To Scrap Or Not To Scrap.....

That is the question. Now what is the answer? Well maybe I should do a better job of defining my question for all you numbskulls out there. The question, well it's the same questions that's posed at least a few times every single year. Should fighting be outlawed for good in the NHL? Well i'm not here to answer that question, only to provide my opinion on the matter.

I think most of you already know what i'm going to say, no absolutely not, fighting is essential to the game of hockey. Hockey is basically the only major sport in the world where the game is policed not only by the referees, but by the players themselves. The system within the game is actually quite interesting too, because as anyone who watches hockey regularly knows, there is a hierarchy in place on any given team. Enforcers, grinders, agitators, checkers, playmakers, snipers, superstars. Without an internal code within the game, I think you would see a rise in violent incidents on the ice aswell as an increase in dangerous hits. Players could run around on the ice all willy nilly without fear of retribution from the enforcers. Your star players, the Crosby's, Malkin's and Ovechkin's of the league would have bullseyes stamped on their foreheads. These are the players that people pay to see, and without protection on the ice it would be free reign for cheap shots.

Obviously there is no way to fully remove fights from the game, but what they would do is probably something along the lines of throwing a person involved in a fight out of the game and giving them a one game suspension or something. Again though, this only creates problems. How do you mediate who started the fight? The league would be constantly be tied up with complaints from players and team officials over whether suspensions were warranted or not. What if someone started a fight to protect a player, does he get a suspension? What if a player is attacked and drops the gloves in response? Does he get a suspension? These would all be very grey areas and the amount of debate and hearsay would vary from case to case and it would be extremely difficult to maintain any kind of consistency in the verdict.

Essentially the argument about fighting is raised every year because of an on ice incident. With 30 teams playing 82 games each, there are going to be a lot of fights. Enforcers these days are not just big hockey players anymore. For the most part they are trained fighters. They take martial arts or boxing lessons. They are much bigger, and much stronger then the fighters of the old days. The chances of someone getting injured in one of these fights are pretty good. The most recent incident was not actually too major. Two fighters were finishing up their duel, and they fell, and one of them smacked his head on the ice pretty hard. He's fine, and just has a gash on the back of his head for his troubles. However of course this spawned the debate once again.

What everyone needs to realize is that this is a sport played by grown men and that they have accepted the responsibility of their position. Alot of these players are realizing their dream of playing in the NHL and if you removed fighting from the game, some of them would be out of jobs. For the most part, if you don't want to fight, you don't have to. Star players rarely if ever fight, and when they do, it's usually at their own volition, and referees are also usually quite quick to break these ones up. Wayne Gretzky in his career fought 3 times. His longest one was 14 seconds against Neal Broten. He instigated the fight by dropping his gloves first. Sidney Crosby has been in one fight in his career against Andrew Ference last year. He held his own, and also dropped the gloves first. When a star player does fight? It's usually against another star player or at least one similar in stature to himself. They never last long, and their are rarely ever many good punches thrown. Quite simply because they are not trained fighters, they take a big swing, lose their balance, and the refs jump in.

What society has to accept is that accidents happen. Has anyone ever been killed in a hockey fight? No they haven't. However people have died on the ice as a result of stick swinging accidents, or dangerous hits. Which as i mentioned earlier, would only increase with the removal of on ice policing. The entertainment value of a good hockey fight makes the league unique, I personally don't go to the game to see fights, but if one happens when i'm there....you can bet i'm on my feet rooting for Laraque to lay a beating on Lucic! It breeds team unity and can actually completely change the game. How many times have you seen a team down a couple goals, and then their fighter squares off against the other team and lays a beating on him, and the next thing you know the tempo and direction of the game swings completely and you've got a comeback on your hands. Happens all the time.

So in conclusion, obviously i support hockey fighting. Everyone has their opinion and that's just mine. I know some people see it as barbaric but for those who have played the game and followed it loyally like many of us have, it's quite obvious that it's been engrained in the culture and is important to it's success.