To the editor:
Re: "Pre-season hockey fans outdo players," Oct. 3.
I also attended that game (on free tix) and was also disappointed I wasn't seeing the "real team." And I'm not a hockey fan by any stretch of the imagination, although I will jump on the bandwagon again if the Canucks make it to the finals. But I'm writing because I didn't like the way you referred to the players on the ice as "nobodies." It is dismissive and insulting to a group of young men (kids really) who've worked their asses off their entire lives to get to where they were.
For some (perhaps most) of them, this is probably the pinnacle of their career-an actual NHL game.
Whatever I think of the management, lack of accountability on the part of the organization for the culture of booze and violence that inspired the riot, those fourth line players worked hard to get to where they could entertain my son and I for a couple of hours on a Saturday night, and they deserve respect for that. Just as you deserve respect for the hard work of writing a column so that people like me can write you emails about it. None of us are nobodies.
Gordon Inglis, Vancouver
