Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
SuperMatt18 - There's really no other way to put this: Your proposal is asinine.
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Kettle. Pot. Black?
Quote:
Originally Posted by strombad
However, I take big issue with your assertion that you, or anybody else, might know more about the role of fighting in the NHL than actual NHL players. It's ridiculous and borderline inane to believe that if players believe things like "it keeps people honest" that they probably don't know what they're talking about. They're players, they KNOW, you don't. You guess and hum and hah and think 'well there's no proof it does' but you're simply wrong. Skill guys are essentially saying that fighting makes the game safer for them, and you're saying 'it probably doesn't'. That's delusional for you to think there's better proof than actual players.
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Aside from the obvious reply about Yzerman being one of the guys looking to abolish fighting I think one thin I would do is question the motivation of these guys to say these things.
If you take out fighting, what happens? Goons all lose their jobs. What else happens? More soft, skilled players would potentially make it into the NHL if the game shifts more toward speed / skill and less away from being "big".
The question keeps coming up about the reality of fighting "keeping people honest". When you look at Cooke, I do not think fighting ever kept him from doing the stupid stuff he has done over his career. If Cooke did something, and somebody fought him afterward, he would probably take that as a sign that he is doing his job
right.
When you are getting paid millions of dollars to do a job a certain way, what is a couple punches to the face actually going to do to keep you honest? The money trumps the potential violence.
The players might not see it that way because they are so deeply immersed in the culture of hockey that they might still believe the notion that fighting and "the code" keeps people behaving correctly. However, I think the truth of that thinking has become increasingly less true in the last couple of decades as the $$ has skyrocketed.