You’re a smart guy and hockey man, your sim team is always good, drafts always fantastic, what do you think the answer is?
Is the answer that the players just need to stop this nonsense? Thugs, retaliation, suspensions, fines....nothing seems to work.
Fighting is way down but that’s it. This **** never stops
Walker is 5'8. Providence has Breen, Frederic, Fyten, Sherman... (and had Broll at one point) those are all guys that can fight or are huge or both.
I think first it falls onto the league(s) to take it seriously and do something about it. That's not going to solve it, because as we know, people don't always "think" before they act or react. But, if seriously heavy suspensions are handed out, especially to repeat offenders, that at least gets those guys off the ice. Even if it doesn't change the behavior of others, it will reduce incidents (probably not by a lot) just by that.
On top of that, punish the teams. Put a cap surcharge on players serving suspensions. Make it difficult for coaches to ice guys who give cheap shots.
Work with the CHL, USHL, Hockey USA and others to change the culture. As we see here in this thread, a lot of people take the position that hockey is a game that has, haves and always will have over the edge plays, and in fact think that's a good thing. If players grow up in a game that thinks that manhood and competitiveness is equivalent to outright violence against an opponent in a way that has nothing to do with stopping a scoring chance or getting possession of the puck (this Walker play is a good example of that kind of violent mentality) then that's what they are going to play like when they get to the NHL.
The problems with all that is this:
1. Will the league get gunshy about suspending players if the severity of the penalty goes way up. This is similar to juries voting to not convict a person if the death penalty is on the table whereas they would be if it was life in prison (some studies suggest this happens and that death penalty states see a redution in convictions, but I don't know enough about it to know if this is true).
2) Will the league stand up to owners, teams, fanbases etc when they inevitably make a decision that rightfully or wrongfully is seen as excessive, arbitrary or different than other similar plays (we already see this)?
3) Will fans turn away from the game if it isn't violent enough?
4) Unforseen consequenes. I firmly believe that every decision, even right ones , often have unforseen downsides and effects.
All of this requires strong commissioner, onboard united owners and union all working together. None of those 3 things really exist though so,...
About 6 weeks ago I watched two “star” players from a team get taken out on dirty plays in one game with no retaliation.
