Stanley Cup Research Articles

Queering the Gaze: Calgary Hockey Breasts, Dynamics of Desire, and Colonial Hauntings

This paper compares two hockey-related breast-flashing events that occurred in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The first was performed by Calgary Flames fans, the ‘Flamesgirls’, in the 2004 NHL Stanley Cup final, and the second flashing event occurred when members and fans of the Booby Orr hockey team participated in lifting their shirts and jerseys at a lesbian hockey tournament at the 2007 Outgames/Western Cup held in Calgary. We deploy an analysis of visual psychic economies to highlight psychoanalytic framings of masculinized and feminized subject positions in both heteronormative and lesbigay-coded sporting spaces. We suggest there is a queer twist to the Booby Orr flashing context, which we read as disruptive and potentially resistive. The paper ends by turning to Avery Gordon’s (1997) Ghostly Matters, to consider how even in its queer transgression, the Booby Orr flashing scene is simultaneously haunted and saturated by the absent presence of colonial technologies of visuality and sexual violence. It is argued that in this case, openings for transgressive gender dynamics might be imaginable—even as those logics themselves are disciplined and perhaps made possible through racialized colonial framings of appropriate desire.

Spoonful of sugar or strong medicine: ‘Meet and Greet’ as a strategy for policing large-scale public events

ABSTRACTRecognising that the police response may have a significant impact on the type of behaviour displayed by the crowd has prompted many police departments to adopt less obtrusive approaches to crowd management. Low-profile, negotiation-based public-order policing strategies have been used successfully in low-risk crowd situations. However, it remains unclear as to whether or not this style of policing can be effectively applied in more high-risk environments. Focusing on the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot as a case study, this research provides valuable insight into a situation in which the low-profile policing strategy was perceived to have failed. Surveying members of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), the findings highlight what the police perceive to be the strengths and limitations of, as well as the potential consequences for implementing a low-profile policing strategy. Based on this police perspective, this article will provide information useful for helping the VPD, and other police departments, improve future crowd management efforts.

‘Our Victorias Victorious’: Media, Rivalry, and the 1896 Winnipeg-Montreal Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges

This study analyzes media coverage of the two Stanley Cup hockey challenges played by the Winnipeg Victorias and the Montreal Victorias in February and December 1896. First presented in 1893, the Stanley Cup symbolized the national hockey championship of Canada. The essay argues that newspaper reports and telegraph reconstructions of early Stanley Cup hockey matches brought Canadians into both local and national communities of interest centred on sport, while helping to create a mediated Canadian ‘hockey world’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 1896 Stanley Cup contests were likely the first two games in which the technology of telegraphy was applied to the sport of hockey in such a way that large crowds in distant cities could experience matches as they were being played. In addition, this study examines the regional and interurban rivalries that were expressed through Stanley Cup competition. Newspapers depicted Montreal and Winnipeg hockey teams as representatives of east-west conflict and difference, as well as embodiments of community identity and civic pride.

National Media Coverage and the Creation of a Canadian ‘Hockey World’: The Winnipeg-Montreal Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges, 1899–1903

This essay examines media coverage of five Stanley Cup hockey championship series played between hockey clubs based in Winnipeg and Montreal from 1899 to 1903. Coverage of the Winnipeg–Montreal challenges contributed significantly to the growth of a Canadian ‘hockey world’ – and a broader ‘world of sport’ – during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, press reports and telegraph re-enactments linked fans in Winnipeg and Montreal together. At the same time, newspapers in other Canadian centres provided coverage of Stanley Cup matches. As the media constructed a shared sports information system throughout Canada, people were drawn into a wide-ranging community of interest centred on sport. Telegraph bulletins, in particular, gave fans a strong sense of participation in games that were being played in other places. By 1903, Stanley Cup hockey challenges had become ‘national’ Canadian events, followed by audiences across the country through news stories and ‘live’ telegraph reconstructions.

‘The Product of the Town Itself’: Community Representation and the Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges of the Kenora Thistles, 1903–1907

This case study of community representation in Canadian hockey analyzes media accounts of four Stanley Cup hockey series played by the Kenora Thistles between 1903 and 1907. It examines newspaper coverage of the Thistles hockey club as it moved from an amateur team represented by players with roots in their home community to a professional aggregation that included paid imports from outside the town. The essay explores the relationship between sport and civic identity during a key time of change in top-level hockey. The dominant narrative surrounding the Thistles portrayed players as true ‘members’ of the town of Kenora. Even after the turn to professionalism, narratives of small-town, amateur purity and close connections to the community characterized coverage of the Thistles as they pursued the Stanley Cup. At the same time, however, a growing emphasis on securing the personnel that could ensure victory led to praise for the club’s efforts to please its supporters, or ‘customers’. As a result, this study of notions of civic representation in early hockey provides insight into the process by which sports teams came to be viewed as symbolic representatives of their communities.

Constructing a Cultural History of Canadian Hockey

This essay explains how the collection of papers in this volume contributes to the growing scholarly literature dealing with hockey’s role in Canadian society and culture. In particular, this project explores aspects of hockey – and its connection to the sports media – which have not been sufficiently examined by historians. The cultural history of hockey in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has not been researched thoroughly by those working in the fields of sport history, Canadian history or cultural studies. This study addresses this deficiency by assessing key elements of the media-constructed ‘world of hockey’ during the early years of Stanley Cup competition. It examines local and national newspaper coverage of championship hockey games between 1894 and 1907 in order to understand interurban and regional rivalries, the national scope of the sports media, violence and gender construction and community representation. As local and national audiences were exposed to similar media texts and narratives about hockey, they developed shared understandings of the cultural meanings of the sport throughout Canada.

Hockey, Violence, and Masculinity: Newspaper Coverage of the Ottawa ‘Butchers’, 1903–1906

This case study of violence and masculinity in Canadian hockey examines newspaper reports of Stanley Cup matches involving the Ottawa Silver Seven between 1903 and 1906. It assesses media narratives of rough and aggressive hockey in relation to gender and class identities in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada. Sports like hockey played a significant role in the social construction of masculinity during this time period, helping to counter the fear that overcivilization was making men weak, effeminate, and over-sophisticated. Media coverage of Ottawa’s championship hockey team frequently made reference to violent incidents and rough tactics. Newspapers constructed cultural narratives of hockey that combined elements of ‘brutal butchery’ and ‘strenuous spectacle’. These narratives spoke to different ways of experiencing and enjoying hockey, and to various tensions within public perceptions of the sport. Depictions of ‘brutal butchery’ combined outrage and fascination; accounts of ‘strenuous spectacle’ portrayed violence as part of an absorbing, masculine display. Thus, descriptions of robust and hard-hitting hockey expressed both ideals of respectable, middle-class masculinity and characteristics of rough, working-class masculinity. In addition, the admiration of rugged and physical hockey articulated in early twentieth-century newspaper accounts is still prominent in the culture of hockey today.

Media, Culture, and the Meanings of Hockey

This essay describes a plan for investigating the cultural meanings of hockey in Canada by examining media narratives of high-level amateur and professional hockey during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, this project analyzes English Canadian newspaper coverage of Stanley Cup games between 1894 and 1907, as well as the telegraph reconstructions that enabled fans to share a simultaneous experience of distant games. Media coverage of hockey brought Canadians into local and national communities of interest, while constructing narratives of manhood, regional rivalry, and civic pride. Hockey played a significant role in the construction of gender and class identities, and in debates about amateurism, professionalism, and community representation in sport. By exploring key issues related to media, gender, and community identities in early hockey, this research addresses important gaps in the study of sport history and the analysis of sport and Canadian popular culture.

Stages and demands in the careers of Canadian National Hockey League players

Researchers have identified some demands of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) players, yet there is little direction for players hoping to reach the lucrative league. The objectives of this study were to identify the stages, statuses and demands in Canadian NHL players’ careers and propose an empirical career model of Canadian NHL players. In total, 5 rookies, 5 veterans and 13 retirees had their interviews undergo an interpretive thematic analysis. Prospects face the NHL combine, training camp and minor league assignment. While developing into NHL players, rookies deal with NHL call-ups, team competition and formative production while sophomores seemed preoccupied by the opposition. Prime veterans become All-Stars by garnering point production and challenging for the Stanley Cup while seasoned veterans remain relevant through training camps. A discussion about the model’s viability is followed by applications for sport psychology researchers and practitioners.

The 2011 Stanley Cup Riot: police perspectives and lessons learned

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine crowd violence in relation to the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot from the perspective of those police officers who were involved in the event, and identify any lessons that can be learned from this incident. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 460 Vancouver police officers participated in this study. Police perceptions of the riot were elicited via mailed questionnaires, which focused on key themes related to crowd disorder and police response, including preparations, deployment, training, safety, causes, and future prevention. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using descriptive approaches and one-sample t-tests. Findings – The study findings revealed that, in general, police felt ill-prepared prior to the riot, and ill- and unsafe during the riot. Their responses also suggested that their negative perceptions of the riot were the result of a few prominent factors, namely inadequate deployment, a lack of operational planning, and the presence of a large and belligerent crowd. Research limitations/implications – This study represents an important first step in understanding the issues associated with preventing and containing disorderly crowds from the perspective of police officers. Although valuable, this study does have a few limitations, including post hoc data collection. Practical implications – This study provides important insights into the causes of riots and the particular difficulties officers face during the course of a riot. These insights may be used by departments to assist with planning and preparations related to preventing riots and effectively limiting crowd disorder. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine police perceptions in a Canadian context. It utilizes a comparatively large sample, and is among the very few studies that includes the views of officers who have actually experienced a riot.

Riding a probabilistic support vector machine to the Stanley Cup

Abstract:The predictive performance of various team metrics is compared in the context of 105 best-of-seven national hockey league (NHL) playoff series that took place between 2008 and 2014 inclusively. This analysis provides renewed support for traditional box score statistics such as goal differential, especially in the form of Pythagorean expectations. A parsimonious relevance vector machine (RVM) learning approach is compared with the more common support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. Despite the potential of the RVM approach, the SVM algorithm proved to be superior in the context of hockey playoffs. The probabilistic SVM results are used to derive playoff performance expectations for NHL teams and identify playoff under-achievers and over-achievers. The results suggest that the Arizona Coyotes and the Carolina Hurricanes can both be considered Round 2 over-achievers while the Nashville Predators would be Round 2 under-achievers, even after accounting for several observable team performance metrics and playoff predictors. The Vancouver Canucks came the closest to qualify as Stanley Cup Finals under-achievers after they lost against the Boston Bruins in 2011. Overall, the results tend to support the idea that the NHL fields extremely competitive playoff teams, that chance or other intangible factors play a significant role in NHL playoff outcomes and that playoff upsets will continue to occur regularly.

“Do-it-Yourself Justice”

In June 2011, during the ice hockey Stanley Cup, as the Vancouver Canucks were losing, riots started in downtown Vancouver. Social media were used to communicate between authorities and citizens, including the rioters. The media reporting on these events framed these communications within different narratives, which in turn raised ethical considerations. The authors identify and reflect upon ideas of justice, fairness, responsibility, accountability and integrity that arise in the media stories. In addition they investigate (1) the “institutional unpreparedness” of the Vancouver police department when receiving such quantity of material and dealing with new processes of inquiry such material requires; (2) the “unintended do-it-yourself-justice”: the shift from supporting crisis responders to social media vigilantes: citizens overruling authorities and enforcing justice on their own terms and by their own means through social media and; (3) the “unintended do-it-yourself-society” supported by the potential-of social media's use for prompting people to act.

Analytics of shots in Stanley Cup 2013 Final

Analytics of shots in Stanley Cup 2013 Final

The Problems and Challenges of Managing Crowd Sourced Audio-Visual Evidence

A number of recent incidents, such as the Stanley Cup Riots, the uprisings in the Middle East and the London riots have demonstrated the value of crowd sourced audio-visual evidence wherein citizens submit audio-visual footage captured on mobile phones and other devices to aid governmental institutions, responder agencies and law enforcement authorities to confirm the authenticity of incidents and, in the case of criminal activity, to identify perpetrators. The use of such evidence can present a significant logistical challenge to investigators, particularly because of the potential size of data gathered through such mechanisms and the added problems of time-lining disparate sources of evidence and, subsequently, investigating the incident(s). In this paper we explore this problem and, in particular, outline the pressure points for an investigator. We identify and explore a number of particular problems related to the secure receipt of the evidence, imaging, tagging and then time-lining the evidence, and the problem of identifying duplicate and near duplicate items of audio-visual evidence.

The Riot Kiss: Framing Memes as Visual Argument

This essay analyzes the riot kiss photograph taken by Rich Lam after game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Vancouver and its subsequent life as a visual internet meme. Noting how this image and its reproductions both operated as memes, I argue that the riot kiss photograph's rapid circulation across numerous participatory sites exposed the diverse argument frames employed to create arguments about this image and simultaneously marked the ambiguity of commonplace readings. Public recognition of such instability motivated the continued invention of arguments about this image through reproduction and creative manipulation. I dissect the various claims fashioned about the original photograph and the ways in which the ambiguity of the frameworks for those claims motivated the creative manipulation of the photograph. This essay contributes to argumentation theory by offering an opening foray into understanding memes as forms of visual argument.

Looking Back 50 Years in Hospital Administration

Healthcare policy and hospital administration are dynamic and growing fields, oriented toward shaping the future. In an effort to understand where these fields have come from, as well as some of the re-occuring challenges faced, we conducted a retrospective analysis. Our research identified progress and major accomplishments, as well as issues that continue to challenge the field in five key areas: (1) the evolution of nursing, (2) funding and legislation, (3) hospital design, construction and technology, (4) patient care and infection control and (5) leadership. To explore these areas, a thematic content review was conducted on the 12 inaugural issues of Hospital Administration in Canada, a hospital administration periodical from 1962. All written content was reviewed, coded and categorized into major themes that represented the major hospital administration topics of 50 years ago. In this article, five prominent themes are explored and further illustrated using key stories and milestones from 1962.

Shame Justice on Social Media: How it Hurts and Ways to Limit it

Riots broke out in Vancouver following the final game of the 2011 Stanley Cup. The local Canadian team lost and in response many Vancouverites injured other citizens and caused significant property damage. People wielding cell phones and portable cameras recorded much of the violence and destruction. Their photos and videos were subsequently uploaded to Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere.Citizens’ decisions to capture and report on community-based events compose much of social media’s core DNA. In the Vancouver case, the uploaded images and movies were used to shame and ‘out’ individuals alleged to have committed riotous actions. In what follows, I identify how social media can be used for vigilantism, for ‘aggravated shaming’, for damaging community integrity, and the long-term consequences that such actions have on individuals. I then suggest some technical and social mechanisms that might defray the worst effects of social media-enhanced mob behavior.

Feminist Eventfulness, Boredom and the 1984 Canadian Leadership Debate on Women's Issues

This study seeks to dispel the cultural amnesia surrounding a feminist-organized televised leadership debate on women's issues during Canada's 1984 federal election, by articulating a parallel history of the debate's creation and staging, one that foregrounds the concept of feminist eventfulness. I distinguish contemporary ideas about eventfulness from scripts of media spectacle by locating political eventfulness in the less glamorous, more tedious work of feminist organizing. Drawing on archival records, feminist historical accounts, and print news media coverage of the debate's planning and implementation, I examine the organizational strategies used by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) to stage the 1984 federal leaders' debate on women's issues. The negotiations with the political parties over venue, audience constitution, media numbers and NAC's overriding determination to preserve the “publicness” of the debate demonstrate the ways the women's group approached a long-standing struggle facing feminist organizing within the mainstream: how to accommodate or manage the difference between staging a feminist media event as opposed to a normative media event. Contrary to mainstream media reports which characterized the debate as a “boring non-event,” I argue that NAC carried out the unprecedented appropriation and transformation of a “masculine” political ritual into a feminist media event that captured a larger audience share than that year's Stanley Cup ice hockey finals.

Dr Robert McKechnie: Vancouver's pioneer surgeon and a patron of British Columbia sports & education

Robert E. McKechnie, M.D.C.M. (1861–1944), was a distinguished graduate of McGill Medical School and a pioneer in the early days of surgery in Vancouver, Canada. He was a long-standing Canadian leader in both clinical and academic surgery. In addition, he played an important role in the founding of the University of British Columbia. He also commissioned an important challenge cup for the British Columbia rugby championship team in the same time and place as the establishment of hockey's Stanley Cup.

Beyond the Furnace:

The year 2009 was especially significant for Pittsburgh. The city had just celebrated its 250th anniversary with a year-long series of concerts, parades, and other public spectacles. Among these were renovations to the iconic Point State Park, the completion of the Great Allegheny Passage bicycle trail to Cumberland, Maryland, and a “Parade of Champions” at the Senator John Heinz History Center featuring the legends of Pittsburgh sports. City leaders saw in these festivities an opportunity for fostering “improved regional perceptions of Pittsburgh” and “defining a vision for our region’s future.” The marketing blitz paid quick and unexpected dividends when in May the Obama administration announced the community would host an upcoming G20 Summit. The president’s emphasis on “the green economy” meshed perfectly with the booster narrative of Pittsburgh as “a great poster child [for] economic transformation.” Combined with the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory and the Penguins winning the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup, by the end of the year residents of the ’Burgh had plenty to justify claims that they were back from the ruins of deindustrialization. Though marked by less fanfare, 2009 also witnessed the publication of two fascinating books by the University of Pittsburgh Press that drew heavily on these same themes of economic and environmental transformation. Designed explicitly for an audience beyond the confines of the academy, Franklin Toker’s Pittsburgh: A New Portrait and Edward K. Muller’s edited volume, An Uncommon Passage: Travelling through History on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail , are also of importance to scholars for their insight into the process of community and regional regeneration in the postindustrial era.