[Cali Panthers Fan]

Jesus...this thread is all sorts of awful ideas.

Limiting bodychecking to separating a man from the puck and nothing more? That's literally called boxing out, and is done in every single non-contact sport from basketball to (puke) soccer. You have essentially created a non-contact sport if you do that.

Focus on predatory hits or hits designed to injure a player. The league has rules regarding this that it enforces with the voracity of a gerbil. Suspensions are disgustingly light. Enforce the damn rules you have, then we can talk about "eliminating body checking". Not that it will ever happen.

And if you hate fighting in the game, keep it simple. Start suspending players for staged fights the way they do with instigators. Treat it like a double-instigator, as both men are essentially instigating. Don't do a damn thing about the fight in the "heat of the moment". It's better to let two guys blow off some steam essentially wrestling one another and smashing their knuckles into helmets than it is to let the steam build, one team decides to take it in their own hands, and we have someone seriously injured from a predatory hit.

But the anti-fighting argument is growing stale. You know as well as I do that if it were ever to be completely eliminated from the game it would have happened at some point over the last 50 years as the game gained popularity. It's a risk of being a hockey player that sometimes you might have to drop the gloves. It's understood. Nobody is surprised by it. In the case that you don't want to engage, guess what??? You never have to!!! Turtle. Do what you feel is in your best interest. If that best interest is served by handing the other guy his chiclets for attempting to bully you, so be it!

This is coming from someone who has dedicated his life to helping people recover from neurological problems, including head injuries. I understood a long time ago that you will never get someone to stop doing something that they love, even if it's killing them. I treat hockey players the same way I treat MMA athletes and boxers. They are just going to show up in your office beat the "f" up, and there's not much to do about it but try and patch them up and give them advice. It's still their choice what to do with their bodies, even if that means destroying themselves.