Pros And Cons Of Fighting In Hockey

As Rodney Dangerfield once said, “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out (Avery),” but the matter of the fact is, this may not be all that true anymore. Fighting in hockey is what makes the sport so exciting and engaging to the audience. Fights in hockey should not be banned because there are already sufficient penalties, the number of fights is rapidly decreasing, and fights actually keep the players safer.

First of all, there are already plenty of sufficient penalties. There are plenty of ways a player could get a penalty, including body checking, checking from behind, chargeing, cross-checking, elbowing, headbutting, head contact, high stick, etc (“USA”). Players very rarely engage in fights since they know that there

For example, in the 2000-2001 season, there was a total of one-thousand two-hundred thirty fights and about thirty-eight percent of games had fights in them; in the most recent season, 2015-2016, there was a total of one-thousand ninety-eight fights and a percentage of twenty-three percent of games with fights in them (“NHL Fight”). Bob Kelly of the Philadelphia Flyers stated that it’s just about gone and that fights only happen every so often (“NHL Safer”). The stats clearly show that the fighting has gone down, and it has gone down by a lot, so if we let it be the most likely thing that will happen is it will go away on its own, with no force. In the current season, the team with the most fights, Anaheim Ducks, has only had forty fights; this number would be doubled if we were talking about the beginning of the National Hockey League. The president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames, Brian Burke, once said that the amount of fighting has gone down a lot over the last few years (“NHL Safer”). Everyone knows that the fighting in hockey isn’t going to disappear any time soon, but for those who want it to, this is at least a start. Just like the number of fights per team has gone down, so has the number of fights per player. The player with the most fights, Cody McLeod of the Colorado Avalanche, has only had a total of twelve fights this season; the average used to

Even the general managers support the ban, stating that the penalties are not strict enough and the players should be better taken care of (“NHL Safer”). They realize that fights can get out of hand and want to stop this from happening, though this rarely happens. The fights usually last a minute or less and the worst thing that happens is a bloody nose; there are a few exceptions to this, but not many. On the other hand, even the players say that fights make the game safer. Brandon Prust, left wing on the Montreal Canadiens, has said that he feels the best way to keep the players safe is to keep fighting. When Shawn Horcoff, centerman on the Dallas Stars, was asked what he thinks would happen without the fighting, he said that the most likely thing that would happen is people would sneak in punches whenever they could. He also stated that the fights would be much harsher and worse than they are today (“NHL Safer”). The fights also make the game what it is; they make the sport unique. Barry Trotz, coach of the Nashville Predators, has stated that when there’s no fighting the game feels fake, like a lie, and that players would just find another way to get even with each other. Brian Burke has said that fighting plays a main part in player welfare and should not be removed (“NHL Safer”). As you can see, fighting in hockey does not put the players at risk, it in fact does the