Posted on 03/06/2023 12:58:42 PM PST by DoodleBob
The NHL has a culture problem. It oversees the only professional sport that condones fighting during games among its players, so much so that extracurricular fights are part of the game’s identity, its DNA. Case in point: It has a designated major penalty for fighting because fighting has always been prevalent.
The time has arrived to stop such egregious endorsement and end fighting for good.
Skill, rather than fights, has served other professional sports well, with fights during games frowned upon. Other sports leagues have instituted policies that address and deter fighting, using combinations of suspensions, fines and buy-in from teams and players. The NFL and the NBA have zero tolerance policies when players engage in fights.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I went to a fight and a hocke game broke out.
Fighting is already basically gone. .19 fights a game. The game has evolved. Scoring depth is mandatory, enforcers are gone.
“Bleed all over ‘em, let ‘em know you’re there!”
Dave’s a Killer!
Dave’s a mess!
A whiney, stupid article from someone who obviously watches little hockey
Speaking as a non fighter, the NHL was a more polite brand of sport when it was only five minutes for fighting. Also when many did not wear helmets or visors and as a result, kept their sticks down and did not resort to slamming someone into the boards headfirst which is so commonly accepted these days.
If the NHL were to become like the US NCAA (with fighting banned and full cages mandatory), that’s my completely ending any interest in the sport.
Toxic masculinity. The horror! The horror!/s
Idiot.
There are way too many fags and pussies in the NHL.
He's gonna wind up with a you-know-what in his mouth faster than you can say "Jack Robinson".
Fighting is already disappearing from the NHL. Interestingly, this has nothing to do with changes in the rules. What’s driving this are the ongoing changes in strategies for building an NHL roster and coaching the game. Nowadays, teams will typically roll four forwards lines and three defense pairs — which means all 18 skaters are expected to contribute during a game. With a salary cap in place, this also means that teams have to weigh each player’s contributions on the ice against the salary that he is being paid.
The “enforcer” is disappearing from the NHL because teams no longer have the luxury of having a game roster spot filled by a player who mainly a fighter and is expected to spend a lot of time serving penalties. The enforcer is also disappearing because with the salary cap, it makes no sense to pay even the league minimum salary of $750,000 to a player who fits this description.
Not completely. It is not like it used to be. But teams have to protect their stars from being targeted. Teams also have to retaliate for cheap shots on teammates. Take fighting out completely and guys like McDavid, Crosby, Ovechken,....., would probably have shorter careers. It is a game within a game. IMHO. Love Hockey. Go Pens.
Not really. The instigator penalty really killed the enforcer. That extra 2 minutes for the guy that started the fight meant you could no longer punish the cheap shot guy, he just wouldn’t drop the gloves, or would wait, and your enforcer spends more time in the box than him. The trailing ref did a lot to get rid of the cheap hits. There’s still some. Just as there as still some fights. But overall it’s a more open game, nobody wants to waste a bench spot on a pugilist when you could put a goal scorer there. 3rd and 4th line scoring gets your name on the Cup.
Go Stars!
Probert and Durbano must be rolling in their graves. Don Cherry was right about Jaromir Jagr… All he ever gave us was the dive. European sissy-boy players, not men. Who will ever forget the great ass kicking that the Red Wings gave the AV’s in retaliation for the Draper hit? It’s part of the legend, the lore of the game!
Two clowns staging a fight on the ice does nothing to protect the stars of the game. That’s as true today as it was 25 years ago.
Spoken like someone that’s never played the game, and the closest he’s gotten to one is his TV screen.
The role of the “enforcer” at the NHL level was never to fight for fighting’s sake. Their role was to protect the skill players on his own team. There were too many cheap shots being taken against the skill guys, with the only consequence being a 2-minute (or sometimes 5-minute) trip to the sin-bin. The presence of the enforcer is to provide an incentive to the cheap-shot player to keep it clean.
Some teams still have one or more, and some of those guys have talent too. Take, for example, Tom Wilson of the Washington Caps. The guy is huge, has at least some skill (with a knack for scoring goals) and protects guys like Backstrom & Ovechkin (not that the Great 8 needs much protection). But the other side of the coin is that Wilson also has a knack for cheap-shots himself, and often hits to hurt. Guys like him are the reason other teams need to come with someone of similar size - as a counterbalance, if nothing else.
As others have noted, the game has evolved a lot since the “Broad Street Bullies” of the 70’s, and teams are younger, faster, and more skillful. So you can’t fill your 4th line with goons any longer - at least not if you want to win. It will continue to evolve, and I don’t see it going backwards.
From what I can tell, the true “enforcer” only came into existence in the 1970s — with the combination of increasingly skilled players, the post-1967 expansion of the NHL, and the establishment of the WHA as a competing league. This resulted in a massive increase in roster spots at the highest levels of professional hockey, which meant there was plenty of room in the game for minimally skilled baboons who would have been working in mines or steel mills before the 1967 expansion.
The proliferation of U.S.-born and European players that began in the 1980s slowly pushed those marginal players out of the game.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.