Kale Kessy severely injured in AHL fight- is it time to stop the music?

[1qqaaz]

I'm fine with fights as long as the players actually want to fight.
As long as they're willing, let em go for it.

Is fighting outdated and barbaric? Maybe. But I think taking some sort of moral high-ground is unnecessary when the players themselves are making the decision. Until the players themselves no longer want fights, I think fighting has its place in the NHL.

Also, does the AHL have too many fights? Yeah probably. And I'm not sure they have the resources available to keep the fights as safe as possible. The NHL is a different story, at least in some ways.

[Geeoff]

My opinion is that fighting is entertaining and that removing fighting from hockey would make the sport worse.


Although, I will admit that I am a degenerate who loves the sport of MMA.


These are grown men and if they don't want to fight, they don't have to. They have made the decision themselves. That being said, with society continuing to want to protect people from themselves, I'm sure that fighting in hockey, MMA and boxing are all on borrowed time

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

What proof is there that fighting is effective as a deterrent?
This is one of the most common arguments for fighting, yet I have not seen anything that actually proves this to be true.

[btimbit]

I can absolutely attest to that. When I was playing I knew I was more free to completely Regehr on Hemsky style dummy someone into the end boards if it was a team that didn't have anyone that would kick my ass for it.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

I don't think you know what "Fight" means.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

What proof is there that fighting is effective as a deterrent?
This is one of the most common arguments for fighting, yet I have not seen anything that actually proves this to be true.

The game is evolving away from fighting but if you ask any NHL player they would tell you cheap shots would go thru the roof if it was flat out banned, if the players playing the game don't want it banned it won't be banned.

[sempuki]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Wow, you must've felt really great sticking it to a woman making minimum wage who has no say in those decisions.
She'll think twice before she answers your questions again.

What did the manager say when you asked to speak to him?

Don't forget that she invited it by answering *self-righteously*, which as we all know is both a tone easily picked up on via drive-through window, and a horrible horrible crime. /s


Let's not forget that if you can't fix anything *completely* in the first go, it's really not worth doing anything at all. Time to bring back the plastic straws guys! /s

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

The game is evolving away from fighting but if you ask any NHL player they would tell you cheap shots would go thru the roof if it was flat out banned, if the players playing the game don't want it banned it won't be banned.

Yeah, and if you asked them all "Would you take more cheap shots if there was no fighting" they would probably all answer "Well not me, I don't play that way, but other guys definitely would"

So yeah, deciding whether or not fighting should stay in hockey, maybe shouldn't be decided based on what they players say they think might happen.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

The game is evolving away from fighting but if you ask any NHL player they would tell you cheap shots would go thru the roof if it was flat out banned, if the players playing the game don't want it banned it won't be banned.

I really don't care what players have to say about it. I think they are perhaps the worst group to talk to when it comes to their own safety. This is a group that at one point didn't want to wear helmets or visors.
They also grew up in hockey culture which would have informed and influenced their opinion.
The anecdotes are just anecdotes.
Is there any actual measured proof?
As fighting has gone down in the NHL have the instances of serious non fighting offenses gone up?

EDIT: I will add that my view is that if this is true, then even then, it should be solved by the NHL implementing more consistent and serious punishment for serious infractions. The fact that fighting is viewed to be a way that this sport needs to enforce its own rules - is silly. As silly as plunking a batter still being a part of baseball culture.

[Reign of Fire]

Of course not. Imagine people taking liberties on star players when they don't have to answer for their actions. Do you really want Neanderthals like Kassian running around taking liberties.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Reign of Fire

Of course not. Imagine people taking liberties on star players when they don't have to answer for their actions. Do you really want Neanderthals like Kassian running around taking liberties.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

That's my point. He does it anyways.
How has the presence of fighting prevented Kassian from being an idiot.
From what I can tell - it is not deterring him at all.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

That's my point. He does it anyways.
How has the presence of fighting prevented Kassian from being an idiot.
From what I can tell - it is not deterring him at all.

It probably reduces the occurrences. Much like how a law against cell phone use whilst driving has reduced incidences, but no one is thick enough to think it's an outright failure for having not eliminated it entirely.

I'm on the fence; on one hand, fighting flies in the face of eliminating hits to the head and addressing the concussion problem in contact sports. On the other, the players themselves are against the removal of fighting. Owners must be torn, as fighting in the game purports to both protect and harm their investments depending on which way you look at it.

[FlamingHabs Fan]

As someone who has play a lot of hockey and sparred in kickboxing a little, I think fighting in hockey is just plain stupid.

First of all bare knuckle fighting is illegal, except in hockey.
Second people still do cheap shots all the time, always have, fighting doesn't stop it.
Third CTE is a real issue.

Yeah I used to love it, I kind of still do, but maybe common sense is taking over.
Straight up ban it, or have an automatic suspension of multiple games.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

What proof is there that fighting is effective as a deterrent?
This is one of the most common arguments for fighting, yet I have not seen anything that actually proves this to be true.

If there was tangible evidence you would see it brought up every time fighting was being discussed.

Fighting in hockey exists because the league promotes the violence of the game because they don't know how to promote the skill of the game. The league is staffed by neanderthals who have their positions largely through the bullying and intimidation off the ice that they also used on the ice.

You see it at every level of league operations. You saw how the league views players during the release of league emails during the concussion lawsuit.

Maybe instead of George Paros as the goddamned supplemental discipline guy, it should be someone who had their career ended by a cheap shot.

Is Marc Savard busy? Or would it just be too embarrassing for colon Campbell to see him around the office?

The NHL is a ####ing joke league.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

If there was tangible evidence you would see it brought up every time fighting was being discussed.

Fighting in hockey exists because the league promotes the violence of the game because they don't know how to promote the skill of the game. The league is staffed by neanderthals who have their positions largely through the bullying and intimidation off the ice that they also used on the ice.

You see it at every level of league operations. You saw how the league views players during the release of league emails during the concussion lawsuit.

Maybe instead of George Paros as the goddamned supplemental discipline guy, it should be someone who had their career ended by a cheap shot.

Is Marc Savard busy? Or would it just be too embarrassing for colon Campbell to see him around the office?

The NHL is a ####ing joke league.

Easy tiger. The NHL has reduced fighting down my a wild margin of late.

The top fighting team in the league this year is Anaheim with 22. That would be last in the league 15 years ago. 10 years ago - St.Louis led the league with 78 fights. Even in 2017 - C

They haven't outlawed fighting, but its well on its way there - https://www.hockeyfights.com/stats

[FlamesFanTrev]

Originally Posted by sempuki

Don't forget that she invited it by answering *self-righteously*, which as we all know is both a tone easily picked up on via drive-through window, and a horrible horrible crime. /s


Let's not forget that if you can't fix anything *completely* in the first go, it's really not worth doing anything at all. Time to bring back the plastic straws guys! /s

Tough day?

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

It probably reduces the occurrences. Much like how a law against cell phone use whilst driving has reduced incidences, but no one is thick enough to think it's an outright failure for having not eliminated it entirely.

I'm on the fence; on one hand, fighting flies in the face of eliminating hits to the head and addressing the concussion problem in contact sports. On the other, the players themselves are against the removal of fighting. Owners must be torn, as fighting in the game purports to both protect and harm their investments depending on which way you look at it.

I don't care what the players want, because they aren't making infoed commentary because hockey culture prevents anyone with a different opinion from speaking out.

Hockey culture is a disgusting display of intimidation machismo that weeds out non-conformity at every level.

I mean, just look at what has surfaced about organized hockey at every level in the last 6 months:

Rampant drug abuse, physical intimidation from coaches/management, rampant racism, sexism and sexual abuse. Hazing, blacklisting and other methods of control and career torpedoing.

What the players want as dictated by what the game forces them to say publicly is not something I care about as a fan. I don't care that the players want fighting in the game, because I'm tired of watching Rene Bourque collapse to the ice after an elbow to the head of from Derek Boogaard and watching Boogaard get a concussion from a fight with Eric Godard that contributes to Boogaards CTE leading to his substance abuse problems because he's so pumped full of pain medications from team doctors.

I don't want to see that #### anymore and I don't care if a player does or not.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

I don't care what the players want, because they aren't making infoed commentary because hockey culture prevents anyone with a different opinion from speaking out.

Hockey culture is a disgusting display of intimidation machismo that weeds out non-conformity at every level.

I mean, just look at what has surfaced about organized hockey at every level in the last 6 months:

Rampant drug abuse, physical intimidation from coaches/management, rampant racism, sexism and sexual abuse. Hazing, blacklisting and other methods of control and career torpedoing.

Oh come on. Stop writing off hockey culture because of a few bad cases. Some of the absolute best people I've ever met I met in hockey. There are thousands of professional hockey players in the world, thousands more coming up through the ranks. Don't write them off because of a dozen or so cases of people being complete #######s.

[EldrickOnIce]

There is nothing that prevents players from fighting when it's banned, they would (just like any other sport) be kicked out of the game, and I suppose face some sort of extra disciplinary action for multiple fights.
There is no fighting in football. Football is the toughest sports there is. Fights happen. They get ejected. End of story
It's time for it to go.

[Coach]

Had my fill of fighting for a while now, although I do still enjoy it when some knob is running around like an idiot and someone tunes him, or a hard game-long battle between players erupts. The staged fights and fights after clean hits should definitely take a hike.

I think if Fighting was an auto-ejection and game suspension, unless you were non-willingly pulled into the match, it would plummet to only a few instances a year maybe.

It's bare knuckle boxing. Wasn't this made illegal like a hundred years ago? And they're on a cement-hard surface. With razors on their feet. It's really quite dumb and and it's a miracle that there hasn't been more deaths because of it.