Are the playoffs becoming too violent?

[Mike C]

There hasnt been a single fight. The new age fans want hitting to be illegal. Luckily they are an extreme minority. Evidenced by 4 nations. The people want tenacity and violence.

I've always said it's hockey not ballet

 

[edevils]

Still.doesn't explain why the fighting majors never declined if enforcers were

Fighting remained up because the league shifted away from real fights. Fights used to be a reaction to something happening on the ice.

In an attempt to make the sport less violent, fighting became more of an act and fights became scripted choreography. Team A has a tough guy and team B has a tough guy so let's let them fight.

The scripted fights could have caused the levels of fighting to remain the same.

Just an idea.

 

[PistolPete]

Fighting remained up because the league shifted away from real fights. Fights used to be a reaction to something happening on the ice.

In an attempt to make the sport less violent, fighting became more of an act and fights became scripted choreography. Team A has a tough guy and team B has a tough guy so let's let them fight.

The scripted fights could have caused the levels of fighting to remain the same.

Just an idea.

Good point.

I can't recall seeing any such fights in the 70s or early 80s. Maybe that started late 80s or so?

I hate those kinds of fights, so boring. May as well watxh wrestling

 

[edevils]

You can also more widely access games to watch.

Back in the day, so when Jagr was with the Rangers he had one of the highest contracts of the 4 major North American leagues and he wasn't behind by much.

Now Hockey trails behind all of them by a significant amount.

Your average American can't focus on the puck, that's why they needed to highlight the puck.

Americans love things they don't really need to pay attention to, thats why football is so popular. 3 hours to play, what like 11 minutes on an average game ?

You want to draw morr Americans than you already do, you need some animosity in the game.

These players might as well shake hands and hug after every game like they do in NBA.

f***in' Waffle House has more animosity than all of the sports.

This makes a lot of assumptions about millions of people in a very diverse country.

 

[PistolPete]

I think it's more about the integrity of the team to deal with it when you need to. Now days it's not there so you resort to cheap shot and passive aggressive things you see now. I think those things were more dealt and effectively than you see now.

The cheap shots were always there- often given by the enforcers supposed to be there to stop them.

I have never believed fighting was an effective deterrent since it cuts both ways.

 

[Folignos Helmet]

Toughness ie big hits and fights are way down. Gutless hits and headshots way up and not addressed. All should be three games. Domi, Kulikov, Vegas guy who cross checked the oiler.

 

[Schennanigans]

I don’t get why penalties don’t carry over to the next game. Suspension's do and they happen in the previous game. It just makes the end of the game a free for all if the other team knows there’s nothing to lose.

 

[pcruz]

Sleazebag plays are up but that's coward stuff. NHL is to blame for that. I think they could be handling stuff way better than they have. Letting things get out of hand in those instances.

15 - 20 years ago, Don Cherry started saying, regularly I may add, that the addition of the instigator penalty was going to lead directly to more rats in the game, and more and more cheap-shot artists.

Combine that with the absolute ineptitude of the Department of Player Punishment, and nobody should be surprised that there is more and more stupid shit going on in the games.

 

[Summer Rose]

I don’t get why penalties don’t carry over to the next game. Suspension's do and they happen in the previous game. It just makes the end of the game a free for all if the other team knows there’s nothing to lose.

Theoretically, the supplemental discipline a player receives is influenced by the relative state of the game when he does something that warrants it.

Theoretically. I don't think it works out very well in practice, but that's just DOPS being DOPS.

 

[Reimannsum1988]

Yes. Frankly, the majority of series have at least two or three disgusting plays per game, and it's exacerbated by the incompetence of officials who "manage" the game rather than calling it, allowing egregious actions to go unpunished, only to penalize nonsense later on or in subsequent games, rendering the entire game as a whole a Kafkaesque nightmare.

 

[pcruz]

The Domi hit on Barkov was really egregious and the league was lucky it didn’t send the defending Selke winner to the ICU.

The league responded with a $5K fine, no suspension.

That tells you all you need to know.

Thankfully, the Panthers have landed half a dozen hits directly to the head and managed to knock a goalie out of the series with a hit to the head.
And then the next game one of the players returning from a suspension smashed the replacement goalie in the head.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Would hate to see the pearl clutchers response if they had experienced old school hockey. Will try to attach Roenicks face after getting worked by D. Hatcher.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Would hate to see the pearl clutchers response if they had experienced old school hockey. Will try to attach Roenicks face after getting worked by D. Hatcher.

You mean the one that got Hatcher suspended for 7 games, 5 of them being playoff games?

If only the DoPS suspended headshots that way now.

 

[Sanderson]

15 - 20 years ago, Don Cherry started saying, regularly I may add, that the addition of the instigator penalty was going to lead directly to more rats in the game, and more and more cheap-shot artists.

Combine that with the absolute ineptitude of the Department of Player Punishment, and nobody should be surprised that there is more and more stupid shit going on in the games.

And that comment was as wrong then as it is now.

Rats aren't more common now than they were back then. In fact, many of the "tough guys" that according to Cherry should have kept the game clean were themselves very busy cheap-shotting all the time.

The entire concept is utterly ridiculous. For one, players don't think when jumping an opponent, they react. No one does a a thorough cost-benefit analysis in the split second that is available. They either see something they consider worth reacting to, or they don't. As evidenced by the reaction to clean hits that still end with someone jumping in.
Secondly, a major penalty plus possible game misconduct and (likely minor) supplemental discipline is supposedly not deterring cheap-shots, yet at the same time, the not nearly as harsh penalty for instigating is stopping players from reacting? How is that supposed to make any sense?

Rats never cared about enforcers coming after them. The very opposite is true. They always wanted the other team to focus on them, to waste a roster spot on a tough guy who can't play. Because a team wasting time on hunting a player doesn't pay attention to the game.

The issue comes down to the NHL refusing to punish players properly. They do that, and players will act accordingly.

 

[HuimaHuima]

It will only change when something really bad happens. Like career or life changing injury to biggest stars. Like McDavid in the wheel chair for the rest of his life. It's shame that things like that usually need to happen before big changes.

And even then the change is not guaranteed to last rather it might just be for small period before it all goes back to how it was.

Other option would be to make fines to players like 100* bigger or give real punishments for guys who do it time after time after time. First time few games, next time 10 games and after that for entire season. After that life time ban. There won't be rats anymore after the punishment for really dangerous shit is really severe and career affecting just like the deeds.

 

[LightningStrikes]

I understand you can’t suspend every second player. Especially during the very emotional and stressful playoffs. But it’s exactly then when guys cross the line. Fines would be a fine (heh) tool in general but they are ridiculously low. Make it hurt a little bit at least.

They also need step in and punish reckless plays no matter the outcome.

A dangerous boarding hit, a slew foot, a cheap shot to an unexpecting player, a cross check to a guy lying defenseless on the ground, running the goalie or an elbow to the face but the guy instantly got up? Slap on the wrist. Same play but the player stays down for an extended time and eventually leaves the ice and misses parts of the game? Suddenly it’s a dangerous play that has “no place in the game” that the league won’t accept. Stupid.

 

[Schennanigans]

Maybe they should introduce minor suspensions. Like suspended for 10 minutes of the game or something instead of just a fine. That actually will hurt the player. The fine does nothing and is irrelevant. Those fines are Pennie’s for an nhl salary. And that’s even if the player even has to pay it.

 

[Mr grumpy]

70s and 80s and it is not close

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Look at the difference between the mid 90s and now, 30 years later.

Unwatchable garbage.

f*** the quality of hockey was terrible back then. I hated it then and I hate it now.

 

[wunderpanda]

it goes in cycles. 20 years ago, chris simon stomped on an ankle and got 30(?) games, things calmed down. 13 years ago raffi torres got 25 & 41 games, then things calmed down. 7 years ago, tom wilson got 20, and things settled down. we are due for a game changing suspension soon.

 

[wunderpanda]

Look at the difference between the mid 90s and now, 30 years later.

bure was awesome and i doubt anyone felt sympathy for churla

 

[ItWasJustified]

Are the playoffs becoming too violent?

Violence and dirty stuff are two different things. There is barely any violence in the playoffs. Just a bunch of dirty rats diving and head hunting. If there was real violence, diving and head hunting would not be as prolific as it's been this playoff. And of course if George Parros had a working brain.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Go to youtube and search battle of Alberto in the 80s. Easton had a great cartoon where he drew a US General to do the color commentary for the series.

And then you are the Flyers and Bruins fans stepping in about the 70s.

@Fenway will step off his porch and stop yelling at the kids to stay off his grass to give graphic details of nearly every series the bruins were in during the 1970s

 

[OysterForever]

look bruv they make millions and MILLIONS of dollars. I mean come on there will be some risk involved. I guarantee you that almost 90% will take a cross check to the face for a big house and a Ferrari.

I'll have my brains and ability to walk any time over any shitty ass soapbox and pile of paper

 

[jiitu]

I can't tell if half the posts in this thread are satire or not...

And there has never been so few people dying in wars compared to population.

And yet, im such a soft looser that i would stilö think world better without any war and NHL better with tough but clean game, or at least without intwntional effort to hurt the opponent.