from Kurt Streeter of the New York Times,

The tortured relationship between pain, violence and sports burst sharply into view once again this month. The reminder came courtesy of a pair of reliable standard-bearers: professional hockey and football, both brimming with beauty and drama obscuring a dark side that should not be ignored.

In the N.H.L., the Stanley Cup finals are well underway. The Tampa Bay Lightning lead the Dallas Stars, three games to two, in a taut best-of-seven series that continues Monday night.

The battle for the Cup has struggled for wider attention on a sports calendar upended by the coronavirus pandemic and social strife. In a normal year, hockey wouldn’t have had to compete for an audience with a trifecta that includes the start of the N.F.L. season, the N.B.A. playoffs and playoff chases in Major League Baseball.

So the N.H.L., desperate for viewers, produced an eye-popping promotional video. It was a 1-minute-11-second montage of slow-motion game clips. Nothing about it highlighted hockey’s beauty — the pinpoint passes or unfathomable shots on goal that fuel the game’s excitement.

Instead it was a homage to misery....

Masochism on ice. What a thing to celebrate.

This tone-deaf advertisement, sent out on the N.H.L.’s Twitter account and now conveniently deleted, came from a league that has long struggled to address the toll of its brutality. A league laden with former players dealing with brain injuries, several of whom have died by suicide.

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