If they're to do anything to fighting in the NHL. I would like to see them not allow players to grab at each other. I think most of the incidents that involve a helmet-less player falling to the ice, involve players who are grabbing each other.
I think it could go a long way to also seperating the skill class in fighting. I think it would force them to fight a little more honestly.
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"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
I think it is fine the way it is. It's horrible what happened to that minor league player, but how often does someone die or get seriously hurt compared to how many fights happen each year in hockey, not just the NHL.
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Season 5 BRHL 1 Champion Season 1 BRHL Euro Champion Season 1 BRHL Juniors Champion
eric i think their would be alot more TKO's if their was no grabbing as players would just throw bombs and if one got KO'd while standing it a long hard fall to ice with ur hear out cold.. the number one defense in any hockey fight is when they lock arm's and hold each other off allowing themselves to read and feel when the other guy is throwing punches.. having them stand their and throw bare knuckle haymakers isnt a good idea imo..
under your idea the canadians would sign GSP to take laraque's job..
the ratios of serious injuries from fights to fights is quite low... so i don't think that they should be doing anything with the fighting, if they want to do something, I agree with steve and implement the rules from the OHL...
Haven't you noticed how common it is now for guys to just jump someone? As it is you will get pummelled by someone if you lay a big hit, even if it is a perfectly clean check. Taking out the instigator rule won't do much I don't think.
I think we can all agree that stickwork and stick related cheap shots have risen exponentially since the instigator rule was instituted.
Because players don't want to risk penalties by getting an instigator, the chicken ****ted antogonists like Jarkko Ruutu, Matt Cooke etc, can spear and whack away with no fear of anything being done to them. You take the instigator rule out and that gets pulled, and they will have no choice but to defend themselves, rather than have their tough guy do it.
Last year on Edmonton radio, Larauqe was talking about playing with Ruutu and having to fight the other teams tough guy simply because they couldn't grab Ruutu, he said something along the lines of (and Im paraphrasing), that it pissed him off because he always has to clean up Ruutu's ****, and he told him to knock it the f^&* off, or he was gonna take it out on him in practice.
I think the safety aspect of fighting is irrelevant, it's been this way for years, there have been minimal serious injuries, and think how many fights there are in hockey around the world. You go on a percentage base you're looking at 1 death every how many years? When was the last time someone died? Sure it sucks to see a guy like Klotz on the ice seizing, but is it any worse than a guy getting McSorley'ed in the head and being out before he hits the ground. (Hey another situation where the instigator would have prevented a brutal on ice incident).
Even the Bertuzzi incident, despite the (legally) clean hit Moore hammered Naslund with, with no instigator, he ends up fighting right then and there, and it largely is done with. Now granted he fought earlier in that Bertuzzi game, against the prior mentioned pansy Matt Cooke. And that SHOULD have been it, the problem is if you have a douchebag like Bertuzzi who has no respect for anything, it doesn't matter what rule you have in place, they will cross the line, just like Simon did repeatedly.
Taking out grabbing is taking out alot of what fighting is technical wise. You have guys throwing bombs at each other in every fight you will end up with alot more busted faces and more injuries that way. Sure there may be a sever one where a players head bounces against the ice, but if nothing but bombs are going and you knock a guy out, his head will bounce off the ice even worse as he drops.
