This past week the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins re-acquainted themselves after Brent Johnsons one punch knockout of Islanders goalie Rick Dipietro. Needless to say paybacks were made and more importantly a good old fashioned donnybrook occurred much to the delight of the one or two thousand in attendance on Long Island. Since then it has been the talk of the NHL and fans alike and most recently been given major press because of Mario Lemieux’s comments bashing the NHL for failing in it’s apparent punishment of the players and team(s) involved.
Well Mario to you I say two things “Matt Cooke”.
Image may be NSFW.
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Fighting in Hockey
Having spent the past two seasons coaching Junior hockey it’s apparent that there is a slow step being pushed forward to take fighting out of the game of hockey. Gone from the glory days is the two fight rule and now inserted is a rule that once you fight three times you receive an automatic game suspension. Fight four times and you get two games, fight five times and you get three games etc etc. Now more then ever (maybe not so much at the NHL level) we see sticks being used, this season alone I’ve witnessed cross checks to the head, stick swinging attempts that were narrowly missed to the head, not to mention the increased stick work behind the play.
Yet even today we still here the notion that there is to much fighting in hockey and we don’t need it. Is there more fighting in hockey then in years past though? Now? I highly doubt it.
Mario’s Quote
“What happened on Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty,” Lemieux wrote. “It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that. The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.”
Is Mario that far removed from the game he doesn’t understand that part of the game? Anyone who has played at some decent level (then again beer hockey’s the worst for it) understand that in a blow out this type of crap is bound to happen. Players hate losing and they hate losing bad…cheap shots will happen and cheap shots will occur when the winning team starts rubbing salt in the wound.
This stuff happens, it’s part of the game, and more importantly tell all us fans that you’re going to take the fights out of a game like the other night when Anaheim punished the Oilers 4 to 0 outshooting them in a snoozefest 22 to 12 and I’ll tell you the only thing keeping fans entertained on nights like that are those same fights you’re trying to remove.
The Media
Then we have these blow hards in the media who are writers and reporters (not hockey players) stirring the pot and trying to throw a positive spin to abolish fighting. The worst (at least to me) is Damien Cox from TSN who has been blasting fans all week who tend to be pro-fighting.
Damien Cox Twitter Quotes
N(B)HL. National Bush Hockey League. The more the league encourages goon stuff, as it’s done all year, the more it will get. Congrats!
Islanders take definition of “disgrace” to a new low.
Seriously. What possible value is there in having the likes of Gillies, Martin and Godard in the league? Or the sport, for that matter.
Well Mr. Cox it’s been proven time and time again that fighting is IN FACT good for the game.
and more importantly the players like it…
He went on later to tweet
In a combined 94 games this season, that threesome has 3 goals and 300 penalty minutes.
My question I ask is would Wayne Gretzky have been allowed as much free reign in the early 80s without the likes of McSorley, Hunter, and Semenko? Probably not, he would probably garner the same stick work and physical attention the likes of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin see. Hmmm lets see, oh wait, Crosby is out with a concussion…because of a fight no…instead it was a cheap shot to the head.
You Want To Clean Up The Game?
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One of the NHL’s Problems
Send a message to the players who refuse to clean up there act. Players like Carcillo, Avery, Cooke etc have all been repeat offenders for dirty hits and cheap shots but they still continue to play. You suspend one of these guys for 40 games then perhaps he might just think twice about repeating the offense.
Remove the instigator. What purpose does it actually serve aside from giving a team who just committed a cheap shot a power-play in most cases?
Protect your stars but in the same sense hold them as accountable. Ovechkin or Crosby should receive no special treatment regardless of star power.
Stop listening to media pundits.
and more importantly
start listening to me,
he who doesnt like dropping the flippers is obviously never played the game a whole heck of a lot or at the very least is a fluff.
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