The comments of John Tortorella about the Zegras/Milano play have caused a kerfuffle in the hockey world. Why have his comments struck such a deep nerve? What really motivated his remarks? Is he a dinosaur who should be censored? Where is the game going? Let’s start by looking at exactly what Torts said:

“I think our game has gone so far away from what our game should be. A hard game, an honest game. It’s almost gotten too showman. I know you need to have it — you need to sell the game, but I’m from the ilk — it’s still a hard game, and a good, honest hockey game needs to be played. I think with some of this stuff, we get carried away.”

– John Tortorella, SportsNet broadcast, December 10, 2021

I’d like to weigh in here, not as a hockey fan, but as a social scientist. Many have gotten distracted by questions about whether the play in question is or should be against the rules of the game. That, in my view, is a red herring. We need to make a distinction between the rules of the game vs. the norms or the game.

Social scientists love to talk about norms; we generally agree that norms are more powerful than the official rules. Norms are the unwritten codes of conduct that fill in the gaps between the rules. When the norms of a given field of endeavor are violated, strong emotions are stirred. It’s tricky because norms are often hidden, powerful but unwritten. Hockey is a sport that cherishes its norms and protects them ferociously. It’s one of the things that makes our game special. In my view, Tortorella’s comments are a perfect example of what happens when young players do something that violates a cherished norm. That’s what made his comments important and incendiary. So what norm did these kids violate? What unwritten rule did they break?

In hockey, we don’t do things that embarrass the other team!

That, I think is what Torts objected to. That is why former players said that Zegras and Milano should have “their heads taken off”. That’s the “showman” quality that raised the hair on Tortorella’s neck.

This norm has a long history in sports. Babe Ruth was traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1919 after 6 seasons. We all know how this trade was later blamed for the epic curse of the bambino. There are many theories about why the Red Sox let Ruth go, but one factor was that he had broken the all-time record number of home runs the year before the trade. At that time, the norm is baseball was that homers were distasteful because the long ball denied the other team a fair chance to defend. The Red Sox were embarrassed by the number of home runs he was hitting. Over time, that norm shifted, and the Red Sox came to regret the trade. This illustrates how powerful norms are in sports as well as how they gradually change over time.

In hockey, players are under constant threat of pain and injury. Responses to this threat are profoundly dictated by the unwritten norms of the sport. Think about how the norms differ in hockey vs. football (aka soccer). Every collision in soccer results in a player rolling around the grass, grabbing their knees and writhing in agony. Stretchers are dispatched with medical teams, injured limbs are sprayed with ointments, and then the player pops up and continues the game with the hope of benefitting from a penalty. It’s a peculiar theatre that bugs hockey fans. In hockey, players never writhe, stretchers are rarely deployed, and blood and injuries are silently endured. Do we want hockey to be more like soccer? Few do. What makes hockey special are these norms, not what’s in the official rule book. These norms are important to protect. They do shift and change over time, but Tortorella is acting in defense of a cherished norm. Flashy plays feel dangerous to him. I get that. I don’t like all the norms that dictate our game but I know that norms shift gradually on their own terms.

We need Tort’s law to keep hockey special.