from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

For a sport so accustomed to a clean image, the past 12 months have been a tough pill to swallow for the NHL and its players.

Suddenly, hockey is sharing some of the same dubious headlines normally reserved for other sports and leagues.

And while we can debate whether several disconnected arrests or incidents present a trend or just an unlucky year, all of it has perhaps served to raise awareness among the rest of the player membership about one's conduct off the ice and the pitfalls that exist.

"I think as players we're all aware of it," superstar center Sidney Crosby told ESPN.com this week at the Player Tour event. "The league and Players' Association do a good job of informing us and making us well-aware of certain situations and consequences, things like that. I think it's something that everyone, whether you're a professional hockey player or a professional athlete, in general everyone is trying to educate each other in terms of situations you could be put in and making the right decisions.

continued with comments from a few more players...