by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
Some of the comments you’ve posted about the value of fighting to reduce the incidence of dirty hits are just ridiculous. There are other ways to do this, as other sports have demonstrated. If this argument were truly valid, we would be seeing a large number of dirty plays in professional basketball, where teams face each other multiple times per season yet fighting is not allowed. Professional basketball, particularly during the playoffs, is every bit as physical, especially under the basket, as hockey. Yet the flagrant foul rules, and the willingness of the league to hand out suspensions, have dramatically curbed the level of violence and increased the emphasis on skill and teamwork. And when was the last time you saw a fight break out in a football game that lasted more than five seconds before being broken up, often with the participants being ejected?
Another is more blunt:
Your first reader is full of the old-school propaganda about how enforcers keep the game clean. What mooseshit that is!
Can you name another sport where the rules are "enforced" by the players instead of by the officials? OK, maybe the brushback/hit batter that pitchers lay on after giving up a home run … but the officials penalize that these days. In the NHL, a fight or a dirty hit might get you three minutes in the penalty box. Three minutes!
Anyone who has thought about it, instead of hanging on to the good old ways, knows that big penalties will do more to stop the crap than all the boxers on ice put together. Pass a threshold and your penalty minutes get doubled. Pass a larger threshold and start getting ejected from the game. Pass a larger threshold and start getting suspended from the next game. It will limit injuries to everyone, including the fighters, and it will make the fighters properly obsolete.
Besides, it's so damn boring to watch the fisticuffs. First they drop their gloves. Then they start bareknuckling on each others helmets. Then their feet come out from under them. Hey, I like boxing! But this is just stupid.
Update from a reader:
Your "blunt" reader obviously does not know much about hockey. There is no such thing as a three-minute penalty. They are 2, 5 or 10 minutes. Players who throw a dirty hit that injures another player are usually thrown out of the game. They are then subject to review by league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan, who has the power to suspend players. Here are some examples:
1. Superstar Alex Ovechkin suspended 5 games, with Shanahan's explanation
2. Dan Carcillo suspended 7 games for boarding.
3. Bruins star Milan Lucic suspended 1 game for boarding.These are just a few examples. The hits in these clips would not have been penalties, let alone suspendible offenses, a mere 10 years ago. This system is actually working as the volume of dirty hits has been reduced. More importantly to my eye is that when a player is in a compromised position (facing the boards, for example) other players often pull up rather than plow into them. In the past that player would get blasted and consequences be damned.
Fighting is also way down from years past. As an "old school" hockey fan, I have no problem with the odd fight when two guys have an issue. I do find the line brawls ridiculous, they should be outlawed.
Another recommends some further reading:
Here [pdf] is a piece for Harper's magazine that addressed some of the questions lurking underneath hockey and fighting. I think it speaks pretty directly to the pressures placed on kids in junior hockey in Canada – and how socialized violence is such a huge rite of passage. It's a complex problem that reflects and creates the culture of Canada, real and imagined.
Never thought your site would get interested in this kind of subject. But come to think of it, not surprised at all.
The Dish 