Fighting for Credibility

(First published February 22, 2011)

The Montreal Gazette recently published a poll conducted by Ipsos Reid that stated 54% of Canadians support an outright ban on fighting in hockey. This comes in the shadow of the latest fist-flying fracas between the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins, which led to fines of $100,000 and a total of 23 games worth of player suspensions. It also prompted former super-star Mario Lemieux to openly criticize the league for it's failure to address this form of violence in the game.

Lemieux's comments met with the predictable old-school NHL response, which was to deflect criticism by attacking his credibility (Lemieux is General Manager of a team that employs Matt Cooke, whose on-ice acts of career-ending violence are well documented). Don Cherry, who hasn't said anything intelligent since 1982, was the first in line to call Lemieux a hypocrite.

Hockey analyst Pierre McGuire, a former scout and assistant coach with the Penguins, while conceding Lemieux's somewhat shaky high ground, was quick to defend his position. As a player who played in the previous 'clutch and grab' era of the NHL, Lemieux knows full-well the value of change, and, in this case, that it is time once again for the league to evolve.

It does.

This year has seen an unprecedented level of attention on the goonery and violence in the game. The Boston Bruins star forward Marc Savard could possibly have played the last game of his career due to a concussion he suffered on January 18th. He had just barely recovered from one he suffered courtesy of a blind-side hit from the aforementioned Matt Cooke. Sydney Crosby, easily the league's biggest star, is still out with a concussion he suffered at the Winter Classic on January 1st.

The league has offered a moderate improvement to its rule books regarding blind-side hits, but to many the punishment does not fit the crime; and while it may claim that fighting is technically against the rules, the league continues to tacitly support its role in the game and will go as far as to use it as a promotional tool.

In a recent rant about fighting in the NHL, Team 990 radio personality Conor McKenna pointed out that the last sanctioned bare-knuckle fight took place 1889. Bare knuckle fights are considered illegal in North America. That is not to say that sports fighting competitions are any less popular. The popularity of Ultimate Fighting (UFC) and mixed martial arts is growing exponentially; but here's the thing, there are no pads, pucks, nets or ice. Just one on one combat. If that's what you like, then I have no qualms.

Let me go on the record and say that an outright ban on fighting in hockey is decades overdue. It is brutal, moronic and without question completely unnecessary. The best, and highest rated games in the history of hockey did not involve fights. There are simply no intelligent and reasonable arguments to keep fighting in the game, particularly at a time when people are finally awaking to the fact that violent acts can lead to serious life-long injury.

The league's handling of blind-side hits has been laughable at best and done little if anything to curb the act. To compound the issue, as long as the NHL accepts fighting as a reality of the game, the league will continue to be considered the joke of major professional sports. In case the league, or those who think otherwise, don't already know, the movie Slap Shot was a comedy, not a drama.

If the NFL, a high-impact league and also one of the most successful professional sports organizations in North America can suspend a player for a single punch, why can't the NHL?

It is possible for a hockey game, sans flying knuckles, to be exciting and physical. The IIHF World Juniors and Winter Olympic games are perfect examples.

The NHL seems to forget that its players have lives outside of the game. Families and hopefully a career after they hang up the skates. Perhaps they just don't care, as long as they can fill their seats with fans hungrier for blood than goals.

Things can change. In 2011, seatbelts are mandatory and the vast majority of Canadians don't smoke. This isn't 1977.

Sadly, I know change will not happen any time soon, mostly because of the knuckle-dragging meatheads that permeate the fan base and league offices staffed by former players and their bronze age mentality of defending honour and settling scores.

Or until somebody dies.