H – Hockey – Let’s play the game!

What if Hockey was played without any fighting?

My favorite sport is ice hockey. I got interested in hockey when I was 10 years old. My future brother-in-law got me hooked on the game. He was a big New York Rangers fan, had season tickets, and would take me to games occasionally. At age 15 I started playing at a local ice skating rink, learning the hard way that elbow guards would be a good investment and ice was hard. I played intercollegiate club hockey when I went to college at Stony Brook University from 1968-1972. After college, I played a few pick-up games for a year or two and one final alumni game when I was 52. My allegiance which originally was to the Rangers, switched to the New York Islanders when I started college on the Island and then moved there. One of my favorite Islander players, Chico Resch, ended up playing for the New Jersey Devils, so my allegiance nowadays is shared between the Islanders and Devils, with the Islanders being the preferred favorite.

I digress. As I stated, ice hockey is my favorite sport. If you’re a hockey fan, then you’ve probably heard the saying, “I went to a fight one night and a hockey game broke out.” Fighting is pervasive in National Hockey League (NHL) play. Having played hockey, I’ve experienced the high intensity of the game, the adrenaline rush, and the occasional lack of control. When I was playing in college, they followed NHL rules, meaning that fighting was allowed.

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Some history: Fighting was part of the play of the game for many years until the NHL in 1922 introduced Rule 56, which formally regulated “fighting” or “fisticuffs” as it was referred to in the NHL rulebook. Instead of ejecting a player from the game, the player was issued a 5-minute major penalty.

In contrast, players fighting in international or Olympic hockey receive a match penalty and are ejected from the game.

Even now, in Division I and Division III National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hockey, the fighters are given a Game Disqualification, which is an ejection from the game and a suspension for as many games as the player has accrued Game Disqualifications during the course of a season.

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So why can’t the NHL adopt a similar rule?  They won’t. It’s part of the game they say. So much a part of it that not only does television broadcasts of games show you the fights, but also replay them for you. In my opinion, the first step needed is for the television to stop showing the fights when they occur. You can comment about what is going on, but don’t showcase it. Fans will be upset, but eventually, players will have to realize that they are not being spotlighted for errant behavior. Once it becomes less public, the NHL might become more inclined to make more drastic consequences for fighting. Teams could look for more skilled players to take the place of “Enforcers”, those players that have less skill specifically put in games to wreak havoc.

If you’ve ever watched Olympic hockey where players are not permitted to fight (not to say that some fights don’t occur), where the rink is wider and there is more space behind the net, you’ll find some exciting hockey. Now you are looking at skill. You are looking at a very fast paced game, with fewer stops for useless brawling. That’s the way ice hockey should be played. WAKE UP NHL!

Once we have taken care of hockey, What if we could stop all of the dives and theatrics in professional soccer games? Let’s work on one sport at a time.