Fighting in Hockey

Good idea. Maybe we can add something regarding intentional high sticking, too.

 

Good ideas, but the only way it REALLY changes is if the culture of the game changes. I know of no other sport where its commonplace to send a goon out to intimidate your opponent (John Chaney aside), with the logical response being to send your own goon out and you have a fight. It's like some silly macho ritual that has little to do with the game.

 

Right, but do you want a $7-mil player (ala, Jaromoe Iginla) getting tossed because of a fight? Something I think gets overlooked now is that most of those who can drop the gloves can also play the game, they bring something else whether it is a physical presence or a two-way game, and teams like the Ducks are moving towards team toughness. One reason you don't see as much fighting in the playoffs (it still exists, saying it doesn't is an old wives tale) because I think there are fewer cheap shots (like fighting, however, they still exist in the playoffs), for much the same reason fights decrease in the playoffs - players don't want to hurt their own team by chancing a penalty at the most important time of the year. The role for the enforcer is to make sure the stars like Crosby are able to make it to the playoffs in one piece. Otherwise you end up like the Oilers, have your top players get run, get injured and then have the fan base scratching it's collective head when Ryan Smyth is traded at the deadline because you have fallen out of contention. There needs to be that protection . Phil Espositio was on OTR last week saying the dirtiest hockey he ever played in was the 1972 Summit Series because fighting is not allowed in international or Eurpoean hockey, the stick work was incredible. They were able to just skate around and hack eachother with no real recourse – see Clarke on Kharlamov. To my knowledge, the stick work is still pretty bad across the pond.
I still think serious injuries are few and far between due to fights – Fedoruk just had the rotten luck of taking two bad beats this year. True the players have gotten bigger, but for the most part they are taking on similar sized players, not the middle weights and generally both parties consent to dropping the gloves.
And then yes there is the entertainment aspect. The UFC - and like leagues - is one of the fastest rising brands of sport with a wide ranged audience. Before that Boxing ruled the scene off and on for more than a century and is called the sweet science. Why then is hockey deemed barbaric or the lowest common denominator because it allows fighting?

 

Bottom line, fighting will always be a part of the sport no matter how much debate surrounds the issue. Traditionally, this argument always seems to be raised and in some manner spun one way or another. While the NHL doesn't necessarily endorse fighting or violence in the game, the appeal of the sport is aided by the fact that fighting is a part of the culture.

See:
Kordic, John
Gaetz, Link
Semenko, Dave
Kocur, Joey (However, Kocur did have a bit of a knack for the goals one year.)

 

Bettman says fighting has a place in hockey.

"My view on fighting hasn't changed," the NHL commissioner said Monday. "We've never taken active steps or considered eliminating fighting from the game.

"I've always taken the view that it's a part of the game and it rises and lowers based on what the game dictates."

above quotes from the Canadian Press story on TSN.ca

 

Which in and of itself is a good reason to ban it.

 

Fighting needs to stay in the game, but how about keeping the fighters out for the rest of that period. If it happens late in a period, say the last two minutes of the first or second period, they miss the entire next period.

 

Why is fighting good? Let Bettman count the ways.

 

Fighting has its place in hockey, and most everybody in hockey understands it and respects it.

But you've got to separate that from the real problem: the fucking assault-with-a-deadly-weapon acts that Bertuzzi and McSorley pulled, all the hacking and slashing, and cheap shots.

All this blowhard talk of "eliminating" fighting is just twisting the issue. Fighting has nothing to do with those cheap shots, and eliminating fighting isn't going to "solve" anything.

Anyway, I blame the instigator rule.

 

Buck
I think most people understand the difference between stick assaults and fighting. And in some ways the McSorley & Bertuzzi muggings were far more dangerous than a lot of fights.

Problem is, when someone like Colin Campbell says "we should ask the question", that is a major statement, an admission that perhaps it's time to examine the issue seriously

And Michael Peca, who's a pretty gritty player had this to say:

"Traditionalists will say it has a place in the game, it helps police the game. There’s a whole theory about that but, on the other hand, guys are getting hurt. I don’t think it’s just the fighting. I think it’s blows to the head in general.

"I’m sure there’ll come a day when, much like in football, you just can’t hit the head whether it’s your shoulder or anything. Then fighting becomes a little redundant because those are basically blows to the head.

"I think fighting will eventually find itself out of the game. There might be people worried that then the stick fouls and everything will increase but I think it’ll come to a point where respect for the game will kind of balance that out.

"Ninety per cent of the time it doesn’t really serve a purpose any more in the game so take it for what’s its worth."

(From Damien Cox's blog in today's Star)

 

The thing is, it's a contact sport. People are going to get hurt, whether it's a fight, a body check, a high stick or their skate getting caught in a rut in the ice. For the most part, those in a fight are willing combatants. they know and understand the risks. And I think fighting helps eliminate other injuries.