Fighting has to go

[Pitter Patter]

I see fighting progressively petering out over time. I don’t think the league will have to mandate its end. I could, however, see the league having to further mandate checking to the point of its effective obsolescence. We will probably start seeing regular female-NHLers at that point.

Or maybe Tom DeLonge is right and the aliens will takeover. I don’t know how to predict their affinity for or affect on the future of the game.

 

[BlueDream]

Speaking of being 'soft', hockey is probably the softest and less physical of the main heavy hitting physical sports (football, rugby). None of the others allow fighting, unless fighting is the main objective (boxing, MMA).
Seriously, compared to NFL guys, NHLers are wimpy as heck. The statement that "fighting = manliness" is a false premise.

NHL players aren’t wimpy. If you think they are, you should walk into a locker room and look at the injuries they play through.

Also, nobody in NA cares about rugby.

 

[CrazyMonkey1208]

Fans who want fighting to go need to go...go watch soccer if you don't like it.

People and society in general are getting softer and softer so fighting is going to die a natural death anyways.

 

[golfortennis]

Lucic was indeed on the ice. He actually passed the puck to Savard right as Cooke was lining him up. And nothing really came of it on the ice. Some hugging and facewashes, bu that was more or less it.

And why didn't anything happen? I'm sure the instigator rule had nothing to do with that. That is the problem. A rat like Cooke can go do something like that, but Lucic making him answer for it ends up costing the team again, because the penalties are misguided.

 

[Hanji]

Fans who want fighting to go need to go...go watch soccer if you don't like it.

People and society in general are getting softer and softer so fighting is going to die a natural death anyways.

It's just the opposite. Everyday life is becoming more violent. With 24/7 media, the internet, etc., the average person is inundated with more violence, more death, more destruction than ever before. It's literally everywhere. Compare that to the 1960s when the most violent thing anybody ever saw was Rowdy Yates shooting somebody on Rawhide.
It makes sense that people of yesteryear turned to sports to get their 'violence fix'. That isn't needed in todays atmosphere. Just the opposite. Sports is entertainment, an escape from everyday life. As such, people are turning away from violence (fighting) in sports.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I have always been one of the biggest supporters of fighting in the NHL, but I am ready to let it go. I want the players to be safe and have a healthy life with their families.

 

[KevinRedkey]

Make it so if you fight, you're suspended without pay for a game.

 

[Dave92]

I'm sure fighters would rather be out of a job so that you don't feel uncomfortable. Fighting isn't even one of the more dangerous aspects of hockey.

Are there any other sports other than martial arts and hockey where it is considered normal to have fist fights during a game? This is not a rhetorical question, I am trying to think of one.

Of course not that would be crazy.

 

[meatwad4343]

Go watch soccer or basketball if you aren't cool with how physical the game is. Fighting doesn't need to go anywhere

 

[Roshi]

FEL as an example is a warning sign.

 

[Bondurant]

It's just the opposite. Everyday life is becoming more violent. With 24/7 media, the internet, etc., the average person is inundated with more violence, more death, more destruction than ever before. It's literally everywhere. Compare that to the 1960s when the most violent thing anybody ever saw was Rowdy Yates shooting somebody on Rawhide.
It makes sense that people of yesteryear turned to sports to get their 'violence fix'. That isn't needed in todays atmosphere. Just the opposite. Sports is entertainment, an escape from everyday life. As such, people are turning away from violence (fighting) in sports.

1967 disagrees with you.

 

[MMANumminen]

Fighting is fun. It tickles some primitive nerves... adrenaline, shouting, blood, smashed noses, broken teeth. Exciting, entertaining

Also, the world is not more violent than before, we just get more news today

 

[kilowatt]

I see fighting progressively petering out over time. I don’t think the league will have to mandate its end. I could, however, see the league having to further mandate checking to the point of its effective obsolescence. We will probably start seeing regular female-NHLers at that point.

Or maybe Tom DeLonge is right and the aliens will takeover. I don’t know how to predict their affinity for or affect on the future of the game.

Don't drag Tom's good name through the mud. Aliens exist.

 

[BruinsFan37]

And why didn't anything happen? I'm sure the instigator rule had nothing to do with that. That is the problem. A rat like Cooke can go do something like that, but Lucic making him answer for it ends up costing the team again, because the penalties are misguided.

Even if Lucic had pummeled Cooke, he (Cooke) wouldn't have changed his behavior. Cooke got zero games suspended for the Savard hit (when even his own teammates thought he should have been suspended). The hit was technically legal at the time (if reprehensible) and the league changed the rules as a result.

So Cooke didn't even try to change his behavior until the McDonagh hit earned him a lengthy suspension. No amount of face-punching was going to change his behavior, it was the suspension that finally did it.

Again if the Refs/DOPS do their respective jobs then intentionally dirty hits/plays would be extremely rare because no player wants to cost their team the game, or themselves a paycheck. They (dirty hits/plays) are in fact rarer than they used to be, but then a lot of those plays were committed by fourth line goons trying to justify their existence beyond just punching the face of the other teams goon. There's definitely room for improvement though with the calling of penalties/DOPS enforcement.

With no dirty play there's no reason for fighting. But dirty play stubbornly persists and as long as it persists without adequate penalties/enforcement by the league I'm ok with players having some measure of defending themselves/their team with fighting.

Could easily do without it though.

 

[bossram]

Such "violent" sports like football don't even tolerate fighting.

Hockey is just still in the dark ages. How is letting guys intentionally scramble their brains good for the game? Good for the kids watching? 90% of fights aren't about any perceived "score-settling". It's just each team's designated guy-who-gets-in-fights going at it because they think it'll keep them in the lineup. Look at the Kassian-MacEwen fight. What was there to fight about? Well, they're each team's fight-y guy, so time to do your job?

Nope. Take your soft ass somewhere else.

Exactly! Go watch those other notoriously soft sports like football and rugby! Those no-fighting sports are perfect for all these girly-men, amirite?

Like, c'mon. Get real. Is your masculinity so fragile that you'll worry you'll "go soft" if you don't see a fight in a hockey game?

 

[FMichael]

Such "violent" sports like football don't even tolerate fighting.

Hockey is just still in the dark ages. How is letting guys intentionally scramble their brains good for the game? Good for the kids watching? 90% of fights aren't about any perceived "score-settling". It's just each team's designated guy-who-gets-in-fights going at it because they think it'll keep them in the lineup. Look at the Kassian-MacEwen fight. What was there to fight about? Well, they're each team's fight-y guy, so time to do your job?

So fighting does not exist in football? Ok - but how many sports out there allow you to vent your frustrations by lining up across from your opponent and hitting them as hard as you can? Why fight and get tossed outta the game when in the next play you can try to remove your opponents head from his shoulders?

As for the Kassian/MacEwen fight - I believe it was for retribution when MacEwen knocked Smith's mask off while there was a scrum in the crease...Sorta payback - only it was Kassian who ended up on the receiving end...Shit happens.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

OK, this is an argument I disagree with.

"They know the risks, therefore, we have no obligation to take any kind of action to reduce the chance of injury." Nah.

There are a lot of people complaining that football has become too soft these days because they give cheap penalties for accidental contact with the helmet, or for hitting a quarterback just slightly too rough. But while that can be aggravating at times, ultimately the overall product is better because the best players are on the field, and not in the x-ray machine.

Obviously, you can't make hockey completely safe. Any measure you take, you have to strike the balance between too dangerous and too soft. And we can debate them ad nauseum forever. But morally, I can't get with the "eff 'em, they signed up for it" take. There are plenty of reasons to keep fighting in the game, but that ain't one of 'em. They're still human beings, and I'm not a heartless bastard with no soul.

That's not the point. They are grown adults. They decided they wanted to do this. They can live their live however they feel.
If you think this is bad. Things can get infinitely worse if we say a random group of people can't decide for themselves, and another random group of people get to decide for everyone else.

 

[Troubadour]

I'm for the NHL organizations to dress special fighter teams that don't do anything but throw awkward haymakers at the opposing scrubs on skates in a parallel league. There would be different rules, different insurance, different prize, but they would still wear hockey equipment and their teams' jersey.

Would they? No. This nonsense is only justifiable as a parasitic organism hosted by hockey. It would never work in itself. Pure no-fighting hockey would though. Because hockey does not need fighting. It's the nonsense on-skate fighting that needs hockey.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

Don't drag Tom's good name through the mud. Aliens exist.

Don 't waste your time on him he's already the voice inside your yead.

 

[sparxx87]

It's just the opposite. Everyday life is becoming more violent. With 24/7 media, the internet, etc., the average person is inundated with more violence, more death, more destruction than ever before. It's literally everywhere. Compare that to the 1960s when the most violent thing anybody ever saw was Rowdy Yates shooting somebody on Rawhide.
It makes sense that people of yesteryear turned to sports to get their 'violence fix'. That isn't needed in todays atmosphere. Just the opposite. Sports is entertainment, an escape from everyday life. As such, people are turning away from violence (fighting) in sports.

You mean based on what you see on TV?

What about the people that aren’t in the media and on the internet 24/7 as you describe?

What about the people who recognize fighting is part of the game and aren’t trying to tell a pro sports league what to do?

What a world we live in where someone can have nothing to do with a game but have the internet as a platform to cry and lobby for changes… That’s an incredible sense of entitlement. People in hockey want fighting. 99% in the player poll.

If you don’t like it, this isn’t the sport for you.

 

[Bread and Circuses]

You won't find many NHL players that will say fighting has to go, they wont say it has to stay for "reasons" but they need to be able to police themselves.

 

[Leafslet]

Meh, I dont care either way. I grew up watching wendel, domi, corson & tucker, and on and on fight.

Now I see very few fights outside of preseason, and the lack of fighting doesnt bother me. Ban it, allow it, whatever. Is it really an issue at this point with how infrequent it happens?

 

[Makar Goes Fast]

Funny thing is without fighting Kassian would’ve been out of the nhl a long long time ago.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

After watching Sabourin "pummel" Holl and Simmondd "pummel" Sabourin, fighting needs to go..

Especially when in other fights people say one player got "rekt" because the other player got the takedown.

I don't think I can deal with that level of stupidity anymore, so yes, let's get rid of it

 

[ohcomeonref]

It's a part of hockey. Don't f*** with it.