A Call For an End to Fighting in Hockey

While I grew up watching fights in hockey, I agree it's just gotten too dangerous in recent years. Quit the roughhousing and get on with the game, I say!

Good story.

Posted a pic of a solid right hook during a game..

♠Swag♠ has contributed a photo to this story.

Until the league comes down harder on guys who put their elbow in the back of another player's head than they do on a guy who disrespects a former girlfriend, there will be fighting in hockey.  Most teams have an enforcer who is a deterrent against some fourth line player taking liberties with the other team's star player.  If the league could create an environment where no one ever gets hooked, slashed, cross-checked, tripped, etc then you might see fighting going away.  Until then it is going to be up to the team to choose to protect its players, especially the ones to whom they are paying very large salaries.

I have to admit that I am a fan of fighting in hockey.  However, if I could watch a wide open game with no hooking, holding, tripping, etc. instead, I doubt that I would miss it because there would be so much action and the game would move so much faster.

This is my humble opinion.

I think some fighting is ok, but once the players go down to the ground it has to be stopped - throwing a few punches has always seemed to be part of the game I think. However in amateur hockey, I think the rules could be different - no fighting at all could be allowed.

I find it funny that a story on a call to end fighting in hockey is being used as a Christmas tree to decorate with all manner of hockey fight photos and video.  I confess to hanging the first ornament.

Fighting adds a certain entertainment to the hockey game, I don't think many would dispute that.  People stand, yell, and cheer on their local tough guy, myself included when I'm not snapping a picture of course. 

It is indeed tragic what happened in the article.  Some will argue that hockey players know what they're getting into when they participate in a fight.  Some will argue that someone could get injured without even being in a fight.  I think a lot of what was missed in that article was that Jim Kelley was asking for better/tighter chin straps.  Now that being said a lot of guys getting into a fight will willingly remove their helmet...perhaps that should be investigated as a stronger penalty.  We all know that fighters will also attempt to knock off any helmet that isn't voluntarily taken off so I think the chin strap is kind of a moot point when it comes to hockey fights.

I'm more on the negative side when it comes to fighting in hockey.  I love the entertainment value of them but at what cost.  The argument of "it's part of the game" to me is the weakest argument out there.  The game changes, look at 2 years ago, 2 line passes are now "part of the game", goalie trapezoid's are "part of the game".  We live in different times now where I'd like to say as a society we're more educated.  We realize the greater risks involved now.  If these 2 (or more) "willing combatants" were in the middle of the street they would be charged.  The fact that they are on the ice should not make them exempt from that, a fight is a fight is a fight.  Take a look at playoff hockey, fighting seems to disappear and the level of hockey picks up.  If you don't like that, look at Olympic/International hockey, you don't see fighting there either.  If you're a pure hockey fan, you shouldn't need to see fighting and it really shouldn't have to exist anyway. 

Fighting is the only part of hockey I understand.  That is not an endorsement, just a sad fact of life.

:-)

The debate on fighting in hockey is raging big time in the comments section of Kelley's column.

I'm conflicting when it comes to fighting in hockey. I think it's part of what makes hockey, hockey. I think that in Juniors, like for most college games I've attended, that fighting should be stopped before it has a chance to escalate. I think in the pros that it's going to happen. The team I follow (in the AHL) has a few players who do fight, however it's like a mutual "let's have a go" they throw a few and then "okay we're done". For those who take it too far I think there should be something a little stiffer than a 5 minute or 10 minute penalty. Suspension? Fine? I don't know, but something to make them realize that it won't be tolerated.

Also, yes, one of the photos posted here is mine and I will fully admit to enjoying shooting a good hockey fight. A good CLEAN fight. The fight I posted wasn't clean, the guy jumped our player (a player that's not afraid to drop the gloves). The ref gave him penalties, but nothing further. I think fighting is part of the game. I think playing dirty and intending to do great harm shouldn't be.

The NHL has a fighting code; if fighting is eliminated, frustrations will run higher at that level of play, the end result being bench clearing brawls as seen in Major League Baseball, however much more frequent. The NFL has no need for fighting because the players play the man just as much as they play the ball. The NBA is also known for the occasion brawl, but it is a completely different sport with entirely different origins, as well as completely different styles of out finessing an opponent. 

In the future we might see an end to fighting in the NHL, like we have seen with the post- 2005 NHL clamping down on holds, slashes, and defenders allowed  to rough up opposing forwards near the defending team's crease. Likewise, the phenomenon will not end until guys like Don Cherry are rolling in their graves.

Hockey needs fighting, the only sport that allows fighting. If there was no fighting what would happen to all the players with no skill, where would they play. Remember, a good fight can change the outcome of a game, it can be the turning point of a game that leads to a team which is loosing to turn around a game and eventualy win the game. A team that has some good fighters on the roster can intimidate a more skifull team, and in the end the less skillful team with good fighters can come out on top and win the game. Hockey and fighting go together, even though this tragic event has happened where a player has died during a fight, I still think fighting is part of hockey. I'm sure if you were to ask the parents of the player that died in that hockey fight, they would still want fighting to be part of hockey, and I'm sure they would not want fighting to be outlawed in hockey, there son died doing what he loved playing hockey and getting into a fight, which is part of hockey, at least they can say he went down fighting.

I found the following article interesting

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/ohl-announces-disciplinary-action---game-of-january-7-2009---oshawa-at-belleville-p127305

The only time fighting in hockey is interesting is when someone really gets pounded. All the other fights are boring and a waste of time. The problem with that is the players are so big that someone is going to get killed. It is time to get it out of the game.