Dear Answer Man,

 

What the hell is going on with fighting in hockey? All of a sudden people are anti-fighting and saying things need to be looked at. Will the NHL ever be fight free?

 

Tom (St. Louis-MO)

 

Oh please, you can’t be serious. Can you? Are you? Fight free? I will say on record that the NHL will never be fight free. I subscribe to that rag known as The Hockey News.  Actually, I cancelled my subscription and they keep coming back.  Just like herpes. 

 

The issue for the week of January 26^th, 2009 addressed fighting in hockey.  Not just the in the NHL but all of hockey. The reason is some poor Canadian Senior A player died after a fight. Not because of getting his face pummeled but because he fell after the fight and banged his head on the ice. I don’t want to make light of this poor guy but I do want to address something about this fight. He knowingly went into it. He voluntarily fought the other guy. It was his choice. It wasn’t a dirty hit, it wasn’t a cheap shot. It was a tragedy no question but he made the choice.

 

There was also a survey conducted in Canada after the guy passed away. To no one’s surprise most of Canada agreed that fighting is a part of the game and should continue.  Another result of the survey was that the majority of people surveyed in Quebec said that fighting should be eliminated from hockey. Now who says the French are pussies? Oh wait, they do apparently (as do I and the rest of the strictly heterosexual population of Answer Nation and majority of North County).

 

It is no secret that Answer Man loves to fight in his Sr. Rec. League. I love to watch hockey fights on TV. Have I ever pleasured myself to a televised or pre-recorded fight? Maybe, just maybe. Why do ask? Is that something you do to or you’s want to maybe….wait, what?

 

Fighting has certainly evolved. Gone are the days of the Plagers going up into the stands in Philadelphia to fight the fans. That was when majority of the guys on a team would fight. There were certainly guys in the league that were the heavyweights but most of the guys would throw the knuckle bags if asked. 

 

Then fighting evolved in the early eighties into protection and strictly that. Sergio Momesso skated with Hull and Oates to protect them. Dave Semenko rarely fought because he had a solid rep of being a complete bad ass. Semenko was there to protect Gretzky. This was the beginning of the truly specialized player. This is where the roles on a team were drawn up and you needed to know your role jabroni. There were epic fights in this time. You had Marty McSorely vs. Probert. Domi vs. Grimson and Tony Twist just destroying guys. People still talk about these fights 15 years later.  This stuff gets people going.

 

Now you have guys who need to be able to keep up with the speed of the game but they play 3:00 minutes a night and you know why there are there. That reason is to purely beat ass. Check out Derek Boogaard. That freak is 6 foot 7. He broke Todd Fedoruk’s orbital bone and he now has plates in his face. The league heavyweights are huge now and super strong. The off season training includes boxing and even mixed martial arts. They are trained fighters compared to farm guys who were flat out tough and strong. There is a ton of technique now. The technique is to hold on to the other guy and throw when you can pick your spot.Is it less entertaining than 20 or 30 years ago? Maybe to some but not Answer Man, it still gets my blood pressure up.

 

We don’t have those incredible bouts like I referenced a few paragraphs earlier but there is still a need for this in the game. Fighting is what separates hockey from every other “major” sport. It gives the players the accountability factor. Not only that, if you don’t step up when someone hands you a dance card your team mates will not come to your defense. 

 

The NHL would be foolish to ban fighting. Why in the world would the league get rid of the most notable piece of the game that wins over new fans? That is like getting a hooker only for the small talk. It is a ridiculous idea. Trust me, hookers are not good talkers. Hell, they usually aren’t even good at showering, brushing their teeth or reading.

 

Keep fighting, it is awesome. Yes, people will get hurt and I bet more people will die from it. I don’t want them to but they probably will. If you don’t want to fight, then don’t take the challenge.Nick Kypreos