Ice Hockey: Right to Fight?
Is it irresponsible to allow fighting in ice hockey?
That’s the guts of an icy-hot debate about the continued role of brawling in hockey, sparked by the recent death of a 21-year-old Canadian player. Despite his amateur league’s rule forbidding the removal of helmets, the 6’2” defenseman’s head gear was off when his skull struck the ice during a fatal in-game fight.
The tragic incident has led to calls for an end to the culture of sanctioned fighting across all leagues, including the National Hockey League, where altercations have increased a reported 24% from last season. “This being the 21st century,” wrote one Canadian sports writer, “aren’t we supposed to be against violence in sports, especially hockey?”
Not necessarily, said the NHL commissioner, who called fighting “integral to the way the game is played.” Hockey is the only team sport in which one player who pummels another is not ejected from the game. The League will consider safety measures, the commissioner said, but won’t ban fighting outright because “fans enjoy that part of the game.”
According to a recent poll, a narrow majority of Canadians now believe that the NHL should ban fisticuffs. But of those polled who identified themselves as avid hockey fans, a whopping 68% said let the fists continue to fly.
“I find it ironic that there are two different laws for violence,” one man wrote to a local newspaper. “One law for those who play hockey, and the other one for the common folk on the street. One can assault another individual on the ice, but if the same situation were to occur on the street, those individuals would likely be charged with assault.”
“Whiney wimps,” retorted another. “I hear there are some non-violent chess matches or badminton games you can watch if you don’t have the stomach for the sport of hockey.”
Tell us what you think: Is allowing fighting in ice hockey irresponsible, or just part of the game? Is the problem just a sports issue, or a societal one as well?
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Hockey has been ...
Hockey has been a sport of physical contact since its beginning. If you put any limitations on the game you change the game. You may as well tell boxers not to hit so hard!
Guy | 1 year, 1 month ago
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Throwing Christians to the lions was good sport at one time too. At some point, unless you want to make hockey a good way of population control, you have to realize stupid cannot trump ethical and put controls on people who cannot control themselves.
Ann | 1 year, 1 month ago
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Recognize
Hockey wouldn’t be hockey without the fights. But we need to recognize that fighting is part of hockey and make sure that the players know how to protect themselves and fight fair. They go on the ice with two very sharp blades on their feet, you should expect a little blood.
Hannah | 1 year, 1 month ago
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The physical science of "fighting"
As a science teacher, I decided to find ways to make the subject relevant, especially to students who have absolutely no intention of becoming scientists but who do want to think clearly and logically. I proposed that the students, based on our discussion of force, momentum, and other aspects of the science under discussion, describe in detail the amount of force required in a punch to the head with a bare fist that would be required to knock a man down as opposed to kill him, or injure him severely.
Naturally, after a long and heated discussion in which the biology of the head, neck and central nervous system came into question, the students realized that they could not come up with a reasonable answer that would cover all situations.
As a result, we agreed that a fist fight in the street, surrounded by concrete curbs and other hard objects made the concept of a fist fight even more dangerous.
Hockey, like the new gladiatorial offering free style mixed martial arts being offered, is a mega bucks industry. Boxing, which demands the use of padded gloves and incorporates the use of medical staff to stop a fight when a practitioner is seriously injured, also a mega bucks industry, has had deaths due to injuries in the ring.
The fact is that serious brain injury and possible death is a high risk in any so called sport that permits and, in the case of hockey, apparently, encourages possibly lethal blows to the head. It might be wise to look into the life long injuries related to professional football also.
As long as there are paying customers for Hockey teams that deliberately start and engage in obviously dangerous and de facto lethal hand to hand combat on the ice, there will continue to be fights and resulting injuries. The best way to stop it is to leave the stadium seats empty and the TV on another channel.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year, 1 month ago
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We already have a skating sport without fighting. we don’t need to change hockey into figure skating. Any sport with that much physical contact there will always be fighting. You can control it but not stop it.to try to stop it may cause larger brawls out in the public sector where innocent bystanders may harmed!
todd | 1 year, 1 month ago
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Fighting detracts from our great sport
Disparaging comments such as the one that likened hockey without fighting to figure skating display a horrible lack of respect for our great sport of hockey. And before anyone thinks this is another comment from someone “who [does]do not know the game or who [has] not played the game,” let me note that I play hockey a minimum of three times a week (some weeks more often than that) and am also a youth hockey coach (12U/PW). Hockey is obviously a sport that involves a great deal of physical contact, and I will readily shout out from the bench for a player to go for the body in playing defense. Body contact is one of the important skills of the game, just as skating, puck handling, shooting, et cetera. Fighting, however, goes beyond body contact and a poor and irresponsible substitute for the skills of the game. It is an act of intimidation and desperation engaged in by those who do not have the skills to compete in the real game of hockey. One of the things we are taught as coaches to convey to our players is that “Body contact is separating the player from the puck, not the player from the game” (or from consciousness).
Bob | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Macho
Please allow me to first remove any macho tone from my comment.
To fully understand this savage game we called hockey, you must be from a small town just 60 miles north of Duluth, Minnesota called Eveleth, which is where I grew up. Only then you will understand why there’s fighting in hockey. (This city called Eveleth also just happens to be where the US Hockey Hall of Fame is located for those unaware.)
What I am really trying to say is people who do not know the game or who have not played the game will always bring the issue to the table on how wrong it is to fight. The funny thing is I bet if the players were to admit it they would probably prefer not to fight and just play hockey. Nevertheless, do not bet your last dollar on that ever happening!
Cheers,
GMS
Guy | 1 year, 1 month ago
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A further refinement
I commented earlier but am interested in this subject for many reasons. First, I participated in football and boxing as a young man and fully understand how tempers can flare in a violent contact sport. I have never played hockey and, honestly, don’t understand the game that well. To me, this question has little to do with the game itself or the players. Rather, it has to do with the management of a game in progress by the officials, who are undoubtedly pressured noy only by the events on the ice but by the coaches, most definitely by the owners and, most of all, by the crowd.
In my opinion, the object of professional sport is, or at least should be, over and above profit and entertainment, the achievement of physical excellence and mastery of the game. That goal, regardless of the game in question, should be striven for with the health and safety of the players in mind, not at their expense. I worked a a teacher with a man who did very well as a professional football player but who left the game well before his speed and agility left him and he did so without major injury, a goal that should be first and foremost in the mind of any hockey player.
Serious injury, and, as we know, death may result from unrestricted bare-fisted blows to the head. It is not the fighting that is in question. It is the managerial, profit driven impetus that is in question, an impetus which affects the crowd, the officials and the players themselves. My statement is that we should, if we enjoy the game, watch all the hockey we want, but, when players lose control and a fight ensues, think more about the possible injury and safety of the players, to say nothing of the example set for young people learning about sport and life, rather than the vicarious adrenaline rush it provides.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year ago
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HockeyFan
The refs stop the fights when they go down to the ice. THAT’S ENOUGH! The players choose to take off their helmets or not! LET ‘EM GO!!
Micky T. | 1 year ago
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Fight
OK, if they want to fight let them fight. Tell them it ‘s at their own risk and by changing a rule it’s not cool, because by doing that, they will lose fans and most important, money. Money is every thing . No Money, no hockey. People want to watch hockey by cheering for their team. Remember
it is not all the time a team scores a lot of points, so by fights people can get in the game more.
chris | 11 months, 4 weeks ago
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