Why does this feel like someone standing on a street corner with a megaphone?
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Fighting only increases the violence, it doesn't reduce it.
How do you know? It depends on the types of violence, too. I've seen plenty (read: dozens) of games where violence is rampant throughout the game, a brawl breaks out, and nothing comes of it after. It calms right down.
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You can't demand or gain respect from your opponent by punching him in the head.
You can definitely gain respect by dropping the gloves. If you slash a guy, hurt him, he goes down, and you face up in a fight, you'll gain more respect than if you skate away laughing. Respect is a common factor amongst heavyweights in hockey.
BTW, if leagues encouraged it, why do they give five-minute penalties?
Doesn't your comment simply suggest that the officials should be under greater scrutiny if you believe players need to take things into their own hands?
My prediction is that fighting will be completely out of the game at all levels within the next 20 years.
I think you're right. The attitudes have shifted drastically just recently, like in the last few years. The old school brawling Canadian hockey is being globalized in a sense, watered down. I am still in shock that youths now can't check until Bantam!
I only made it to 1 OHL game last season and there were easily 5 fights. This year in 6 games I've seen 1 or 2 maybe?? Already the players must be altering their behavior, I wondered if there was also a request from the League to lesson the fighting, or a larger agenda as Crottenham said, to eliminate it from the game.
I don't love fighting, it's usually a sideshow to real hockey. The game goes by so quick, you shouldn't have to prove that you will fight, there's so much better ways to defeat your opponent. The ones who will miss fighting in hockey the most are the 8 year olds who chant "fight, fight, fight," everytime the players scrum around the net.
BTW, if leagues encouraged it, why do they give five-minute penalties?
Compared to other sports it does. Other than the actual combat sports, hockey's 5 minute rule is joke. Baseball, basketball, football, soccer - you're talking a suspension on the first time. Multtiple times in the same season? Well that just doesn't happen but if it did the suspension would be lengthy...
Compared to other sports it does. Other than the actual combat sports, hockey's 5 minute rule is joke. Baseball, basketball, football, soccer - you're talking a suspension on the first time. Multtiple times in the same season? Well that just doesn't happen but if it did the suspension would be lengthy...
Just because the penalties aren't incredibly stiff doesn't mean it encourages it. A penalty is a penalty. If fighting in football meant a life-time ban, having a three-year ban in hockey for the same thing doesn't mean encouragement. BTW, baseball, basketball, and soccer aren't contact sports, either. Two very different sets of rules, so you can't compare their suspensions to hockey.
Just because the penalties aren't incredibly stiff doesn't mean it encourages it. A penalty is a penalty. If fighting in football meant a life-time ban, having a three-year ban in hockey for the same thing doesn't mean encouragement.
Fair enough. I would argue that a 5 minute penalty is hardly punishment at all. But if we agree it is not within the rules, does that not mean that it is not part of the game?
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Originally Posted by OHLTG
BTW, baseball, basketball, and soccer aren't contact sports, either. Two very different sets of rules, so you can't compare their suspensions to hockey.
Getting hit by a 100 mph fastball in the head will likely do more damage than "stickwork" in hockey. Tell someone in a bar in Queens NY that baseketball isn't a contact sport, and you might get laughed at. Tell someone in Glasgow, Scotland that soccer isn't a contact sport, and well...you said you like fights, right?
Fair enough. I would argue that a 5 minute penalty is hardly punishment at all. But if we agree it is not within the rules, does that not mean that it is not part of the game?
Not within rules and not part of the game are two different things to me. While hooking, slashing, fighting, etc are all penalties, they are a part of hockey, to some extent. Taking a rope off the bench and hog-tying someone isn't (if you know that reference, props!).
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Getting hit by a 100 mph fastball in the head will likely do more damage than "stickwork" in hockey. Tell someone in a bar in Queens NY that baseketball isn't a contact sport, and you might get laughed at. Tell someone in Glasgow, Scotland that soccer isn't a contact sport, and well...you said you like fights, right?
Getting hit by a 100mph fastball does more damage than some stickwork, but not all. Just as Donald Brashear. You have a 6'4 220lb guy coming at you to cross-check you in the throat, chances are it's going to do some damage.
Basketball is not meant to be a body-checking sport. That's what I mean by contact. Sure, bodies are going to collide, but you're not doing it intentionally like you are in hockey. Soccer is a similar way. If you run and shoulder-check a guy in soccer, you're going to get a yellow card. In hockey, it's commonplace.
