Quote:
Originally Posted by highthief
With respect, that's silly. Don Cherry talk. When rules are enforced consistently and with significant punishments, you won't have issues of "chickenshit" play.
Rugby is a great example - it's a passionate game, played with extreme physicality and far less protection from pads. But fighting results in ejection form the game, and the retaliation incidents will also get you kicked out or you will receive a lengthy penalty (like 10 minutes). Even back talking the ref will get you sin binned.
When a team loses 4 or 5 games in a row because they have players who can't control themselves and who get ejected or who get 10 minute penalties, those players won't be put on the ice by their coaches until they get the message.
The NHL has been a bunch of pussies about limiting fighting - they figure the only reason Yanks watch is for a fight or two. Market share won't drop even a percentage point in Canada if they eliminated or severely curtailed fighting.
|
It's the same way in Jr.A or Jr. B when I used to play, you get tossed if you fight, all that resulted in was people waiting to the third period to fight. Then they brought in the rule if you fight in the last ten minutes you get a game suspension, all that resulted in was people clock watching and getting their fights in before the 10 minute mark.
Yes rugby is played with physicality, I played that back in high school, but the main difference is you don't have chuckleheads running around with sticks, that can be used to slash, spear, butt-end, cross-check your opponent. Talking back to the ref gets you penalties in hockey too, I sat for many a 10 minute misconduct over my career for telling the ref what I thought of the job he was doing.
How are you supposed to limit fighting though? They tried the instigator rule, that went nowhere I remember years ago CBC tried to turn the camera away from the fight so people at home wouldn't have to see it, that lasted all of a couple of broadcasts.
What's a significant punishment though? Tossed from the game? Suspensions? Fines? Criminal charges?
I beg to differ on the market share not dropping, if they keep screwing around and trying to change hockey they're going to break it sooner or later, and the fans won't watch it anymore. But we'll never know if the market share would drop unless they banned it.
I just find they're changing the game so much from the game I used to play it's getting boring, you can't even look at a player sideways nowadays without getting a penalty, calling more penalties isn't the answer.
We had Jarko Ruttu bite Andrew Peters a few weeks ago in a fight, and what did he get? 2 games, that's all, for biting someone, they should look at stopping stuff like that from happening, or the high hits that seem to be so popular these days, everyone wants to jump when they hit.