Hockey fans cool to fight ban

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Toronto Maple Leafs' Wade Belak (left) and New Jersey Devils' Cam Janssen fight during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Toronto last week. Commissioner Gary Bettman says fighting has a place in the NHL game.

Hockey fans cool to fight ban

Apr 04, 2007 07:20 PM

Alexander Panetta

canadian press

OTTAWA ? Many Canadian hockey fans might be just about angry enough to drop the gloves if the National Hockey League bans fighting, suggests a new poll.

The Decima survey found that a huge majority of people who call themselves avid fans ? a whopping 76 per cent ? oppose eliminating fights from NHL games.

Senior league officials have begun examining the possibility, but Decima's CEO says the idea is a non-starter among loyal fans.

"The issue of what to do about fighting in hockey is really not that controversial among hard-core fans of the game," said Bruce Anderson.

"The more you like and follow hockey, the more content you are with the way in which fighting is currently regulated."

Twenty-four per cent of Canadians are self-described avid hockey fans, 28 per cent say they're occasional fans, and 47 per cent express no interest in the game, Decima said.

Barely one-fifth of avid fans ? 22 per cent ? said they would support a total ban on fighting.

Those who follow the game occasionally are split more evenly, with 43 per cent saying they would support a ban and 52 per cent saying they would oppose it.

Only respondents who said they don't follow hockey expressed support for a ban, by a margin of 52 per cent to 30.

Anderson warned that the NHL shouldn't conclude from the numbers that eliminating fighting is the solution to expanding the league's fan base.

He said the numbers offer no such evidence ? it's simply possible that people unfamiliar with the game are not even aware that rules to limit fighting and completely prohibit bench-clearing brawls already exist.

"The NHL needs to look at these numbers and understand the difference between fan opinion and public opinion," Anderson said.

"Fan opinion is decidedly of the view that current regulations are working well enough. . . And even though it's easy to find outrage over certain incidents from time to time, even public opinion is divided among those people who don't pay much attention to the game."

The poll was conducted last week, just after NHL vice president Colin Campbell said he was willing to discuss a ban on fisticuffs.

"No one is saying we should get rid of fighting," Campbell told Hockey Night in Canada. "I'm just saying we should ask the question, because before everyone was afraid to ask the question.

"We have a competition committee that will discuss this, and at the end of the day they will make a recommendation to the board of governors."

The poll also found that:

? Supporters of the Conservative party were nine percentage points more likely to support fighting than Liberals.

? Francophones were eight per cent more supportive of a fighting ban than anglophones.

? Younger people (aged 18 to 24) say they enjoy fighting 15 percentage points more than people aged over 55.

? Men are 15 per cent more likely than women to oppose a ban.

? Alberta is the province most opposed to a ban.

The Decima poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between March 30 and April 2, and has a 3.1 per cent margin of error.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/199587

[rajputwarrior]

the problem is the instigator rule, it lets pussies go after people smaller then them and when i guy comes in to protect him, he gets kicked out of the game... how does that make sense?

[Aleck79]

fighting is the only part of hockey I watch...although usually on YouTube ;)

[El Flaco]

Where's the: "I'm not a hockey fan and I don't care" :p

[R-Flex]

Eliminate fighting, and they eliminate their fans.

[ambiance]

Supporters of the Conservative party were nine percentage points more likely to support fighting than Liberals.

Glad to see conservatives still have their balls intact and they should make a commercial out of that. :p

Francophones were eight per cent more supportive of a fighting ban than anglophones.

I won't even touch this one.

Younger people (aged 18 to 24) say they enjoy fighting 15 percentage points more than people aged over 55.

Self explanatory.

Men are 15 per cent more likely than women to oppose a ban.

Testosterone FTW.

Alberta is the province most opposed to a ban.

You wanna fight about it?

Quotes aside, I'm a hardcore fan and think the instigator should be removed to keep players in check. There have been too many headshots, too many pseudo-fighters who wear face masks, and I have spent too much money on therapy from being a leafs fan.

[emmx]

I love hockey, but the fighting is stupid to me. The only reason fighting is seen as 'part' of hockey is because it's always been allowed. I like hockey for the game, the exciting plays, the goals, risky successfull passes, fancy plays. The fighting takes away from THOSE parts of the real game. Whatever happened to sportsmanship?

[MR_Candyman]

I agee with Mehelcich. I do however not have a problem with fighting. What I DO have a problem with is how the last however many years they have allowed teams to hire players just so they can hit and fight. Slamming somebody as hard as you can into the boards has never been very sportsman-like to me, and cheapens the game a lot.

[SacrificialSoldier]

I'm not a hockey fan but it should be banned

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I agee with Mehelcich. I do however not have a problem with fighting. What I DO have a problem with is how the last however many years they have allowed teams to hire players just so they can hit and fight. Slamming somebody as hard as you can into the boards has never been very sportsman-like to me, and cheapens the game a lot.

The "energy" guys do that because a team wants to have some toughness and they can't just put them on the ice to start a fight with the other team's tough guy without drawing an instigator penalty. So instead, the go around and bang into other players hoping that it leads to hostilities.

[bayrider]

Hockey is so fast paced, intense and physical, people are bound to get injured due to the finesse and nature of the game being that hitting is legal.

Fighting IMO is a check-balance situation. It prevents players being "cheap" with cross checks, slashes, high sticks, hooks, elbows, hitting from behind, knees and anything else considered a "cheap shot" which causes injury to another player. Remove fighting from the game, you eliminate that balance which is to an extent a balancing measure to protect from such cheap moves.

If the only thing players have to worry about is a 2min penalty, maybe a 2-3 game suspension for taking out the oppositions best player from the game or for an entire season, you're going to see a ton of cheap shots. Your superstars aren't going to play to their potential, and the game will be a boring. Throw in an enforcer out on the ice, and see which player dares injuring another player. Even brett Hull, one of the game's greatest players said that enforcers allow stars to be stars and play the game without worry.

And anyways, the people fighting in hockey are strictly considered fighters and energy men. Their role is to fight and protect players. It's not like you're seeing Teemu Selanne drop the gloves with Brashear. It's the fighters fighting each other. They want to fight, it's their job. It's like telling boxers they shouldnt fight!

[Neztea]

Meh, Fights are part of the game. They should at Least keep the fight regulated and make sure it doesn't escalate, In which they do a pretty go job at it (the refs). But yeah, I guess one could say its a part of the history of the game of hockey.

Neztea

[Fred Derf Veteran]

The Neowin poll ended up pretty much like the survey. Non-fans are the ones that typically want to see fighting banned.

[CoLdFuSi0n]

I hope they don't ban fighting, it would take away from the game a lot. Like really you get some games that are so boreing and wish you never saw it and then a fight breaks out and the whole arena fires up and adds excitment to the game.

[ahhell]

Stop screwing with HOCKEY!

If you get rid of fighting, the game is going to get dirty as hell. Players are going to be sticking each other like crazy.

What's next? Are they going to add a red comet trail to the puck? Oh wait....

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I believe it was blue.

[CoLdFuSi0n]

yea it was blue, and it was shown on Fox.

[User6060]

Countless times has a fight lead directly to a goal, it motivates the team and brings them together to rally for the effort. Keep it, hockey is marketable in the US because of it.

[semifamous]

You know what would be cool?

If they "allowed fighting" in basketball when someone blatantly fouls you hard or "allowed fighting" in baseball when the pitcher hits a batter or "allowed fighting" in everything else.

No, wait. That's a dumb idea. To "allow fighting" in *any* case is stupid. Including hockey.

[AJerman]

Fighting will not be banned. Bettman doesn't want it to be banned, he simply wanted to look at safety issues. You're much more likely to get injured on a hit during play than you are in a fight. Of course there will be the occasional knock out hit like the Orr and Fedoruk fight, however that's the rare exception. If fighting were removed, chance for injury would go up even more because players would start hitting each other harder and more questionably to take out their anger rather than a simple fight that they use to get it out of their system. Fighting also does, as mentioned by others, provide momentum for teams that are slumping, and thus it's an important part of the game.

And of course they couldn't allow fighting in basketball or baseball. Those are the two sports with the biggest pansies of them all. Can you imagine basketball with regular fights? One guy would get hit and he'd act like he's dying just to get the foul. Drama queens is all basketball players are. And baseball? You wouldn't want them to get their heart rate up too high. They might actually burn some calories if there was fighting in baseball. I firmly rate those two sports as number one and two, in no particular order, of the worst sports ever.

[bayrider]

I don't even see what the big deal is... the players that fight are fighters to begin with. It's not like you see fights between 2 players where one is a legitimate fighter and the other isn't. When 2 players go at it, it's mutual, they know what they're doing and they want to do it. The enforcers of the NHL fight, it's what their job is.

[snyper]

too many options in the poll.

A yes or no answer might be more usefull.

I personally think it serves no purpose in the game and is a little stupid really, BUT i like to see a big canadian with no teeth repeatedly punch the head off some american kid :p :laugh:

[R-Flex]

BUT i like to see a big canadian with no teeth repeatedly punch the head off some american kid :p :laugh:

We call that "Hockey Night in Canada". :D

[snyper]

We call that "Hockey Night in Canada"

pull up a chair in front of the tv..beer and popcorn :laugh:

[Razorwing]

BELAK! BELAK!