Because of his growing role, Wilson cannot simply drop the gloves against anyone just because they ask. If you get a five-minute major, you could be in the box for 10 minutes because you have to wait for a whistle.
It can be a huge chunk of time so you've got to be really smart about it. In , the NHL adjusted its rule on instigating a fight to make the punishment a game misconduct. In , the league further changed the rule giving an instigator a two-minute minor, five-minute major and a minute misconduct penalty. But saying no to a fight is not without its risks.
Refusing a fight when a player wants to stand up for a teammate or spark his team has its consequences. Wilson said there have been players who told him after he refused a fight that they would continue targeting his teammates with big hits until he agreed.
He then has to determine how much he will allow before he ultimately acquiesces. There's guys that take that approach. Even with the instigator penalty, you also still risk getting hit if you refuse a fight.
It can be difficult to understand at first why there are so many rules the players hold themselves to when it comes to fighting. In any other sport, there are no such understandings. Tensions rise, punches get thrown and an argument devolves into a fight and further into a brawl. When things get heated to a point in which emotions take over, things get very ugly very quickly. But fighting in hockey is different because the underlying foundation in which all these unwritten rules are based on is respect.
It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. And having coached junior, it's not a part of that culture anymore, with all the rules in place. Barnaby is correct that there's a confluence of factors at play. The NHL has changed dramatically since the lockout, as rule changes pushed the game into an offensive era with an emphasis on skill and skating, pushing out less skilled and perhaps more fight-inclined players.
Managers are seeing the value of having an effective bottom six. So as managers attempt to populate the deeper parts of their rosters with players who can contribute in meaningful ways, they are probably acquiring players who may not have that [fighting] element in their skill set.
Meanwhile, lower leagues have instituted rules to discourage fighting. The Ontario Hockey League famously followed its "fight rule" -- in which a player could be suspended for fights above that threshold -- by dropping that bar to three fights, with incremental increases on the suspensions.
An unexpected byproduct of the rule was a significant decrease in the overall fighting in our league," OHL vice president Ted Baker said at the time. All of this is happening in an era of unprecedented awareness of player safety and health concerns, specifically when it comes to concussions, CTE and the effects of a physical and injurious game on a player's life well after retirement.
Although there have been skeptics about fighting's link to the concussion epidemic -- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in a letter to the Committee on Energy and Commerce that "only two percent of video-analyzed concussions resulted from fighting" in the previous season -- Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation sees the downward trend as being tied to that awareness.
Nostalgia can be quite the enchantment, and Barnaby said the fist-filled days of yore still have their appeal. Some fans are always going to miss the way it was, but I'll take watching unreal skill over the fights.
I don't see this trend reversing, and it's a good thing that young men don't have to play hockey with a pre-requirement being that you may have to bare-knuckle box," he said. Even in its diminished state, a ban on fighting is something for which many continue to advocate. In concert with that entertainment value, Grimson believes there is a place for fighting in the modern game from a tactical perspective.
From the players on the bench to the coach to the thousands in the stands And no longer are you watching a match where one team is dominating.
You usually end up with a closer, more exciting spectacle. And the two -- fast, skilled hockey and physical hockey -- are not mutually exclusive. Yet in today's NHL, we're seeing one increase -- for only the second time since , teams averaged more than 3. Some believe that fighting will eventually phase its way out of the game naturally, while others believe that it will always have a place in the sport.
The game, for better or worse, was built on toughness and intimidation and fighting played a large role in that. Some hockey viewers who are new to the sport and have some from WWE might be under the impression that hockey fights are somehow staged.
The truth is that all hockey fights are real but there is a hidden code that almost all payers abide by. From dropping gloves pre-fight to fighting rival players with a similair weight. I wrote about this and much more in my article: Are Hockey Fights Real? The NHL Code. We may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.
This is why fighting is allowed in pro hockey.
0コメント