Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals yells at the New York Rangers bench after taking a second-period penalty at Madison Square Garden on May 3, 2021. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
It is one of the oldest jokes in sports, generally attributed to Babylon native Rodney Dangerfield: "I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."
But you do not hear that one much anymore, and younger sports fans might not even get it.
Hockey has come a long way in recent decades, from the depths of the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-1970s to a kinder, gentler world in which skill and grit exist in pleasant harmony – mostly minus the mayhem.