Fighting in Hockey, the Heated Debate Over It (Video)

Tuesday night in Erie Pennsylvania the hockey world collectively held their breath. Predicted future number one pick Connor McDavid left the game hold his hand in pain after a fight  with Mississauga Steelheads Bryson Cianfrone. The fight can be seen below. The fight begins about 30 seconds in and you can see McDavid hit his hand against the glass and that is presumed to be what hurt him.

McDavid broke his hand and is expected to be sidelined five to six weeks. With McDavids injury the good old “should there be fighting in hockey” debate starts. TSN’s Bob McKenzie had a reasonable response to the incident.

I have to agree with McKenzie here. Fighting has a place in hockey. It is the players way to police themselves on the ice, it is just hockey culture.

However, this isn’t saying all fighting is good, because there are some times when fighting is not the best idea. Probably the best example of bad fighting was the incident between Former Detroit Red Wing Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore.

While bad fighting happens doesn’t mean the league has to outlaw fighting. While fighting does hurt players, because getting punched in the head by a 200 pound defense men hurts, it does protect players.

Star players get the winning end of the fighting stick. Your best players chances of getting a cheap shot or a ridiculously big hit on them goes down when you have an enforcer who is willing to fight that players in response to going after the star player.

My hockey mentor and myself were taking about the fighting debate and he made a good point.

"“Back in the day if you hit Gretzky you had to pay by fighting Stu Grimson. Now you could take out his knee and end his career and miss two games.”"

The NHL won’t stop seeing big hits by just suspensions and fines. The league would have to start suspending guys for irrational amounts of time just to make players stop playing hockey the way they have been taught their entire life.

I’m curious as to what you guys have to say about fighting in the sport of hockey. Should it be outlawed? Will it be outlawed? Let me know