Quote:
Originally Posted by icecube
Fighting will be gonzo in five years tops. I'm guessing more like two. It was fun while it lasted, but the world is smartening up in a lot of ways lately. This is just one of them. Now if we can just treat mother earth better..
|
You're not just wrong, you are almost certainly off by an order of magnitude in your prediction.
As to the question of "is it happening more often?", I picked up a book this weekend called
"Don't Call Me Goon". The introduction is rather interesting. It talks about the NHL before the advent of the goon/enforcer, and how every player was expected to defend themselves at any time. Those that didn't were pretty much abused. Rampant stick work, dirty plays, etc. The authors argue that the enforcer helped calm the sport down.
There are, of course, obvious rebuttals. First, this is a subjective opinion. Second, it does not imply that a fighting ban would cause the game to go back to that no-holds-barred style. However, it is an exceedingly common viewpoint among current and former players that no fighting = considerably greater stick work.
As to the risks, Brian McGrattan's story in the book is apropos: He was an alright junior player, once scoring 20 goals in half a season for Mississauga, but a knee injury derailed him. Got a try out with Ottawa and realized his best path to the NHL was as a fighter. He's made several million dollars as a result.
