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August 24, 2005
End Of The Road For Hockey Fights?
GoonBlog says goodbye to PJ Stock: I heard a rumor that PJ Stock had to call it quits due to vision problems. It’s strange, because at the Crue, I was looking around scouting out some seats that might be good for hockey, when I thought to myself, "Hey Self, Wouldn’t Stocker look good in a Lockmonster Uniform?" I answered, "Yes." Point being, when PJ Stock was in Boston, he was a total fan favorite, a guy that was always willing to go with anyone. Here in D.C., we remember PJ as a worthy opponent for Stephen Peat, current holder of the Kevin Kaminski chair in capitol fisticuffs. We loved Kaminski when he was here in Washington. Then again, John Buccigross thinks it might be time for another change -- in particular, making fighting punishable with automatic ejection: I believe it would serve the NHL well to ban fighting. Now, for those people who believe fighting should stay need to realize, there will still be fights! There is fighting in baseball, basketball and football. Players are just ejected for it. Players are getting too big and too strong to allow bare-knuckle fighting on ice and it's ludicrous to have teenagers sent out to fight. If fighting was illegal, Todd Bertuzzi probably would not have hit Steve Moore from behind. It would then be up to the players to enforce a code of fairness, and for the NHL and its officials to strongly enforce and penalize cheap-shot artists. Larry O'Brien, the late NBA Commissioner, came to much the same conclusion in the wake of the haymaker that Kermit Washington laid on Rudy Tomjonavich -- and certainly contributed the severity of his suspension. So what do you think? Is that a change you could live with?
Eric
12:05 AM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsIn a New York minute. (NHL fan since the '70s.) Posted by:
"If fighting was illegal, Todd Bertuzzi probably would not have hit Steve Moore from behind." Buccigross is way off with that assumption. The game was a blow-out. Threat of ejection would have been irrelevant. Posted by:
Do I really need to chime in? :) Posted by:
I was inspired, so I went and posted some of the best fights of the 2003-04 regular season. Posted by:
I could live without fighting as in recent years fighting has become a ritualized exercise performed by mercenary goons. In "the good old days" fighting occured as a release from the rising tension in a game as one line would start checking then the next line out on the ice would hit harder so by the time the next line change took place all hell was about to break loose. Personal feuds and teams seeking dominance over hated rivals contributed to a combustable atmosphere leading to fights. Now it is ho-hum send out the goon maybe he will spark the team. Posted by:
Eric, if fighting was going to be banned, it would've been banned by now. Interestingly enough, very few people within the hockey community are calling for its banishment. I find that interesting, as well as reflective of how most people feel about that aspect of the game. The question is, would no fighting negate cheap shots? I think folks that have played hockey at the professional level are most suited to answer that question. I talked to a youngster who will be playing in Danbury (UHL) next season, and like last year, they're supposed to have a really tough team (they had 2800 PIM's - over 1000 more than their next division competitor). He's a scorer, and he said part of the reason he signed is because of the protection he knows he will get. Agreed, most of today's fighting is utterly senseless. But does that mean that the smaller players should suffer for it? Posted by:
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