Fighting has to go

[MartyOwns]

I'm a stand up comedian at heart

then i would recommend a heart transplant

And I'm not really sure what you mean exactly by having a "bad faith argument" because a stranger online has an opinion on a message board? heh.

it's bad faith because you're equating aspects of an activity that are essential for that activity to occur with fighting in hockey.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Well then the league is bush if they need fighting to enforce the rules. How embarrassing for the NHL. No other team sport in NA needs fighting to protect players. I can guarantee you fighting will be all but gone by the end of this decade, with suspensions in place for any players who drops their gloves. I welcome the day, and I would bet the majority of hockey fans won’t care.

This thread is riling up all the “keep fighting fans”, which clearly is biasing the responses in here. Most reasonable fans won’t bother to comment in here, because they aren’t as easily irritated and argumentative as me and prefer to focus on the threads about hockey, not grown men throwing punches.

to be fair other sports dont have to deal with the type of things nhl players go through.

Go watch Ice Guardians and educate your self on the topic, you clearly have no clue what your talking about

it's not about fighting its about intimidation. if you continue to do this to our players we're going to fight.
so the rats calm down on the abuse.

alot of the time a fighter doesnt even have to fight. just them being there is enough.

the refs can't take care of everything and eventually its on the players to put an end to it.

thats lowering these days but for the most part if they are fighting. there's a reason for it.

good chance that reason goes over your head too

 

[Tarmore]

What does Canada have to do with the NHL(not hockey in general) not being in the top 10 sport leagues in Finland?

OMG really re-read the op then mine and get back to me

 

[Breakers]

The fights where neither player gets a jersey hold like the Kassian fight can be scary

I remember Reaves was talking about how scary it can be when you dont get even a semi decent jersey hold off the original tussle.

 

[BiolaRunner]

OMG really re-read the op then mine and get back to me

Re-read the post you quoted. You asked him to name 10 sports more popular in Canada than hockey. His only claim was that the NHL was barely a top 10 league in Finland

 

[Bluto]

I sincerely doubt that you put much thought into any of the posts you made in this thread.

Oh man I'm going to need some ointment for this burn ouch.

 

[ElysiumAB]

With most of the sports-people worrying about the increasing amount of head injuries in the game it's quite baffling that bare-knuckle fighting on ice in a ball game is still supported by the conservative hockey fan base. It's just stupid macho shit and it does not have a place in modern hockey. Taking them out of the game reduces head-injuries without changing the game in any meaningful way. Just watched the Oilers-game and what a pointless and dangerous looking injury Kassian suffered as a result of that fight.



And you can do it step-by-step. In Finland for a long time there's an automatic 1 game suspension if you fight and that only makes fight very rare. Make it 3 games and fighting virtually stops.

And yeah yeah, world's gone soft and all that but this is hockey with enough toughness and injuries even as it is. I used to think that fights were okay (never was a fan of that aspect of the game TBH) but with all the evidence about the brain damages and even lost lives of NHL-fighters I've come to think otherwise. Would it really be that bad if fighting was banned?

I don't think you understand why fighting exists and the role it plays in making parts of the game safer.

 

[Puckstop40]

These players died because that was the only thing they did. They would rack up more than 20 or 25 fighting majors per season. One-dimensional enforcers don’t exist anymore.

Guys like Kassian, Reaves or Wilson do much more than fighting. They contribute in the game with hitting, defense, goals, assists etc. These guys don’t fight nearly as much, and fighting has become a hugging contest for a lot of players.

As for Svechnikov, no one forced him to fight. He willingly challenged a much bigger and stronger guy and paid the price for it. I’m pretty sure that fight was likely his first and last.

That’s news to me

Fighting has its place in hockey and always will. It is part of the game. We are still taking leaps to improve player safety but I don’t see it being removed. I will say I enjoy fights when it’s authentic and not staged.

 

[urho]

I don't think you understand why fighting exists and the role it plays in making parts of the game safer.

I understand the theory and disagree with it. Fighting doesn't make the game safer, there's no proof of that. European and international hockey isn't any more dangerous even though fighting is ultra rare.

 

[txpd]

I have watched F1 and WRC since the mid-90s and I can recall one shoving match, kinda weird if fighting is common in racing in NA. I recall that one case where a driver got so pissed off he had to try to hit his competitor with a helmet but he got run over and died.

You live in a European world. Clealy. They fight in European racing like they fight in European hockey. Dont joke about the kid that got killed at the dirt track.

 

[Canucks LB]

Staged fighting needs to go

 

[MuckOG]

Fights bore me, to be honest....but I doubt it will ever be completely gotten rid of...unless someone dies or gets a serious head injury.

 

[Oddbob]

But it is a match, a round would be between a whistle or intermission.

No it's a game.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Because you can only fall awkwardly in a fight on the ice. Am I right? The real dangerous common move in hockey is checking. Checking is responsible for the most injuries in this game. So we should remove checking right?

 

[cc]

As it stands, I don't find the NHL is all that effective in protecting players or punishing players that go over the line so because of this, it's natural for teams to want to protect their own or try and deter others from crossing that line. If fighting was completely banned, the NHL would need to do a better job at protecting players and I don't see them capable of doing that effectively mostly due to physical nature and speed of the game.

That being said, I thought that the fight between Kassian and Macewen completely unnecessary. Macewen's action didn't seem so egregious that it warranted him answering the bell but that's just my opinion

 

[Frenchy]

Oh man we had this conversation so many times that idk what i should add to my argument that fighting should stay .

Ok i'll try another POV that i believe i never used before :

The day teams will stop trying to neutralize the surperstar players from other team with questionable tactics, tactics like crosscheck, hit to the head , intent to injure and all the other cheapshots in the book is the day were we'll have clean hockey.

When this day will happend ( and trust me i have time to die b4 it does ) is the day where hockey wont need fighters anymore . Until then , think about fighting as a consequence of the refusal to change things.

Why do you think Zack kassian is playing with McDavid ? Do you think it's a coïncidences that Ryan Reaves is now with the Rangers or we already forgot what happend last year with the Caps.
People dont find it weird that a skilled team like Colorado who had no enforcer to protect his star players always end up in the playoffs with multiple injures because they get run over year after year .
People dont wonder why Tampa ran into a wall for a few years and as soon as they add sandpaper guys to their roster ( aka Pat f***ing Maroon , just to name one ) they win two cups in a row ?

Like i said, all this is a consequence of the intimidation that other teams are doing against good players and utill this intimidation is ni longer part of the daily hockey playbook then there's a place for fighting.

It's really sad to say and i'm against it , but the old saying is still valid: if you want peace prepare for war.

 

[EazyE1]

No it's a game.

So is chess, but after each player moves it would be called a round. When someone wins its called a match. Hence the term match penalty, means its GG.

 

[Thenameless]

Hockey is the only major team sport that allows bare knuckle fighting and I think that's a good thing. It makes it unique and gives it a certain mystique (along with being played on ice as simple as a thing as that may be) that the other sports don't have. Even combat sports like boxing, kickboxing, and MMA use gloves.

If you watch a game in real life, a goal makes people clap and cheer, but it's a fight that gets everyone up. As a fan of the highly skilled aspect of hockey, I still love the fighting.

 

[EazyE1]

Hockey is the only major team sport that allows bare knuckle fighting and I think that's a good thing. It makes it unique and gives it a certain mystique (along with being played on ice as simple as a thing as that may be) that the other sports don't have. Even combat sports like boxing, kickboxing, and MMA use gloves.

If you watch a game in real life, a goal makes people clap and cheer, but it's a fight that gets everyone up. As a fan of the highly skilled aspect of hockey, I still love the fighting.

Agreed, but if you taught Mike Tyson how to skate in his boxing prime? If he fought he would be ending NHL pros careers more often than not. And not in 10 rounds, more like 10 seconds.

 

[Bood12]

well, nearly 100% of game attendees don’t understand you. The whole arena in 32 different locations stands up for fights and drops their jaws to big hits. It’s part of the game, which is why the players all do the same.

Neanderthals, lol.

I said jump up and cheer, if 100% of the people in the arena are standing up because of a fight, it is mainly because the people in front of them are standing up and they do not want their view obstructed, as far as people who start cheering and going crazy when 2 guys are dropping the gloves and are about to go, I am guessing they are not a real hockey fan

 

[noo]

As long as players want fighting to stay it's not going anywhere... a couple people have mentioned the documentary "Ice Guardians" and I want to +1 that, it shows how important fighting really is for the star players in ways that we as fans can never see..

Another one is, "Untold: Crime & Penalties" on Netflix.. for the people who say fighting is the reason hockey isn't popular in the States.. that doc is about a junior team built by some kid, it was a team full of goons whose M.O. was to just kill the opponent.. they were selling out by like the second game lol.. safe to say a vast majority of people enjoy it, only a vocal uninformed minority want it gone..

I don't mind trying to find ways to make it a bit safer, like no take downs or something, but banning it entirely would be bad for the NHL in it's current state.. like others have said, until every rule is enforced 100% and no one is taking any cheap shots fighting needs to stay, and I bet damn near every player would agree with that

 

[MXD]

Do you think it's a coïncidences that Ryan Reaves is now with the Rangers or we already forgot what happend last year with the Caps.

But... One of HFBoards grey eminences went to great pains this summer to tell us the whole thing about the Rangers and Tom Wilson was a false narrative!!


False Narrative Surrounding the Rangers and Tom Wilson

 

[Pass the Saitl Sauce]

Time to grandfather fighting out, just as with mandatory visors. Make it illegal to fight if you have a visor on. At the very least stop the fight the moment a helmet falls off. Seeing guys break hands on helmets and visors has gotten so old.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

As for Svechnikov, no one forced him to fight. He willingly challenged a much bigger and stronger guy and paid the price for it.

Ovechkin challenged Svechnikov to the fight after Svechnikov had spent the series up to that point antagonizing Ovie. The Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour was pissed because he felt hockey culture had "forced" an 18 year old to accept Ovie's challenge, and he got hurt for it.

 

[Frenchy]

But... One of HFBoards grey eminences went to great pains this summer to tell us the whole thing about the Rangers and Tom Wilson was a false narrative!!


False Narrative Surrounding the Rangers and Tom Wilson

is it me ?

We had to close this thread back then, because it was getting out of hand and out of control.