Fighting to be banned in hockey??

Concussion panel: fighting should be eliminated from hockey
The Canadian Press

LONDON, Ont. - Fighting should be eliminated from hockey at all levels of the game, according to recommendations released Tuesday from an expert panel dealing with concussions in hockey.

"Fighting is one of the known causes of concussion, and may result in the related long-term complications," the panel's summary statement says. "Fighting can cause needless death."

The recommendations, resulting from meetings at the London Hockey Concussion Summit on Jan. 17-18, also calls from an elimination of high hits/head hits.

"Those are significant ones," Summit chair Dr. Paul Echlin said. "The reduction of hits from behind has had a major effect on the incidence of broken necks in hockey and similarly, the reduction of high/head hits should reduce the incidence of concussions."

Panellists on The Concussion Summit included four former players, three of whom were knocked out of the National Hockey League as the result of concussions - Eric Lindros, Jeff Beukeboom and Alyn McCauley - along with Canadian national women's team player Jennifer Botterill, who was sidelined for a protracted period with concussion.

Echlin stresses, however, that there was no consensus on all the recommendations.

"The recommendations in this statement are designed to serve as a framework for future discussion, and to promote significant change concerning the prevention, recognition, and management of concussions in hockey," the statement says.

Echlin and co-chair Dr. Charles Tator, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, put their recommendations together via e-mail with the participants after poring over the minutes of the day-after meeting.

The recommendations will go to the media, various hockey groups and medical associations.

Along with the rules recommendations, the panel advised a concussion certification program in which trainers, coaches and officials would gain knowledge aimed at recognizing and treating concussion.

Those teams that have pre-season physicals with medical professionals, Echlin said, have added benefits. Few young players ever see a doctor and physicals sometimes indicate problems other than neurological, such as cardiac-related.

Other recommendations in today's release are the adoption of an NHL/Ontario Hockey League role model program, studies leading to a data collection system, pre-season screening and a survey of protective equipment.

Echlin and Tator said were gratified by the turnout of 380 hockey people Jan. 17 and felt a step closer to their goal -- a unified body that involves all levels of hockey and could expand into other sports.

Football Canada was a non-hockey participant in the recommendations along with the NHL, NHL Players' Association, the OHL, Ontario Hockey Association, Ontario Hockey Federation along with a number of medical and therapeutic bodies.

Echlin said the prospective name for a central agency dealing with concussion is Hockey Concussion Initiative, which would first involve hockey and ultimately serve as a model for all sports in which head injuries occur such as football, soccer, rugby, skiing, skateboarding and cycling.

"Sometimes, events like the Concussion Summit are held and everyone departs until another one is held," Echlin said in an interview. "Our goal is to move forward from this and work to find solutions to a growing problem".

Echlin has hands-on experience with concussion this season.

Six of 23 players on the junior development team he works with have suffered concussion, one requiring disqualification for the remainder of the season.

I'm Pro fighting in hockey!! I know many injuries can happen in a hockey fight but this has been part of the game for 100 years!! I just think u will lose alot of the fan base in the NHL if they ban fighting. It will take the emotion out of the game and make it less entertaining and that's something the NHL doesn't need. If they want to make some rules such as keeping helmets on that's one thing but to ban it outright would not be right.

You ban fighting in hockey and the next thing you know people will be cheap-shotting others left and right. Fighting is part of hockey, and it lets guys let off steam. If you don't have that people will get hurt a lot more.

Moe wrote:

You ban fighting in hockey and the next thing you know people will be cheap-shotting others left and right. Fighting is part of hockey, and it lets guys let off steam. If you don't have that people will get hurt a lot more.

Yeah exactly, if you get rid of fighting in hockey you might as well say goodbye to at least 40% of the fanbase. No offense but yeah one guy did end up dying because of falling to the ice without his helmet on. Just enforce the rules about helmets getting knocked off in my opinion.

I actually think that if you were to ban fighting from hockey it would allow players to really demonstrate their skill a lot more with the puck. It will allow for more finesse to be added to the game. The players that really can't play but are good at putting on a show by fighting will then have less spots on teams and will therefore make room for the talented players. Yes, some fans won't like it, but it will add to the game by allowing others players to play the game and show skill. There is already aggressive play to the game with checking, fights aren't really a necessary component.

Here's the thing. You can't just ban fighting in hockey, and even if you wanted to, you couldn't just do it just like that. I think the commissioner in the AHL took a good step in enforcing a rule about helmets required during a fight. See that will prevent injuries in one way, but it will result in more people hurting their hand and injuring themselves in that way in that you're hitting a helmet instead of someone's head. But it will also eliminate more concussions, etc. etc. THAT would be a much better measure of action instead of just ridding of it altogether.

Just say theoretically we did just get rid of fighting, what would happen? We would have more slashing, holding, hooking and more angry people on the ice eventually using their stick at someone's head in anger (SEE: Chris Simon). I just don't think completely taking it out of the game is possible, but that's just me.

redwings12 wrote:

Here's the thing. You can't just ban fighting in hockey, and even if you wanted to, you couldn't just do it just like that. I think the commissioner in the AHL took a good step in enforcing a rule about helmets required during a fight. See that will prevent injuries in one way, but it will result in more people hurting their hand and injuring themselves in that way in that you're hitting a helmet instead of someone's head. But it will also eliminate more concussions, etc. etc. THAT would be a much better measure of action instead of just ridding of it altogether.

Just say theoretically we did just get rid of fighting, what would happen? We would have more slashing, holding, hooking and more angry people on the ice eventually using their stick at someone's head in anger (SEE: Chris Simon). I just don't think completely taking it out of the game is possible, but that's just me.

I totally agree. This is not a sport for the faint of heart!! This a sport with a ton of aggression because of such physical contact. You take out fighting you might as well have figure skating out there

I don't know why you would want to ban fighting from hockey... Hockey is a physical game, and with that comes emotion... Sometimes emotions become to great and boil over, and that is where fighting comes in. Fighting has also been in our game since the day it began. It's part of our games history, and I don't understand why you'd want to change that because that's what it's fans have come to love. I mean I can't remember when there wasn't a good fight in hockey that my friends wouldn't be saying to me, "Whoa, did you see that scrap last night?? It was a good one!"
Yes I understand that a guy has died because his helmet came off, and I'm really sorry to hear that. But, why don't we just reinforce rules that if a helmet comes off the fight has to be stopped. If you remove your helmet during a fight, the fight will be stopped or you may even get an extra two minutes in penalties for it. And also for the guys that fight out there with visors on they would even get an extra two minutes for instigating a fight with a visor on or something like that.
If fighting were banned from the game I think you would see an increase in stick infraction penalties and more injuries due to these infractions. You may even see an increase in players running other players because they have no other way of showing their emotion. They may also be trying to eliminate head shots but that does not mean that you couldn't run over another player. I mean look at the Bure hit against Dallas in the playoffs a few years back.

It's looking like everybody except one doesn't want fighting to be out of the game of hockey so far. There is more respect amongst players in the NHL for fighting in my opinion than in the Minor leagues so I can't see any rules changes go further than the Minors.

First and foremost, F U Cheeseburger, SAM CRENSHAW IS MIIIIIIINE!! Which reminds me, we should've TOTALLY named Trixie "Penelope"!!
Anyways, on to the fight debate...
No one will ever accomplish taking fighting out of hockey. You have 12 strong, temperamental, full grown men who have millions of dollars on the line to do a good job; you get just ONE guy who isn't all about his skills (b/c, let's face it, how some of these guys made it to the NHL is beyond comprehension) and BAM, tempers explode and the gloves come off.
Perhaps if hockey was BRAND NEW you could rule out fighting; but it ISN'T. Yes, you can argue that there's also big, strong men in basketball and fighting isn't even an issue; BUT fighting wasn't an integral part of the game for that sport like it has been with hockey SINCE ITS INCEPTION. You'd be pretty hard pressed to look around at the crowd of spectators and find anyone frowning in disgust or averting their eyes when a fight breaks out on the ice; you're going to see people out of their seats, pumping their fists and cheering them on.
I seriously don't see what the big deal is; no SH!T it's a perilous sport; but they know the hazards so that is where fighting should be; at a level of competition where the men are fully able to comprehend the risks. You slide your paws into a pair of hockey gloves and you damn well better know that right there means you're accepting such risks. I'm sure they're well aware they can die on that ice WITHOUT EVER getting into a fight, as well. Plus some of the guys are dirty bastards and could partake in different ways to inflict pain on a fellow player in a manner which would be undetectable to the on ice refs or even the viewing public. Regardless, the men will find a way to release their aggression, they may as well do it in a supervised, on ice fight.
Everyone here, including myself, didn't watch hockey in the 50's, 60's, 70's, when it was REALLY violent and few wore any protective gear (helmets, mainly). Does anyone even bother to think: "Hmmmm...they're wearing KNIVES on the bottom of their feet and swinging massive pieces of wood around...better stop them from punching one another!"
How about those people wanting to ban it go bang on boxing's, martial art's and UFC's doors and leave hockey alone. People ENJOY that aspect of the game, a Hell of a lot more than those who don't. People aren't going to be paying the exorbitant ticket prices to watch a bunch of guys show off their skills with little to no emotion; take out fighting and you may as well take out hitting, skating too fast, using big sticks, and playing on a VERY hard surface...golf, anyone

Ok well the next forum i'm gonna start is adele's ranting hahaha. Anyways good job and some great points. The problem is that the media gets everything out of control. One person gets killed (which is obviously horrible don't get me wrong) and they expect every league has to ban fighting all together. Well hockey has been around for a long time and unless i'm wrong (which I normally am often as lisa tells me) not too many people have died from fighting. I think that may be the first time. If this happens again then I would understand if the league did do something about it, but I doubt it. But come on like it's like saying that if somebody got in an car crash and died you better stop driving. Well maybe not the best example but you know where I'm going with it. I think it's craziness.