Fighting In The NHL: What's Your Take?

NHL hockey for allot of the reasons that are now slowly being taken away. The hitting, toughness and fighting.

I agree with you to a point, i think i hate staged fights more than anything, and god knows Barch was involved in a few in his time. But if i see Jamie Benn, or a better example is Ribero being man handled or thrown into the boards i want my enforcer, or tough guy to sort that guy out.

Prime example this year was when Clowe whacked Robidas, and Barch went out to settle what was an uncalled for slash on Robi. If fighting was banned, would there have been anything else someone could do during in the game other than fight Clowe?

I think the Bruins are a prime example of how fighting can help u win. They have at least 3 that will drop the gloves if not more, and that is a really intimidating line up. U know that every line they have someone is willing to fight for the cause, and i think thats a big reason they won the cup last season, and are one of the teams in the mix again this.

If fighting gets banned, and hits are been looked at more and more, i can see allot of people switching off.

Like i said a the top, i think the role of a tough guy is to protect, or seek revenge of something the refs might have missed, and its staged fights that should be that are not needed.

I always thought Barch was a better player that people gave him credit for. Goddard, well i think that was one of only a few bad moves GM Joe has made. Ideally, i think Hockey does need to get away from the ‘can only fight’ mentally, and replace it with someone who has skill, but can fight as well AKA Eric Nystrom

fighting attracts so many fans to begin with, that I say it has to stay in the game. Many guys like Steve Ott, Krys Barch, even Adam Burish all got their start in the NHL because they were primarily fighters. So many minor league and junior hockey players have to try to make a name for themselves beside just as a goal scorer, or a dependable two way forward, so many add the skill of fighting. Now there is nothing wrong with a good fight in a game with high intensity, or a player trying to tell his team that they need to get some life in them. So kinda looking at it from a different viewpoint I guess the question is do you lose more fans, and possibly even NHL hopefuls, by taking fighting out of the game, or do you gain more fans and players by taking fighting out

Season 1 with Texas, sure no problem. He was an enforcer 100%. But now he is more than that and has potential to be an energy guy in Dallas who also can fight. He plays the penalty kill, very occassionally on the power play and has been trusted previously by Coach Gulutzan to be more than a pair of fists.

Godard, on the other hand, has 9 healthy scratches in 23 games in Texas, if that tells you anything.

Let’s not pussify the game further by taking it away.

Like NASCAR, everyone is awaiting the wreck. College hockey has strong rules against and follows up with punishment. It’s not needed and it detracts from the sport. My wife finds it completely disgusting, which is why she pushes me for NBA tickets instead of NHL.

I am a huge fan of hockey and can appreciate the value of a fightless hockey game. But that seems to be the cherry on top for most of my friends who attend about half the games i go to. To take fighting away will take from the fanbase of the NHL. It will have a definite impression on not just the attendance but the revenue would suffer. I would be lying if i said i didn’t stand up and cheer wildly for every fight i have ever seen on the ice. It is what it is in the NHL. The part that can be phased out are the guys who some label enforcers. Not all of them are bad. I like safe pesky hockey players who hit clean. Some of the guys are just flat out goons though. They set out to hurt players on every shift. Maybe not seriously injure them, but hit them hard enough to get them off the ice faster. They also arrange fights, or go after people maliciously after clean or dirty hits on their own players. These guys only have a roster spot for the purpose of causing harm. So i wouldn’t mind seeing some of these guys get the boot. Some of my favorite fights are from raw rivalries, and pure spontaneity. See the picture above, Benn and Iginla was a classic and between two real hockey players that produce in other aspects of the sport. Keep the fights, move the one dimensional goons.

And it is needed as long as players like Sutton are here.

Still, I like the idea of fighters who can play, not straight goons.

Sometimes games get intense and fights are a warranted reaction to the things going on out on the ice. I can understand those kinds of meaningful fights taking place, but fighting just to fight needs to be taken out of the game.

The enforcers are the guys that are the most at risk to develop these kinds of brain injuries that will affect their later lives. With what we know now about the concussions, If I had one of these players on my team, I would make sure he understands that the role he is playing may severely shorten his life and could definitely reduce the quality of the abridged version of it.

There will always be the scrums after the plays and the occasional fight that comes out of it, and that should stay in the game because it’s one of the game’s most unique aspects when compared to any other sport.

I’m also perplexed by the argument that it’s integral to the integrity of the game, yet someone players find a way to stop fighting during the playoffs and when they play Olympic hockey.

players refrain from fighting in olympic play for certain reasons but there are still fights in the play offs, less fights per game than regular season play but there are good reasons for this. one reason is that many of the goons who just fight get scratched throughout the play offs in favor of someone who can maybe make a play that maybe changes a game. Players also do not want to risk injury with the season on the line. while these are reasons why playerd dont fight as much in the play offs i think you need to look at why players fight in the play offs.

prime example, Patrick Marleu and Kevin Bieksa in this years WCF, Bieksa was playing the best of hockey of his career in that series and the sharks were steadily on the way to getting steam rolled out of another conference finals, Bieksa basically punk checks Marleu and Marleu tries to inspire this team and tell the canucks that they wont go without a fight (figuratively).

another great example is the oft mentioned Iginla vs. Lecavalier from the cup finals. Two examples from the stars this season, Brenden Morrow vs. Rostislav Klesla and Sheldon Souray vs. Chris Stewart.

In the case of Morrow/Klesla, Klesla was taking liberties with several stars that game and when he tried it with Morrow the captain wasnt having it. Klesla was much less of a factor the rest of the game and will definitely think twice of trying to play like that against the stars again.

in the case of Souray/Stewart, Sheldon Souray had so much to prove. Basically Souray was sending a message that he was still the intimidating powerhouse he was 2 years ago before an injury and an ahl sentence took him out of the public eye for so long. He was also showing that he wasnt just in dallas to help himself but that he was here to help the team and he did this by defending his crease and wrestling Stewart to the ground after he tried to take possession of the front of the net.

Now neither of these fight are five star throw downs but if fighting were illegal in the nhl Chris stewart would have been able to just walk into the crease all game leading to a wealth of crosscheck, roughing, and other penalties. Klesla would have kept running at our players all night, also resulting in more calls and raising the risk of injury.

Another thing to look at in the case of fighting in the NHL is that fighting is technically already illegal, 5 minute, 10 minute, even game ejections are all results of fights and scrums that take place in games. If fighting was truly banned as some suggest what would happen if two players dropped the gloves in a game? would the league react the way the NBA does to an on court fight? would we see players just dropping the gloves and shoving each other till the refs stepped in?

in conclusion of my longest comment ever, to ban fighting in the NHL you would need the brain eraser from the MIB movies, flash it everyone who has ever seen a hockey fight, and than tell them that hockey is a sport that doesn’t tolerate fighting, and lpayers rarely if ever try to fight one another

I have no problem with it in the game. Unlike dangerous play hits to the head etc, fighting only happens when both participants want it to, or let it.
I personally prefer the skill elements of the game but also believe a team should have one or two players on their roster that the other side knows to take note of.

As a Stars fan in Dallas who wants to see more people in the arena, I’m not so naive to think that we would do ourselves any favors in selling the sport in Texas to new fans by banning fighting. Trust me I’m no pacifist, but I’ve always thought that fighting detracts from the game. On the other hand I think that it can act as a tension valve and the players can do much more damage with their skates and sticks and hitting etc without fighting. Ultimately, the more info we have seems to show more and more how much damage fighting does to these guys, and I think the clock is ticking on fighting in the sport. I beleive the time will come when the league will be presented with a study showing that we cannot in good conscience allow fighting to stay in the game. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for many and overdue for others.

The knee-jerk reaction is to completely eliminate it because it increases the chances of player brain/mental damage and opens the door for goons that don’t belong in the NHL.

But, removing it completely takes away that release valve that is sometimes needed when refs loose control of the game and if you completely remove it I guarantee it will result in cheap shots where a player knows he can take a swing at a guy and the refs will break it up before the fight really starts.

I hate the fights that start after good hard clean hits though. Honestly, in those cases it would be better for the guy that threw the hit to just stand back and let the guy take an instigation penalty.

I agree about how the playoffs show it is not absolutely needed because suddenly guys stop fighting even with the intensity of the games going up significantly. I do wish they would stop the pseudo-fighting that has been happening in the last couple seasons where they basically keep their gloves on and punch/face-wash guys.

In a perfect world you could keep fighting but only have it happen when it is supposed to and not stupid staged fights or clean-hit fights. As it is though, perhaps the rule could be that a player could only be in x number of fights per season. Then they need to make sure it is really worth it.

And lastly….enforce the damn 3rd man in penalty!!!!

and unless you’ve played the game, you really don’t know what fighting does to and for a team, during, before and after games. it’s hockey. we (stars fans) have a team that has a tough to play against motto, and guess what, if our guys got their butts whooped every time they dropped the mitts, we’d be a significantly less effective tough to play against team (because it allows the opponents to think, “okay, if we’re just tougher we can win more puck battles, battles in front of the net”, etc.). how many commentators talk about battling? it’s HOCKEY NOT SOCCER.

fighting absolutely matters and is completely necessary at times. eliminate stage fights fine, but in the heat of the moment, like when you’re goaltender gets run or a cheap shot is delivered, fighting is there to make sure further cheap shots, harm, fouls, injuries don’t occur. and if a guy has to get hurt to send that message, good, you can’t let delinquent players like jordin tootoo get away with the crap he pulls. pound that POS with fists, not fines or suspensions, is the only way POS players like him learn (if fines/suspensions worked, why do we have repeat offenders?).

i get the injury-concussion angle. fine. but the day my teammate gets banned for going after the real head-hunters, the guys like matt cooke who are looking to injury players who don’t see the hits coming, and my guy gets tossed for sticking up for him, is the day i stop watching. the players need to be able to officiate themselves because outside parties (the refs) aren’t capable of doing so.

if you don’t get that, you’ve never played, and you have no business answering this poll. sorry, but you really don’t. 9 out of 10 players want fighting. at least. i would say more but i’m not into the whole .5 person thing.

and if you don’t believe me, read this from just over a week ago (sorry, you’ll have to copy and paste it).
http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/02/20-out-of-20-nhl-players-agree-fighting-shouldnt-be-banned/

because last time i checked, all the guys out with concussions right now are out because of either clean or dirty body hits with head whiplashing on the boards or ice when they don’t see the hit coming.

the fighters are looking at one another. they see it coming. most punches don’t land that hard anyways, and when they do, it’s jaws and eye sockets (or body blows if you’re krys barch), not blows to the crown or back of the head. the concussion argument is inaccurate.

I, for one, enjoy a good fight but have had a tendency to be tired of the fighting because of the goons and the fights that pop up because of clean hits. The discussion has reminded me of where it belongs. The challenge is keeping it where it belongs in the game:
-in response to clearly dirty plays
-to motivate the team when they really need it

Everyone is tired of the goons who are out there just to throw dirty hits and start fights. Stricter enforcement of cheap shots will hopefully help to weed them out. And perhaps something along the lines of limiting the number of fights allowed. Ogie Oglethorpe no longer has a place in the league.

is that the vast majority of the time, it is a staged fight. Nobody is protecting anyone else. It’s just two fourth line guys doing what they think is their job, and it contributes nothing to the game. I also agree that it’s ridiculous how often clean devastating hits are met with an instant attack. Maybe if the NHL actually called instigators, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Ultimately, I think you leave a place for it in, just in case you have a guy that truly makes a cheap shot dirty play, but maybe you increase the sit time for it, give an automatic one game suspension, or something else that forces the players to consider whether or not the fight is really worth it

is a great if everything is in perfect world theory but the fact remains as long as you have dirty hits, and fighting you are going to have goons who fight. A guy takes a run at Crosby or Malkin the Pens 4th line “we don’t care if you get suspended or hurt” comes in to fight the other teams “we don’t care if you get suspended or hurt” goon. For all of the people that say fighting polices the sport and cuts down on dirty hits really lets look at guys from the 90s, Claude Lemieux, Scott Stevens, Bryan Marchment, etc, guys who were notorious head hunters and cheap shot artists.

must not have seen the game in Boston last season. because wow. what an incredible start to a game. The Stars got manhandled in every single aspect to start that game (and being a stars fan) i was still completely thrilled. What a way to start the game. Im on the edge of my seat from there on out. but that’s not the important part. I believe we can all agree the Dallas Stars season last year went to Boston and died there. That’s where the wheels fell off. That defeat on the score board and in the fisticuffs killed the Stars season. And well it sent the Bruins the other direction. So yes fighting is extremely important. Yeah a guy like Barch isnt needed thats why he’s gone. but teams still have to make statements in the course of an 82 game season. Hockey is for men, the NFL MLB and NBA are for the boys. thats why they slap each other. and as soon as Morrow starts slapping Dustin Brown instead of punishing him with his fists ill probably be done watching hockey.

on the one hand i nearly always find a fight to be exciting and it kicks the crowd back into the game but with recent developments i find my self cringing a little at my enjoyment. Take Otter, one of my favourite guys, on the back of my jersey because he plays hard, scores goals and fights tough. But do i want him to develop a brain disease or die younger than he should? No, i want him sitting up in the arena watching games like other alumni’s when he’s done. At the end of the day idiots like Don Cherry have too much influence on fan opinion in big markets and i think it won’t become easier to create change until we get rid of a few dinosaurs.