Comments on: Question #169: Should fighting be banned in hockey?

By: Blink

Blink — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:46:50 +0000

I recently went to a WHL game where fighting is now banned. A guy was knocked to the ice and a player on the team skated up and hit the fallen player with his stick. You’re telling me that after something like that happens there shouldn’t be a fight?

By: Tanya

Tanya — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:53:21 +0000

Join my Facebook group My Hockey Includes Fighting.

By: BruceB

BruceB — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:03:42 +0000

Hockey with hard hitting and hard checks is great. Hockey with fighting is a waste of my time. (I’m 52 and I used to watch a lot of hockey until Gary Bettman placed teams in minor league cities. Who cares about Columbus?) I went to Union College in Schenectady when they started their hockey program in the 1970’s. I was amazed at how beautiful a sport hockey is without the fighting. Then in the mid-1990’s I got a pair of free tickets close to the ice to see the Rangers play the Canadians. I took my 5 or 6 year old son (I don’t remember the exact year) and was embarrassed that he had to watch such pummeling and hearing morons cheering. Enjoy your “sport,” they don’t have fighting in football where there’s much more understandable justification for it.

By: sunny615

sunny615 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:03:52 +0000

Hockey with no fighting is like Politics with no lying. Just isn’t done.

By: MikeA

MikeA — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:41:28 +0000

Sam and Rick: There have been many times that a fight has changed a game or series; for Carp- remember George McPhee vs. Rick Tochett in the 1986 Playoffs? How about the Detroit/Colo fights from 1996?

Fighting is violent and the guys are bigger and stronger now than in years past, and it is an absolute tragedy the player in the Juniors/WHL lost his life because of a fight.

I think fighting is a part of a game but should be modified and penalties more severe, and the beat way to do that is have a summit this summer. Invite guys like Orr, Laraque, Carcillo, etc. but also guys like McPhee, Schoenfeld, Bobby Clarke, and even Gordie Howe; all generations of players who dropped the gloves. And make this summit public, open it up to the press, satellite radio, the public, get some good press for the game of hockey. Ratify something using all generations of fighters and come up with a fair, well-balance, and logical solution.

By: What the HECK

What the HECK — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:36:05 +0000

So basically what Sam is saying is…

We will start out with the 20 hockey fans in the world in 2003. Now cut it in half because of the lockout (10). Now the economy is going bad so less people can afford the tickets (5). Now lets get rid of fighting and see how many of those 5 leave?!? NO!!

Is this your way of getting rid of the NHL?

And how dare you suggest that the fighters here are like the fighters in the WWE?!? Thats f’d up man.

Fights can totally alter a game, it can get fans into it. Players pick and choose the right time to have a team that will benefit their team. And usually its against a player that they do not like or have a bone to pick with.

Plus the fights are going to happen. All the players need to do now is wait for one lap around the ice and then drop the gloves. This is just a way to completely ban any physicallity from the game.

I am a small guy, but I have fought people before at the drop of the puck. I did it because I knew one of their players would be taking runs at my teammates because he just had that look about him.

And I love Sean Avery on the Rangers. But he is one of those guys that would still be in the league because he has talent. He would egg people on until they are tearing their hair out. Then somebody is most definitely going to hit him in the head with a stick or something. THEN WHAT?!? What do you suggest players do about that? Just let that guy go? And elbow to the head? A dirty hit? Hitting a goaltender? A shot after the whistle? Youre suggesting let them do whatever they want? Im calling BS.

Gary Bettman is Europeanizing the game and pretty soon there will be no fighting or scrapping or physicality. And if it does become that, then I am done with this game! I will still play, but the sport that gets my blood moving around has those three components (stated above) in it.

By: NorthCountryRanger

NorthCountryRanger — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:18:34 +0000

Hockey is a man’s sport. Men settle their differences often with fights. Therefore fighting is an inherent part of hockey, i.e. if you eliminate fighting you might as well call it the icecapades. Keep in mind this is coming from a player on the small side, but I always stood up for myself in every level of hockey by hitting and FIGHTING!

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:02:10 +0000

I think it’s a gross injustice to stereotype fighters as “thugs”. Some of them are thugs and some regular shift players who don’t fight are thugs also. Some of the biggest Gentlemen in the sport have been enforcers (Stu Grimson, Jim McKenzie). Adam Graves fought heaveyweights on occasion but because he was blessed with more skill he was able to avoid the “enforcer” tag. If he was less skilled would he become a “thug”? I’m all for debating the role of fighting in Hockey but stereotyping all the guys who make a living in this role is wrong.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:53:18 +0000

How about an automatic game-misconduct for fights? I believe the current rules say 3 game-misconducts = a suspension, so keep that in place. Most non-thugs only get into a handful of fights a year, so it shouldn’t affect them too much, but the thugs who fight every other game will rethink their position.

By: GaryRanger

GaryRanger — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:25:57 +0000

Without fighting I have no interest in attending anymore games or watching on TV