Posted on 10/19/2005 10:17:59 PM PDT by RWR8189
Having played hockey from 5-18 yrs old, 76-89' I'd beg to differ with alot of the opinions here.
Fighting has a place, and is needed in hockey.
My bantam coach never took it as far as that nutjob mentioned in the article, but he had us drop gloves and helmets and just wrestle quite a bit to improve balance and overall familiarity with fighting on the ice.
Refs miss alot and sometimes, someone just needs thier butt kicked.
Two missing teeth or a couple of cuts is alot more incentive to not lay on wood, slewfoot, or dig on a goalie than two minutes in the box.
And if mommy and daddy, and the refs, or the league won't discourage the repeat offender, pain will.
Lastly, with helmets and masks mandatory throughout North America at all levels of amatuer hockey, a kid who lays on wood and recieves a punches through a mask from a kid with gloves on probably deserves it and will be wiser for it.
Juniors and the minors will always be the testing ground for the Pro's. And fighting will never be eliminated from it.
And to those who say only the unskilled resort to such tactics, you are ignorant. A Gordie Howe hat-trick was a goal, assist and a fight....
i am talking about the bantam games i see. there are no shanahans, mccartys or lindros playing in the games i see!
Ah yes.....those were the days!!
I got to see the action up close and personal from my season seats at The Spectrum, section N, row 9, seats 3 and 4.
Go Flyers!!
Why didn't one of the parents beat the crap out of this coach?
We are already seeing a huge emphasis on checking from behind in our NCAA D1 games - 5 minute major and game misconduct seems to be the standard penalty.
Maybe Bettman (with a lot of help) is going to get one right (one in a row) - and the game will evolve - in a positive direction.
Each and every one of these kids wants to have a career in hockey. The sooner they learn how not to get their ass kicked, the better. This isn't the seventh grade tennis team. This is high-level junior hockey.
nice!
Darren McCarty was the man.
I miss him on the Wings....
If this is a high level junior team it would be a different story.
The way the article is written made me think they were a midget team or something like that playing AAA.
And spin kicks with skates on are just beyond the pale.
Terry O'Reilly is another one. Watching him was a clinic, which is why Dave Schultz and he still will not occupy the same room, much less speak to one another. I saw Larry Robinson put Big Bird Salesky's head into the boards hard enough to leave a dent -- and that was in the days before helmets. (Fortunately nobody from the Flyers every needed a head for anything, so Salesky continued as usual.) The Bruins, Canadiens and Flyers won many Stanley Cups and there was no European stick-whacking like we get now that the girls are not allowed to drop the gloves.
I'm sorry if you don't like old time hockey, but I do, and I think my kids would run away from home if their mommy came running into the locker room caterwauling about some big meaning whaling on her baby.
Kate, I'm a big fan of old time hockey. I grew up on it and would be banned from FR if I mentioned my opinion of Gary Bettman and his changes. There were as many jerseys of McCarty, Draper, Konstantinov, and Maltby as there are of Yzerman (and even he could drop the gloves if he had to)and Lidstrom. Going back to the 80's, it was Probert, Kocur, and Harold Snepts who looked like my dad. I am as strong proponent of fighting in hockey(as opposed to the Ulf Samuelssons), as long as the league involved has it. If this was juniors, or a tryout to be drafted into the OHL/WHL/QMJHL, that would be one thing. This is a midget or bantam league which is a different level that doesn't have fighting. This isn't about old time hockey. If fighting should be allowed in bantum and midget levels, then we should have it in the rules. If that's the case, then this practice would be alright in my book, if proper techniques were taught. I coached football for four years(winning record). All of us coaches had one major rule in our drills. Everything we did in practice was game related. We did a lot of hitting and hitting techniques. It's part of the game.
I agree 100% with what you said.
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