Canada

The NBHPA called the incident “unacceptable behaviour”

The poor guy was nearly murdered. The ref is lucky to be alive and, from the sounds of the injuries, may never be the same again. Repeated blows to the face with a blunt object are no joke.

Jesus. That player is a freaking lunatic.

This is why I quit hockey and ball hockey. I'm too old to recover well from injuries and every team seems to have one meat-head that is just there to be an aggressive, dangerous twat, and by definition they're carrying a big stick. Sometimes it's the whole damn team. And leagues don't do enough to curb it, so I'm all for the law stepping in to enforce punishment for these assaults (on and off the rink).

The referee suffered a fractured skull and jaw along with a concussion, according to the association. All of his teeth were either broken or displaced.

The perpetrator is less than worthless.

Poor guy. Those are some serious injuries.

Need to have names attached to the perp.

Needs significant jail time (5-10 years) if Canadian or permanent deportation if not.

Hockey people doing hockey things. I spent 10 years working in arenas. They don't report how often people are assaulted at arenas. It's nearly an every day occurrence in larger centers. It's not always this bad but it happens regularly and makes others think it's "just a part of hockey".