Fighting in the NHL
I am currently doing some research for my third and final English paper, which will be in regards to fighting in the NHL. My second paper about the NHL schedule will be posted on Kukla’s Korner either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Anyways, I came across this quote from a column dating back to March 2004 so right before the lockout. Shelly Anderson wrote:
Any hockey purist wants a game without fighting, or at least respects the game enough to live without the fisticuffs.
If you can’t appreciate the skating, stickhandling, passing, checking and goaltending, please take your bloodthirst and beer and retire to the alley. It’s not as if there are enough of you self-proclaimed diehards who crave fighting to keep the sport thriving.
Supporting violence in hockey is like saying you’re an auto racing fan when you only watch in hopes of seeing a fiery crash.
Is it just me or does anyone else disagree with those comments? I love the sport of hockey and I certainly appreciate the skills and physical play it requires. But I also love the fights. Is there anything else that gets the entire crowd to their feet any quicker? At least in the Joe, which might not be saying much, everyone doesn’t even stand after a goal is scored, but if a fight goes down, the entire crowd is up. I don’t need a fight every game or every two games to make me happy, but it’s been a critical part to the history of the game and I think it should stay.
What are your guys’ thoughts? Whatever you believe, your opinions can help me with my paper to make sure I address all “benefits” of fighting or the opposing views. Thanks!
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12 Responses to “Fighting in the NHL”
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November 27th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
I’m not familiar with Shelly Anderson, but after reading her comments I’d have to come to the conclusion that this lady hasn’t spent much time around the sport of hockey. Her comments couldn’t be any more backwards… it’s the true hockey purists that would be most annoyed if they took the fighting out because they recognize the importance of its place in hockey. People need to quick trying to fix what isn’t broken. The only people that don’t watch hockey because it includes fighting STILL won’t watch if they take it out because they only way they could come to that conclusion in the first place is if they weren’t educated on fighting in hockey.
November 27th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
One of the girls, Rebecca I think, posted this very question on our hlog and there have been lots of responses thus far.
November 28th, 2006 at 5:15 am
I’m so old school that it ain’t funny. There isn’t enough fighting in the new NHL. Its a Don Cherry-mentality for me. It’s war. Stars like Crosby need to have an enforcer that makes an opponent pay for taking liberties with the star player. The instigator rule needs to be tossed as well in order to bring back the goons.
But I really don’t think that fighting will make a comeback anymore, which is what I’m sure the powers- that- be want so they can market a ‘clean’ game. We now have a watered-down version of what hockey always was….a fast, physical, tough game.
November 28th, 2006 at 5:24 am
It’s pretty much a given that I’ll take my hockey with scraps included.
November 28th, 2006 at 10:15 am
You might be interested in this write up from KPD’s hockey notes in Sunday’s globe.
http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/articles/2006/11/26/lets_punch_it_up_a_little/?page=full
November 28th, 2006 at 11:31 am
I’m not familiar with Shelly Anderson, but after reading her comments I’d have to come to the conclusion that this lady hasn’t spent much time around the sport of hockey.
Clearly, she’s mentally disturbed.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:31 am
(note for those watching at home: that previous comment was sarcasm)
November 28th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
[…] Christy posted this morning about fighting and its place in the NHL. It was short, it was sweet, and I agreed with it completely. […]
November 28th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I agree completely with Chris DeGroat’s comments above. I would add that I believe Bettman has done his best to eliminate, or at least reduce the fighting in the NHL which has resulted in the types of hits we saw against Franzen because there is no fear of retaliation. Let the players hand out the appropriate justice. While no one wants to see a Bertuzzi type incident it is only a matter of time before someone has their career ended because players are allowed to go after an opponents head (or knee, as we saw in the Dallas game last night) without paying a price. Shelly Anderson and others who think like her will doom the game to the point that it will be the Ice Capades with sticks.
November 28th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment thus far! I really appreciate it and pretty much agree with what you’ve all said. I guess it’s frustrating that members of the media write that crap acting as if they represent the majority of hockey fans and then almost no one agrees with them…
November 29th, 2006 at 3:25 am
to play devil’s advocate, or perhaps illustrate a middle-ground position, for which i may be smushed into a vague pinkish smear on the internet, but whatever:
i don’t have a problem with fighting on principle, it’s a high-adrenaline game, tempers flare, and so forth, but the theatrical aspect of it disturbs me. it seems like a good deal of fighting, even in the ‘new nhl’, is undertaken as a sort of sideshow for the fans, because that’s what gets us worked up. it bothers me that people have less enthusiasm for the game than for two guys try to pummel each other- if it takes a fight to get people to their feet, that’s kind of sad, isn’t it? i’ve tried to ‘educate’ myself, as the first comment suggests, on the role of fighting in hockey, and the more i learn, the more bizarre it seems, because beneath all the rhetoric about the code and raging emotions and whatnot, it seems like the primary reason for fighting is that fans like to see violence. fighting is a critical part of the mythology of the game, which in turn forms part of the identity of the hockey fan- and i might add, it is also a popular way for hockey fans to judge amongst themselves who the ‘real’ fans are. but it also cripples the game, at least if one believes that hockey deserves a wider fan base, because if the size of the audiences for other professional sports are any indication, people in general prefer to see emotions exercised within the parameters of the game rather than in extraneous brawling. but i suppose the question is one of priorities: is it more important to please your core fan base, or to try to attract new fans, possibly even new varieties of fans?
personally, i don’t want to see fighting prohibited, but i also think that if the only fights that took place were those that resulted from genuine anger, and not some dude trying to up his penalty minutes or get a rise out of the crowd, the sport would be both more entertaining and more credible. the oft-predicted demise of the ‘enforcer’ class, and their whole wannabe wwf-on-ice show, is probably a good thing.
but yes, i think mine is definitely a minority opinion, and deeply formed by personal concerns, and i’m more than willing to let all y’all define what is and isn’t important to this sport.
i apologize, that was longer than necessary.
November 30th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
I’m just a big sucker for fights. I mean my favourite fighter is Laraque (mainly because he’s kind of a funny guy). Now he’s a guy who believes in some sort of unwritten rules in fighting. But I mean what people need to stop worrying about is to approve every single fan that enters the arena. I mean what about the Leafs fans who beat the hell out of Habs fans who heckled them anyway? I mean if it’s not fighting, it’s the hugeass amount of alcohol the people consume.
But fighting, I think it’s a great thing. It adds to the atmosphere, I enjoy old school fights where they fight to stick up for each other. However at the same time I’d like to see my favourite fighter fight as well. I don’t want little kids attempting to make their mark and ending up as a vegetable.
I doubt the fighting attracts fans, if anything it’s just what people use as a criticism of the sport. And like what I said to hockeygirl’s puckbunny post - you can’t win every single fan over. There’s always people who will watch the sport just for the cute Crosby guy or to see a man hammered into pieces. Are you that guy? No? Well why bother trying to purge the arena of these guys. Because they buy the tickets and money for your team is good.