NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Well you don't get the gate for fighting either unless the ref says you were fighting and not just roughing, or double roughing or roughing plus a 10.
Banned / regulated - It's the same thing. It's all against the rules, but it won't stop players from doing it.
If the penalty is too stiff, the refs won't call it. They don't want the fire storm that would come down on them if they make a call that gets a player tossed for a 1/4 of the season or whatever other silly penaty it would take to get the players to stop.
Ryan

[Goon]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Just for the record, Matt Frattin has never registered a fight in his professional playing career... Hockey Fights

[JF_Gophers]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Just for the record, Matt Frattin has never registered a fight in his professional playing career... Hockey Fights

Has Matt Cooke officially? He usually runs and hides.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

So how did Cooke and Lapierre and Tucker get their reps? There is fighting in the game now and it isn't stopping them from taking liberties. What a dumb argument.

You could argue that it stops them from taking more liberties and from committing more dangerous offences on skill players. So it's not a dumb argument, but dismissing it might be.

[Goon]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Has Matt Cooke officially? He usually runs and hides.

Not very much but this is my favorite Matt Cooke Fight...

[SanTropez]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Grooming "thugs" is not part of youth hockey.

Unless they want to attend North Dakota, then it's mandatory.

[goldy_331]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Just for the record, Matt Frattin has never registered a fight in his professional playing career... Hockey Fights

So has he quit head hunting and cheap shotting smaller players because the threat of fighting prevents him?

[Dirty]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

So has he quit head hunting and cheap shotting smaller players because the threat of fighting prevents him?

Hell no. He's stop doing it because Kevin Wehrs stopped playing hockey.

[Osorojo]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Head hunters and cheap shot artists continue to cause more serious injuries -like concussions - than are caused by fisticuffs. Punching face masks is less dangerous than elbows, cross checks, hits from behind, or high sticks, so if the possibility of retaliation by fist discourages more dangerous infractions why the phobia over fighting?

[goldy_331]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

Hell no. He's stop doing it because Kevin Wehrs stopped playing hockey.

So he can't find anyone small enough to head-hunt then?

[Dirty]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

So he can't find anyone small enough to head-hunt then?

He could, but it just wouldn't be as much fun as smearing Wehrs all over the ice like jam on toast. So MMFF has given it up.

[C-H-C]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

I lost my appetite for fighting in hockey back in the days when minimally-talented goons like Dave Schultz gained almost as much notoriety as artists like Bobby Orr. Now, more than 30 years later, influential leaders of amateur hockey in the US and Canada appear to have decided that fighting should be prohibited in their corner of the hockey world.

Leaving aside the debate over whether the NY Times is an elitist, liberal rag out of touch with real Americans, their series of articles on fighting and brain trauma in hockey has provided a welcome outsiders' view of what has become commonplace in hockey. What struck me about the most recent article in the Times was the description of hockey fights as "bare-knuckle". I immediately thought of 19th-century photos of John L. Sullivan beating on some opponent with his fists.

In my opinion, the accurate description of hockey fights as "bare-knuckle" events strips away all the excuses for why fighting is an integral part of the sport. At the most primitive level, hockey fights involve two guys using their bare fists to try and cause facial and brain trauma to the unprotected skull of their opponent. Every other sport in the civilized world - even boxing - has decided long ago that this behavior should be discouraged and punished. Maybe the NHL would benefit from a new leader who realizes this is the 21st century.

[Stauber1]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

I will believe it when I see it... Take fighting out of hockey and the pukes like Matt Cooke, Maxim Lapierre will run wild and take liberties up and down the ice against skilled players knowing they don't have to fight either.

Allowing (or at least being lenient with) fighting is a lousy way of trying to enforce rules.

If leagues would hold referees accountable for calling games correctly, and then perform reviews of particular incidents to the end of handing out stiff suspensions/fines for egregious infractions, it would be far more effective than permitting vigilante enforcement.

The NHL is starting to do this, and these "cheap shots" have shown a decline.

You are kidding yourself if you think the NHL is reticent to take a stricter stance on fighting because they fear "losing control" of how players will conduct themselves on the ice.

That's some pretty ***-backwards logic. "To keep players from acting like thugs we need to have them act like thugs."

[FreshFish]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

In my opinion, the accurate description of hockey fights as "bare-knuckle" events strips away all the excuses for why fighting is an integral part of the sport. At the most primitive level, hockey fights involve two guys using their bare fists to try and cause facial and brain trauma to the unprotected skull of their opponent. Every other sport in the civilized world - even boxing - has decided long ago that this behavior should be discouraged and punished. Maybe the NHL would benefit from a new leader who realizes this is the 21st century.

that is a really interesting idea! Bring out boxing gloves or the gloves they use in MMA and let the guys fight that way. many (far from all) of the "fights" seem just about as staged....

[goldy_331]

Re: NY Times - Fighting Could Be Eliminated in Amateur Hockey in US and Canada

I lost my appetite for fighting in hockey back in the days when minimally-talented goons like Dave Schultz gained almost as much notoriety as artists like Bobby Orr. Now, more than 30 years later, influential leaders of amateur hockey in the US and Canada appear to have decided that fighting should be prohibited in their corner of the hockey world.

Leaving aside the debate over whether the NY Times is an elitist, liberal rag out of touch with real Americans, their series of articles on fighting and brain trauma in hockey has provided a welcome outsiders' view of what has become commonplace in hockey. What struck me about the most recent article in the Times was the description of hockey fights as "bare-knuckle". I immediately thought of 19th-century photos of John L. Sullivan beating on some opponent with his fists.

In my opinion, the accurate description of hockey fights as "bare-knuckle" events strips away all the excuses for why fighting is an integral part of the sport. At the most primitive level, hockey fights involve two guys using their bare fists to try and cause facial and brain trauma to the unprotected skull of their opponent. Every other sport in the civilized world - even boxing - has decided long ago that this behavior should be discouraged and punished. Maybe the NHL would benefit from a new leader who realizes this is the 21st century.

This x 1,000!!! Especially the bolded part! The Broad Street Bullies about soured me on hockey and certainly did sour me on NHL for quite a while.