Fighting in Hockey: Necessary or Harmful?
For decades, fighting in hockey has been instrumental to the identity, history and high energy that brings professional hockey fans to their feet. Supported by the players, coaches, and average fan, fighting has brought a unique dynamic to hockey that is unseen in any other sport in the world. However, fighting in hockey is one of the most debated themes in all sports. Although entertaining, some argue that the dangerous elements of fighting outweigh the benefits that it may bring to the players out on the ice or the fans sitting in the stands. Already banned in most minor hockey levels, some are advocating for fighting to be eliminated from Major Junior Hockey and professional leagues like the National
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In retrospect, a majority of players, former players, and hockey legends like Bobby Orr continue to support fighting as they believe it is essential to the security of the game. Since many players and fans seem to support the intensity and energy fighting brings to the game, shouldn’t fighting remain a part of hockey and its identity? Or do the possible long-term health issues and violence fighting may advocate do more harm than good? In any case, it could be argued that other contact sports like boxing, mixed martial arts, or football present similar risks compared to fighting in hockey. So why is fighting in hockey receiving as much criticism as it is? It is hard to argue hockey would be less violent or dangerous without fighting. In a contact sport that already consists of body checking, possibilities of getting a puck or stick to the face, and dirty play like slashing or blindside hitting, the removal of fighting would not decrease the risk associated in hockey. The abolishment of fighting in hockey would only remove the excitement, history, and …show more content…
With or without fighting, hockey is undoubtedly one of the most violent sports in the world. Even so, other contact sports like boxing, mixed martial arts, or football arguably create a comparable or higher danger in comparison to that of fighting in hockey. Let’s take football for example, a sport that is heavily criticized for the number of concussions and long-term brain injuries suffered. Ann McKee, a Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy researcher at Boston University believes that playing football “would not be worth the risk”, after Boston University researchers discovered that 92 of 96 brains studied of former NFL players contained some form of CTE (Perez, 2017). Additionally, Mixed martial arts and boxing are even receiving criticism after former Canadian UFC fighter Tim Hague died in a hospital shortly after being knocked out in a boxing match in June 2017 (Fox News, 2017). So what is the difference between fighting in hockey and the violence demonstrated in football or mixed martial arts? Nothing. Unfortunately, all contact sports present a risk to a person’s health and security. Players that decide to participate are taking on that risk voluntarily and if people want to simply eliminate fighting in hockey, then they must also eliminate the contact and other dangerous elements of hockey or any contact sport in general. This is realistically
As stated in my thesis statement, the sport of hockey has been forced to compete with the growing mass popularity with other sports such as basketball and football. There once was a point in time where hockey had just as much popularity as those sports but because people are finding more interest in those sports, the National Hockey League found itself in a “drought” of unimportance with other sports. With not televising the sport as “commonly” as other sports.
First, in the USA Hockey league, which is the non-professional, non-collegiate, levels, the “golden” rules of hockey have been passed down from the very beginning, as well as in the NHL. For example, one golden rule is that the game is played with a black puck made from vulcanized rubber, and you have two goals, which is a golden rule that is passed down to every hockey game everywhere. Another golden rule that is the same for both leagues is that there is always going to be body contact. Without body contact in the game of hockey, it would be like playing tennis. Golden rules, more so, common sense rules/ethics have been passed down from the very beginning of hockey in 1875. Now, though, USA Hockey and the NHL have differing rules from each other. For example, in icing situations, or where an attacking...
Hockey is the game played with the curved stick and it is found in every culture. It has been a part of the Canadian and North American culture for over a hundred years. Hockey has developed from the original six to thirty teams, and many leagues. One thing that is prominent in hockey is the hit on the opposing player when he has the puck. Checking can be defined as using physical force to either gain possession of the puck or to disrupt the opposition’s play without breaking the rules. Checking has been a part of hockey since the beginning. Recently, there has been much controversy over whether or not checking in hockey should be banned. In the year 2005 and 2006 there were many rules and regulations added to checking that were not penalized before. Checking has made the hockey game more interesting game and also has given the opportunity to players to play more with minimal stoppage. I believe that checking should not be banned because medical science has gotten the ability to heal all injuries that occur in sports, players know in advance that there is high risk in the activity, and it allows a fan to sublimate his aggressive tendency.
The toleration of fighting during official hockey games in the National Hockey League has the power of changing the future of hockey as it is known and is, especially to minor-leaguers, which consists of children aged nine to fifteen, a great danger. The dangers, which are likely to result into injuries might potentially affect their physical and mental development. … The aspect of fighting in the men’s game of hockey is strictly regulated and allows two players to be involved in a single fight, although several fights may take place at the same time. All fights must be conducted under mutual approval of both hockey players. According to the official NHL webpage, fights are considered to have occurred only when at least one player, including the goalkeeper, punches...
When I think of what it means to be Canadian, one of the first things that come to mind is hockey. This is true for many Canadian’s as hockey was and is an integral piece of the formation of the national identity. However, when people think of playing hockey their attention usually turns to the men in the National Hockey League or other top men’s leagues and tournaments. Even so, Canada has come a long way from its beginnings, when women were not even considered persons under the law until 1929. While it has taken many decades for women to receive more recognition in the world of sport, today shows great improvements from the past. A key reason that women are not treated the same way as men in regards to hockey is due to how the game began;
face. Playing contact hockey can result in bruises, broken bones and concussions, which makes it
Would you rather have a couple of guys who have beef with each other dropping the gloves to settle their differences or a couple of guys trying to get the best cheap shot on their opponent? Fighting is a much less dangerous and bloody way to settle things. People still take cheap shots, hitting each other in the face with their hockey stick, but that type play would be seen way more often if fighting were taken out of the game. Emotional guys with short fuses would lead to more cheap shots. Fighting is a way for players to police each other. If somebody takes a shot at one of your teammates and it looks to be even the littlest bit of dirty, you’ll see that offending player on that team to get some revenge. Players can handle suspensions and fines but if they know that a player is going to knock their teeth out, then they might think twice about taking those cheap shots. Hockey will never become mainstream. It’s unique to a sport to allow this kind of fighting to happen. Sports don’t allow fighting. Without fighting in hockey would be a mainstream sport, it wouldn’t be hockey.
Millions of people are registered throughout North America for participation in Canada’s national sport and pastime, ice hockey. Most young hockey players have the dream of making it to the National Hockey League (NHL). Because of this incentive to keep striving towards their ultimate goal in their hockey career, they idolize the players in the NHL. Therefore, youth players may obtain certain habits from the elite, whether those habits are good or bad. Some cases are of bad influences, such as young players obtaining the dirty playing habits of the professionals. The primary action that influences the youthful population is body checking. With the thought of losing a game, it is no wonder why players have the urge to play rough and potentially hurt the opposing team in order to be victorious. For that reason, hockey is a strong collision sport that requires great skill and motivation. Although body checking is believed to be a useful tool in the winning of hockey games, it can be the cause that leads to injury among players. Because of the rougher play, lasting brain injuries are becoming a worry and too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of the head injury. According to Michael Cusimano July 22, 2003 the article entitled “Body Checking and Concussions” states, “With the rising incidence of traumatic brain injury in hockey, too many players are exposed to the lasting effects of such injuries, some of which are not fully realized until the brain completes its maturation.” For this reason, new equipment and regulations need to be devised for use in the near future.
Men also had greater magnitudes of contact compared to their female counterparts. Unfortunately most injuries in ice hockey are from blunt force or direct contact. Concussions are the most common injury in men’s and women’s collegiate hockey. Interestingly enough is that women’s hockey showed a higher rate of concussions than men’s hockey. The study pointed out various options for head-impact mechanisms in ice hockey. The playing area is solid ice and the boards surrounding the area consist of rigid boards. Pucks, when shot, can go over the speed of 80mph. Players can possibly exceed speeds of 30mph. Lastly, because ice hockey is a full contact sport, players are purposefully trying to collide with one another. All of these issues are reasonable mechanisms of head-injuries. This article also references another article which classifies concussion mechanisms in ice hockey into seven categories. These seven categories are: contact with another player, contact with the ice, contact with the boards or glass, contact with a stick, contact with the puck, contact with the goal, and no apparent contact. In this article's study about half of recorded
Youth Hockey Growth in the United States is the main focus of this research. The sport of hockey has been around for nearly 200 years. The game was produced from a form of stick and ball games started by immigrants. These immigrants were British soldiers who brought their type of hockey to Canada. Paintings from the 1830’s depict the sport of ice-hockey taking off in Canada.(Garth, Vaughan) As the sport grew so did the age groups in which it was played. Many sports start their growth from the elders down to the youth. The same can be said for ice-hockey. Many gentlemen started to play the sport as a way to pass the time. This is when the children began to take a liking to the sport. Fathers began to teach their children the fundamentals and from there, the rest is history.
Hockey is a very quick game. Probably the fastest game out there. The speed really helps with entertainment. Watching the players go back and forth, scoring chances everywhere. The watchers blood pumping quick and hardly any stoppages in the game. It is they only sport that actually allows fighting to occur. This entertains and gives pride to the fans when their teams player wins. As said before, any quality of other sports can be found in Hockey, In this case it was Boxing.
Some of these factors include high costs and time commitment of hockey participation, increasing violence issues in hockey and diversity. Although other factors, may be negatively impacting the view of hockey to some, the information from Forum 1 outline how hockey is crucial to the Canadian identity. NHL hockey teams and professional players influence youth hockey players and Canadians by uniting people, and allowing young hockey players the opportunity to see their individual potentials. If hockey in Canada wishes to continue it’s growth, these challenges will have to be addressed as hockey is becoming more expensive to participate in. As a result the sport is becoming less assessable to lower income families, which could be negatively influencing participation rates as other alternatives aside from hockey are being chosen for youth. The sport can be seen as violent, which also may be straying participation to other “perceived safer” sports. There is also racism that is demonstrated in hockey, which occurs in most sports. Canada will have to create plans to reduce the racism in hockey to ensure equal treatment to all
March 8th, 2004 was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive and action packed regular season hockey game between feuding rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks. The game slipped away from the Canucks, with the Avalanche up 6-2 heading into the third period. The heated contested already had its fair share of fighting majors, but an incident that happened late in the third period shocked the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at Rogers Arena, the hockey community, and North America. After failing to instigate a fight with Avalanche forward Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks grabbed the back of Moore’s jersey, landed a vicious punch to the back of Moore’s head, before slamming him face first on the ice and falling on top of him. Moore had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher, and has never returned to the NHL. Bertuzzi, on the other hand, was suspended for 20 games by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and is still playing in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. This is one of many examples of deviance in sports, and how a win-at-all costs mentality can drive athletes to act in extreme manners. As a result of the growing commercialization of sports, athletes are socialized at young ages to believe that winning is everything, and that stopping at nothing will help you succeed. Athletes will do almost anything to gain the upper hand in their respective sports, whether it is through engaging in excessive on-field violence or through the use of performance enhancing drugs, excessively committing themselves to their sport, or by violating league rules and policies. In sports, deviance is viewed in a different light than in the outside world. As professional athletes strive towards conforming to spor...
Contact sports in America, like football and boxing, carry a rich history of the spirit of the game, and the feeling of victory. These games bring us together as we cry out and cheer for our team or fighter as they deliver the winning touchdown, or the knockout that brings them the undisputed champion belt. However, these players are facing injuries that can destroy their career and affect their brain for the rest of their lives. We shouldn’t outlaw contact sports, but we should force safety to become more important. If we want to keep our players safe and continue the tradition of the contact sports we enjoy as a country, then we must evolve our safety in sports, and change the way we view contact sports as a country.
When it comes to physical contact sports, there are two categories, collision sports and tackling sports. American football, ice hockey, lacrosse, boxing, and many more are considered collision sports. Tackling sports would consider rugby, Gaelic football, Australian rules football, and even soccer as some of the world’s tackling sports. A collision sport is way more dangerous than a tackling one. For example, in a football game, it is pretty typical to see players lose their helmet’s, ripped out of their jersey’s, and be taken off the field by ambulance. Reason being is because nowadays players feel like they are Iron Man...