Should fighting be banned in hockey?

A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

grumpy old man wrote:A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

Fighting should be expanded to all team sports, to keep peeps on the straight and narrow. Heck, if they could incorporate fisticuffs into Texas Hold'Em poker, I might actually tune in.

grumpy old man wrote:A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

Penalties have been put in place to deal with fighting, and it has become part of the sport.

What SHOULD happen, is fight training should be provided at all levels of hockey so the idiots learn not to take their helmet off if they aren't ready to fight.

What's next? Ban hitting each other in Boxing?

AGEsAces wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

Penalties have been put in place to deal with fighting, and it has become part of the sport.

What SHOULD happen, is fight training should be provided at all levels of hockey so the idiots learn not to take their helmet off if they aren't ready to fight.

What's next? Ban hitting each other in Boxing?

Well, now you're just being silly.

Triniman wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

Fighting should be expanded to all team sports, to keep peeps on the straight and narrow. Heck, if they could incorporate fisticuffs into Texas Hold'Em poker, I might actually tune in.

Sort of like chess boxing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing

If you notice, the dead guy did not take off his hat voluntarily, but it fell off in the scuffle!

He probably had it on loosely, similarly to other sportsmen, who carry a football and have their helmets knocked off.

I think that they think it is cool to lose their helmet? but I could be wrong.
I cannot see how a helmet can fall off if it is attached properly !

What's next? Ban hitting each other in Boxing
Club Desire every weekend from what I hear.

Hockey is the only team sport I can think of where fighting is condoned and results in a 5 minute penalty. Even football which is arguably more physical and just as aggresive does not condone this behaviour and suspends any players that are involved in this behaviour on the field. Hockey is alone amongst major team sports in it's acceptance of fighting as "part of the game". I don't really see how one can call fighting part of any team sport. If these guys were any good at fighting let them take part in real combat sports ie. boxing, kickboxing, mma and leave the fighting out of hockey.

Why don't these guy go fight at heavyweight against Valuev? Boxing is dying for some decent heavyweights at the moment. Make the move to K-1 and fight against Bonjansky or Hoost? The Japanese love a freak show. Join the UFC, heck if Lesnar can make the transition why can't these guys? I'd like to see how these guys do against a seasoned BJJ or muay-thai black belt.

Leave the fighting to real fighters, and keep fighting out of team sports.

My vote goes to no.

That would be a big NO.

If you take fighting out of hockey, who will protect the superstars of the game?
Gretzky had Semenko, Selanne had Domi and King to name a couple of recent stars/goons team ups so without these fights, the stars wouldn't have the room to move as they do. Besides which this is Canada and it is the Canadian game, you want to watch the game without the fighting go to Europe. They even let girls play with the boys there.

Who protects the superstars in the NFL or NBA?

They swing like girls anyway just kidding

Fighting to protect a player is one thing but fighting for the sake of it is another . Sometimes there doe.s seem to be a bit of not called for stuff . Realy wish they would learn to drop the sticks and gloves and do it like men . There is way to much high sticking in the game today, keep them down .

grumpyrom wrote:Who protects the superstars in the NFL or NBA?

NBA...LMAO. Those guys couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Seriously, have you ever seen a fight in the NBA? They slap at each other like a couple of elementary aged school girls. It is quite humorous. They don't need protection....LOL

grumpyrom wrote:Who protects the superstars in the NFL or NBA?

Good question though... Football is an incredibly tough sport. I believe what has happened over time is a certain respect. Big hit and they congratulate one another. In hockey just looking sideways at another guy is grounds for a fight.

NBA bans contact of any kind. But these guys are 6'6"+ and 250lbs+. They go at it someone will get hurt. But then again it does not happen much yet the sport thrives.

Even though fighting has been around forever; some use sticks as their weapons of choice (mostly Europeans); cheap shots abound; legislate against them and see if the game dies.

Won't happen. Mostly because fans want to see skating and hitting and scoring more-so than fighting. Fighting cheapens the game IMO.

You miss my point Goth....there is no protection needed because the penalty for fighting is swift and severe. Most leagues start with a suspension of 1-5 games, and generally heavy fines. When your losing $50-200K in pay, and $50-250K in fines it kind of makes fighting seem like a really, really bad idea. When the only penalty is sitting in a "time out" box for 5 min there's no disinsentive to fighting. Perhaps hockey players could try acting like civilized human beings for the sake of it, rather than trying to justify fighting as protecting their superstars.

In the end, the league condones it with their incredibly lax rules related to fighting. the 5 minute penalty is really just symbolic. After all, fighting is good for ratings and lets face it they need all the help they can get in the US to draw fans.

As far as NBA players and NFL player being unable to fight....lol. I'd hate to take a single jab from a guy the size of Shaq, even with his lack of technique I'm sure he'd flatten most people from sheer size alone. Besides, it's not exactly like hockey players are the world's most expert fighters either. Most hockey fights look like those lame "So you wanna fight" pay per views. If I want to watch real fights I know where to find them, UFC, Affliction, K-1 etc.

holly golightly wrote: Besides which this is Canada and it is the Canadian game.

Actually...it's not.

Lacrosse is.

LIke the rest of our society, the level of violence has risen in all sports. I think the fighting in hockey has gotten out of hand.

Soccer is a much more gentlemanly sport. Rarely do players fight each other, they just try to kill the refereee.

In soccer we leave the violence where it belongs.....in the stands, lol. They should replace fighting in hockey with team songs that insult the other teams mothers, you know the usual "our team is the best, and your team's mothers are all sluts and whores". That's usually the theme of many a soccer chant.

Ages,
I said that hockey is the Canadian game not the National game. Being the Canadian game is totally different from being the national game in that every knows that hockey and Canada go hand in hand when it comes to sport. Ask any hockey player from any other country who they most want to meet in a championship game and beat and they say Canada.

Triniman wrote:

grumpy old man wrote:A young man died today as a result of a fight where he took off his helmet. In a league that does not allow fighting (immediate suspensions).

Should fights be banned in all levels of hockey? Including the NHL? I gotta say I like the fights. It keeps some peeps on the straight and narrow. Especially those that use their sticks inappropriately.

That said, and as much as I enjoy them, I'd like to see them outlawed.

Fighting should be expanded to all team sports, to keep peeps on the straight and narrow. Heck, if they could incorporate fisticuffs into Texas Hold'Em poker, I might actually tune in.

GAWDS YES.. I vote for that... when that whiney little piece of crap goes all in without even looking at his cards just because he has a huge chip lead and wants to force the win... BAMO!!!!.... jumped and tackled from across the table. I couple of quick elbows and a punch to the head... now lets see if the dickhead does that all in crap again..

Yes that would be funny

I watched the Junior Game yesterday, Russia versus Canada in which Russia 5- Canada 6 , after overtime and a shootout!

Way better than any NHL game and no fighting, just passing and shooting and great tension , great entertainment! 19,300 in attendance in Ottawa.
No fighting, because you get thrown out of the game and suspended for the next game!
Seems to work!!
The NHL lets in the fighting because the NHL does not have the entertainment value of an internatonal tournament!

Two words - Hanson Brothers.