Yeah, very much so. Initially in Canada & the North Eastern US hockey was a "Gentleman's Game" played by the well heeled Sons of the Landed Gentry, Doctors, Lawyers, Academics.... fighting absolutely not part of the game. With the rise of Professionalism however, Pennsylvania-Michigan, Quebec & so on, creation of the NHA in 1909 which morphed into the NHL... the game gaining in popularity and inexpensive with the kids of blue collar immigrants taking it up, becoming far more rough & tumble.... physicality encouraged which then led to fighting, the owners & promoters finding the crowds loving that aspect of the game began marketing it as a Blood Sport in order to fill buildings.
#1 sport was Boxing, extremely popular (wrestling as well), many of the famous old buildings, Chicago Stadium, Detroit's Olympia etc designed first & foremost to host boxing with pro hockey a secondary tenant to fill up dates, keep the lights on. When Tex Rickard saw the success of the NY Americans playing out of MSG for example, he applied for & received an Expansion team from the NHL, named them the Rangers of course, and in order to fill Madison Square hired off-duty ambulances to tear around the area with sirens blaring well into the 1st period of play in order to grab passersby's attention, that they'd rush to the box office, buy a ticket to go inside & see what the Hell was going on..... sort of like people Rubbernecking at scene of a car accident or fire.... that if that many ambulances were required tearing around at breakneck speeds headed for MSG then was worth seeing, buying a ticket, checking out the carnage....
Hockey across the pond, your knick of the woods down into Italy & so on, followed an entirely different trajectory in terms of growth & development, fighting not part of the equation. Clean checking though at times some dirty stickwork. Club systems, Elite Leagues, Semi-Pro to Full-Pro & so on & so forth. Following IIHF Rules & Guidelines, lots of Tournament Hockey, "Friendlies" and fighting had no place in it. Anathema to the spirit of sport. You like fighting take up or go watch Boxing..... In Canada, Ontario circa 1900's, the straight laced executives of the OHA absolutely railed at the violence & professionalism, attempted to stamp it out in its infancy, that "this is not the way the game was meant to be played", a battle they lost obviously. Valiant effort. During the era of the Stanley Cup Challenge, the Toronto Marlboro's made up of the Sons of local wealthy & Scions Challenging, Gentlemen Amateurs, getting beaten up by the "nasty, dirty & corrupt blue collar pro's". The President of the OHA also a major newspaper publisher/editor, going full on Thunder & Brimstone in his rage over the corruption of the game in published articles.... how the Saintly Marlboro Lads who wouldnt even say tihS if their mouths were full of it were robbed, mugged & beaten up by the Nasty Boys from the wrong side of the tracks, paid assassins & on & on & on....