Fighting is up again this year in hockey, the NHL, and I really don’t like it one bit. Now, don’t get me?
Friday, June 26th, 2009musicman36 asked:
wrong, I’m no wuss. I’m 35, I live outside of Seattle, I am 6′ 195 pounds, and I play ice hockey in a pick-up league twice a week for over 15 years. When I grew up, I thought fighting was kinda neat, but as I started to play hockey, I realized that I **** goons and I really don’t like fighting at all. There have been 608 fights this season in the NHL, and the season is only 1/3 over. Many times lately, there will be 3 or 4 fights in a game, that is just way too many. Has the NHL cleaned it up a bit over the years? yes, they have. They have made it so if you instigate a fight, you get a game misconduct, and also you don’t see many line brawls or bench clearing brawls anymore. I can see maybe each team carrying one tough guy, but if you look at the rosters for each of the 30 NHL teams, they all have at least 3 or 4 guys who can go (fight) at any time, everyone except the Red Wings really. What I don’t understand is that the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, said that he is against fighting several times, and that post lock-out - 2005-2006, there weren’t going to be as many fights, because of new rules, which made the game more into a European style game, wide open skating, more goals, etc. Well, that whole experiment lasted about one year. 4 years after the lock-out, fighting is back more than ever. Bettman is a hypocrite. On one hand, he wants to do away with fighting, but on the other hand, he knows that the fans who pay to go see a game really like the fighting, well, the majority of fans do. I think that most of the fans don’t play hockey like I do. If they did, they would realize that fighting is pretty gay, and lame. Bottomline is, the NHL makes billions of dollars every year, and even though they don’t “market” fighting, they do silently promote it, because every team has several tough guys who fight. These guys take up a roster spot for more talented guys in the minors, who might never get a shot to play in the NHL, simply because the NHL makes tons of money by keeping fighting legal. More fans go to the games, drink beers and expect to see some fights. The way to do away with fighting is to outlaw it in the lower level leagues, the minors, the AHL, the IHL, the ECHL, the WHL, etc. You have to have the youth hockey players growing up with no fighting. You can’t have the kids idolizing guys like Tie Domi or Rob Ray, who were goons. You have to have them idolize the Mario Lemieux’s and Wayne Gretzky’s of the world. That way, you will start to have a culture that steers clear of fighting. Who agrees with me?
wrong, I’m no wuss. I’m 35, I live outside of Seattle, I am 6′ 195 pounds, and I play ice hockey in a pick-up league twice a week for over 15 years. When I grew up, I thought fighting was kinda neat, but as I started to play hockey, I realized that I **** goons and I really don’t like fighting at all. There have been 608 fights this season in the NHL, and the season is only 1/3 over. Many times lately, there will be 3 or 4 fights in a game, that is just way too many. Has the NHL cleaned it up a bit over the years? yes, they have. They have made it so if you instigate a fight, you get a game misconduct, and also you don’t see many line brawls or bench clearing brawls anymore. I can see maybe each team carrying one tough guy, but if you look at the rosters for each of the 30 NHL teams, they all have at least 3 or 4 guys who can go (fight) at any time, everyone except the Red Wings really. What I don’t understand is that the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, said that he is against fighting several times, and that post lock-out - 2005-2006, there weren’t going to be as many fights, because of new rules, which made the game more into a European style game, wide open skating, more goals, etc. Well, that whole experiment lasted about one year. 4 years after the lock-out, fighting is back more than ever. Bettman is a hypocrite. On one hand, he wants to do away with fighting, but on the other hand, he knows that the fans who pay to go see a game really like the fighting, well, the majority of fans do. I think that most of the fans don’t play hockey like I do. If they did, they would realize that fighting is pretty gay, and lame. Bottomline is, the NHL makes billions of dollars every year, and even though they don’t “market” fighting, they do silently promote it, because every team has several tough guys who fight. These guys take up a roster spot for more talented guys in the minors, who might never get a shot to play in the NHL, simply because the NHL makes tons of money by keeping fighting legal. More fans go to the games, drink beers and expect to see some fights. The way to do away with fighting is to outlaw it in the lower level leagues, the minors, the AHL, the IHL, the ECHL, the WHL, etc. You have to have the youth hockey players growing up with no fighting. You can’t have the kids idolizing guys like Tie Domi or Rob Ray, who were goons. You have to have them idolize the Mario Lemieux’s and Wayne Gretzky’s of the world. That way, you will start to have a culture that steers clear of fighting. Who agrees with me?
http://www.hockeyfights.com/leaders/teams/
You would have less high sticking, etc, roughing, etc, if you did away with fighting, because you would only have skilled players in the league, players who would be less apt to do stupid crap, you wouldn’t have the goons, because they couldn’t make the cut
GUSTAVO

