Hockey Fights

[afholmes87]

hockey was made on the fact that players can fight, its part of its identity, while in other sports players get suspended or heavy fines when they fight

I personally don't buy into all this crap. The game has evolved. We're seeing more and more of the European style finesse hockey in the NHL. It isn't all about enforcers and power forwards any more. You're trying to hold on to a relic of the past that has no place in the game today.

[tboculosis]

A good throwback to old-time hockey. While it pales in comparison to the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry of the late 90s, it's good to see the physical aspects of the game still hasn't left with this rivalry between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders.

[Dergula]

I'm not a fan of what's going on. It paints the sport we love in a bad light. The days of bench clearing brawls and enforcers are dead, and that's the way it should be. Detroit is a model franchise for this. Kenny Holland doesn't sign a guy he doesn't think can contribute on the ice. Detroit hasn't had an enforcer type player in years, and I'm glad, that's the way the game should be played, with class, none of this garbage. The Bruins tried pulling that crap with the Wings Friday night and what wound up happening? Detroit let Boston take the penalties and smoked them 6-1.

Ya? You'd be singing a different tune if Zetterberg got suckered by Cooke. Your team wouldn't have the guy to deal with the punk.

[Dergula]

I personally don't buy into all this crap. The game has evolved. We're seeing more and more of the European style finesse hockey in the NHL. It isn't all about enforcers and power forwards any more. You're trying to hold on to a relic of the past that has no place in the game today.

Its also evolved into a sport where hitting someone now, will draw a penelty. Its evolved into a sport where cheap shot artists are ALLOWED to thrive (i.e cooke, avery, gillies, bertuzzi).

Your correct in the sense that this new NHL is all european finesse along with the cheap shots that are going along with it.

Give me the "relic" of the past where "enforcers" patrolled the ice. Give me the days of the past when cheap shoters had to answer for it.

Give me 5 on 5 overtimes not a 1 on 1 shootout. Give me back my dynasties and not these one time wonders.

GIVE ME BACK OLD TIME HOCKEY. You can have your "European Finesse", me; i'll take my north american game.

[Wickabee]

Brawls and the like arent cool. Fun to watch every now and again, but seeing them happen more and more in the past couple of weeks is annoying.
With that said, fighting is a part of the game and always will be. You can try to take it out all you want, but you never will. You may as well try to take out slapshots.

[afholmes87]

Its also evolved into a sport where hitting someone now, will draw a penelty. Its evolved into a sport where cheap shot artists are ALLOWED to thrive (i.e cooke, avery, gillies, bertuzzi).

Your correct in the sense that this new NHL is all european finesse along with the cheap shots that are going along with it.

Give me the "relic" of the past where "enforcers" patrolled the ice. Give me the days of the past when cheap shoters had to answer for it.

Give me 5 on 5 overtimes not a 1 on 1 shootout. Give me back my dynasties and not these one time wonders.

GIVE ME BACK OLD TIME HOCKEY. You can have your "European Finesse", me; i'll take my north american game.

Some points I agree with you on, some I don't. I'm all for the 5 on 5 overtimes and no shootouts, that's for sure. I don't think a game should come down to that. It's a side show, much like the stunts of Penguins and Islanders.

[roundhouse]

you need fighting to keep the game clean ...if you take fighting out it becomes NCAA hockey and thats the dirtiest hockey in the world ..everyone is a hero ,free to run around and do what they want.

You can have your Euro hockey ...watching the Wings is like watching paint dry ...funny for as good a team as they have ,sure looks like a lot of empty seats every night . when they were awful in the 80s but they had Probert and Kocur you couldnt get a ticket ..funny how that works..

have never seen anyone leave the building or boo when a fight happens. Again im not talking bench clearing ..but a good tilt is always a good thing ..you can call them staged or whatever ,end of the day its entertainment and the people that pay to get into the games more like than not.

But with all the goofy rules changes and the way hockey is going ,fighting will be gone at some point. The enforcer will be out of hockey in a few years ,because junior hockey isnt producing them anymore ..as the "Euro/wings" style of play is in full bloom in the junior ranks ...so no worries you will get your Euro fantasy ,sissy slapshot party hockey soon enough.

[duwal]

I'm not a fan of what's going on. It paints the sport we love in a bad light. The days of bench clearing brawls and enforcers are dead, and that's the way it should be. Detroit is a model franchise for this. Kenny Holland doesn't sign a guy he doesn't think can contribute on the ice. Detroit hasn't had an enforcer type player in years, and I'm glad, that's the way the game should be played, with class, none of this garbage. The Bruins tried pulling that crap with the Wings Friday night and what wound up happening? Detroit let Boston take the penalties and smoked them 6-1.

but Detroit was arguably at their best when they had a little snarl to them. If you don't have enforcers than you'd have to have someone like Johan Franzen Darren Helm or Tomas Holmstrom trying to defend those getting hit. What would they do if Matt Cooke sucker punched someone? Or Chris Neil boarded Rafalski? Cheap shot artists would have no fear of doing that. How different would the rivalry have been if Claude Lemieux checked Maltby and broke his jaw and none of the Red Wings went crazy looking for revenge? Enforcers and fighting are needed in the sport, its what ignites passion in the true fans

[wild4life]

but Detroit was arguably at their best when they had a little snarl to them. If you don't have enforcers than you'd have to have someone like Johan Franzen Darren Helm or Tomas Holmstrom trying to defend those getting hit. What would they do if Matt Cooke sucker punched someone? Or Chris Neil boarded Rafalski? Cheap shot artists would have no fear of doing that. How different would the rivalry have been if Claude Lemieux checked Maltby and broke his jaw and none of the Red Wings went crazy looking for revenge? Enforcers and fighting are needed in the sport, its what ignites passion in the true fans

Yup!

[howethegreat]

but Detroit was arguably at their best when they had a little snarl to them. If you don't have enforcers than you'd have to have someone like Johan Franzen Darren Helm or Tomas Holmstrom trying to defend those getting hit. What would they do if Matt Cooke sucker punched someone? Or Chris Neil boarded Rafalski? Cheap shot artists would have no fear of doing that. How different would the rivalry have been if Claude Lemieux checked Maltby and broke his jaw and none of the Red Wings went crazy looking for revenge? Enforcers and fighting are needed in the sport, its what ignites passion in the true fans

yeah back in 97, what fights have they had recently?