Anyone changed their tune on hockey fights?

[Hanji]

According to a recently published study, society has definitely changed its tune on fighting; and it ultimately affects the bottom line.

"Fighting leads to more players in the penalty box and can reduce the performance of the team," said Duane Rockerbie, a professor of economics at the University of Lethbridge.
By crunching data from 13 NHL seasons, Rockerbie found that fighting actually reduced attendance and revenue for Canadian clubs.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nhl-hockey-fights-affect-attendance-1.3303495

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

I don't know if society in the rest of the sporting world is just more advanced or if fans of the nhl are just plain unintellectual.

Just think about what your watching.

A fist to fist combat between two men that has no impact on the game whatsoever.

I understand the 50's-90's, society in and players growing up playing the game were all acting tough they had to because of how the game was taught, it was a difficult time to grow up in and different perception of what the World around them was.

But this is the year 2015. People progress. I mean grow up. It's a joke that fighting is still permitted.

It's on pace for the first time to be around 275 fights in an entire year.

In 10 years time we'll be looking at close to only 100 fights per season.

My wish is coming true.

The End of Hockey fights.

 

[Vitkovice*]

No. I've boxed for almost twenty years and I have always thought a couple of dudes on skates blindly scratching, pulling and haymaking at each other for ten seconds has even less to do with hockey than crashes have to do with racing.

I have also noticed a couple of things about people trying to vindicate this thing.

 

[skillhockey]

As far as i can remember i don't think it was ever entertaining as they can't really fight and refs are too quick to end them. Also being pro in any sports is lot about controlling emotions. Fighting doesn't really fit in that mold. You start chasing other guy, you're not playing. You can of course blow off some steam after whistle unless it takes your team shorthanded but otherwise, you should be in total control. Part of progress would be get rid of it. Being more professional.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

According to a recently published study, society has definitely changed its tune on fighting; and it ultimately affects the bottom line.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nhl-hockey-fights-affect-attendance-1.3303495

You know how that study came up with their numbers for decreasing attendance as correlates to fighting? They ignored all the years that those Canadian teams sold out their arenas... think about that.

 

[Big Phil]

Staged fights are the worst

Oh...........but you like them, just like me and just like everyone else who likes fights. You think just because TSN uncovered Georges Laraque asking Colton Orr(?) to drop the mitts that it means staged fighting hasn't been around forever? Geez, people are so naïve. It's been around as long as I remember. Domi vs. Probert. We all knew they'd drop the mitts. There are reasons for staged fights. People have just been brainwashed by the media that this is a bad thing.

Either way, hockey has had fighting for longer than any of us were born. You started falling in love with a game of extreme violence. It has always been that way and trust me, you wouldn't enjoy it if it weren't that way.

 

[JETZZZ]

I think a 2 minute delay of game penalty should be added on top of a fighting major if a fight doesn't end in a tap-out or a KO. If your gonna interrupt the game for a fight, fine, but don't have a half assed "pillow fight" where 8 hay-makers are thrown followed by hugging it out until the refs step in. If there is no clear winner, then its not a complete fight and a total waste of time.

 

[Alex Jones]

I like fights simply from an entertainment perspective. That said, I dont really think that they are valuable. I dont believe that they reduce the number of illegal hits, and i dont think that they change the momentum of the game.

I would prefer that they stay in the game, but more than fine with them being out.

 

[Frank Drebin]

I just think that the people who want fighting gone for the most part are fans who cheer for creampuff teams that get pushed around quite a bit. I know it's not the case for everyone, but it seems like a lot of the time that's the case.

Fighting should remain in the game as long as the players want it in the game.

Players had to be forced to wear helmets, and visors.

I personally don't like to see young men (most of who don't even like fighting) risk permanent brain injury for a sideshow of the game. Creampuff team or not.

 

[Knies iT]

I will always be pro-fighting. It is such a crucial part of the sport for me.

Haven't changed my stance at all. I love fighting, absolutely love it.

This

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Players had to be forced to wear helmets, and visors.

I personally don't like to see young men (most of who don't even like fighting) risk permanent brain injury for a sideshow of the game. Creampuff team or not.

1% (or less?) of the league needs to be concerned about permanent brain injury from fighting in hockey. 100% of the league needs to be concerned about permanent brain injury from simply playing hockey. That's life in a pro contact sport. If it's about optics, fine, I can understand without agreeing, but it's disgusting how much the "safety is the #1 priority" angle gets abused.

 

[Hanji]

No. I've boxed for almost twenty years and I have always thought a couple of dudes on skates blindly scratching, pulling and haymaking at each other for ten seconds has even less to do with hockey than crashes have to do with racing.

I have also noticed a couple of things about people trying to vindicate this thing.

Correctamundo.

If hockey dustups were displays of skillful fighting, and they served a purpose, I'd love them. But this isn't the case.
Hockey fights = bar brawls. No talent. No purpose. Violence for the sake of violence. Lowest common denominator stuff.

 

[Randy BoBandy]

I like them better now. I'm glad its no longer guys who can't skate throwing the gloves off most of the time. I used to hate the goons and all that mess. I think the state of fighting in the NHL is perfect. Not every game, but sometimes.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

I like them better now. I'm glad its no longer guys who can't skate throwing the gloves off most of the time. I used to hate the goons and all that mess. I think the state of fighting in the NHL is perfect. Not every game, but sometimes.

The top 5 players with the most fighting majors played during my lifetime (Domi, Nilan, Probert, Berube - Tiger Williams is #2 on the list), and every one of them could skate just fine. I also watched a guy like Tocchet fight ~250 times in his career. If it's defensemen enforcers you're picking on, then fine, but your average defenseman of yesteryear wasn't a heck of a lot better at skating than some of those guys, either.

I just think a lot of people hated the few lumbering goons that probably regularly outmatched their team's tough guy(s) for toughness somewhere in history and it made an impression, because very few guys in the grand scheme of things have ever stuck around with notably poor skating (compared to their peers, of course) long enough to get in "most of the fights".

 

[Brainiac]

This whole subsection of HFBoards will soon be merged with the 'History of Hockey' board.

I don't really care about fighting, if they remove it or not. But you'd have to be a fool not to see how it's being phased out. Not judging, just saying.

 

[Smokey McCanucks]

A lot of the purpose that fighting once served is now being served by fines, suspensions, and the DoPS. "Eye for an eye" style retribution is no longer broadly socially acceptable anyways. It used to be that if a guy threw a borderline hit, he probably wasn't going to see any sort of supplemental discipline unless it was totally beyond the pale. Taking a number and getting the guy back later, that WAS the supplemental discipline so to speak.

I think probably the Bertuzzi-Moore-Naslund situation was the dividing line when it came to that way of thinking, because you see the result and you see where that can lead you. That's really where things changed. It was really the beginning of the end as far as the players policing the game themselves.

It's like when real legal authority came to the wild west, some people said Wyatt Earp was a lawman, other people said he was a murderer. The guy who was the quickest on the draw made the rules. But when the feds come through, the law was what they said it was back east. With the feds coming in, there's no place for a small-town sheriff to go around making his own rules no more.

We're in the same spot in hockey, where you know, there's the romance of the good old days when you had a problem you settled it mano-a-mano, but the fact is that the old system was dangerous and unstable compared to the rule of law, in terms of being a safe work environment, there's no comparison. You trade some of that danger and excitement for safety and stability, which there's no denying is the overall trend of society, we are exceedingly averse to risk these days and hockey's just gotta follow suit I guess.

 

[Baemon Severson*]

Even more reason to dress a tougher line up. If you're a soft team this will likely happen to you.

Wut?

You realize the guy 100 pounds lighter doesn't have to fight, right? It's most likely a 5 min PP if he gets jumped.

 

[SatanwasaSlovak]

According to a recently published study, society has definitely changed its tune on fighting; and it ultimately affects the bottom line.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nhl-hockey-fights-affect-attendance-1.3303495

Nerds with their statistics and **** needs to stop try to explain a game with so many different variables as hockey and other sports like that have. They simply can't, it's a lot of croc.