Fighting after a clean hit

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

If you can't handle getting hit clean, don't play hockey.

Exactly.

One of the points of hitting is to separate a guy from the puck. After a big hit that advantage is often negated because the player who threw the hit gets mugged, so play is stopped.

Fights after a hit should always be given 2, 5 and 10. Hitting is a legal part of hockey.

It's always seemed weird to me how some fans call it the No Hit League but then are fine with players actively punishing guys for throwing clean hits.

If it's a dirty hit, or even a dirty looking hit, I get it. The game is fast and if you think your teammate just took a cheapshot you want to stick up for him. But a hard clean check, even if it rocks a guy, is a part of hockey. Take a number and get him back later like they used to do.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I get it, good points. But I also think fighting is a part of hockey. It's a penalty but it's still allowed. I think fights in most other games would get you kicked out and possibly suspended.

As opposed to "if you can't take a hit, don't play hockey", I think "if you can't fight, don't throw a giant, crushing hit."

And even if I can take a big hit, I still like my teammates sticking up for me.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Probably because many didn't play hockey competitively themselves. They're comfortable with "hitting is a part of the game"

Well, so is fighting for any reason. As long as you're willing to sit the 5, who cares.

 

[WhatWhat]

I dont mind it. You throw the body to scare people away. Dont like getting crushed by hits? Stay out of the corners and high danger areas.

Fighting works in similar reverse way. Dont like having to fight? Go softer on my teams guys. As much as hitting deters guys from areas of the ice, fighting deters certain guys from going after others. I think its a good balance and I'm all for a good scrap that sends the message "dont hit the dude you just hit like that"

 

[Sens Rule]

Probably because many didn't play hockey competitively themselves. They're comfortable with "hitting is a part of the game"

Well, so is fighting for any reason. As long as you're willing to sit the 5, who cares.

I like fighting fine. I love Chris Neil. Loved in middle school every Wings Leafs game because it was all about wether Wendel Clark and Probert would fight and who would win.

Fighting is kinda stupid and tons of enforcers end up all screwed up. Now I really want fighting out of junior hockey and dumb goon vs goon fights for no really reason gone from the NHL and they mostly are.

But you need fighting sometimes. After a huge hit that leaves a teammate lying on the ice and you don't know how bad they are hurt. Clean or not a fight is not the worst case scenario. A fight is a lot better than using the weapon every player has on them.

Even if fighting eventually leads to an automatic game misconduct. And it will soon enough. You can't outlaw fighting in hockey like it is in Basketball or baseball or football. Sometimes it is inevitable. And if it ends up as a 10 game suspension like other sports a lot worse will end up happening.

If a clean hit or a dirty one has a teammate lying on the ice and not getting up... a fight is just natural. Two goons justifying their own roster spot fighting during a faceoff? We can and largely have done away with that. A fight based on emotion from actual events in the game... that is hockey. And that is better than other ways to get even when players skate at 25 MPH with knives on their feet and clubs in their hands.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Hate bunch of tough guys think fight is an important part of the game
Should be banned

 

[Mr Hockey]

I have nothing against fighting and enjoy it but I am against fighting after a clean hit.

 

[meangene]

I think a lot of big hits happen at such high speeds that almost any big collision can look dirty the first time you see it, especially in a league where huge, clean hits are becoming less and less common. I think lots of guys almost assume that the only monster hits that exist in today's game must be dirty.

The other part of it is not wanting to see your teammate/buddy get embarrassed. From the time you're 10 years old every coach preaches awareness and keeping your head up at all time. For an NHLer to betray such a basic teaching in the middle of a game and get popped as a result is something that I think amongst hockey players, is pretty embarrassing, and lots of times guys jump up and start fights right after a big hit like that to kind of take some of the attention off of the guy that just got smoked.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Do people realize that even clean hits hurt like hell sometimes? That sometimes even clean hits are the result of intentionally trying to wreck someone (not "separate from the puck" necessarily)?

That's why fights happen sometimes. When players are going around thrashing people, you can get in their face to say "Hey, SOB, we see you doing this and we're going to be in YOUR face now"

Seems as natural as anything else.

 

[Eisen]

Clean hits can cause injuries and end careers too.

I will never understand how people seem shocked that players want retribution for those big clean hits often. Look, they may be in the rules, but is this merely a 'separate the puck from the player' play? No.

What is it then?

A big clean hit is really a legal way of an intent to injure. What else is it? That's why players fight after.

I, for one, love seeing the big hits and even the fights after, as I feel it brings a lot of emotion into the game. Games I feel are often to sterile these days during the regular season. I love emotion in sports. I just find it kind of funny that some people take the side of "A guy shouldn't have to fight if the hit was legal". A guy shouldn't have to send another player into the upper bowl either to separate him from the puck so his team can gain possession.

That's the way I see it, too. Clean or not, it's still an attempt to hurt a player.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

That's the way I see it, too. Clean or not, it's still an attempt to hurt a player.

Agreed.

Too often people use the definition of "it's meant to separate a player from the puck," but that doesn't mean anyone should like getting decked really hard.

 

[The Macho Man]

Also - we have the benefit of a bird's eye view and forty replays to decide whether or not a hit was clean, as well as slow motion, different angles, etc.

They have about a second to react, oftentimes aren't looking directly at where the play was - they just see the guy who they just had a double date with and whose kids are best friends with your kids get blown up.

 

[Baby Ryan]

I can understand why players do it.

In the moment in a high intensity professional level game you see your teammate get steamrolled, you most likely will get pretty mad about it. Top that off with a bunch of adrenaline and such too.

From the players perspective on the ice in the moment, it is completely understandable.