To be very serious for a moment, the ad is exemplary of the mentality in hockey culture that dedication, toughness, and desire to win can be benchmarked by your willingness to play through pain and serious injury. It isn't limited to the NHL, it exists at every level. 1/

It is pervasive in the sense that every stakeholder in hockey, including fans, buy into this idea (even when you cognitively know it is bad).

Let's not pretend like we didn't all just watch Barrett Hayton play in the gold medal game through a serious shoulder injury. 2/

So to the extent that people are trying to argue that use of painkillers and choosing to play through injuries are "choices", sure. But there is a very serious question of whether your choice is informed, and whether you even have the capacity to be informed and to consent. 3/

We all know that players play through injury before they reach the NHL. That's why the notion of toughness being glorified in this manner by the highest level of play possible is irresponsible. It cements the idea that to make it (when so few do), you have to "pay the price".

You want to call it choice? That begs the question of whether your choice is informed when you are a minor. It begs the question of whether you have the actual capacity to make the choice if you are already addicted to painkillers. 5/

Most of all, it begs the question: what does it say about your culture that, less than 1 hour before the TSN documentary drops, a prominent player featured in it says that he would willingly choose a lifetime of chronic health issues and abuse of painkillers for love of the game?