I love the line “look at the Olympics, you don’t get fighting in the Olympics”. Yeah, that’s true. But remember, the Olympic rosters are the equivalent of All-Star teams, playing opponents once (maybe twice), usually on big ice, during a two week tournament, once every four years. Tough to really build up that hate and want to beat the crap out of a Latvian who you’ll never see again after 60 minutes.
Reminder: The NHL season consists of frequent meetings with rivals, over an 82-game grind, with brothers-in-arms who you eat with, travel with, spend every day with. It’s North American style hockey, played between men who don’t eat quiche, on the smaller NHL ice surface. It is, and always has been, a violent game. Repeat the truth girls: It’s a violent game.
Another line: “they don’t fight in Europe. Look at the Swedish Elite League; they don’t fight.”
Reminder: Other than the “Derby” games, when the AIK and Djurgarden fans fire off smoke bombs and go crazy in the stands (a similar phenomena occurs with the two football –soccer- clubs get together), and the energy spills on to the ice a bit, Swedish Elite League hockey on a daily basis is reeeeeeeaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy boooorrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg.
Another line: “hockey will get more fans without fighting. We’ll be more mainstream.”
Reminder: Over time, “mainstream” means (more) commercialization. Mainstream means hip-hop hockey. It means celebrities (bleh) who really don’t like the game, showing up to show up. It means unqualified broadcasters insulting the intelligence of the core audience on pregame and postgame shows, to appease the non-core audience. It means the hockey culture is more like the baseball culture. It means, instead of 5% of the players being prima donnas, 90% will be prima donnas. It means nervous women who resemble constipated hookers doing interviews with coaches on the bench. “what do you have to do differently in the 2nd period?”
Another line: “fighting contributes to concussions; is dangerous.”
Agreed: Goon hockey, staged fights, should disappear.
Reminder: The pansy-ficationists who exploit the very rare, tragic deaths of former NHL fighters to incorporate their message to include all of hockey, and all hockey players, should be ashamed of themselves. Here’s to the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ex-players, of all “weight classes”, presently living into their sixties, seventies, and eighties, who played the game the right way, respected it, and understood it inherently. Toughness is part of the culture. And here’s something the twerps and dough boy pacifists who’ve never strapped on a pair of skates seem to forget: The players like it, and completely understand the occupational hazards, whether you do or not.
*wussification and pansification were used without the expressed, written consent of Mike Milbury
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