Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Well for starters we have:
Chris Simon (confirmed CTE)
Derek Boogard (confirmed CTE)
Bob Probert (confirmed CTE) - note he died of a heart attack not suicide
Steve Montador (confirmed CTE) - also died of heart failure
Rick Rypien (confirmed CTE)
Wade Belak (confirmed CTE)
There may be others, but that's the recent list. Is that not enough? And is not the fact that common to all of them was that they got into a light fights enough to suggest it at least was a contributing factor.
Personally I think hitting does need to evolve in the NHL so that it is more about getting the puck back, and anything more than that isn't allowed. But I also know that has severe implications for the game. So let's set that aside.
The NHL can EASILY remove fighting without impacting the game. They should take reasonable and logical steps to remove something that contributes to concussions and CTE, but will not impact the game in a material way.
Your argument is akin to someone saying "what? We are going make players where helmets? What's next - having them run around the ice wearing bubble wrap".
Reasonable steps don't have to lead to unreasonable ones.
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I think a lot of fighting in hockey has already been removed by getting rid of enforcers. Fights are way down in NHL.
For example, Boogard was probably fighting 10x per year in NHL and maybe 20x per year in the minors. So he fought maybe like 200 times from age 16 to 28.
Lomberg averages 4 fights per year in NHL and maybe 6-8 per season in minors. So less than half the fights per season.