Fighting in Hockey

The fighting in hockey debate has intensified in the past 10 years or so, especially with the advances in concussion research. While fights are dangerous and have the potential to cause serious injury, I think they’re a necessary part of the game. I started watching hockey in the early 2000s, which was at the tail end of the era of the traditional enforcer. Guys who were on a team specifically to fight, like Tie Domi or Rob Ray, were at the end of their careers, and the National Hockey League was evolving to a league where to survive, you needed to do more than throw punches. Guys like Geroges Larqaue, Donald Brashear, and Derek Boogaard played into the 2010s, but by 2015 or 2016, those types of players were relegated to the minors or playing in Europe. Now, buys like Ryan Reaves, Patrick Maroon, and Tom Wilson are considered the heavyweights of the NHL, but they can do more than just fight. They can skate, kill penalties, and chip in on the scoreboard from time to time, which is what “enforcers” need to do now to stay in the league. I love the way the game has evolved, and even though I enjoy watching a hockey fight, I’m happy we’re out of the era of teams having bar bouncers on skates in their lineups. To me, when there are too many fights in a game like the Rangers/Capitals game a couple of years ago, it just mucks up the game and slows it down. Having said that, as I said before, I think fighting is a necessary part of the game. If I’m building a team, I’d love to have a Tom Wilson or Ryan Reaves in my lineup, because skill players need to be protected. If I’m a player and I know that if I take a cheap shot at a skill player someone is going come after me and pound my face into the ice, I’d think twice about taking that cheap shot. Yes, the referees and league are there to police the game, but I don’t think they’re a big enough threat. Yes, if a player throws their elbow into a skill player’s head they can get a major penalty and be suspended for a few games, but that’s it. If I’m on the ice and know that if I decide to throw my elbow into Auston Matthew’s head, not only am I going to be penalized, fined, and suspended, but also Ryan Reaves is going to come out and punch my head off, I’d be less likely to do it. Fighting is dangerous and causes injuries; there’s no doubt about that. The punches may not be the most dangerous part, although Todd Fedoruk may say otherwise after Boogaaard caved his face in. A lot of injuries come from the two combatants falling; Don Sanderson, a player for a minor league team in Canada, passed away after sustaining a head injury from falling during a fight. While playing for the Montreal Canadiens, George Parros was knocked unconscious after falling during a fight. So, yes, there is a lot of danger in fighting, but I think there’s certainly danger if fighting were taken out of the game. Maybe, without the threat of having to fight an enforcer, certain players wouldn’t think twice about delivering a dangerous check to a star player, or any player for that matter. That fighting is necessary is my opinion, and it seems to be that of NHL players as well, since 98% of them want to keep fighting in the game, according to a poll done 10 years or so ago. The truth, though, is that we don’t know what would happen if fighting was taken out of the game. It’s never been that way, so we just don’t know. Maybe injuries would go up because of cheap shots, or with the absence of fighting, maybe they would go down; we just don’t know. Starting this season, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League banned fighting, which may turn out to be a good thing. Though it is a junior league, maybe without fighting it will be a good example of the potential consequences. Everything is hypothetical right now, but I see fighting as a necessary part of the game, I find it entertaining, and I hope it never exits the game. By the way, there’s a wonderful documentary called “Ice Guardians” from 2016, which includes interviews of various past and present enforcers. I’d highly suggest checking it out.