fighting.hockey

I was commenting on a THN.com article, and found myself answering this Adam guy's question about fighting in the NHL. I kept going in this circuitous and off-topic route, so I figured I ought to save him the time and trouble and turn it into a blog post instead.

So the question is- does fighting belong in hockey?

Seems like we can't have a season go by without this question being asked by some sportswriter somewhere. You get your typical initial knee-jerk reaction posts or comments which are generally centered around a "for" standpoint- it's been there for years, it actually discourages dirty play, fans dig it- and an "against" standpoint- it's why the sport doesn't get on T.V. it's why the NHL will never be taken seriously, it's why my friends don't watch it, (and my personal favorite) think of the children!

I used to get lured in by the cheap thrills of making a holier-than-thou-NHL-fan-longer-than-you post and going off on the subject, but with a few more years on me, a whole lot more mileage, and a few more sweaters (that's jerseys for you non-hockey fans out there) in my closet, I've uncovered the real reasons we, as hockey fans, have to endure this question every... single... damn... year.

Me being the courteous guy I am, I've listed the REAL reasons we have to endure the "Does fighting belong in hockey" question below.

1) Invariably at some point during the year, you'll have some incident in the NHL that somehow manages to make national headlines. This is ALWAYS something along the lines of the Steve Moore incident and never something like Alex Ovechkin scoring four goals, five points, 1 broken nose, and an unknown amount of stitches in the same game.

Anyone with any sense at all, regardless of whether or not they're a card carrying NHL fan, should realize that something like the Steve Moore incident has absolutely nothing to do with fighting in the NHL (neither did McSorely tapping Don Brashear on the head with his stick back a few years ago). What it does pertain to is something else entirely and frequently differs between each situation, but the response is always the same.

They damn the sport and it's sideshow-esque nature. They feign disbelief that something like this could happen in a professionally regulated sport. They express sympathy for the families involved. In short, they work up more emotion talking about two random canucks playing a sport than a member of the U.S. service killed in Iraq.

What's the real motivation? Incidents like these are a great opportunity for a sportswriter covering a largely unnoticed sport like hockey in the U.S. to get their name and face out to a very large contingent of people who are inevitably stopping by to rubberneck for a few minutes before moving on. So they do what we all do in that kind of situation- they make hay while the sun shines. They cash in.

Hockey fans may be a small lot, comparatively, but they're a passionate lot. I'm sure sportswriters mailboxes, both of the real-life and E variety fill up, posts are submitted, blog entries are posted. It's a news event just like any other. It generates traffic to sites, buzz on the streets, and revenue in ad dollars.

Also, it's a great time for a frustrated sportswriter to last out at a sport with no big name, big money friends. I'm sure it's tough not to jump all over the NFL every time a player dies, but talking bad about the NFL just isn't good for business.

2) A lot of non-fans love to point at fighting as the reason hockey isn't popular in the U.S. This is also where the "think of the children" people love to get in on the act pointing at guys like Stu Grimson and saying they don't want their kids emulating that kind of behavior.

This is, of course, total... bunk? You thought I was going to curse there didn't ya- I'm trying to keep it clean on this blog, thankyouverymuch.

The truth is, Americans love violence. We invented action movies and violent video games. We organized the national boxing leagues that would later expand to encompass the rest of the world. We started extreme sports, emulated gladiatorial games on TV, and when the aforementioned boxing wasn't enough started up "no-holds-barred" type mixed martial arts leagues to say nothing of the pseudo-sport that is professional wrestling. Our country, unlike say, Canada, was started with a bloody revolution. Now somebody is going to say to me with a straight face that Canadians are more bloodthirsty than we are because they, for the most part, don't mind fighting in hockey? Come on... Again, it isn't like it doesn't happen in baseball, football, or basketball anyway.

So why the double standard when it comes to fighting in hockey?

Simple. Hockey is outside of most people's comfort zones.

90% of all American males know the important rules to baseball, football, and basketball by the time they're 10 years old. Hockey is this weird sport most people don't know the rules for, so instead of admitting ignorance and trying to figure out what the sport is all about, it's much easier on the ego to simply dismiss it. This also applies to more fringe sports like boxing because 90% of the people you will ever meet understand boxing or MMA fights or whatever on the same level other people like you do- beat the crap out of the other guy, try not to die.

I make a lot of assumption in my opinion pieces, and I'll make another one here- I'll bet you that the vast majority of American sportswriters didn't grow up playing hockey, professionally or otherwise, and did not dream of getting a job reporting hockey. I'll bet you they wanted to cover one of the other three major sports and had to take a job covering hockey. They do their job with robotic precision and parrot back stats and events just as they would a game in their chosen field, but without the passion or interest they'd show their favorite respective sport.

So while fighting in baseball builds camaraderie and there's just nothing quite like a baseball fight, hockey players are goons! Whatever. Pot meet kettle.

Lastly, for anyone out there who honestly think their 10-year-old wants to grow up to be Tiger Williams, I ask you to take the following quiz: show the following pictures to your 14 year-old hockey fan son and ask him who he wants to be- Sidney Crosby or Tiger Williams?





The defense rests, your honor.

Fighting belongs in hockey simply because it's already there, it's been there for years, and it ought to continue to be there. Hockey's long and storied history is one of the few things that could possibly set it aside from the other pro sports here in the U.S. Unfortunately, Commissioner Bettman has made some moves to make that unique and colorful history bland and faceless at the expense of some outstanding folks who were originally honored just to try and make the sport more popular.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did the most recent sports league turned media frenzy NASCAR change any rules to make their sport more appealing? Has MMA? No. They simply kept doing what they were doing and tried to put the word out as best they could with effective marketing.

It's what the NHL ought to try. Stop listening to the talking heads in the media, the moms against hockey violence, and all that other noise and start listening to your damn fans.

For the past few years, I've been signed up as a member of the NHL Fan Face Off. Every couple of weeks during the season, the NHL sends me a link in my email box that takes me to a survey where I'm asked a bunch of questions- have I attended a game this season, do I know who's playing this Saturday/ Sunday on NBC, do I live in a market that gets the VS. channel, do I support the proposed rule changes, stuff like that. I'd say over the years I must have filled out at least 100 of these surveys. Never once have I been asked the simplest, yet most important question the NHL should actually be concerning themselves with-

Why are you a hockey fan?

But I digress in an already way too long article.

The NHL could've survived without fighting, much like it could've survived without guys like Constantine Smythe (no, not the guy from American Idol) or Clarence Campbell ever contributing anything to the sport, but it's sure a lot more unique with it in there.