The National Hockey League unveiled its social media policy yesterday, and as you might expect with anything ending with the word “policy,” there’s the potential it will take the fun out of hockey players using social media. This move wasn’t unexpected: the NHL is following suit after the three other major U.S. sport leagues set their respective policies/rules. The NHL is actually kinda sorta late with this one. With more and more news outlets reporting on athletes’ Twitter accounts, tweets are now the equivalent of a player’s actual quote. It’s a pretty interesting evolution of player comment when you think about it: Twitter has become an alternative official mouthpiece.

So, it’s not surprising for the NHL to put some rules in place, mainly in an attempt to muzzle players from leaking private team information to opponents, media, and *shudder* gamblers (you can check out Puck Daddy’s recap for a full breakdown of the new policy). As far as policies go, though, this one isn’t that bad. Guidelines include Respect your audience. Do not divulge proprietary information. A player must take personal responsibility for comments, and so on. Basically: think before you tweet, which is good advice for everyone. But as much as I don’t want to, I can’t help but resent this crackdown from Big Brother Bettman and Co.

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