These guys like Jim Kyte that keep going on about how the NHL was so full of honour and integrity before the instigator penalty was adopted have such selective memory it makes my brain hurt.
A guy like Mark Messier probably commited more cheap shots in his career than the entire current active NHLPA membership, and there were a bunch of guys like that in the league in the 70s and 80s.
Dirty elbows, sucker punches, hits from behind, stick swinging incidents. All of these things are way, way down from the era Jim Kyte played in.
When is the last time we saw an incident like Domi's elbow to Scott Niedermayer in the playoffs? It's been years. The game is cleaner than it has ever been. Maybe guys like Jim Kyte are just upset that the no-talent enforcer types are being phased out of the game.
I don't like the weasel type players either but they have always been part of the game, and I don't see any increase in their numbers. They existed before the instigator penalty in about the same numbers.
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