I’ve had mixed feelings about hockey lately.

I love playing and watching hockey. Great passes, positioning, breakouts, flashy saves are all parts of the game that I love.

But I don’t like the glorification of the fights.

And the judgments from so-called fans are what I could really do without.

Along with the return of the NHL has come the return of “X player sucks”, “Y player is terrible”, “that referee doesn’t know what he’s doing” and other comments that are not fit to print.

Players have ceased to be seen as human beings. People hold professional sports figures to a standard of perfection. If someone isn’t performing they ‘suck’, need to be traded, or are the reason the team lost. The way we judge athletes, it is a wonder any of us play sports at all. We end up judging ourselves the same way, and youth and children feel that they are judged the same way. As in, if they don’t score a goal each game, they are failing because they are not performing.

When we objectify people, we distance ourselves and it becomes easier to judge, taunt and bully.

We have all been told that “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game,” but our actions don’t support those words. We are busy highlighting the reasons for the loss, calling names and labeling. If we stop being so harsh and judgmental of these athletes, we could become more accepting to those around us and be good role models and – I’ll go out on a limb here – we’ll feel better about ourselves.

Sports are competitive, our teams strive to win and we are disappointed when lackluster performances are given.

It’s okay to be upset or disappointed. Professional athletes are paid to play a game, it is an industry where performance is required.

But the name-calling creates a mindset where it is okay to label a person, where it’s okay to berate a person and find a player who can be vilified for last night’s loss.

The judgments are dehumanizing and they support the culture of bullying that is so prevalent in our schools and workplaces.

Can we start to make a change, even when we’re chilling in front of the game? Try to notice when you say demeaning things about people, (athletes, people on tv, relatives) and see if you can change the phrasing to express disappointment without name calling.