NHL becoming WWE

[papazoid]

i used to like fighting in hockey....but not anymore.

 

in it's most simplistic form....fighting takes away from the beauty of the game...

 

i could site endless examples...but to me it's becoming unwatchable.

 

it's like WWE...staged, silly, laughable, embarrasing, slamming heads into turnbuckles, pulling hair, biting, rabbit head shots, etc...

 

all the wasted time to sort out penalties.....not to mention the long term health and safety of head shots.

 

the biggest arguement for fighting comes from the players who say they need to police themselves from the cheapshot artists. to me cheap shots are at an all time high....so fighting isn't dettering that.

 

you can't "eliminate" it completely (you still see the occasional spontaneous fight in the NFL, NBA and MLB). ...but you can curtail it......for example, if your involved in a fight, you are ejected for the rest of that game and possibly the next based on an escalating scale....teams would eventually stop employing goons because they would be unnecessary and eventually obsolete.

[26CornerBlitz]

The most ridiculous thing is that a clean, hard open ice check against the opponent means you have to fight....When the hell did this become an unwritten rule?

[RazielSabre]

I have no problem with a good honest scrap between brawlers every now and again. I like a good clean open ice check as well, fantastic to watch. But I completely agree with the sentimants above, it's gettings stupid now, it's not even physical is just random thuggish behaviour. I cant see it being a generation thing, is it a new coaching thing? Why has this trend started?

 

I do, however, see the problem as being players like Chara, Lucic, Weber, Clarkner (guy who pummelled Boyle). Players who will try to smash another player rather than just check them, dirty hits and dirty players.

[Trettioåtta]

I like the current fighting - it is very entertaining to watch things boil over, hell of a lot better than watching Peters end other enforcers circle each other for 2 minutes

[stevecana]

I like the current fighting - it is very entertaining to watch things boil over, hell of a lot better than watching Peters end other enforcers circle each other for 2 minutes

 

There is no more "boiling over", one big hit in the first 3 minutes warrants a fight. Theres no emotion anymore. Nearly all fights are staged, and like OP said, thats the problem.

[nucci]

The most ridiculous thing is that a clean, hard open ice check against the opponent means you have to fight....When the hell did this become an unwritten rule?

Agreed, this is what bothers me the most. No one can take a hit anymore. Seems like a player is embarrassed if he gets hit hard.

[apuszczalowski]

I like the current fighting - it is very entertaining to watch things boil over, hell of a lot better than watching Peters end other enforcers circle each other for 2 minutes

Most fights today are no different, except that maybe the guys are locked together gripping each others jersey holding them close like they are slow dancing.

 

I thought the Pens/Flyers series was just "good, ole fashion playoff hockey!", the way it was supposed to be played?

[North Buffalo]

Most fights today are no different, except that maybe the guys are locked together gripping each others jersey holding them close like they are slow dancing.

 

I thought the Pens/Flyers series was just "good, ole fashion playoff hockey!", the way it was supposed to be played?

 

I couldn't agree more and I think the topic is disingenous. During the regular season when fights are staged okay, I can see the point.

 

But during the playoffs you couldn't be more wrong, especially this year. Eg., when Cindy is instigating, taking extra wacks at a goalie a response was warrented. Heck Geroux, a known fighter was the responder (sarcasm), this is playoff intensity, not a set up planned fight..

The Ranger/Ottowa series is a game of chicken and Alfredson is a known cheep shot artist. I think the Rangers are smart to go after him and I also think he acted a bit.

 

It is all part of the interesting chess match in the middle of some incredible play this year.

 

And the reason imo is the teams this year are close in talent. So the game comes down force of wills and who will backg down especially in the first round. I am loving this hockey. The most boring game of the weekend was the Devils Florida matchup. Hardly any intensity.

[OverPowerYou]

Have we all forgotten the Brian Campbell hit on Umberger? Even on that clean hit there was a scrap. To me it's always been a part of the game as a new fan in the 2000's.

[Iron Crotch]

From my point of view (fan since the late-70's), the amount of fighting in the game and in the playoffs has decreased from what it used to be. I'm also pretty sure the number of cheap shots isn't much different than what it used to be. The difference is we now have 40 cameras watching every square inch of the ice and show every hit and cheap shot over and over on 50 different sports networks. So that gives the perception that things are worse now...

 

[SabresBaltimore]

Personally I think the issue is the dirty hits, not the fighting. A lot of these brawls seem to be as the result of cheap shots. Some of the cheap shots seems to be in response to good, hard hits though. I agree that everyone seems oversensitive about hitting all of a sudden.

 

A fight after a hard hit isn't unheard of, especially if the player who is hit goes down/is carted off. However it seems like every hit results in a response..and often times it's cheap shots, not fighting. The fighting comes after in response to the cheap shots.

 

I think fighting is always the scapegoat for dirty play that happens..because it's usually what results of the cheap shots. That's the point of the fighting. To let the players police themselves in an effort to discourage dirty play.

 

Too many players seem to try to get away with cheap shots. The fighting doesn't seem to be enough of a deterant anymore. The league has been trying to crack down on this stuff..but they need to throw out some big suspensions (I know that Rags player got 3 games for elbowing Alfresson already) and fines, even if it's the playoffs. Teams need to do more too. A player who gets suspended is of little value to you if you want to win the cup, so teams can't stand for that kind of crap anymore.

 

To me all the fighting at the ends of yesterday's Pens/Fliers game wasn't really a big deal. What was worse was the cheap shot Ashem put on one of the Fliers players who put a solid hit down earlier in the game. They penalized the hit with a charging minor (which I thought was unwarrented) but Ashem cross checked the guy in the throat and then punched him in the back of the head after he was down for good measure. That was disgraceful.

 

It's also not every series. Look at the Devils and Panthers last night. That game had over 80 hits (at least 40 side) but there wasn't much in the way of cheap shots or fighting. Certainly not like the Rags/Sens or Pens/Fliers series have been.

[Weave]

Fighting after clean hits has been going on for as long as I remember. There is a good reason why Dave Semenko used to occassionally skate on Gretzky's line. ;) It weren't because Cementhead had good hands for potting goals. His role was punishing whoever was foolish enough to throw a check at Gretz.

 

And I don't recall any of yesterday's Pitt-Philly dustups being of the staged variety. That was all spontaneous emotion.

[Jerry Jabber]

Whatcha gonna do Brutha!!!!

[darksabre]

This all falls on the failures of Shanahan to police the league effectively. If players expected suspensions for cheap shots they wouldn't do it. But since they know that as long as you don't kill a guy you can basically do what you want, then this continues.

 

Each event that goes by exasperates the issue until you get games like the Philly/Pens game where everyone wants to join in on the "message sending".

 

This is what happens when soft teams try to play with an edge. You get cheap shots, lazy penalties, and stupid fights.

[26CornerBlitz]

Fighting after clean hits has been going on for as long as I remember. There is a good reason why Dave Semenko used to occassionally skate on Gretzky's line. ;) It weren't because Cementhead had good hands for potting goals. His role was punishing whoever was foolish enough to throw a check at Gretz. And I don't recall any of yesterday's Pitt-Philly dustups being of the staged variety. That was all spontaneous emotion.

 

Certain star players like the Great One have always been afforded an "understood" do not touch policy that was backed up by designated tough guys, but now any guy that gets blown up requires a response by challenging the offender to a fight. That's a relatively new development.

[Weave]

Certain star players like the Great One have always been afforded an "understood" do not touch policy that was backed up by designated tough guys, but now any guy that gets blown up requires a response by challenging the offender to a fight. That's a relatively new development.

 

I don't agree. I don't have any specific examples off the top of my head but the entirety of the late 1980's - 1990's was loaded with fights brought on by any excuse conceivable, legal hits included.

[spndnchz]

From my point of view (fan since the late-70's), the amount of fighting in the game and in the playoffs has decreased from what it used to be. I'm also pretty sure the number of cheap shots isn't much different than what it used to be. The difference is we now have 40 cameras watching every square inch of the ice and show every hit and cheap shot over and over on 50 different sports networks. So that gives the perception that things are worse now...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFOeBVPFT6I&feature=related

 

lol the little kid on the bench at 5:30

[Iron Crotch]

lol the little kid on the bench at 5:30

 

Yeah, the best part is when #8 from the Hawks shoves the Leafs player through the bench door and starts pummeling him... and then the coach (or whomever that is) jumps in with a few blows. The announcers are pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing, which is great!

[TrueBlueGED]

This all falls on the failures of Shanahan to police the league effectively. If players expected suspensions for cheap shots they wouldn't do it. But since they know that as long as you don't kill a guy you can basically do what you want, then this continues.

 

Each event that goes by exasperates the issue until you get games like the Philly/Pens game where everyone wants to join in on the "message sending".

 

This is what happens when soft teams try to play with an edge. You get cheap shots, lazy penalties, and stupid fights.

 

Precisely how I see it. When the precedent is set that deliberately trying to injure another team's star player only costs $2500....wouldn't you always want to go after the other team's stars? It's no deterrent at all. That fine amounts to somebody who makes $50K paying $18. For a poor graduate student like myself, it's more like $8. If the penalty for speeding was only $8, I'd never be within 20 of the speed limit on the highway. Until the penalties for cheap shots are both more severe and handed out more consistently, we're going to see the Pittsburgh-Philly game 3 a lot more often. I know there are some who want that kind of hockey and view it as a positive, but I wasn't even remotely entertained during that game, and I thought it turned into a complete sideshow. I don't think it was staged at all, it happened naturally due to emotions....but it simply isn't something I'm interested in watching on a consistent basis.

[Campy]

Precisely how I see it. When the precedent is set that deliberately trying to injure another team's star player only costs $2500....wouldn't you always want to go after the other team's stars? It's no deterrent at all. That fine amounts to somebody who makes $50K paying $18. For a poor graduate student like myself, it's more like $8. If the penalty for speeding was only $8, I'd never be within 20 of the speed limit on the highway. Until the penalties for cheap shots are both more severe and handed out more consistently, we're going to see the Pittsburgh-Philly game 3 a lot more often. I know there are some who want that kind of hockey and view it as a positive, but I wasn't even remotely entertained during that game, and I thought it turned into a complete sideshow. I don't think it was staged at all, it happened naturally due to emotions....but it simply isn't something I'm interested in watching on a consistent basis.

I'm not saying I disagree with any part of your post but am interested in your thoughts on the on-ice officials' role in that game. Did they do all they could to maintian order? What, if anything, do you think they should have done differently?

[TrueBlueGED]

I'm not saying I disagree with any part of your post but am interested in your thoughts on the on-ice officials' role in that game. Did they do all they could to maintian order? What, if anything, do you think they should have done differently?

 

Helped play goalie for the Pens to keep the game closer :P

 

Honestly though I'm not sure. I suppose they could have taken the NBA approach and just started tossing people out for even looking at each other funny. I don't see anything else that would have worked, since it was pretty clear that a few extra minor penalties wasn't going to do anything. So if I were a ref I'd probably just start ejecting players for garbage after the whistle, or taunting to/from the bench, and maybe that would have settled it down. Yea that might be over the top, but it was pretty clear that the players themselves had no interest in playing a hockey game.

[Weave]

IMO the on ice officials had a good bit to do with the mess in that Philly-Pitt game. Had Neal been called for *at least* interference for that cheap hit on Coutourier the big brawl probably never happens because Neal is in the box and not available to go headhunting Giroux. And even if Neal isn't in the box the on ice officials could have gotten players on their benches while they sorted out the original mess. I think the last 6 minutes or so of the game could and should have been handled better.

[nobody]

I think it would be great if the players would drop their sticks and go find some folding chairs to use instead. :)

 

The two biggest things that need to go are the head shots and the hitting with the sticks.

[shrader]

I think the appropriate comparison to make is the Federal League.

[That Aud Smell]

Whatcha gonna do Brutha!!!!

I think it would be great if the players would drop their sticks and go find some folding chairs to use instead.

 

wait a second ... tha-- that's ZDENO CHARA'S MUSIC!!!