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Future of fighting in NHL still unclear

March 12, 2009 05:19 PM | Posted by   Scott Morrison  

Having had a day or two to digest what the NHL general managers are proposing, regarding fighting in the NHL, I’m still not really sure what to make of it.

In many ways, I don't think much has or will change if the suggestions are adopted.

Think about it. So you hand out a 10-minute misconduct for a "staged" fight. Okay, but how do you seriously determine what a staged fight is?

Now, everyone says a staged fight is when two players line up at a faceoff, the puck drops and so do the gloves. Apparently, roughly 22 per cent of all fights this season have started that way.

That, by NHL definition, is a staged fight. But like a lot of players have said, it does not take into account what might have happened earlier in the game, or even in a previous game, to bring on the fight. There is suddenly just this broad determination that if players fight at a faceoff circle it is staged and has no real place in the game.

Suddenly, all the logic that applies to why fights should exist in the first place is forgotten. Doesn't make sense to me.

And how long do you think it will take before the two fighters figure out they should simply skate for a few seconds and perhaps jostle before dropping the gloves? So we're not really certain how much is accomplished there.

Now, I’m not a fan of players starting fights after a clean hit. That apparently accounts for 24 per cent of the fights in the NHL. But all the GMs have really done is suggest the referees use the rule book the way it was designed, meaning, issuing an instigator penalty. That's the way it should have been called all along.

So it doesn't feel like a lot is going to change, which is fine, because a lot doesn't have to change.

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