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Sunday, December 04, 2011
Fighting in the NHL
There is one school of thought that having stronger penalties for fighting in the NHL will simply shift the infraction into something else, like stick fouls. And rather than fighting be a “red light district” limited in large part to a few players, the stick fouls, or whatever other aggressive fouls that will take its place, will then be distributed across a much larger group of players. In effect, the enforcers act as a few policemen to prevent anarchy.
The other school of thought is that the idea of fighting is barbaric, and it should be accompanied with harsh penalties. And, if, and when, the unintended consequences rear its ugly head, then we’ll deal with it then. That it’s more important to get on the right path, then to try to have this balance of terror in perpetuity.
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What is also interesting is that by giving prominence to fighting, those fighters have to come from somewhere. And, as we can see in this powerful account of Derek Boogaard, it starts at a young age. We are, basically, growing enforcers from the outset. It is one thing for a good hockey player to have to defend himself in the course of a physical confrontation. And it’s another thing to cultivate an enforcer simply for his raison d’etre.
So, removing fighting may have an unintended consequence of stick fouls (and those may be even more dangerous than fighting), but it will have the intended consequence of no longer promoting, and thereby no longer needing to cultivate, fighting.
I think the players are smart enough, experience enough, that if challenged to create a climate, via the rule book, that eliminates fighting, and reduce unintended consequences, they’d be able to do that. And, I think having Brendan Shanahan head up, or appoint, a committee to that effect may have some fantastic results.
If you convince yourself that things can’t be better than it is, then you assure yourself that they won’t be. But, if you allow the possibility that things can get better, then you’ve opened up the door to a chance that it will get better.
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