Sunday, March 15, 2009

NHL'S Intent To End Senseless Fighting Makes Good Sense

Georges Laraque the Montreal Canadiens enforcer is upset about NHL recommendations that propose 10-minute misconducts for players who fight right after the puck drops. No doubt he fears that his job is threatened which explains his vocal opposition to this move. But it is definitely high time that the NHL moved to put an end to senseless fights in hockey.

I do not propose that all fighting should end in the NHL but the number of staged fights is increasing steadily and this as far as I am concerned is nothing but bad for the game. According to NHL records, 108 of the first 500 fights in the 2008-09 season took place right after a faceoff.

I would be prepared to bet that most of those fights were between players who had just come off the bench, and not as a result of an altercation during play right before the whistle. To reduce the frequency of such fights, the league is proposing to hand out misconducts to players who fight right after the puck is dropped. This in my humble opinion would be good for the game.

I don't believe fighting will ever be fully stamped out. Even if it means ejection from the game, there will still be some fights and probably plenty of them. Some players are notably careless, if not absolutely dangerous, in the way they use their sticks, their elbows and their bodies without fear of any serious repercussions. Possibly the best thing we can do is to keep some fighting in hockey as a self-policing policy. Much better to have a fight if it curtails high sticking and the resulting injuries.

But needless fighting between two enforcers or others dropping their gloves in a misguided move to justify their place on the team must be stopped. Fights will still take place if they really need to -- all the would be combatants have to do is skate around for 15 seconds before squaring off for a fight. I know that legions of fans love hockey fighting, but this could cut the number of meaningless fights in half. Hockey in my opinion would be better for this.

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