Joe McDonald

From the first time a puck was dropped on a sheet of ice in North America, hockey players have earnestly felt the need to defend themselves and their teammates through physicality. During most of this time, it appeared that hockey and fisticuffs were wed. However, over the past five years, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and...

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RkFast

Keep "fighting for fighting."

But also keep in mind the cheap shots and thug/good mentality of the sport is what is keeping TONS of fans away.

I was really getting into the sport, but then Turgeon got laid out for no reason way back when. And every time I tried to give the NHL another chance, I saw a "crackhead" doing his thing or Chris Simon trying to maim someone permanently. Dont forget the countless times I have to watch a no-talent...excuse me..."enforcer"...pop up late in games out there for the SOLE PURPOSE of hurting someone. Bollocks.

No thanks...keep your goon sport. If I want to watch this type of stuff, Ill go watch WWE Raw. At least THAT is entertaining.

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"The only long term solution to avoiding war is being stronger than your enemies AND showing the resolve to use that strength." --Mule

graves9

It is not true. Fighting has gone down in the past 10-12 years and you know what? The popularity of the Sport has gone down not up. I am not suggesting that is the reason. I would say Fairy Buttman overexpanding the game is one of the main reason(and well as his sheer incompetance) plus the lockouts(in '95 it killed the sports momentum and in '05 it nearly killed the sport) The damage he's done is immeasarable. The complete incompetance of the refs hurts the flow of the game badly as well. Plus due to there being too many teams the talent level is on a whole is lower than it used to be. Most team are too much alike. Anyway back to the fighting and cheapshots killing the game well in the 70's, 80's and early 90's(when the league reached it's peak in popularity) there was far more fighting than there is today. The cheapshots are down too. I will state due to the refs incompetance and all the phantom penalties they do miss alot of the cheapshots today thereby players do get away with alot of elbows to the head and slewfooting.

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"If you weren't around to see the 1962 Mets, here's a reminder." Vin Scully on the Mets performance vs the Dodgers on 5-18-09