The move away from fighting has happened somewhat organically as the game has evolved. It’s two guys dropping their gloves and trying to punch each other, with the added wrinkle that they happen to be skating on ice at the same time. It’s human nature, isn’t it? It takes a somewhat sustained investment of time, or perhaps a history of growing up with hockey, to wrap your head around shift patterns and to get used to the frenetic pace.Įveryone can understand a fight. When it does get firmly on the radar, it’s often because of, you guessed it – fights. The reality is that in present day, hockey sometimes finds it hard to compete in the national storyline stakes with the NBA, Major League Baseball and the National Football League, even when football is still months away from its seasonal return. Oshie scoring a game-sealing hat-trick in his first game after his beloved father Tim passed away. One of the sad things about Wednesday’s furor is that it overshadowed the heartwarming tale of Capitals winger T.J.
NHL 17 FIGHTING SERIES
If not for the Wednesday fights, which followed on from a wild series of events centered around Wilson when the teams met on Monday night, this column probably wouldn’t be talking about hockey today. It is time here for an admission, made with more than a slight tinge of guilt. Back in 2008-09, 41% of NHL games featured at least one brawl, meaning there was a good chance of seeing two teams scrap any time you tuned in. The glut of brawls is the kind of thing that is now a serious rarity in the NHL, where fighting has been toned down drastically in recent years, as the electrifying speed and skill of the sport has meant the "goons" – players employed primarily for their physicality and willingness to mix it up – have become squeezed out.Īccording to, a website that tracks such things statistically and with videos of every NHL brawl where fans are encouraged to vote on who won the scrap, the regularity of fights has dropped to 0.19 per game.Ī fight is designated where at least one player earned a major "fighting" penalty. "I felt it should’ve been handled before this game and it wasn’t, so unfortunately it had to be on my shoulders." "I had no beef with anybody else on their team," Smith told reporters. Smith openly admitted his actions were intended as retribution. The moment Wilson entered the fray, 49 seconds in, Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith went right at him, and the pair traded blows. Before the first five minutes of the opening period were done, the matchup at Madison Square Garden had become like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, with multiple punches thrown and a whopping 72 minutes of penalty box time meted out, a number that would later grow to 141.
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