Should the NHL ban fighting?

It might attract some fans but it may deter others. The beauty of the NHL is that when two guys face off and drop their mitts it’s a mutual understanding that they are about to settle their differences. If fighting is banned from the NHL, and the opportunity to unload tension is not available, then guys like Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin etc. run a chance of being on the receiving end of cheap shots and dirty hits. As it stands now, if Crosby gets a punch to the face in the corners or a high stick/chop across the wrists, that other team’s player knows Godard or Bissonnette are only one shift away from making them regret it. Not having fighting will more than likely pose as a bigger danger to players than keeping it in the game because at least now they know it’s coming.

That’s my take, up for further argument/dispute of course, so have at it friends.

Why do you think a lot of people watch football? violence. The violence of hockey rivals that of football. Fighting is something that football doesn’t have, it should be used as a weapon in advertising in that respect. When I went to my first pro hockey game at age seven. My mite team and I chanted for a fight all night long. People love the fights.

included a guy in the OHL that died from a fight. If my memory serves me correctly… this is the first time it’s EVER happened.. yea a few guys have had their career ended due to a fight… but there are more players that have their careers ended to clean checks than fights… why not just take checking out of the game as well…

Hell, there have been more fans killed during games due to pucks flying in the stands than people killed during a fight.

There’s a reason that Pierre McGuire gets the bitch work of sitting between the benches and telling the viewers how many minutes it takes Chris Osgood to get from the tunnel to the ice.

I wouldn’t say it draws the fans as much as it does police the game from a team vs team stand point. I’m sure some show up to games, me included, hoping to catch a scrap, but where it stands in the game is when players take offense to an action against a cheap shot, that was either out of line or not called, or the occaisional fight to set a tempo right off the puck drop.

I say it belongs in the sport because it’s truly a great way to establish leadership and to show how dedicated you are to your teammates, in terms of the policing the game aspect.

Why so many take offense to this, like my dad would say ‘If I did that at my job I’d get fired," is the puck drop ‘look at me look at me’ fights. Some of the time, they truly are like that. Others off the drop seem like there was, again, a bitterness over an old game or play within the game. But mostly, it’s just because it’s fighting. If people think that fighting in this sport should be banned, then ban UFC, and even the WWE because they ‘plug’ violence or show ‘fighting’ as part of the entertainment.

It’s a game, there can be loose cannons, but it’s all about standing up for the team no matter what anyone says, and doing something for a team is a matter of sportsmanship and belongs in the game. Believe me, if you didn’t get huge fines and ejected, they’d fight more than NHL players in the NFL. I never here NHL players trash talk and promote how much they are going to score on other teams in the NHL. If they fought in the NFL, WR divas like Chad Johnson and TO would be given reality checks around the first play from scrimmage. However, they can’t. Who wants that 6 figure fine?

NHL, it’s a players sport. They give the players a slice of policing themselves and no other sport gives that branch like the NHL. It belongs.

It would be ridiculous to legislate fighting in the NHL, which is not the apex of the game, and not pay any attention to sports like MMA or boxing, in which fighting is the sole purpose of the contest. It’s not a valid point to say that fighting is deadly because several people have died in a hockey fight, because the whole sport is deadly. You can be as easily killed in a fight as you can by a skateblade to the neck or a puck to the temple or chest. Outlawing fighting will not decrease the chances of a deadly incident, but increase them.

IMHO