It's time to take fighting out of hockey
Published Wednesday January 21st, 2009
The subject of fighting in hockey surfaced again recently following the death of Don Sanderson, a 21-year-old senior player in Ontario with the Whitby Dunlops, who died three weeks after his head struck the ice in a fight.
It's happened before and it's just a matter of time before it happens again; it could happen in Bathurst, Toronto or right here in Moncton.
In fact, it came close just last week in Vancouver in a game between the Canucks and the Phoenix Coyotes. Phoenix forward Dan Carcillo, his helmet off and his balance shot, was thrown to the ice during a fight with Vancouver defenceman Rob Davidson. In an instant, Carcillo was sprawled under Davidson after slamming his head against the ice. Carcillo was hurt, but he skated off; a lucky man.
Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky, once an ardent anti-fighting crusader in his playing days with the Los Angeles Kings, has had a philosophical shift on the matter in part because the NHL eliminated the bench-clearing brawls that were making the game such a tough sell in the southern United States.
Gretzky told Eric Duhatschek of the Toronto Globe & Mail that he still believes fighting has no place in hockey outside the NHL and certainly not in senior hockey, where Sanderson died.
"Why there's hitting in senior hockey is beyond me," says Gretzky. "These guys are not going to be playing in the NHL. They're playing for the fun. They shouldn't be taking a helmet off (to fight). There should just be no fighting, simple as that."
Jeff Blair of the Globe says: "Getting players to tighten their chin straps or leave their helmets on during fights is a laughable suggestion. This is a league (the NHL) that can't enforce its goaltending equipment rules. And based on the stuff you see on the video screens at every NHL arena, it's clear the league markets fighting -- helped along by its broadcaster partners on both sides of the border."
Blair calls the NHL's system of fines for fighting laughable -- the penalties amounting to little more than "lunch money" to the highly paid players -- and suggests tougher in-game penalties for instigators.
This columnist can accept a spontaneous fight and I tend to agree; it's the sparring 20 feet apart before a pre-meditated fight, with four officials looking on, that gets me.
The officials, following the rules, mind you, break the battle up only after the combatants fall to the ice after pummeling away at each other for a half-minute or more with fans and fellow players cheering them on.
This being the 21st century, aren't we supposed to be against violence in sports, especially hockey?
What example are we giving our children by condoning fighting? The television networks, looking to bolster their ratings, now often show fights first and goals later.
Yet fighting isn't condoned in the Olympics, world hockey championships or in university sports. There was no fighting at the recent world junior championship in Ottawa and the attendance record was broken.
"If you want to eliminate fighting, we can. We choose not to," said broadcaster Mike Milbury in a recent story in the Globe & Mail. Milbury, who made his name in the 1970s and '80s as a Boston Bruins hardcase and later became the general manager of the New York Islanders, said that the stand is at least partly explained by business considerations.
"They tell me it's part of the history and people need it to police themselves," he said.
"Well, you know, we have rules in all the other sports, and life in general, and you have to obey the rules. And if you want to eliminate fighting, we can. We choose not to, because it's an exciting and titillating part of the business. I think we're kidding ourselves to say we have to have fighting or otherwise our game is no good."
During his Hockey Night in Canada spot, Don Cherry, a proponent of fighting, insisted he was against keeping a player in the lineup for the sole purpose of lumbering onto the ice and, with a wink and nod to his counterpart, starting a fight.
"I never believed in having a 'mad dog' sit on the bench and have two or three shifts and go out there and fight. That's not hockey."
Cherry, however, made it clear that he feels fighting is permissible and necessary as long as the right guys, which is to say real players, are throwing the punches.
"It's in the game," said Cherry. "It will always be in the game, whether you like it or not."
Cherry said a fight should be a spontaneous reaction to a sudden grievance rather than a premeditated tactic. "It's got to be natural," he added.
Really, Don!
n Eddie St. Pierre is a retired Times & Transcript sports editor. His column appears every Wednesday.
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
