And right here is the big issue.
Someone lays a big legal or “questionable” hit on a player and he is immediately expected to drop the gloves in response and if he doesn’t, people like you think that whatever happens after that is fair game and “their” fault. I suppose you support what Bertuzzi did to Moore?
I do find it quite funny that in a league that has cracked down on headshots for “player safety” still allows players to chase others around the ice and punch them repeatedly in the head and face.
I remember clearly a game in which Cam Ward slugged Hornqvist right in the face with his BLOCKER hand while Horny was down in his back. Nothing came of it. No penalty, no fine, no suspension, nothing...
Players in the NFL routinely get smashed by big hits and they get up, dust themselves off and hear back to the huddle. There may be some chest bumping and trash talking involved but if a lunch is thrown there is an immediate ejection. Same in every other sport.
Now I’m not saying that fighting needs to eliminated, not at all. If two guys are willing to engage each other then let them dance. My issue is with the piling on of someone who MAY or MAY NOT have made a dirty or questionable hit, and then he has 3 or 4 guys on top of him and wailing away. It’s ridiculous and uncalled for.
I know many want the NHL to back to the “good old days” of line brawls and such but it’s not good for the game. People want to see speed, skill, puckhandling, great goaltending, and yes, big hits. What they don’t want to see is bar fights on the ice after every single big hit.