The Fight Against Fighting

I have been a fan of hockey as long as I have been conscious, I think. Over the years, I watched a good lot of hockey, in all it's guts and glory. Gina, on the other hand, has no interest in hockey and watches as little as possible. When we were visiting Vancouver a couple of years ago I insisted that we attend an NHL hockey game, and being the loving wife that she is, Gina agreed to buy a cheap Canucks t-shirt and come to the game with me. I could tell that she was humouring me the entire night, as I had her take my picture with the Roger Neilson statue. I could see her rolling her eyes when I made her stand in from the of the giant Alex Burroughs banner and show off her t-shirt for another picture. She thinks I am cute like a little boy, and I love her for it.

My beautiful wife, proving how much she really loves me.

But when the subject of fighting in hockey has come up, I can see the blank stare on her face as she struggles to find, somewhere in her brain, an explanation for why this phenomenon takes place and why someone might defend it. I have given up on trying to justify hockey fights to her, but being a man who is prone to self-examination, I can't help but to start looking at my own rationalizations for fighting.

To be fair, my take on fighting is entirely as a fan, and not as a player. I play a couple times a week, in a pickup game and in a league that has a fighting ban. The closest I have every come to being in a real hockey fight was in peewee, when I wrestled the jersey over another player's head after the game for a joke. Oh - he was a teammate, and we discussed it beforehand, so it hardly qualifies. This is probably just as well, since my 5'7"-150lb frame is not the idea platform for a scrapper (unless I make a return to peewee). If I were an NHL fighter I would certainly see things differently.

I'm prompted to write this because of a couple of excellent articles on fighting that were published this week. Seth Wickersham writes an article for ESPN going in depth on George Parros. Parros is one of the more interesting players in the NHL, so Wickersham has a lot of good material to work with. Parros has a degree in economics from Princeton, yet plays the role of a "goon" in the NHL. He is a fan favorite, well-spoken with the press, and is charismatic with his trademark dark moustache (execpt when he shaves is at the beginning of every Movember). His status as a posterboy for fighting in hockey took a weird turn when he was stretchered off the ice during the first hockey game of the season as a result of a fight "gone wrong".

This guy's a beauty

The second piece is written by Justin Bourne (@jtbourne) at the Score's "Backhand Shelf" blog. Justin writes what may be the most revealing and accurate work on the the state of fighting in hockey today that I have ever read. In it he turn on its head the often-claimed idea that fighters in hockey are simply dropping gloves for the good of the team. If you can only read one story on fighting in hockey, stop reading mine and go read his instead.

To be honest, I enjoy watching hockey fights. It is a guilty pleasure. I know that these hockey players are taking risks, a fact that was driven home this season when the rule prohibiting players from removing their helmets took effect. Even Parros, who prided himself on never getting knocked out, now has a concussion history to show for his efforts. In this day, when the League is trying to reduce injuries (and I agree with them), why do I still want to see hockey players put the game on hold to throw knuckles at each other? Why did the movie "Goon" resonate with me so strongly? (And not just because I'm in love with Liev Schrieber. Does that make me gay?)

I'll admit, a large part of it is nostalgia. We have romanticized this old-timey world where men were men, and hockey games were rowdy. There is an image in my head of hockey players, in the heat of competition, going over the edge and taking care of business mano y mano. But this is rarely what happens.

Bourne details this well, but essentially the game has devolved into a situation where our tough guy who can't play hockey at an NHL level will have a fight with your tough guy who can't play hockey at an NHL level, merely in order to justify their own existence. And I think that even most pro-fighting hockey fans will agree that this situation is hot garbage. It has nothing to do with passion, it has nothing to do with honour, it has nothing to do with "The Code" - it's just sad.

Parros almost admits as much, but can't bring himself to it. He talks about all the reasons he fights, but you don't hear him talking about how it helps his team win games. Because it doesn't, the numbers are pretty clear on that.

So we are left with a problem. Hardly anyone is happy with the status quo, but a great number of "purists" are resistant to change for fear that is will mean the end of fighting completely. I think there needs to be a more nuance approach to this.

I would like to see a way that makes guys like Parros (and I mean no offense to him personally) obsolete. The mechanism needs to punish teams that keep these guys on the roster without being too hard on players who fight periodically. Here's my two-fold proposal: 1) make the two-minute instigator penalty mandatory - even if it means giving both fighers the instigator (similar to removing one's helmet), and 2) if a player in any game accumulates more minutes in penalties than they do time on ice, they should receive an automatic one-game suspension, good for the team's very next game. The reason why I think this might work, is that a lot of these players only play 5 minutes a night, and a fighting major is 5 minutes long. If the instigator is called every time, it will force teams to create a roster where every player on the team can be trusted with at least 7 minutes of hockey a night. It will also make players much more cautious about entering fights, since they do not want to take the extra 2 minutes and put their team down a man. That being said, it will not ban fighting outright - it only makes it difficult to be on the team if that is your raison d'être.

Do these guys feel shame?

The strongest argument against this idea that I can see is that the mandatory instigator penalty would discourage all fights. This could be perceived as a way for "rats" (i.e. players who play dirty but won't fight) to get away with dangerous plays without having to answer for them. My response to this is that the instigator penalty already exists, and applies to exactly this situation. I am not calling for a new rule but only for the enforcement of the current rule. Aside from this, the league has taken great steps in the last few years to punish these offenses (i.e. dangerous plays) with supplemental discipline. Finally, I believe the truth is that a player on the ice is probably not a better judge of the legality of the other team's play than the actual officials on the ice are.

So, what say you? Fighting opponents or apologists - would this strategy work for you? Let me know, and if I get enough support I'll take it to Gary Bettman ;)