So long fighting

[Tim Raines]

So the OHL announces that players will now receive a 2-game suspension for every fight after their third fight of the season. That's down from the 10-fight threshold.

And it's the next step in the long-range plan to ban fighting. By 2020, it'll be gone entirely.

Click to read more...

 

[Nabru]

delete

 

[Shrimper]

I look forward to Cherry's rant

 

[Finster8]

You can change the rules to totally eliminate it, however when someone takes your number 1 players knee out with a cheap shot what's going to happen? Odds are retaliation of some form such as another cheap shot and another injured player. How many times in a fight does a player get injured not very often.Watch the increase in the stick work and other infractions to rise. This isnt soccer.

 

[Price is Wright]

You can change the rules to totally eliminate it, however when someone takes your number 1 players knee out with a cheap shot what's going to happen?

You continue to play the game to win and hope the league is competent enough to suspend/ban that player.

Batman doesn't play hockey. Vigilante justice doesn't belong in sports.

 

[4thline]

Fighting will still happen, and I'd argue that the importance of any one fight (if you believe they have any) will rise exponentially. "Fighters" will be gone, as will fighting for the sake of it, but they will still happen and the moments when they will be bigger for team bonding. Much more of a take a bullet mentality.

 

[Finster8]

You continue to play the game to win and hope the league is competent enough to suspend/ban that player.

Batman doesn't play hockey. Vigilante justice doesn't belong in sports.

What does that have to do with the emotions on the ice. Next lets eliminate body checking.

 

[EON]

What does that have to do with the emotions on the ice. Next lets eliminate body checking.

Body checking is part of the game, you can use a clean body check to separate a player from the puck.

Fighting is not

 

[Finster8]

Body checking is part of the game, you can use a clean body check to separate a player from the puck.

Fighting is not

Fighting is abviously being filtered out of the game. I dont believe in goon mentality but fighting has been and will be still part of the game IMO.

 

[Tim Raines]

At the height of the Bilcke era, a task force was set up (including Branch, Spott and a few others) to tackle the issue.

I believe they decided that banning fighting right away was a hard sell even though the full committee firmly believed that was right and was the end goal. The compromise was to do a staged, incremental plan to wean the league off it. First, no staged fights, then the 10-game threshold, then the 3-game threshold, then it'll be none.

By weaning people off it gently over a few years it would soften the blow to the traditionalists but they'd ultimately achieve the goal.

 

[Price is Wright]

Fighting is abviously being filtered out of the game. I dont believe in goon mentality but fighting has been and will be still part of the game IMO.

It still will be. Players will just start getting suspended for it. Like other sports.

 

[Mike Martin]

Body checking is part of the game, you can use a clean body check to separate a player from the puck.

Fighting is not

You can use your stick to separate a player from the puck, there's no one forcing you to use your body. Body checking doesn't exist in women's hockey and they still play and call it hockey so stop pretending that everything besides fighting has to be part of the game, that's obviously not true.

 

[Magic Man]

Straight up enforcers that can't play don't have a place. But, fighting has always been a part of hockey and it creates a lot of fan entertainment.

They don't need to change everything. They can leave some **** the way it is.

 

[Ward Cornell]

This is 100% about the OHL trying to lessen their liability in case a player gets injured in a fight (concussion) and avoiding a huge lawsuit.
Too a lesser degree it could also help in the battle to recruit players vs the NCAA.

 

[Friendly Fan]

Branch goes on to say that they want to increase the quality of play and "on ice environment" in the OHL, but it seems like in the last 2-3 years, the percentage of OHL players compared to the rest of the world that have been drafted in the NHL, has decreased???

Maybe a direct correlation with the fighting rule and reduced fights , thus not promoting tough guys or power forwards??

OHL was known for producing tough power forwards that every team wanted, but now if it tries to become a skilled league, it takes away our advantage and now we have to compete against all of the other shinny hockey leagues in the world.

JMO

 

[RoyalCitySlicker]

Branch goes on to say that they want to increase the quality of play and "on ice environment" in the OHL, but it seems like in the last 2-3 years, the percentage of OHL players compared to the rest of the world that have been drafted in the NHL, has decreased???

Maybe a direct correlation with the fighting rule and reduced fights , thus not promoting tough guys or power forwards??

OHL was known for producing tough power forwards that every team wanted, but now if it tries to become a skilled league, it takes away our advantage and now we have to compete against all of the other shinny hockey leagues in the world.

JMO

This is 100% about the OHL trying to lessen their liability in case a player gets injured in a fight (concussion) and avoiding a huge lawsuit.
Too a lesser degree it could also help in the battle to recruit players vs the NCAA.

I agree with a lot of what you both said.

I already miss the "old" OHL......and I don't even mean really old....I mean of like 7-10 years ago. Found the games have begun to become vanilla - not as bad as in the NHL - but a lot of the emotion has been governed out of the game. Hard to complain when it's young adults/kids we are talking about, but still, I will miss the way the game used to be played.

I'm also not crazy about giving the referrees another chance to use their best judgement - in this case regarding blindside hits.

If there is one thing I have learned about the OHL referees in general, is that the less they are able to use their judgement, the better off the game will be.

Anyway, can't say I didn't see all of this coming - just didn't think it would be so soon.

 

[Naz]

I was all about the hockey fighting in the 80's saw some wild ones and enjoyed them, but as I get older it's about the skill of the game.
And never liked David Branch but do like this rule.and I know people are going to say you can't take fighting out out hockey and I say yes you can.the world juniors & Olympics says you can.just my opinion

 

[Savard18]

It basically IS women's hockey anymore. There's very little difference in the rules or the way the game is played at this point.

 

[JackalsKnuckles]

The way things are going they will be wearing full cages in a year or 2 anyway. It is hard to believe how fast the game is being ruined. I agree with the above poster on the entertainment level and quality of the OHL experience now vs. 10 years ago. I make a handful of trips each year to Ontario to watch hockey, and have noticed now that the game day experience is more about the between period contests, the remote control blimp dropping prizes at intermission and fans being force-fed fake entertainment on the video board. Vanilla is the best way to describe it. There is hardly any intensity on the ice.

Leave the game alone. This rule is worse than Junior A as at least if the penalty is a game misconduct and not a suspension blatant cheap shots can be handled and the player only sits out the rest of the game for standing up for his teammate. With this rule guys will be looking to take revenge with their sticks. Someone is gonna get hurt.

 

[Macker88]

Has anyone noticed the amount of suspensions for head checks and stick infractions has gone up since all these fighting rules have come into play ?

 

[Price is Wright]

It basically IS Olympic hockey anymore. There's very little difference in the rules or the way the game is played at this point.

Fixed that for ya.

 

[OHLTG]

What bothers me about this is one fight to defend a teammate could result in 1/3 of your fight allowance if the officials decide on it. If a player wants to take liberties with the smaller guys, they can without much consequence. If a player does it right, he can downright haunt a smaller guy, so he's doing things within the rules, but there's nothing the opponent can do without getting the instigator. In the old days, that wouldn't happen. I understand why the league is doing this, but at some point, it's taken too far.

 

[belair]

What bothers me about this is one fight to defend a teammate could result in 1/3 of your fight allowance if the officials decide on it. If a player wants to take liberties with the smaller guys, they can without much consequence. If a player does it right, he can downright haunt a smaller guy, so he's doing things within the rules, but there's nothing the opponent can do without getting the instigator. In the old days, that wouldn't happen. I understand why the league is doing this, but at some point, it's taken too far.

Technically the only time there should be a fight is to defend a teammate. Staged fights are embarrassing and need to be removed from the game.

 

[hedgeway]

Can't believe this many adults are upset that teenagers won't be punching each other in the face for their entertainment anymore. Grow up.

 

[Hammer9001]

You can change the rules to totally eliminate it, however when someone takes your number 1 players knee out with a cheap shot what's going to happen? Odds are retaliation of some form such as another cheap shot and another injured player. How many times in a fight does a player get injured not very often.Watch the increase in the stick work and other infractions to rise. This isnt soccer.

You have refs punish the cheap shot with more draconian penalties, and after any play resulting in injury, you have league officials review the circumstances and lay down more frequent and harsher suspensions as needed. You also accept that fact that hockey is a team sport and the lost of one player does not destroy a team.

I've said it before, I don't like fighting in the game but it is a nesscary evil because NHL and to a degree OHL refs don't call the game as harshly as they should so players have to police themselves. When the league actually steps up and polices them though, there is no need for it. The World Juniors and the Olympics are the two single best hockey events in the world and they do so without fighting. I look forward to the Spengler Cup each year because besides the larger ice that Pro Hockey should now be played on, but also because the thugish behvaiour and revenge shots simply aren't present.