No need for fighting in hockey

Statistically, I’m a great fighter.

In my 10-plus years of playing hockey, I’ve never lost a fight. When it came to going buckets and gloves, I won both times.

But despite my obvious physical dominance on the rink, I have to say I’d rather hockey cut the fighting.

Those interested or involved in the sport have no doubt been a part of this debate at some point or another, and even those who aren’t order cialis canada interested have probably read an article or two about concussions sustained by minor hockey players.

Though brain-damaging injuries are obviously serious, that aspect of the argument, for me, isn’t the strongest. What is more convincing are the considerations of how scrapping affects the game itself.

There have been many recent changes to gameplay, regulations, even things like dimension standards. The changes were primarily implemented to improve the speed and flow of the game, as well as hopefully the skillsets of players.

Changes like those made to dimension standards are easier to see the effects of than more subjective changes (for instance the severity of penalties). The newly-increased distance between the blue lines and the goal lines, making for a larger offensive/defensive zone, makes a difference in how often the puck leaves the zone. This way, there is less need for the offensive players to clear the zone, and fewer stoppages of play related with re-entry offsides.

Hockey is obviously taking pains to become the smooth, fast sport it should be, for as much of the game as possible. Given this aspiration, it seems silly to keep mucking around with scraps.

Instead of bench brawls, I’d rather see brawlers benched.

Fighting is an unnecessary disruption to gameplay that serves no purpose but to entertain spectators who mistook the hockey rink for a boxing ring. It distracts from and interrupts the parts of the game that matter. Shooting, passing, skating, making plays to score more goals because that’s how you win a game; not by throwing a few punches or pulling another person’s jersey over their head.

Additionally, fighting in hockey creates an unwarranted culture of violence within the sport and its spectators. There is no other game wherein players regularly fight outside the parameters of the sport. Football, notoriously rough, has huge amounts of physicality. Yet, it is not unusual to see a player helping an opponent up after a particularly nasty tackle. And the fans don’t seem to mind, given that the National Football League is the most profitable sports organization in North America.

Speaking as a puck-head, I know that the National Hockey League wouldn’t lose me as a fan, and I wager most of my ice-fiend friends wouldn’t stop watching either. There is significantly less fighting in hockey than there used to be, and the referees are making marked attempts to stop brawls before they break out. It’s just a matter of improving this trend until we cut fighting out entirely.

        @samwisegodfrey