Does Fighting Belong in the NHL?

As the NHL's 30 G.M's met in Naples, Florida this week many topics were brought up, but none bigger than the NHL's latest concern; fighting. Many questions regarding the future of dropping the gloves were addressed by the G.M's and brought to light. The main idea? Get rid of 'staged' fighting. Well what exactly is staged fighting?

A staged fight in the NHL is often when two players square off, often when the game is just underway and fight. Almost always it pins one teams enforcer versus the opponent's enforcer. These "fights" are often laughable as the combatants spend close to 20 seconds of dancing with one another like Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa before throwing a single punch. Some of the NHL's best enforcers such as Georges Laraque, Derek Boogard and George Parros practice this on what seems to be a nightly basis. But the question is, why fight if there's no emotion?


It's the enforcer's role to pick a fight, and well, fight. Pretty simple huh? Not really, now-a-days these enforcers are practically friends. I think I came to this realization that this was the case when I witnessed Riley Cote and Shawn Thornton give each other a pat on the back when the refs stepped between them. Here are two guys, notable rivals between each others team giving one another a post-little-league-game-like pat on the back. You're supposed to be punching the snot out of the other guys nose, not hugging him.


Another joke I found within the NHL is after seeing a video of a fight between Georges Laraque and Raitis Ivanans. This video was from Laraque's Phoenix days and what a coincidence, BGL was mic'd up. After what I'd say was a minor scrap, the replay was shown with Laraque's audio provided. He started off the conversation with Ivanans by saying "Do you want to?" after Ivanans accepted the challenge Laraque told him "Good luck" and the puck dropped. Are you kidding me? Regardless whether this guy's the 'undefeated heavyweight champ' of enforcing or not, you're wishing a guy good luck before proceeding to try and knock him unconscious? What is this, a friendly pre-season game?


Now maybe it's just me. Maybe it's the fact that my city embraced players such as Cam Neely, a guy who simply wanted to rip your head off if you ever were to drop the gloves with him. But this sort of "fighting" is trash. It's bad for the sport and it's bad for the leagues fans. They deserve better than two meatheads square-dancing with one another at center ice to start off a contest. Call me crazy, but I want real, raw emotion-driven fights. My best example I could use from the 2008-09 season? The battle at center ice between Boston Bruins toughguy Milan Lucic and Canadiens defensemen Mike Komisarek.


Here was a battle that was well over a year in the making. These two went at it with their physical play during every game of the 2007-08 regular season and continued it during the 7 game playoff showdown between the two teams. The rough stuff continued into the 08-09 season when during the Boston at Montreal game 3 weeks before, Lucic and Komisarek both received penalties for their extra-curricular activities during a stoppage of play. As both players delivered punch upon punch, a fired-up Lucic let out a yell to the sold out attendance at the Garden, capturing the energy of the fight.


The dangers of fighting were enlarged by the death of OHL player Don Sanderson. Sanderson, a 21 year old defensemen for the Whitby Dunlops died following a fight during a game. During the fight, Sanderson hit his head onto the ice surface and fell into a coma. He died later that night from complications. Sanderson's death came as a shock to many and showed just how dangerous fighting can truly be.


In my opinion, fighting does still belong in the NHL. It's been a staple in the NHL since the creation of the league and continues to this day. As the quality of most fights has gone down, by no means should it be eliminated from the game. However, I believe the goon fighting, the "let's fight for the hell of it" fighting and the down right silly fighting that are realistically two 6'1 210 pound guys dancing around and hugging needs to go.