This is not for sure, injuries still happen and the game continues on, no one ever suggested otherwise and it was never the intention of enforcers to prevent hockey from happening.
I get a kick out of the anti-fighting crowd, they want fighting gone under the guise of player safety, yet 99% of them don't give two ***** about Mr. Parros, most prefer he were gone and they certainly don't give a **** about his well-being, pulling on peoples heart strings to get what you want.
You don't give a **** about george, lets stop the charade.
So you agree then, fighting doesn't prevent anything, injuries/dirty hits/intimidation still happens whether you have fighters or not. Not sure where we disagree..
I'm not anti-fighting. I used to be because I think it sends the wrong message to kids, and because I find it useless to the actual game. You're right, I really don't care about Parros other than him being a Habs. I mean, I wish harm or injury to no one, but essentially I don't know the guy, so how could I really care about him? Pretty sure he doesn't give two craps about you and me either other than us cheering for his team.
So what charade am I playing?? I'm not the one arguing fighting is somehow essential to the game. It's useless. I've repeated many times before too, if they remove it, you won't even notice it gone, if they keep it, then you have to adapt and bring some fighters in. I'm not pretending to be saying it's for safety, players have proven over and over how little they care about their safety, so why should I be concerned about it.
I just responded to people that like to claim that fighting can actually change the outcome of a game.
Hitting players without the puck is lower than its been, Scott Stevens wouldn't make it through the season, ever, if he were playing under todays rules.
Hitting has always been about trying to hurt the guy. You're hugely naive if you think otherwise.
Not sure what I'm naive of. At the root, checking is to knock a guy off the puck. That's why they made checking legal. It wasn't so that you can go hurt the player. Over time it has transformed into that. Not sure what you proved there..
Do you miss the thousands of players who say x fighting x really gave us some energy? Or are they lying for entertainment?
Do you expect Plekanec or PK or anybody on the Habs to say that George Parros does absolutely nothing for them?? Ya, I'm sure their teammate would be thrilled to hear that.
Imagine your co-worker called you useless and said they didn't need you, how would that make you feel??
You know, we won every fight yesterday. Did it give us all the momentum? Nope. Did it give us more energy? Nope. Did he pump us up more? Nope, well, maybe for a second or two, but when the puck drops again and we're back to playing actual hockey, and the Leafs control it, then no, it changes nothing.
You mean when Prust dove into the boards to draw a penalty ? Orr's hit was clean, which, according to many if a clean hit results in an injury it's ok. Subban is a star, of course he's going to be targeted. Was he hurt in some capacity that I missed ?
Even if you throw everything away say fighting has no real defining moment on an outcome of a come. Fighting is what the fans want to see. I'm sure you've been to a game. When there was a fight, did you (well, you probably did) and everyone else just say seated and calm and acted like nothing was happening ? Or did some of them move to the edge of their seats, or even stand and start cheering ?
Isn't it neat how you can tell a fight is happening, or going to happen while at home and the camera isn't even close to it ? You hear the crowd getting loud in anticipation.
Fans love it. Fans pay money to see it.
Not sure if it was this thread, or on the main board, but I posted examples of where fighting changed not only a game, but a series around for teams.
That's my whole point, it's simply for entertainment value. And no, I have no issues watching Parros beat Orr, I'm all for it. But I'm not naive enough to think two guys that barely know how to play at the NHL level actually influence their team's play by punching each other in the face for a minute or two. It's not going to make Gionta suddenly develop more creativity or harder shot. It won't make Markov any faster.
It does nothing 99% of the time.
As for a fight changing a series, in modern times, that's a ridiculous assumption.