The great debate continues, and this Tuesday, on Prime Time Sports, NHLPA head Paul Kelly voiced his personal opinion on fighting’s place in the NHL game:
“Fights which arise out of the emotion, the spontaneity of the game, a guy responding to a questionable hit on himself or on a teammate is actually a part of our game that should remain. What I have a real problem with are these staged, pre-arranged fights that don’t arise out of the play. Two heavyweights squaring off before a face-off, or texting each other leading up to a game. These are the guys who are 6′6″ and 250 lbs. and can, frankly, deliver the most damage. It’s awkward and uncomfortable to watch some of those fights when you’re in an arena.”
With all due respect to our own Donald Brashear, who has developed a much more complete game in the twilight of his NHL career — my sentiments exactly.
And “texting each other?” Perhaps I’ve willfully stuffed my head deep in the sand — I didn’t realize this was so common.
But I’ve come to find those heavyweight, sizing-each-other-up, boxing-style scraps to be so tiresome and, frankly, an embarrassment when I have to explain their circumstances to a new or potential hockey fan.
Though the ”spontaneous” fights continue to be, I think, relatively firmly rooted in the origins of the indoor game, a natural result of surrounding the surface of play with boards well over 100 years ago.
Your thoughts?
2 comments
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January 29, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Dave at Caps News Network
i typically agree about the boxing matches. however, the scraps could be better reguated as well.
i’ve never really bought the need for enforcement, especially now with all the players making healthy sums of money for playing. i just don’t think retribution injuries are as big a deal as they once were.
take Ovechkin, for example. one of the league’s best players and best hitters. he gives it out as good as they come. why aren’t more guys (that don’t play for Pittsburgh) taking cheap shots at him? because he does it cleanly, face to face, and with respect.
i know we’ve had a couple stick swinging incidents in recent memory, but those incidents happened in the fighting era. those rare moments of passion and frustration are always going to happen, regardless of the fighting penalty or not.
in my opinion, i just don’t see the need for it in the game anymore.
January 29, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Meg
One thing I always liked about hockey was that they let the players express/vent their frustrations and energy on each other. In other sports like football you’ve got these guys swimming in testosterone beating each other up each play, trash talking to each other and no real good way to settle things – they aren’t allowed to fight and I think they should be! I agree though the staged fights, or the idea of fighting to gain momentum is weird to me and I could totally do without, but let’s leave these guys an outlet. After all Semin really looked like he was working out some frustrations – it must have been good for him!