[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

There kinda is - in hockey, they have weapons.

If a guy is slashing, cross checking, whatever - do you want the other guy to swing his stick at him or his fist?

There’s too many little hacks and slashes throughout a game of hockey to call
All of them. And that builds up. There’s millions of dollars and years of fame and glory on the line. These are high stakes hockey games.

“Just don’t do it”, “wait for the ref to make a call” - okay. Easy to say when you’re not getting slashed.

And while fights gone wrong are terrible to see, I don’t think even the Burtuzzi incident was more disturbing than Alexander Perezhogin nearly murdering that dude in the goal crease.

Players like it. Fans like it in the right contexts.

Account for it, at the pro level.

Does international hockey, Olympics etc, have sticks?
What about European leagues?
What makes the QMJHL think they can manage these problems now that they've banned fighting but allowed players to keep using their sticks?

What makes North American Pro hockey so much different from every other sport, and every other version of hockey that makes fighting so essential?