Amish woman drive out of the Walmart parking lot in a CRV loaded with Amish women. Thought I was hallucinating, but it happened. Maybe the Mennonites are having a bad influence on the Amish. Hope she doesn't get shunned. That's really bad.

In any case, this suspension is beyond stupid. I highly doubt Mennonites would take offense at their name being invoked. They are very chill and awesome people with an amazing sense of humor, something too many people in authority have lost .

No, they are just weird that way. Refusal to drive vehicles but will accept rides in them. Both Amish and non Amish Mennonites that are older order ones.

 

[Sniperberg]

While this seems pretty ridiculous to suspend over in a vacuum, I do find it interesting that, on a forum that is obsessed with bashing refs/rules for gray areas and always saying "just call it by the book", there's so many in here essentially "well yea, it was against the rules, but nah". If, as I understand it, he meant to use the term in a disparaging way, it seems to be pretty clearly against the rules and subject to a required 5 games.

Again, still a silly thing to be suspended over, but l think it has much less to do with being "paper soft these days" and more to do with making a point to follow the rule across the board (so that you do not create situations where someone who truly deserves the punishment claims the whole "but but but what about them" BS). The fact that he has history with previous suspensions for language didn't help things, I'm sure.

This x100.

 

[Acallabeth]

While I totally support the idea of gentlemanly conduct and believe the 5-game suspension is likely the result of that NHL prospect not learning his lesson the 1st time...

You'd think it was a polo competition, not a hockey game.

 

[CN8]

I’m a Mennonite and this is hilarious

 

[Turning Mangiapanese]

I think this might be first time I've heard that word even being used outside of a Weird Al song.

 

[Number8]

I got called a Luddite once and it took me years to recover. I told him he was wrong and just sat in an unheated room lit by a candle, seething.

As someone who is considering becoming a luddite. I find your joke offensive - you f***ing specter.

Now forgive me as I go back to cutting my lawn with a pair of scissors.

 

[uncleben]

If your rec league wants to have rules like this, fine, whatever. But a semi-pro sports league that feeds young men into a professional entertainment product should let the young men act like young men. They’re going to want to fight and call each other p***y. Let them, because a whole lot of us WANT that edge to our entertainment.

I think an argument could equally be made that this is a major-junior league, not minor-junior, not rec league, not pickup shinny. These are players aspiring to be pros and if they want to play in the greatest league in the world they should be held to the highest standard ... aka the lowest bar: not mocking people's identity (religious, cultural, racial, or sexual)

What's so hard about just not doing that?

Why are some types of insults treated differently from others? Why is calling another player an idiot acceptable, for example?

I think that this is virtue signaling and nothing more.

Because other insults are not predicated on individuals' race, culture, ethnicity, or religion? A word like "idiot" is very individualized, colloquial, and subjective.

Pretending there is not a difference is just virtue signaling for the "everyone is a snowflake" side

 

[daver]

While this seems pretty ridiculous to suspend over in a vacuum, I do find it interesting that, on a forum that is obsessed with bashing refs/rules for gray areas and always saying "just call it by the book", there's so many in here essentially "well yea, it was against the rules, but nah". If, as I understand it, he meant to use the term in a disparaging way, it seems to be pretty clearly against the rules and subject to a required 5 games.

Again, still a silly thing to be suspended over, but l think it has much less to do with being "paper soft these days" and more to do with making a point to follow the rule across the board (so that you do not create situations where someone who truly deserves the punishment claims the whole "but but but what about them" BS). The fact that he has history with previous suspensions for language didn't help things, I'm sure.

There is such a thing as to take a sledge hammer unnecessarily to an issue.

Not sure I agree with the concept that words can be so damaging to someone that it necessitates punishment that it is a crime equivalent to trying to someone's head off.

This contributes to a wider societal trend of protecting people's "feelings" that is far out of proportion.

 

[Number8]

So calling someone a Jew is cool? How about a rag head?

I know you are being facetious but you've actually hit on something.

I can call someone a Jew and be 100% correct and legit and inoffensive. I have Jewish friends who will discuss the current climate by saying "as a Jew, I think.....". It is descriptive word used regularly around the world that can also be used as a slur.

But it's not like the N word. That has always been a nasty slur that a group of people effectively took back as part of pushback against generations of atrocious behavior around the world. As in "I can say that word........ but YOU cannot."

The word Jew does not fit in that category. Rag head is a non starter and you know it.

The reason I go into this though, is that you raised an issue that requires one to officiate intent.

#25 - four minutes for attempting to knock a guys teeth out. He missed, but he tried.