Fighting has to go

[njdevils1982]

this is still a thread?


ill fight the OP just to shut them up on such an idea…sack up or get off the f***ing ice

 

[Beau Knows]

No woman will ever be close to good enough to play in the NHL. Especially if there’s contact

I kind of agree, I think it might be possible for a woman to make it as a goalie, so I won't say never, but it's nowhere close to happening. But, like I said, it's not the fighting or hitting that's women back right now...read my other posts. Not sure why you randomly picked this one out of context to respond to.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

It had its day. Time to move on.

 

[CrazyMonkey1208]

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.

Remember that time a fight broke out in an NHL game and all 20k fans sat down and turned away? Neither do I. The violence you're talking about is a direct result of poor political policies and the "perpetually offended" types, not fist fights in hockey. Fix D.C., keep fighting in the game.

 

[Crede777]

Staged fighting needs to go as well as having guys whose primary role on the team is to fight. That's bad for both the overall talent level in the league as well as player health.

That said, I do think that fisticuffs have a place in the NHL. In football, for instance, if someone does something dangerous or that you don't like, chances are your coach will tell you to take a number and get them really good next chance you get. That's actually pretty dangerous given what we know about hitting and head/neck trauma. But in football, it's manageable since most players are not eligible to be hit very often during the course of a game.

But in hockey? I would rather have someone tell me to my face that they didn't like what I did and then fight me straight up. I'm not talking about getting cold-cocked like what Larkin did to Joseph or jumping someone like Bertuzzi did to Moore. But I think it's safer if a fight occurs face-to-face with the referees nearby and both players are aware that it's happening than if a player were to look to paste the other into the boards on the next shift.

Let the players settle their problems with a mutually agreed upon fight. If you remove fighting, then dangerous checks and boarding will be their only recourse.

 

[Sasso09]

No thanks.

You have to go.

Fighting has proven to prevent injuries and reduce dirty Play and cheap shots. Less than 4% of concussions in hockey come from fights.

This has been badly debunked over and over and over.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Kassian isnt in the league if fighting was banned. Personally I dont mind a good fight from bad blood. Staged fights or fights from clean hits I can do without. Hockey is a physical sport, lets not turn it into figure skating.

While you CAN say this for some people, Kassian isn't really one of them. He's a grinder who fights, he's not a useless enforcer. He can skate very well, and can score at a 3rd line pace. He has spent time on the PK in the past and did well there also. There are a few guys out there who would never play a game if fighting was banned, but Kassian isn't among them.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

No thanks.

You have to go.

Fighting has proven to prevent injuries and reduce dirty Play and cheap shots. Less than 4% of concussions in hockey come from fights.

This has been badly debunked over and over and over.

source?

 

[Reaser]

Whenever someone says "fighting should go" I think of that saying:

"tell me you're physically and mentally weak without telling me you're physically and mentally weak"

 

[TheSituation]

Whenever someone says "fighting should go" I think of that saying:

"tell me you're physically and mentally weak without telling me you're physically and mentally weak"

When someone posts things like this I think of saying "Tell me you have a low IQ without telling me you have a low IQ"

 

[CrazyMonkey1208]

Whenever someone says "fighting should go" I think of that saying:

"tell me you're physically and mentally weak without telling me you're physically and mentally weak"

I always think "Go watch soccer, field hockey or Euro-hockey"

 

[tuozzi]

North Americans seem to generally be more entertained by violence than Europeans. That's my impression anyway. It would be interesting to know the reason.

 

[txpd]

Fighting has proven to prevent injuries and reduce dirty Play and cheap shots. Less than 4% of concussions in hockey come from fights.

This has been badly debunked over and over and over.

Nah. Fighting doesn't really deter bad behavior. It does raise the cost but fighting after clean hits on good players remains a thing and doesnt stop those hits. Most dirty hits are attempts at clean hits that miss. Most guys intending dirty play from harrassment to doing damage are doing their job and arent going to stop because they are challenged to a duel.

The stand up for yourself, stand up for a teammate thing is real, though and just like in other sports that need remains and fighting remains there as well. If football players werent so protected by padding, you would see at least as many fights there.

The NHL has removed the staged fights between fighters by largely removing the fighters from the game. Now fighting happens between real hockey players about real hockey issues.

 

[PROGFAN66]

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?

Hockey is not as physical as Rugby or Football lets be honest it's a more skill based sport. However, the sport is a contact sport but fighting should be banned IMO and it is hurting the game. The constant scrums after the goalie holds the puck is crazy. You don't see that in Rugby or Football.

Hockey when it is played right is the best sport IMO. The leadership in the NHL is what hurting the sport.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

What they have to stop is breaking up the fighting.

Last night another example where Matt Martin and a Blackhawks player started to fight and the f***ing refs jumped in and broke it up as it was going. That is going to just cause more issues and not let the guys get it out of their system.

They are grown men getting paid millions. They can decide for themselves if they want to fight or not. We don't need more stupidity from Bettman.

 

[txpd]

What they have to stop is breaking up the fighting.

Last night another example where Matt Martin and a Blackhawks player started to fight and the f***ing refs jumped in and broke it up as it was going. That is going to just cause more issues and not let the guys get it out of their system.

They are grown men getting paid millions. They can decide for themselves if they want to fight or not. We don't need more stupidity from Bettman.

Often, you know, the guys doing the fighting are NOT getting paid millions. They are doing all they can to get an NHL roster spot. The Chicago player in question, Jujhar Khaira, makes under a million per season. After agent fees and taxes he might bring home $500k.

 

[barbu]

Ken Linseman, dale hunter, claude lemieux and ulf samuelsson were sure not deterred by fighting. They just turtled and kept cheap shopping and ending careers or seasons.

Fighting has to go.

 

[illpucks]

It had its day. Time to move on.

To be fair then we need to remove checking. Because the vast majority of the suspensions that injure players are late hits or hits to head. Just remove all checking and all fighting.

 

[Kocur Dill]

"Fighting has to go."

GTFO!

If fighting has to go, then maybe it's time to clean house and make the NHL a niche sport again. There are plenty of Euro leagues for ya'll to watch.

fighting was a part of the "I dont make money, I love this sport and will do whatever it takes for The Cup". If those days are over, then so is my love for the NHL and it's pansy Millenial POS fans. Cry me a river.

 

[Lt Frank Drebin]

I have played in leagues with and without fighting and it absolutely can be a deterrent to dirty hits. Fighting will never go away in the NHL because the players know this. They have voted on it several times and players have overwhelmingly said they prefer fighting in hockey. I love watching college and European hockey but I’ve noticed there are more cheap shots there than in the nhl.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

Often, you know, the guys doing the fighting are NOT getting paid millions. They are doing all they can to get an NHL roster spot. The Chicago player in question, Jujhar Khaira, makes under a million per season. After agent fees and taxes he might bring home $500k.

Ok so not millions, but six figures.

Doesn't change the fact that they are getting paid way more than the average person to play a sport with inherent risk. It is up to them to increase or decrease that risk.

 

[valet]

i kind of like fighting in hockey, but fights have become so few and far between these days that i could see it completely phasing out of the game in the next 20 years, and i don’t think it would bother me that much if i’m being honest

 

[SENStastic]

There are 2 kinds of fans

'Reeee he hurt my guy we should ban fighting and hitting reeeeee'

And

'He hurt my guy someone needs to crack his f***ing skull open'

Option 1 is usually a kale eating soyboi loser who cant afford season tickets and thus their opinion doesnt matter.

Absolutely true, its always the same type of people trying to push their soft ass ways onto everyone else, on everything. They just absolutely feel the need to at every turn, compulsively. Gets incredibly annoying, and they wont stop whining about it either until they get their way. Then they'll move onto the next target on the agenda, which is hitting all together. We all know that's next in line, it will never stop or ever be enough for them.

 

[MadLuke]

North Americans seem to generally be more entertained by violence than Europeans. That's my impression anyway. It would be interesting to know the reason.

And yet the far afar impression is that fanbases and events are significantly more violent a bit like if the suing-ultra security society got less prevalent a little bit in many country and less gun make fistfighting lower stake.

 

[SENStastic]

Quite right, excellent post and thread idea.

In a similar manner to the laughably overwrought reaction of some to the Phoenix Coyotes relaxing their stodgy dress code rules, there is a certain cohort of regressive hockey "fans" who want to vainly cling to an atavistic interpretation of what is important in the sport. I put fans in quotes because it frequently seems they care less about the actual playing of the sport itself rather than sideshow aspects - fighting, "class" (wearing suits, short hair, and other 1950s nonsense), buffoonish commentators like Don Cherry and Mike Milbury - which tend to have little or no bearing on the fundamentals: who scores the most goals, who wins the games. It's viewing hockey primarily through a lens in which it's a vehicle to promote a very niche cultural packaging, specifically some sort of blue-collar/farmboy romanticism that has no bearing on how elite athletes are developed and trained in modern society.

The obsession with fighting and its (complete lack of) causual impact on the game is one of the most obvious expressions of this. Which is why the verbiage that surrounds it is so obviously puerile: it's all about proving who's "manly" and "hard" and separating them from who's "soft" and "girly". For the crowd that peaked in high school - which, I suspect, has a lot of overlap with the crowd that prioritizes fights over the actual game play - this is perhaps expected. But as professional sports continue to embrace a more intellectual and modern approach to the game play itself through optimization of strategies, through training and nutrition that aims to produce the best athletes, and through cultivating a wealthier, more educated, more sophisticated fanbase, these sorts of attitudes will be increasingly seen as fringe, long out-of-date, and regressive in terms of the direction in which they would take the sport. Thankfully, the dinosaurs are dying off.

Lol ofcourse, the usual suspects rear their ugly head again. This is why majority of fans are absolutely and completely against taking it out of the game, cause it's really about politics just as much as it is about the game itself, probably more so. We've realized this, and not going along with it, it's not really just about players safety and concern for their wellbeing. But boy are you guys extremely loud huh, even if you only represent a small sliver of the fanbase.