One of the things that really bothers me about the current nhl is the fact that you have to fight every time you throw a solid clean hit. It's ridiculous. If someone takes a run at your guy and throws a cheap hit, fine. But every time a guy gets rocked with a clean hit, there has to be a fight. Just play the game.
I agree with you 100%.
And, the Devils actually took that advice last night after the hit on JJ.
They kind of casually skated over to McCabe when the whistle blew, but they were smart about not taking a penalty.
Kane on the other hand was an idiot when he came flying across the ice and took a dumb penalty which led to the Rico PP goal.
Don't understand it much either. The way things used to be as far as "getting back" at an opposing player for throwing a big and clean hit, was to give them a hit back at some point later in the game. That or the opposing player understood at some point later in the game they may have to answer the bell and drop the gloves.
Off the top of my head regarding us, going back as recent as 2012 and 2010. Tyler Myers caught Zubrus hunched over, head down so later in the game Kovy came in and hit him. Similar with Volchekov on Schenn and then Rinaldo on Volchenkov. Last, Rob Niedermayer had given Cooke a pretty questionable shot earlier in the game, so Rob who usually never fought knew he crossed the line a bit and answered the call, for himself. Rarely do you see this as much today.