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Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Is there any actual data that shows that fighting is an effective deterrent for other types of dirty plays?
You are right that there are other dangers in the sport but the difference is fighting doesn't NEED to be in the sport. It's an unnecessary danger.
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I'm not a big data guy, so I'm not sure what data would be out there
But I like one example for a couple of reasons
Johnny taking wacks on the wrist was a pretty frequent issue for Johnny, and unsurprisingly resulted in an injury - on purpose.
So in this I see a need for fighting (in this NHL), and the effects of not fighting or even threating anything physical
The best solution is properly officiating games and penalizing offenders properly. But it seems like we're miles away from seeing that. Watching that game was madness and it was clear that Johnny was getting hurt eventually - and we were waiting for it all year. No one on the Flames roster seemed upset that it was happening, and it seemed as if they wer tolerating the wacks until he ended up injured. It was insane, and something needed to be done about it.
This year we haven't seen much of it. Has the NHL been policing it properly? Or has Rinaldo and Lucic sitting on the bench altered the mindset of a player like Staal?
I hate to bring Francis into this, but an article on this incident had an interesting tidbit that disagrees with me
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Even if the Flames sprinkled Brian McGrattan, Milan Lucic and Wayne Simmonds throughout their lineup, it wouldn’t stop the age-old tactic of laying lumber where playmakers are most vulnerable – the hands, wrist and arms.
“He’s still going to get slashed – that’s still going to happen,” said Brouwer of the ancient age of nuclear deterrents.
“You can’t protect guys against every little thing that happens on the ice. You can stand up for him, but fighting isn’t as prevalent in the NHL as it was, so as a result guys are going to get those extra whacks. You can go talk to (the offenders) but at the end of the day if a guy on the other team that’s giving him a whack doesn’t want to fight you’re not going to be able to fight him.”
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https://calgaryherald.com/sports/hoc...ohnny-gaudreau
But now with more beef here, we actually do see those extra wacks subsiding I think. In an odd way, wacks-to-wrist data might back it up?
But is the option for someone to punch him or a teammate in the head a deterrent? Or is the NHL doing a better job? In the end, policing things properly deters the dangerous plays that prompt these responses in the first place. Fights for show or momentum should have gone decades ago. But I think 'allowing it' (it is penalized, and discouraged still) is improving safety in a primitive but unfortunately necessary way
I agree with what some are saying above, and I think we're just seeing the AHL a few years behind as players in that mould pass through. Your pure fighters don't have much of a place in the NHL anymore, and the AHL is the collection of junior players built to that mould and NHL players being pushed out. McGrattan getting KO'd as he toiled in the AHL also comes to mind.
So while you don't have pure fighters giving us impromptu mid-game boxing matches - Gio, Tkachuk, Rinaldo, Hamonic, etc occasionally fighting still feels necessary