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Hockey and Fighting

Sat, 03/24/2007 - 1:32am — Nick

Supposedly, there was some buzz recently about whether the NHL should tolerate fighting, though I haven't been reading around about it. It seems this fight between Fedoruk and Orr in a recent Flyers vs Rangers game sparked it:

This is a case of two willing participants going at it with a unfortunate result for Fedoruk.

Truthfully, as for the "should professional hockey even tolerate fighting" subject, I have mixed feelings about it. I'll be frank: I do enjoy the brutal nature of hockey. I love hockey because it's one of the few sports that combines, at its basic nature, a high amount of skill, high speeds, tactical and strategic thinking by the players, team play, and full body contact in the same game. Trying to take away the physical side of hockey would take away a core part of the reasons I watched and played hockey.

What does this have to do with fighting? Well, nothing and everything, at the same time... Smiling Really, fighting, by itself, really has little to do with the game of hockey; by "hockey", I mean the game where two teams go head-to-head on trying to put a small rubber disc into a rather small net more than the other team. The real measurable effect that fighting has is negligible aside from having two players out of the game for some amount of time (from a lifetime ban in many recreational leagues to a 5-minute sit in the penalty box in the professional leagues). Outside of non-quantifiable variables such as morale or momentum (or another element that I will go into later), fighting at the professional leagues often serves as just a crowd pleaser, and by that metric, professional hockey shouldn't tolerate it at all.

On the other hand, having played and refereed the game for many years (at the recreational level), I know how emotional the game can get. You have 12 players in an enclosed space, quite well armored with a weapon in their hands, with a high amount of body contact (even at the non-checking level), emotions can rise to a high level. Players can take matters into their own hands in one of two ways: he can level a challenge at the opposing player (either verbally or by the standard "dropping of gloves") and the other player can accept and be a willing participant in the ensuing fight, or he can blind-side punch his opponent, break his opponents foot or wrist with a hard slash, or injure his opponent by sending him flying head or feet first into the boards. Trying to punch a mostly armored opponent while balancing on thin blades on ice is not as easy as it sounds. If one wants to release their anger by injuring someone, fighting wouldn't be the way to do it. As it is, attempting to do the later actions should (and often do) incur fines and suspensions of the highest order. The game of hockey is dangerous in itself; I would say the majority of serious injuries are the result of accidents in my observations and experience.

By far, having players handle their anger by challenging someone to a stand-up, face-to-face fight is far more preferable than having them release it in slashes and cross checks.. In that case, his opponent has a choice in the matter; he is actually able to refuse. There's no "culture" of fighting in hockey that I know of; there's no "you have to fight" if you bring other skills into the game. That's either the fiction of movies or the impresions from older, much more brutal days of hockey. The case in the video above is unfortunate, but Fedoruk went willingly into that fight. I think the league overreacting to this would not be wise.

What I would suggest is if the NHL is serious about reducing fighting, they should include a game misconduct for each fighting penalty. I don't think that further fines and suspensions for each individual fight is necessary; if a player starts accumulating multiple game misconducts over the course of a season, fines and suspensions should be levied. The idea is to reduce the number of "crowd-pleaser" fights, but not impact the intensity of the games nor increasing the potential that players will use other means to settle disputes on the ice.

Keep in mind this would be only for scraps where both fighters were willing participants and agreed in some way before it. Other cases, such as mismatch will (one player doesn't want to fight), one player is down yet the punches still continue, or attempting any other act but punching (like kicking, headbutting, bitings, etc) should definitely not be tolerated and have severe penalties applied to such actions. And stuff like taking a "run" at an opposing player to injure them should involve jail time for assault and battery in addition to fines, suspensions, or even banning from the league.