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CHL, Hockey USA look to ban fighting

I dunno if it's a miracle when even Branch says "I believe that there is more and more recognition that our game does not need fighting to survive, to be part of the entertainment package, you might say"

They missed the boat anyways... old time hockey!!

Slapshot_Striptease.jpg
 
I'm all for it. Kids and teenagers shouldn't be bare-knuckle brawling and consider it acceptable.
 
I am unsure about this, if there is going to be fighting in the NHL/AHL, it should be in the CHL as well, would you want younger players coming into the league, never really having fought on skates before, to take on a seasoned fighter who is 10 years older? In the CHL they would be able to fight with others around their age, and learn how to scrap on skates, before getting to the NHL and getting beaten down as they try to learn how to fight on skates, it is way different fighting on ice, then on the street.

If the CHL bans it, they should wait until the NHL/AHL do so.
 
RyanSH12 said:
I am unsure about this, if there is going to be fighting in the NHL/AHL, it should be in the CHL as well, would you want younger players coming into the league, never really having fought on skates before, to take on a seasoned fighter who is 10 years older? In the CHL they would be able to fight with others around their age, and learn how to scrap on skates, before getting to the NHL and getting beaten down as they try to learn how to fight on skates, it is way different fighting on ice, then on the street.

If the CHL bans it, they should wait until the NHL/AHL do so.
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I don't know how practical that is. Now that we know more and more about the effects concussions can have, and in particular on developing brains, the CHL is in an entirely different world when it comes to looking after players who can be as young as 15 or 16 and whose parents still get to make their decisions for them. The NHL/AHL can at least justify allowing fighting as being something entered into by well paid professionals who know the risks but the CHL has to convince parents that their league is a safe place to play.

With the NCAA, the CHL's main competitor for young talent these days, banning fighting I think the CHL is going to be pressured to follow suit, as their recent changes show.
 
My son plays AAA high school and this decision makes absolute sense to me.  The last 3 years when the competition is high caliber, the fighting has been non-existent.  The only exceptions is when 2 players are passionate and react in the moment which has not been damaging.

When teams try to employ a goon then it drags the quality down.

Mike Brown was embarrassing to me the other night as a Leaf fan btw....not only was it not a staged fight, which is bad enough, he was going around propositioning players.
 
Britishbulldog said:
Mike Brown was embarrassing to me the other night as a Leaf fan btw....not only was it not a staged fight, which is bad enough, he was going around propositioning players.
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I was cringing at that too.  It actually put me over the edge into thinking something must be changed, it was so pathetic.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
But, the crowd did go nuts when the fight happened. This will keep the board of governors in favour of the fights...
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I doubt it. Leaving aside that I don't think the crowd really got all that excited I'm not sure that's entirely how the BoG is going to measure things. They're going to care about TV ratings. They're going to care about the people who aren't going to the games. They're going to care about fighting as a potential liability issue.

Fans getting excited about fights is a little bit like fans getting excited about penalty shots. It's not going to drastically alter how they look at how the game's should go.
 
Nik Gida said:
OldTimeHockey said:
But, the crowd did go nuts when the fight happened. This will keep the board of governors in favour of the fights...
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I doubt it. Leaving aside that I don't think the crowd really got all that excited I'm not sure that's entirely how the BoG is going to measure things. They're going to care about TV ratings. They're going to care about the people who aren't going to the games. They're going to care about fighting as a potential liability issue.

Fans getting excited about fights is a little bit like fans getting excited about penalty shots. It's not going to drastically alter how they look at how the game's should go.
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Well this is going strictly on my own opinion so take it with a grain of salt, but you certainly hear an eruption when a fight breaks out. This doesn't just go for the guys in the stands, it also happens in sportsbars and recrooms across the continent.

I agree that in the end, fighting will all but disappear, but my point was(again my own opinion) that I think the people in charge will 'fight' to keep it in the game as long as possible because they see $ signs associated with it.

I could see some changes slowly coming in. The ref's kicking guys out/suspending guys for staging fights would be one place to start. Limiting amount of fights per game/per team may be a step also.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
Nik Gida said:
OldTimeHockey said:
But, the crowd did go nuts when the fight happened. This will keep the board of governors in favour of the fights...
Click to expand...

I doubt it. Leaving aside that I don't think the crowd really got all that excited I'm not sure that's entirely how the BoG is going to measure things. They're going to care about TV ratings. They're going to care about the people who aren't going to the games. They're going to care about fighting as a potential liability issue.

Fans getting excited about fights is a little bit like fans getting excited about penalty shots. It's not going to drastically alter how they look at how the game's should go.
Click to expand...

Well this is going strictly on my own opinion so take it with a grain of salt, but you certainly hear an eruption when a fight breaks out. This doesn't just go for the guys in the stands, it also happens in sportsbars and recrooms across the continent.

I agree that in the end, fighting will all but disappear, but my point was(again my own opinion) that I think the people in charge will 'fight' to keep it in the game as long as possible because they see $ signs associated with it.

I could see some changes slowly coming in. The ref's kicking guys out/suspending guys for staging fights would be one place to start. Limiting amount of fights per game/per team may be a step also.
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The problem is that the refs already can't call a game.  It's kind of hard to really assess "staged" fights sometimes.  I mean when Brown runs around the ice trying to justify his 3:00 of ice-time, sure, that's the kind of garbage that needs to get out of the game, but then you have fights like Orr taking on Parros that can have that same "staged" kind of feel if you ignore the context of Orr's getting destroyed by Parros and almost having his career as a pro ended because of it.

They dont' seem to get the concept that a clean hit, followed by a guy jumping you from behind probably should count as an instigator, so I would hate to see how they managed calling fights staged.

I don't disagree that people get excited when there is a fight, particularly when it is one that actually has a bit of intensity behind it.  But I argue that there are rarely fight-free games where you say, man, I wish there was fighting in that game.  More goals, more end-to-end rushes, tighter defense, better goaltending, more aggressive forechecking/hits, sure, but rarely do you say that the problem with a game is that guys didn't fight (unless it was a lack of response to a cheap shot on a star player/rookie).   

To me, that's a great litmus for the lack of necessity for fighting in the game.  You can easily get your pugilistic fix from the corpse of boxing and MMA.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
Well this is going strictly on my own opinion so take it with a grain of salt, but you certainly hear an eruption when a fight breaks out. This doesn't just go for the guys in the stands, it also happens in sportsbars and recrooms across the continent.

I agree that in the end, fighting will all but disappear, but my point was(again my own opinion) that I think the people in charge will 'fight' to keep it in the game as long as possible because they see $ signs associated with it.

I could see some changes slowly coming in. The ref's kicking guys out/suspending guys for staging fights would be one place to start. Limiting amount of fights per game/per team may be a step also.
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My point wasn't that fans don't get excited for fights, my point was that I don't necessarily think it translates the way you think it does to the BoG. I mean, take my penalty shot example. Penalty shots are exciting. If you or I were at a game and Kessel got a penalty shot we'd be on our feet cheering for him to score, right?

But neither of us would sit down and watch a hockey game because there might be a penalty shot in it. We wouldn't buy tickets on the chance that a penalty shot might happen. I think the same is true with fighting, although I acknowledge that fights are more common. I think a fight can be exciting, sure, but if I'm cheering at a hockey game for a fight the reality is that I'm already there. I've already bought my ticket and the reason I did so was to watch a hockey game, not a fight. To sell me a ticket, the NHL has to put on a decent product regardless of whether or not a fight might break out.

I mean, the WJC and playoffs do pretty good numbers with fighting being a rarity so I'm not sure there's all that much to suggest it does mean dollars and cents.
 
Nik Gida said:
OldTimeHockey said:
Well this is going strictly on my own opinion so take it with a grain of salt, but you certainly hear an eruption when a fight breaks out. This doesn't just go for the guys in the stands, it also happens in sportsbars and recrooms across the continent.

I agree that in the end, fighting will all but disappear, but my point was(again my own opinion) that I think the people in charge will 'fight' to keep it in the game as long as possible because they see $ signs associated with it.

I could see some changes slowly coming in. The ref's kicking guys out/suspending guys for staging fights would be one place to start. Limiting amount of fights per game/per team may be a step also.
Click to expand...

My point wasn't that fans don't get excited for fights, my point was that I don't necessarily think it translates the way you think it does to the BoG. I mean, take my penalty shot example. Penalty shots are exciting. If you or I were at a game and Kessel got a penalty shot we'd be on our feet cheering for him to score, right?

But neither of us would sit down and watch a hockey game because there might be a penalty shot in it. We wouldn't buy tickets on the chance that a penalty shot might happen. I think the same is true with fighting, although I acknowledge that fights are more common. I think a fight can be exciting, sure, but if I'm cheering at a hockey game for a fight the reality is that I'm already there. I've already bought my ticket and the reason I did so was to watch a hockey game, not a fight. To sell me a ticket, the NHL has to put on a decent product regardless of whether or not a fight might break out.

I mean, the WJC and playoffs do pretty good numbers with fighting being a rarity so I'm not sure there's all that much to suggest it does mean dollars and cents.
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Perhaps you are correct.

I've always been of the opinion that in order to attract those 'southern' fans, you needed the fighting. I'm swaying the other way in that opinion as I think with violence under such a microscope, mom's and  such will be turning their kids away from hockey because of it.

I could take or leave the fighting myself. As L K says, you don't ever watch a game without fighting and think, man I wish there was a fight.
 
Talk about a hockey fight...this was more of a 'dance lesson'  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HKhtGbSyUY&feature=player_embedded
 
hockeyfan1 said:
Talk about a hockey fight...this was more of a 'dance lesson'  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HKhtGbSyUY&feature=player_embedded
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Hah I wonder if those guys are wishing there were no fighting; could have avoided that embarrassment.
 
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