Hockey Fights

So I've come to the simple conclusion that anytime anyone says the phrase, "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out," has never watched a single game in their lives.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your stance as a hockey fan this statement keeps becoming less and less true. I was reading an interesting article today on ESPN that stated that the league has been policing goons and that it isn't as effective at stopping dirty play as letting the goons fight.

I agree with this sentiment with all my heart. In my early years of watching hockey, and really all the way through until 5-7 years ago, the teams policed for themselves. If Crosby was getting picked on, instead of crying to the league like he does, he would turn to his teammates and ask them to send the message or he would do it himself, by fighting not by being dirty in return. Now that the league polices it the teams no longer stock a good fighter or two because they know that any dirty play will be penalized through suspension. The issue I have with this is that the players on the teams that are getting hit with dirty play don't feel at ease. The other issue is that the league is extremely inconsistent in its judgments. How many times was Ovechkin allowed to injure or nearly injure people with cheap dirty hits before he was finally warned? If the league needed one shining example of what it was doing wrong it came last year from my very own New York Islanders.

All year the Islanders sat by and watched as big "star" celebrity pretty boy players, (Kane, Crysby, Malkin, etc.) were being protected by the league in the form of suspensions for merely a dirty look from a known dirty player (Pronger, Cooke, Etc.). All the while the Isles (and they weren't alone in this treatment just my example) were seeing their unknown players getting knee to knee injuries and head shots not even being penalized IN GAME! So finally after about 3/4's of the season had gone by they finally got to a breaking point and spent all of their bottled up frustration in a single game. It was against the Penguins on Feb. 11th 2011, the Isles not only beat them on the score board 9-3 but also on the ice. The Isles were right to be fined and Gillies suspended, etc etc. I contest however that they were also not to blame for why it happened. It never should have gotten to that point and had the league looked away from Crosby and Ovechkin for more then 30 seconds they could have saved the Pens this embarrassment.

Besides on the non-point making side of that, everyone asides from Pens fans were rooting on the Isles anyway.

So in conclusion, the league needs to bring back the fighters in order to let teams police themselves. That is my view on it and surprisingly ESPN commentators are on my side. I mean relating the rise in dirty hit injuries to the lessening of fighting in the league is purely coincidental in an arguments sake, but that is why opinions get formulated, because evidence is not really concrete and speculation takes over.

All that being said, GO ISLES!!! Beat the Red Wings tonight!!!

-Minos