When TSN senior correspondent Rick Westhead was looking for a title for his new book exposing the ugly side of hockey, it was handed to him by a former Ontario Hockey League player, one of many sports insiders he interviewed.

“We are instantly alpha males. Outside the team, no one says ‘no’ to us, and within the team, we learn the rules of the jungle,” the player said. “This is our culture. We breed lions and how do you tell a lion to stop being a lion?”

The book cover for “We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture,” by Rick Westhead. Penguin Random House Canada

In “We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture,” Westhead documents cases of sexual assault, forced intoxication and drugging, brutal hazing techniques and everyday demeaning behaviour towa

See Full Page