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Originally Posted by Vulcan
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*WARNING: the following discourse is a rant that has nothing to do with Flames training camp on 23 Sept.*
This whole exchange is a big part of the problem I have with fighting in hockey. It's similarly on display whenever McGrattan gets in a tilt, and then afterwards pats his opponent on the head in a gesture of respect. The presence of enforcers in the NHL has over the course of time developed a different meaning than it once had, as it has now become about the fights tangential to the game itself.
I suppose Mirasty could make the case that his hope to "redeem" himself by intentionally jumping a player from the team as a result of being on the wrong side of a fight with Gillies is meant to jack up his teammates, and produce an effect in their overall level of play. But I don't buy it. The "fighting culture" has become an end in itself. It perpetuates on the idea that it is about maintaining the unspoken code of fair play and for the purpose of infusing one's teammates with "energy," but in the end, it is really just about being the toughest guy on the ice.
It reminds me a little bit of a story from the Bible (bear with me—I'm a Bible scholar; almost everything reminds me of something in the Bible). In Exod. 17 the wandering Israelites were attacked at Rephidim by the Amalekites. Their leader, Moses, ascended to the top of a hill overlooking the battle with two attendants to "do his part." In Exod. 17:11, "As long as Moses kept his hands raised, Israel prevailed, but whenever he let his hands fall, then the Amalekites prevailed." So, the Israelites slaughtered their enemies and won the day because Moses was (with a little help from his friends) able to keep his hands raised, presumably to the effect of "empowering" his kinsmen to achieve victory.
It's a story about magic. And much like fighting in the NHL—much like what Mirasty expresses in his penalty box chat with Gillies—victory is somehow viewed as a product of separate event that is unconnected to the game on the ice. Either Mirasty is uninterested in what is occurring in the game, and only concerned about saving face, or he believes that he is magic—that a positive result from a fight is enfused with some sort of voodoo that will push his team to win.
*end rant*