The idea that hockey players are somehow superior in their character and behavior than other professional hockey players is, and always has been, absurd.
When I was growing up hockey was the source of the vast majority of my role models, and some of those figures still resonate as significant archetypes for what being a gentleman and/or an athlete is all about. There might not have been religious iconography in my home as a kid, but there were plenty of hockey sticks, hockey posters, and more jerseys and hockey tape than six boys knew what to do with.